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#1 2004-08-13 07:30:26
- Mythril Nazgul
- Gone Fishing
- Registered: 2004-03-09
- Posts: 796
36 - Xaleph & Dhsu - XTV "Alone"
Alone
Carbie and Dhsu
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Another XTV remix! I am so glad that carbie is remixing this excellent soundtrack because it deserves the recognition. This time we have Dhsu on the ivories, with Carbie (I'm assuming) on everything else. Let's take a listen and see what we can find!
The song opens up with some well done solo piano. Dhsu shines here with some well placed notes, reminiscent of some of the piano work from Final Fantasy 10. The piano has a haunting yet mournful feel.
When the strings come in to complement the piano, we have a feeling of warmth and temporary safety. An anti climactic reverse cymbal assures us that that is not so, and then we break into the beef of this mix.
Carbie's synths begin to work their way into the mix, as the piano adds some ominous chords into the fray. The introduction of precussion is key to the pacing of this mix. It has picked up now, gained energy...dark energy.
The piano fades out and is replaced by a rough, cool sounding synth. Now the song has taken on a dark trancy feeling. Not being the best judge of electronica, I won't say more on it's genre for fear of being incriminated. The song is pure carb now, with some driving beatz that make you nod your head and shake your shoulders. Dhsu brings back his ivory skillz to slam the melody over this roaring beat.
Which brings us to one of the coolest sections of the mix. The piano drops out again, and the melody is picked up by a "whistle" synth and carried over the solo synth, alternating with the piano for control of the lead.
We hit the main beat again, and the piano takes the melody for a spin, riding it all over the place. We have another break for solo synth, and then we head into another "whistle" section, the synth taking it all over the place for some cool sounds.
Here we come, to the 'industrial" section, Carbie mentioned, I guess. The song breaks into some evil sounding piano and reverse cymbals, picked up pads, giving boost to this evil, ominous feel. In a way, this reminds me of the intro to Clubbed to Death by Rob D, from the Matrix soundtrack.
We're back to this dark trance style, and we have some faux choir pushing us closer to the climax. Being one who often suffers from the same problem, I noticed a slight overuse of cymbals in this section, but nothing more than a mere annoyance.
Another break, and a new synth picks up the sound, with the piano backing it up. Then everything drops out and we have this synth playing a solo game for a few rounds. The main beat comes back and it drives us all the way to the end.
Overall, excellent composition! This track flowed very well, moving from piano to synth and back and forth without a hint of awkwardness. The samples were top notch and the beatz was driving. I enjoyed this song greatly. Nice work, Carbie and, er...Dhsuie.
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#2 2004-08-15 11:50:29
- mDuo13
- Admin / Embarrassing remarks aren't allowed!
- From: California
- Registered: 2004-03-17
- Posts: 1994
Re: 36 - Xaleph & Dhsu - XTV "Alone"
Listening to this song is strange. It starts out as a sad and quiet piano-solo piece (I'd assume that's Dhsu's work), which is well-played, but I'm starting to get tired of piano-solos, so it's a relief when the strings come in around 1:04. Still, the slow strings start getting tiring and are quickly led out for a (rather abrupt) transition into a synth base with a repeated snare. After a break in which a synth (which I'm not all that fond of) plays the lead, the piano returns. Cliché clap-percussion runs rampant for a while before a lonely, liquid synth starts dueling it out with the piano. Another slightly-jarring transition finally kicks in at 3:42, but the song reverts to the same as it was before, only with no claps and no piano.
The lonely piano around 4:36 sounds great, and the transition at 5:00 includes a nice background synth. Hi hats are everywhere until they relinquish their spot in the foreground for more of those claps (they're getting old, Bunkie...) around 5:50. Still, the background synths are quite cool in this return to the full melody. However, when at 6:22 the mix breaks again for a calm spot, it feels kinda "been-there-done-that." Worse yet, the mix quickly reverts to almost the same high. Then, most instruments vanish and the lead synth fades out.
This mix sounds pretty good on its own, but given the context of all the other AR tracks from both Dhsu and Carbunk1e, it does nothing unusual. In its nearly 8 minutes it can get a little stale a few times, but it does mix things up often enough so as to keep it together. The mix's strongest part is where unobtrusive synths back a piano lead, right as the mix is transitioning from "piano solo" to "psytrance" -- later on, where the piano supplements the synths, it works decently, but doesn't feel quite right; oftentimes the synths don't reflect the piano's melody directly enough, and the piano feels out of place. Sadly, also, the ending is extremely disappointing; it would have been much better if the piano had come back to play lead as it did around 4:33, only to have the synths backing it up subtly die out, leaving the piano to finish the mix on its own.
It's not so horrible that it shouldn't be on AR, but this mix is disappointing when put in the perspective of Carbunk1e and Dhsu's individual skills. At times it sounds great; at others it just feels disjointed. Let's hope that, if this song gets re-remixed, it comes out more unified.
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