I’m on this new anniversary tribute to Cruel Resolve, the 2008 chiptune album by FTFX! I was invited by ma pal HG to pick a tune to remix, so I picked Strife. This is my Holy Mission Remix.
It was quite fun tryin somethin a bit different, but this was the longest av ever spent on a track. It evolved a lot while I was makin it. I put all the stems in and sculpted them a bit, and at first I wanted it tae feel like an arduous, strifeful journey. I wanted a dense, poundin dance beat that shifts through rhythms and time signatures, drawin on techno, speedcore, jungle, bossa nova and Scottish ceilidh music. I also wanted tae use a mix o synthetic and live instruments, blurrin the lines between them. In particular I wanted tae use ma granny’s auld Yamaha PSR-410 keyboard on it; she got it when I was a wee boy, and it was passed ontae me when she died. I didnae want it tae soond like clean electronic music, but mair like a strange beast fae deep in the woods where I grew up.
The basic structure comes fae the original song’s programmed MIDI stems. In the first half of the song I added MIDI glockenspiel and bass, but later in the song these are replaced by live glockenspiel (through a guitar effects pedal), and live bass guitar. There are 4 MIDI drumkits havin some polyrhythmic fun, but the electronic snare backbeat runnin through the song was recorded in one take wi 1 finger on ma granny’s keyboard. That was fun! I ended up choppin the song in half and making it tighter and more focused, the other half’ll appear as something else on ma next album (－ｏ⌒) Then I tied it all together wi some symbolic samples - is this maybe the first piece of music in human history tae feature Jolly Boy John, the Spice Girls, the Final Fantasy X crew, and Masters Of The Ceremony?
Anyways enjoy the ride, big ups odaxelagnia and abdy else that took part!
Get Cruel Resolve Remixes here: https://hipstergarbage.bandcamp.com/album/cruel-resolve-remixes
