Happy Friday! It’s been kind of a weird week (or two) what with all the Reddit stuff, politics, and getting ready to move into my house (my first time dealing with lenders, builders, landscapers, etc). So I thought I’d throw up something light for Friday — look for this to continue on Fridays for the foreseeable future.
Today I want to talk about OverClock Remix. It’s a fantastic website for anyone into video game music, and I’d be surprised if there are any VGM aficionados out there who haven’t at least heard of it. It’s essentially a community dedicated to remixing songs from video games and providing those remixes completely free-of-charge. If you need to take a peek at their body of work, all their songs are available at their website, and if you want to listen to a big chunk, their newly redone torrents containing every song they’ve ever done are likely to be right up your alley.
There’s more, though. The past few years, OCRemix has gone from doing individual songs, to remixing entire game soundtracks. They’ve done soundtracks for Donkey Kong Country, Final Fantasy I,IV,V and VII, Wild Arms, Pokemon, Zelda and tons more. Now they’ve set their sights on one of my favorite games ever, Final Fantasy VI, with an album called Balance and Ruin. And not only are they releasing the music free, digitally, as they always have, but they’ve also created a Kickstarter for a physical release.
With a week left, they’ve wildly surpassed their goal (and even added physical releases of previous albums to the rewards!) but there are still slots left to get your hands on the album. To encourage you to kick a few bucks their way, I’ve posted some of my favorite tunes from the game. The first two are remixes from OCRemix, entitled “Cid in the Factory” and “Arab Painting.” If you’re new to the site, these two should give you an idea of the diversity of musical styles that OCRemix plays with.
And finally, I have to post the climax of the soundtrack: the ending theme. One of my favorite pieces from the entire series, it’s a shame this has never been properly remixed or orchestrated. Hopefully Balance and Ruin changes that.
Have a chill weekend, and I’ll see you next week!