Finally.
After almost two years of work, I am very happy to share this 'Deluxe' release of Cactuar Collections - my trilogy of covers albums recreating select tracks from the iconic PlayStation 1 games; Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII and Final Fantasy IX, by composer Nobuo Uematsu.
Available on Bandcamp & to stream from this Playlist on Spotify:
A journey through some of the most iconic and, for me, some of the most overlooked & often-forgotten tracks from these classic PlayStation 1 titles.
Aesthetics from various contemporary & retro genres such as IDM, Breakcore, Downtempo Electronica, Drum 'n Bass, Jazz Fusion, Metalcore, Post-Rock, Math-Rock, Chamber Music, Classical, Alternative/Folk, Hip-Hop and more are used to bring these classic MIDI arrangements to full-life without losing the nostalgia; all with a tinge of my band & alias project, Luo.
Check out the glowing review by Fecking Bahamas here.
Combining Disc One, Disc Two & Disc Three together + the live 2-piece versions from Ramsgate Music Hall + the 5-piece full-band Cactuar Collective versions recorded at Brighton Electric, exclusively available as a bonus into one massive release -- this is my most expansive work to date, and possibly my most personal so far, despite it being a covers album:
The reason I started to make these 3 albums in the first place was almost as demos or blueprints for a one-off Luo x FF covers gig idea, tributing music from Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII, and Final Fantasy IX -- lasting an hour & a half in length.
I imagined this split roughly into two 45-minute halves, like this:
1st Half: Final Fantasy VII tracks (45 mins)
2nd Half: Final Fantasy VIII tracks (25 Minutes), Final Fantasy IX tracks (25 Minutes)
With that in mind, here's the tracklist for this album colour-coded, to provide more context on this album & these three Disc albums as a whole, now they are all released.
Tracks 1-33 is 'the setlist', and is meant to almost sound like a live recording of the idea I have in my head. Tracks 34-40 are the bonus live versions, which also offer up a comparison to the studio/concept versions.
Tracklist:
Welcome to the Show... (Original Intro/Interlude)
Opening Mission
The Nightmare Begins
Battle Theme
Lurking in the Darkness
Under the Rotting Pizza
Infiltrating Shinra Tower
"Shinra, Inc."
Red XIII's Theme
Crazy Motorcycle
Dear to the Heart
Cinco de Chocobo
Those Chosen by the Planet
Reunion
In Search of the Man in Black
Never Look Back
Under Her Control
Blue Fields
Find Your Way
The Man with the Machine Gun (Laguna's Theme)
Breezy
Junction
Force Your Way
Run!
Foolproof Love Letter Scheme
Stirring the Forest
Unforgettable Silhouette
A Song From Her Memory
Gargan Roo
Terra / Bran Bal
Memoria
Festival of the Hunt
J-E-N-O-V-A (Encore)
FFVII - Battle Theme (Live at Brighton Electric | 5-Piece)
FFVII - In Search of the Man in Black (Live at Brighton Electric | 5-Piece)
FFVII - Lurking in the Darkness (Live at Brighton Electric | 5-Piece)
FFVII - In Search of the Man in Black (Live at Ramsgate Music Hall | 2-Piece)
FFVII - Reunion (Live at Ramsgate Music Hall | 2-Piece)
FFVII - Red XIII's Theme (Live at Ramsgate Music Hall | 2-Piece)
FFVII - Under the Rotting Pizza (Live at Ramsgate Music Hall | 2-Piece)
Is this the last Cactuar Collections release?
For now, yes - but I'll most likely come back to FF covers at some point.
I have had so much fun and feel I've learnt a lot about recording & production techniques, simply by indulging and challenging myself to attempt recreating this many different pieces of music.
I highly recommend this to any musician or producer; just aim to recreate some of your favourite tracks as closely as you can in a DAW, and see how close you can get everything sounding - chances are, you'll learn a few more things about how your software synths or plugins work, or you'll force yourself to learn new techniques on your instrument & broaden what you're capable of.
This kept me going creatively for almost 2 years, so I'm sad to say this release marks the end of my 'Disc Trilogy' album project cycle, for now. However, after a short rest through Summer 2024, I'm back in the studio feeling invigorated for new projects & am producing original music again.
At the time of writing, I have pretty much just completed a new Luo EP, which I should hopefully be announcing before 2024 ends.
However, I'm not finished with covering FF music; there's still so many tracks from each of these games that I didn't cover, as the scope and size of these albums would've become even sillier if I simply covered every track I actually liked from each game. There has to be a reasonable cut-off point & some curation, hence this album.
There's several other songs that my followers requested from these games that I didn't get around to. There are also tracks from other games in the series such as Final Fantasy VI and Final Fantasy X, that I would love to explore in this way, so I may eventually return with a Disc Four at some point; although it'll probably be more like a 'miscellaneous' mixtape of random tunes & offcuts. We'll see, I guess.
I'm also still aiming to turn this Cactuar Collections album into a live show with a full band at some point, so keep an eye on my socials for news and updates on that -- and of course, any of your support for this project goes a long way to helping that happen!
Thanks for reading,
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