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"A Chrono Trigger Arrange Album by The Bad Dudes"

It still amazes me to this day that Yasunori Mitsuda’s very first video game score would turn out to be one of the most beloved game soundtracks of all time. After such a memorable first effort, Mitsuda has continued to create great music over the years, taking the spot as my personal favorite composer.

To say that the source material The Bad Dudes chose to arrange is “good” is an understatement. That being said, there is certainly a lot of pressure to live up to when making a Chrono Trigger album, especially considering how many Chrono Trigger remixes already exist.

The Bad Dudes is an interesting project. It is made up of many musicians from different musical backgrounds, working on tracks independently (with the exception of the occasional collaboration) for a single album. This results in a broad range of styles that never feels stale.

What I love about this album is how original and organic it feels. These remixes are far from “generic”. There are a lot of soloing sections in the arrangements that have that great “jamming” feel to them; sometimes jazzy and always awesome.

“Longing of the Wind” is a great example of taking the right amount of musical liberties with the source material. Yes, there have already been several piano renditions of the “Wind Scene” track, but never have I heard it played like this! The arranger really took the original tune and made it his own, causing it to stand out even among other piano arrangements of the very same song.

There are some really fantastic sounding synthesizers on this album. “B.A.M.F.” has a lead throughout that has an incredible presence and variation without ever being overbearing. It’s a very dynamic collaboration that jumps back and forth through a few different styles, yet the song always manages to maintain its coherency.

Another notable point is that the album covers some under-appreciated themes. “Secret of the Forest” has always been one of my personal favorites on the Chrono Trigger soundtrack, so naturally when I saw “Forest Steppin’” on the tracklist I got excited. This arrangement did not disappoint. In fact, the last quarter of the song took one of my favorite aspects of the original and mixed it up in a way that made me fall in love with song all over again.

While I love the album as a whole, there were a couple tracks I had more trouble getting into. “Dethfrog”, for example, added grunting vocals to a metal cover of “Frog’s Theme”. I actually really enjoy the metal genre, but have always found that kind of vocal performance off-putting. And though the guitar was well performed and the tones sounded great, the arrangement felt more repetitive and less inspired than the rest of the album. I would have really liked to hear some original tangent sections in addition to the familiar tune. Even still, it was by no means a “bad” track. It simply didn’t feel as well executed as the arrangements that surrounded it.

Overall, I would say that if you are a fan of the music in Chrono Trigger, this album is a must have. Though it is a soundtrack with a lot of remix coverage, these are among the best arrangements out there. And if you aren’t a fan of the music in Chrono Trigger, you either have not heard the soundtrack or are in a very small minority.

There will only be one-thousand copies of the album printed. After that, there will be a digital release on Amazon and iTunes, but a third of the tracks will be cut. The album releases on August 18th and preorders are still available on BadDudesMusic.com. If you want to hear it before committing to buying it, you can stream samples on the official site. You can also hear a radio edit of “B.A.M.F.” as well as an in-depth interview with Mustin about the album on episode 23 of our official podcast, Barrel Roll.

Tags: Chrono Trigger, CHRONOTORIOUS, fan projects, music review, Mustin, The Bad Dudes, Yasunori Mitsuda

This entry was posted on Monday, August 10th, 2009 at 5:00 am and is filed under Music Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.