In Heavy Rotation: Black Materia

I was sitting on the throne a couple of weeks ago  (the home of some of man’s greatest thoughts, and the place where I like to do most of my reading) flipping through my Game Informer, when I came across  Random and Lost Perception’s latest album in the ‘buy this stuff’ section. I’ll admit it, I almost laughed out loud at the idea of a Final Fantasy 7 hip hop album. I lol’ed, but I didn’t rotfl because then there would have been some serious cleaning to do; lord knows I get enough of that from my dog.

So after some procrastination I decided to check it out on iTunes. The first 3 tracks I listened to ("Intro", "Cloud Strife", and "Tifa’s Theme") were exactly what I had been expecting; a total nerd fest that was almost too embarrassing to listen to. Then I hit Track 4, and at exactly 02:15 I truly laughed out loud; not because it was ridiculous (well in some ways it was) but because they had gotten it so right. They had somehow managed to combine two things that should forever be diametrically opposed, into one cohesive existence that made it feel as though this is how it always should've been, how it now had to be.

Every track after that point continued to hit the mark again and again, retelling the story of the game with such detail and emotion, while at the same time throwing in occasional real world references to ground things in reality. The intimate knowledge of the game they display in each track is really a testament to their love of the subject matter. This isn’t a group of mainstream artist, being paid to make an uninspired song for some soundtrack with “music inspired by” the game. This is a group of real artists doing what they love, which in this case is making music about a 14 year old video game, and you’ve got to respect that.

That’s just talking about the lyrics.

 

I really enjoyed 2007’s Voices of the Lifestream (and still do!) it had some really nice remixes ranging from jazzy ("Short Skirts") and new age beats ("Serenity") to heavy rock ("Full Frontal Assault") and techno ("Lunatic Moon"). Maybe sometimes it was a little heavy on the techno ("Ahead on Our Rave"), but overall it was great. I was half expecting Random and Lost Perception’s take on FFVII to be in the same vein; building the music again from the ground up. But in true hip hop fashion, they sampled the original tracks and combined them with creative synthesized loops to create something altogether new, while still keeping all the midi goodness that we fell in love with all those years ago. Keeping the original music as a base really sells the whole project. If you don’t believe me then just check out “AVALANCHE” @ 02:15 to hear Barret rapping over his own theme song, then come back and talk to me.

Needless to say, the album is available right now on iTunes for the usual $9.99, which also includes a revealing bonus track, which chronicles Random’s path to making the album. But for $2 less, you could buy the digital album direct from the artist and for $12 you can even get a signed physical copy, which includes the digital files so you can get your chocobo on without delay. I also hear that the Mega Man they’re serving there is excellent.

As a side note, you can listen to the complete albums on Random's site.