Dragon Quest Best Dance Mix
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Album Title: Dragon Quest Best Dance Mix |
| Record Label: Avex Trax |
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| Catalog No.: AVCD-23788 |
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| Release Date: March 4, 2009 |
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| Purchase: Buy at CDJapan |
Overview
It seems these days, dance remix albums are the new craze in Japan. In 2008, an album entitled Final Fantasy Remix was released featuring dance remixes of popular Final Fantasy tunes. Unfortunately, there were very few themes I liked on that one, as I thought it was put together sloppily. Fast forward a bit into early 2009 and we arrive at Gradius House ReMix. As I stated in my review, I found this to be a fantastic arrange album which brought some interesting things to the classic Gradius themes. In early March, Dragon Quest Best Dance Mix was released and with it came another classic series featuring a more modern remix approach. If Sugiyama were to listen to this, what would he think?
Body
I always try to start with a positive on the album so let’s start with “Heavenly Flight”. Out of the entire album, this is the only remix I enjoyed. While I found the trance beat to be a bit on the generic side, a problem plaguing much of this album, at least the melody line was tolerable. Unlike many of the other themes on the album, it was a no-nonsense approach featuring a rather straight forward melody. I did enjoy the interlude though as it featured some catchy beats.
Sadly, though, that’s as far as I can go with the positives on the soundtrack. “Elegy” initially seemed promising with its 8-bit samples, but soon collapses into a pile of amateurish anthemic trance. Themes like “Rondo” and “Into the Legend” fuse Sugiyama’s more classical approach with generic beats and horrible rap vocals to disastrous results. And there are exceptional themes like “Fighting Spirit” that sound like a cacophony of dying geese and humans over top an industrial beat.
Another ‘killer’ track is the “Overture”, which of course opens the album. It certainly does this in style, combining dated trance samples and random vocals with a totally out-of-place classical melody. At least it’s indicative of what to expect from the rest of the album. I could go on, but I don’t think it really warrants much. Let’s just put it this way to sum it up in a few concise words. Most of arrangements on this album feature generic beats and vocal samples that utterly destroy the integrity of the originals.
Summary
Avoid Dragon Quest Best Dance Mix at all costs, if you ask me. Most of the themes destroy the originals by adding ridiculous vocal samples. If the beats were less generic and the vocal samples were removed, perhaps it would be a bit more tolerable, but as it stands, I find this album to be utter trash. An exception is the enjoyable, albeit straightforward, “Heavenly Flight”. If Sugiyama were to hear this album, he’d fear for the future of music.
Do you agree with the review and score? Let us know in the comments below!
0.5
Posted on August 1, 2012 by Don Kotowski. Last modified on August 1, 2012.
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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