Hey... wanna know a secret? We loves us some Chrono Trigger. ;-P Shhhhh, keep that to yourself, but go ahead and get this ReMix on streaming, that's just fine with us. Stepson/stepdad duo DaMonz & Trainbeat have joined forces on the prolifically proggy pathway through Yasunori Mitsuda's "Secret of the Forest"! This one hit home for DaMonz as a form of catharsis, yet according to him turned into an auspicious opportunity to more closely collaborate with Trainbeat as they worked together from the ground up:

"So, this remix has a bit of a story to it. It started off as a very personal, honest way for me to process a sudden and unexpected moment of grief that I went through in the past year. The remix's intro is essentially just me blurting out my emotions into music.

Then, gradually over weeks and months, I kept getting back to it and it slowly became more of a "purely" musical project. Which maybe means, in a way, that the remix as a whole is a sort of representation of how I lived through that grief over time? Hmmmmmmmmm.

Anyway, I eventually managed to rope Trainbeat into my shenanigans again, but this time we decided early on that we'd like to try having this project be more of a collaboration than what we usually do together. And that was a blast! This is the first time where we've actually actively worked together on things like arrangement and production, instead of him only providing guitar recordings like we've done for most of our collaborations so far. It's been really fun working together with him, and I feel like it shows in what we've done! I have so, so much to learn about music from him, and I feel like this collaboration really helped me grow some more as a musician!

As for the music itself, Chrono Trigger's soundtrack has always been very special to me, and I've been wanting to try taking some more direct inspiration from Pat Metheny for a very long time. Trainbeat is also a lifelong Metheny fan, so I feel like it integrated really smoothly into our style. I'm really not sure what genre would best describe whatever this new blend of styles has become, haha!

Thanks for reading my rambling, and I hope you'll like it! Cheers. :)"

As a former judge himself, Emery knows we at OCR love our sojourns into the unclassifiable, so we're excited to have you be a part of DaMonz and Trainbeat's fantastic fusion of Mitsuda and Metheny. :-) Current judge Hemophiliac couldn't help but marvel at the family duo's ability to construct something so consistently high-octane yet genuinely dynamic:

"The intro is a drawn out bit of the chord progression from the source. Floaty and ambient, dig the start before the chaos to come.

The contrast created by the extremely floaty and drawn-out, almost untimed nature of the intro is HUGE. Because once the drums drop-in at 1:04 we're off to the races and the frenetic pace hits.

2:35's keys really stand out to me in a good way. I love the exploration of the rhythm here and its development from the source. [...]

The solos were great, and I'm kinda blown away by the high energy level for such a long time in this without feeling like the track got static and repetitive.

Very sweet."

When this transitions to 2:08's post-chorus pullback, you really get a contrast by how much more open things sound before ramping back up. I was digging the extemporizing lead for the 2:40 section, after a smooth piano transition. 3:23's key-centric comping was super-stylish, rolling into Trainbeat's delicious guitar licks at 3:34, just lots of swagger with it, followed by the keys taking point once more at 3:45. Excellent theme reprise at 4:06 coming out of the great energy of the guitar improv leading into it, which was a strong capstone before slowing things down for the finish. Much like me, fellow judge prophetik music didn't miss the forest for the trees, stopping to appreciate the many twists and turns of the prog thickets:

"that ascending line in the original at 0:45 is so good. it's amazing what the SNES was able to do.

big, resonant swell stacks to start. the arpeggio line is audible in it if you listen carefully. there's some crunch to the edges of the swells which is an interesting choice. guitar lead sounds great, especially with the music box layered on it. we get some percussive elements just after the one minute mark, and a more recognizable representation of the lead (it's quiet until it gets higher). drums are about twice as fast as i expected given the opening - lots of movement but it doesn't necessarily feel like it's going anywhere fast, more just frenetic energy. guitar's a big contrast.

1:48's 'half-time' but really it just feels like normal for a bit - functions almost like a break for a bit. we get to the bridge at 2:09 and the keys here are lush and beautiful. there's some fun patterns that come in as it continues to change over time, and then this goes into a solo section for a short period between the two lead instruments. there's a fun deconstructed transitional effect at 3:24 that i liked a lot, and the following piano-led section into the clean eguitar solo is great. tons of character between the solo instruments. there's some recap after the four minute mark, and then we noodle through a significant ritard into the last chord.

this is a fun one! [...] there's so much breadth and flexibility in how you approached this. i loved all the different sections feeling so unique. tons of personality in the melodic representation as well. nice work."

Great energy and great approach overall, Emery and Sébastien! It's no secret, this arrangement's the bees' knees; be sure to support both DaMonz and Trainbeat by snagging this lush musical wildwood on your streaming platform du jour!