ReMix: Trenches 'Burning Vigil'

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Game: Trenches (Thunder Game Works, 2009, IOS)
ReMixer(s): bLiNd
Composer(s): Abadoss, Troy Keyn
Song(s): 'Iron Crosses (Credits)'
Posted: 2010-07-29, evaluated by djpretzel

Up next we've got none other than bLiNd himself, Mr. Jordan Aguirre, with his own take on the Trenches OST. He writes:

"Abadoss approached Jade to get me to remix one of his tracks from his awesome original soundtrack for Trenches. As soon as I heard the credits theme I knew I could nurse it to a huge trance anthem of epic proportions. Think Tiesto/Armin Van Buuren meets bLiNd. I spent more time on this than White Skies Club Mix and I believe its of the same caliber. Hope you all enjoy this and congrats to Kenneth Keyn for composing such great material that is easy for me to remix."

I was really surprised to see Jordan doing a mix of this score, simply because I couldn't envision myself how it would turn out as electronica, but damn does he make it work. If anyone ever tells you trance is boring, repetitive, or melodically simple, I think this would be a great mix to play as a rebuttal - even though the source is relatively new to me, it's already one of my favorite bLiNd mixes, which is saying a lot. Thank goodness we upped the file size limit, otherwise this would have suffered some serious loss; at around eight minutes, it's quite a humdinger, but the source is meaty enough to sustain the epic trance anthem that Jordan both promises & delivers. It's got all of the staple awesomeness that Jordan conjures up whenever he works in the genre, but the melodic hooks are pretty unorthodox for this type of track and the result is something irresistibly catchy and yet satisfyingly peculiar as well.

Trenches is the second free game OST we've published this year, and this is something we're excited about doing on a fairly regular basis, to give free game OSTs a permanent home, integration into our database, and some well-deserved promotion. I can't think of a better way of doing that than simultaneously posting two great mixes by an established indie game composer and trance/electronica ReMixing royalty, and I'd like to thank Josh & Jordan for two great (and very different!) mixes and Kenneth and Troy for sharing their music with the world through us!

― djpretzel

Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.

bLiNd owns trance. Do I really need to say much more? I mean, honestly, the variation, the length, the solid steady beats, the breakdowns, all of it was just fantastic. Anyone who doubts bLiNd, I doubt you can even doubt this song.

- Crulex on September 10, 2012

Dunno what y'alls are smoking, I really think the melody of the song is perfectly suited for this kind of music, and it's been very well adapted. The mood of the remix accentuates the best parts of the source melody and couples it with Jordan's signature big thumpin' beats and intricate breakdowns/buildups in a very appealing manner. This definitely doesn't feel like an 8 minute remix either, time tends to fly while you're listening to this one.
I can see some of the reasons people don't like it, but I personally disagree :-)

- Emunator on September 6, 2010

I enjoy this one, maybe because it is different from his usual stuff. Interesting and captivating arrangement and choice of sounds; very easy to get lost in.
And gettting lost in it is what happened to me; until I read this thread, I did not realize that the song is 8 minutes long, and I listened to it about 15 times over the last week. Often, I'm the first one to cry "meandering" and "more variation", but in this case, these thoughts never popped up.
Now if we could get a version with a higher bitrate...

- Martin Penwald on August 19, 2010

I honestly don't know what people's problem with this song is. It's probably one of my new favorite Blind songs. I like Jade Catacombs and White Skies, but I'm more into some of Jordan's more experimental stuff like this and Path of Deception from EoB LoR. Guess you can't please us all. Blind, keep up the good work.

- Dubanubiel on August 16, 2010

I've been using OCRemix for over four years now, in silence.
I've only created a forum account now because I had to say that after one listen, this is now my favorite song from this site, and is one of the most sublime pieces of new music I have heard in years.
(And yes, I've got the rest of bLiNd's songs, too. Still like this one the best.)

- Firefeng on August 12, 2010

wow...
I know now that every time i see your name for a remix, it has to be amazing and you never let me down. I can crank your mixes any day around anyone i know and everyone will enjoy it, this track is definitely no exception.
Thanks for your great contribution over the years!

- Loning on August 8, 2010

This track is massive - great builds and breakdowns and you can really get lost in the soundscape. I dig it.

- OA on August 6, 2010

I liked this one. I wish it was a little bit shorter, 6 minutes at most. But it's awesome nevertheless.
White Skies is one of my least favorites bLiNd remixes. I love Golbez 'N Goblins, Jade Catacombs, Aerofunknamics, and, well, a lot of his remixes, but White Skies is probably my least favorite one.
Winamp tells me that my favorite one is Jade Catacombs, followed closely by A Ring and a Promise, and White Skies is the third least heard one.

- moonra on August 5, 2010

JaDE ARaN HaRuNo;702113 wrote: I agree with Jewbei and CN... this is not his best work. I'm pretty disappointed. There's no way I can sit down and listen to it all the way through. The melody does not work. I know he can do much better than this. I can't say I blame him though for several reasons.

He needs to stick to FFVII's "Fading Entity", FFX's "White Skies", and Super Metroid's "Jade Catacombs" style of tracks (his FFIV mixes were good too, but these other ones are better). I believe those are his BEST and I'll never stop listening to them. To me, he is one of the best artists in the world and I will always support his music.

Question: How much of "Fading Entity" is bLiNd though? That was a collab, I know liefo at least provided the guitar, which is a huge part of the reason that track is as amazing as it is.
Also, I would say that Golbez 'N Goblins is among his strongest stuff! #3 in my mind for his mixes, so that's pretty damn rockin'!

He is trying to get himself out there with different genres though so you have to notice his effort in trying something new. Many people are not respected when they change their style like Chris Cornell's Scream or Linkin Park's Minutes to Midnight albums. I will defend him in that arguement. Sometimes I also struggle with something new despite the fact of how open-minded I am about so many things in life....but still, I can't say I will ever enjoy this one. I do hear the hard work poured into this remix and that's what he's great at. I'm sure someday he'll give us something similar to White Skies so Jewbei and the rest of us can shut up. lol

Normally, I'd agree with you here. But of course, there's a few problems with this argument. Minutes to Midnight was Linkin Park ripping off U2's style, and doing it badly. Scream wasn't that bad, really.
Doing something new is pretty cool, and we can get behind artists expanding their fields of expertise. The community damn well celebrates it. Look at the overflow of comments commending people for making joke rap mixes! (Looking at you, Elixir! With intense Ire.)
Star Salzman is an amazing musician whose work does not usually get relegated to a particular style or genre, but is always top notch. When he released his follow up to the life-affirming "Forever until Tomorrow" there was a lot of pressure, so he just released something that was fun to do and that -he- loved.
The lesson that I am meandering towards is that the biggest thing in presenting music to a site like this is that you (the artist) loves it and puts it into their work.
As an aside, the thing about putting out more traditional trance-style tracks is that they don't feel like they are exploring any new territory. The production is up a bit, but structurally and such it sounds like Dream of Zeal, the Star Fox tracks, etc! So without the fun of exploration, we turn to the amount of love we can feel in the track.
And what I feel here is effort put into production and not really love. bLiNd has already proven that he can take sources that don't normally warrant it (J-E-N-O-V-A, Underwater Ambiance, Snow Woods) and adapt them into something electronic, cool, and fun to listen to. I want to see more of what he does with something he loves and adapts it into a genre -he- loves, or a genre he's never really done before! Imagine, bLiNd doing a Jazz-electronic fusion, or something else cool like that?
To give a "real world" example, Moby was highly unsuccessful until he released play, which used recordings of music that had a lot of love poured into it, and spent time putting those recordings to use in some fantastic electronic outings (If you haven't heard the Play album, fix that!)
You don't have to reinvent yourself or the formula to set the world on fire, but I'd love to hear your take on some new styles, see what your already extensive talents in production, arrangement, and simple musical sense can bring to the table in different styles!

- Master_Yoshi on August 2, 2010

I actually like the melody, so I kinda like this.
I'm just iffy on the parts where some of the rhythmic synths cover up it xD

- delbuster on August 2, 2010

I am quite enjoying it myself.
Guess this is a love or hate remix then?

- Dark Vagabond on July 31, 2010

I agree with Jewbei and CN... this is not his best work. I'm pretty disappointed. There's no way I can sit down and listen to it all the way through. The melody does not work. I know he can do much better than this. I can't say I blame him though for several reasons.

He needs to stick to FFVII's "Fading Entity", FFX's "White Skies", and Super Metroid's "Jade Catacombs" style of tracks (his FFIV mixes were good too, but these other ones are better). I believe those are his BEST and I'll never stop listening to them. To me, he is one of the best artists in the world and I will always support his music.

He is trying to get himself out there with different genres though so you have to notice his effort in trying something new. Many people are not respected when they change their style like Chris Cornell's Scream or Linkin Park's Minutes to Midnight albums. I will defend him in that arguement. Sometimes I also struggle with something new despite the fact of how open-minded I am about so many things in life....but still, I can't say I will ever enjoy this one. I do hear the hard work poured into this remix and that's what he's great at. I'm sure someday he'll give us something similar to White Skies so Jewbei and the rest of us can shut up. lol

- JaDE ARaN HaRuNo on July 31, 2010

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Jordan can do no wrong when it comes to remixing. I am not at all surprised that this latest epic from him blew me through the wall and into my neighbors living room. Awesome like usual bLiNdMaN.:-)

- LostChronos on July 31, 2010

yeah CN i agree with you on this one. personally i feel that white skies is bLiNd's best work see when i heard of him in 05 White Skies was the first song ive ever heard from him so like that inspired me to keep going in my remixing "career" after i had got to know him i went back and checked his old stuff and i didnt like it. the only song i did liked was Snowbound. alot of his recent tracks i really like like Jade Catacombs and Various tracks he did from the FF7 project and FF4.

- Jewbei on July 30, 2010

Jewbei;701617 wrote: ...i dunno something jus doesn't sit right with me with this one i cant really put my finger on it...

I know exactly what that is: the melody!

Now bLiNd is truly one of the greatest remixers [U]EVER[/U] (purposely not spelling it as ReMixers), and I thought of him so strongly that that's why I pulled off all kinds of moves in my schedule to make something to contribute to the "Reserve Tank: VARIAtions" album. When it comes to this ReMix, the level of awesomeness bLiNd delivers is all over it, and though I don't think it's necessarily his best, it's still high up there on my list of his stuff. He's still on one hell of a winning streak!

However, to me...I never thought he'd make something that would ever disappoint, but in a way, that's what happened with this one. And it's all because of that damn melody. No disrespect, but I have to say it that way. As much as the mix was looped several times on my headphones, that melody is just not catchy...at least not in this way. He did manage to make the theme a little more catchy by not making it as fast, and possibly moreso by separating the notes at times, but it was by very little.

Why did bLiNd say he heard the theme once, and he was easily able to make something epic with it (never mind that more time - and I assume care - was spent in comparison to White Skies, which in my opinion is much better) ? And how could djpretzel think of giving it so much praise? "Thank goodness he was able to post it"?

Remember, the problem is not at all in the length, or the bass/synths, or the awesome drummage, or all those buildup/transitions. Not at all. The only bad part about it is that theme! I don't know if it's because so many notes are being played in such a quick fashion, or if it's because the notes go up and down and just all over the place, or what it is. Even the lower section of notes that are heard in addition to the melody are not good. The whole thing does...not...work.

Overall, I thought of bLiNd's "Snowbound" mix the whole time, as it is more theme-driven, than more of an original freeflow like "White Skies." It was tricky liking that one at first as well, but I was able to like it a lot afterwards. I'm totally looking forward to your next direct post, bLiNd, but in regards to this one...no thanks.

- CN on July 30, 2010