Monster Hunter Disco Remix
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Album Title: Monster Hunter Disco Remix |
| Record Label: Suleputer |
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| Catalog No.: CPCA-10345 |
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| Release Date: October 1, 2014 |
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| Purchase: Buy at CDJapan |
Overview
Alongside the release of the two 10th anniversary arrange albums dedicated to the Monster Hunter franchise, another arrange album was released titled Monster Hunter Disco Remix. Featuring music from throughout the series arranged in a disco style by artists Sebastian Schwartz, Chris Whatley, Dominique Chagnon, and The Sound Room, how does the final product turn out?
Body
The album opens with Sebastian Schwartz’s take on the iconic main theme of the franchise, “Proof of the Hero.” It certainly reads disco with its use of strings and brass with some nice funky beats, and some great breakdown sections. Of Schwartz’s remixes, it is certainly one of the better ones. His other three remixes see varying success. “Howl / Rathalos,” an admittedly hard track to translate to the disco style doesn’t really succeed in its transition to the disco style. While the essence of the original is there, it doesn’t really work in the context of the disco style, which to me, is more successful with a strong melody to back it up. His other two remixes, “Red Afterglow Running in the Darkness / Nargacuga” and “Sparkling Blue Light / Zinogre,” are fairly successful. The former has a bit of espionage flair amidst the disco vibes while the latter is a smooth disco remix with softer tones that blend quite well with the strong brass melody.
Dominique Chagnon and Chris Watley both offer a couple of arrangements to the album. Dominique Chagnon’s “Cute Felyne” is a fantastic interpretation with its bubbly synth melody alongside disco strings/bass with a funky bassline. His “Tremble of the Sea and Land / Lagriacrus” is also quite enjoyable and the melody, with the piano and strings, coverts quite nicely to the disco tempo. Chris Whatley’s remixes are a bit of a hit or miss. The first, “The Secret Hot Spring Where Hunters Meet” has a groovy tone, but it’s not really as successful compared to other interpretations on the album. However, the inclusion of electric guitar does make it stand out. His other remix, “Reincarnation of Light and Darkness ~ Shagaru Magara” is definitely more successful. The bass line for the tune is a bit too reminiscent of Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky;” However, the melody translates quite nicely to the disco style and the electric guitar and strings work quite wonderfully together. There is also a very pleasant guitar solo in the mix that adds to the piece.
Lastly, The Sound Room offers up three remixes to the album. Of the three, the weakest is “Merrymaking Music,” although it is still quite enjoyable. It has a very 80s synth vibe going on in the melody and the groovy bass line adds to the overall atmosphere. It’s a fun tune, but one that isn’t particularly memorable either. Two of the highlights on the album are the other two remixes featured by this remixer. “Brave Icon ~ Brachydios” is a fun, pure disco sound and the interpretation of the original is quite excellent making use of the structure of the original while also incorporating some classic disco cues to give it more of a build-up. There is also a great synth solo that really adds to the piece. Finally, “To One with Life” is, perhaps the best tune on the album. Starting off like the original, it moves into the disco style and does so extremely successful for such a delicate piece. The revamped tempo works remarkably well with the original melody and does a great job at capturing the disco sound that some tracks failed to do as successfully. There is also the “MONSTER HUNTER DISCO HYPER MIX MEDLEY” that provides a short disco medley of the tunes present on the album, although I don’t feel that this was particularly needed.
Summary
In the end, the Monster Hunter Disco Remix album is a fairly enjoyable album. While not every remix manages to capture the essence of the disco sound while also incorporating the original melody of the series’ music, the ones that do stand out truly master the blending of disco with the original tunes, while also making it a catchy and memorable tune. For fans of the Monster Hunter series who want to hear some interesting interpretations of the original music, this one might be worth checking out.
Do you agree with the review and score? Let us know in the comments below!
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Posted on April 21, 2015 by Don Kotowski. Last modified on April 22, 2015.
About the Author
Don Kotowski Currently residing in Philadelphia. I spend my days working in vaccine characterization and dedicate some of my spare time in the evening to the vast world of video game music, both reviewing soundtracks as well as maintaining relationships with composers overseas in Europe and in Japan.
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