ReMix: Final Fantasy VII 'Not the Taxi You Whistled For'

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Final Fantasy VII

XPRTNovice makes his OCR debut with a creative bluegrass instrumental featuring strummed & plucked textures, some wordless singing, and - as advertised - some rather splendid whistling. Joe writes:

"Of all the songs I ever really whistled from any Final Fantasy game, this was the one that popped into my head the most often. Being brought up on bluegrass music, and listening to the original, it seemed a perfect adaptation to use my whistling skills (something entirely useless in any other context) and my knowledge of acoustic instruments to throw something together. I had a blast doing this.

All of the instruments in this mix are live with the exception of the bass and some of the ornamentation instruments scattered in the background. The whistling, mandolins, guitars, singing, were all done in my makeshift studio here in my house. Other than that, I'll let the music tell the rest of the story.

I sincerely hope you enjoy listening to the piece, even if you decide it's not right for the website. I had a lot of fun making it, and I hope you have fun listening."

Not right for the website?!? Of COURSE it is; creative arrangement, totally unique performance, and this is the type of track where the artist doesn't have to tell you he had fun making it - it's readily apparent. If the Beverly Hillbillies somehow injected themselves into the Final Fantasy VII universe, the soundtrack to such a bizarre singularity might go something like this. The more deliberate intro has a carefree, western vibe going on, where you might picture the credits to a John Wayne film rolling slowly down a tumbleweed-populated dustscape somewhere in Arizona or New Mexico, but then at 1'22" things pick up and get down, and it's time to bust out the moonshine and whistle along, if you've got the chops.

Bit of a tangent (what else is new?), but I actually really love to whistle; I do it all the time (often at the expense of others' sanity), and am happy to see a ReMix so emphatically feature this musical form of expression in both title AND literal capacity. Sometimes it doesn't get the respect it deserves, and while it's damn hard to incorporate into ALL genres, in this context it makes complete sense. Plus Joe's got some serious whistlin' skills, in addition to guitar & mandolin. A mix like this simply wouldn't fly with samples; too much of its soul rests on the immediacy & presence of live instruments and their performance.

At any rate, this arrangement has a lot of charisma and shows off the artist's abilities as a multi-instrumentalist, in addition to being a fun, unexpected, and surprisingly substantive arrangement of the FF7 sources. This could easily have been a shorter, cute "sketch" of a mix, but I respect that Joe took the time to flesh it out and explore the ideas more thoroughly, and I think you will, too! Great, distinct, memorable debut from XPRTNovice, who we'll be hearing more from on the upcoming FF6 album & beyond!

― djpretzel

Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
This remix inspired me to register for the OC forums so I could comment favorably. It's upbeat, fun, and distinct; almost like two of the happier tunes from FFVII were infused with the energy of the Super Mario Sunshine soundtrack (initially I thought Wild Arms solely due to the use of whistling lol). Remixes that make the listener(s) smile are a good thing.

- Launch Octopus vulgaris on January 14, 2013
I loved this. Congratulations on something truly original. I felt totally transported to a bluegrass band (or a back porch) where everyone was getting together and just taking the tune and running with it in a wonderfully organic matter. TREMENDOUS whistling - the ability for that to be both the lead and the background was impressive! A must for everyone who wants something new that they haven't heard before!

- DimeTower on January 9, 2013
[IMG]http://www.inciid.org/forum/images/smilies/m_whistle.gif[/IMG] It's gonna be alright.

- WesternZypher on December 22, 2012
THIS IS AWESOME!!!!
That is all.

- Daemos on December 22, 2012
Dubanubiel;897177 wrote: well played! I've been kinda itching for a little more bluegrass from OCR and you definitely delivered. I've also been playing through FFVII lately and thinking it would be fun to figure out Farm Boy on my guitar. You've got some great skills and a lot of creativity. Look forward to hearing more from you!

Thanks :) I'd be happy to pass you the chord structure. It's way easy.

- XPRTNovice on December 22, 2012
well played! I've been kinda itching for a little more bluegrass from OCR and you definitely delivered. I've also been playing through FFVII lately and thinking it would be fun to figure out Farm Boy on my guitar. You've got some great skills and a lot of creativity. Look forward to hearing more from you!

- Dubanubiel on December 21, 2012
Congratulations! I knew right from the first WIP that this would be a winner. :)

- Jean Of mArc on December 21, 2012
So glad to see this got posted!!! Congratz XPRT!

- Wiesty on December 19, 2012
Fantastic! An utter delight! By far the best video game whistling song since Deadly Premonition's "Life is Beautiful". I look forward to hearing more from XPRTNovice!

- Tawnos on December 19, 2012
Well, I hit play on this one before even starting to read the write-up, and needless to say I was really surprised from the get go. On OCR, we typically get music in one of the 'holy trinity' genres (electronica, rock, or orchestral). I don't think I've heard bluegrass on this site yet, but if this is the first venture into that genre, then it sets the bar quite high. Nice work all around!

- Skyline Drop on December 19, 2012
Haha, this is hilarious. Great take on this FF7 track!

- timaeus222 on December 18, 2012
Thanks guys! I'm thrilled to finally be a part of the OCRemix community :)

- XPRTNovice on December 18, 2012
Awww...
This is a very charming tune to say the least. Papapaparapapaaa... \o/

- Guifrog on December 18, 2012
Oh man, I love this! Props, man, this is amazing!! (Now, this will sound so damn ignorant...but is it so wrong that I was thinking of Toy Story 2 when listening to this? :puppyeyes:)

- Wina A. Kamlongera on December 18, 2012
Really well done. The guitar/whistling combo truly captures the spirit of the Farm track and environment in FF7. The lead-in to Gold Saucer is pretty seamless, too.

- SwordBreaker on December 18, 2012