Taking the much-loved Final Fantasy musical templates composed by Nobuo Uematsu, Rifti Beats distils the tracks down to smoky, hypnotic beats and heart-thudding bass. Good.
Harnessing the power of the melodies and re-imagining them as mood music to be devoured as you close your eyes and imagine being stood atop a skyscraper and gazing out over the city of Midgar.
With music as treasured as this, it’s a hefty task, but Rifti Beats weaves their magic and ends up creating an album that shifts between being sexy, swaggering, fun, delicate and heart-breaking, often from the track.
I listen through albums many times whilst reviewing them, but Chocobo & Chill has sneaked in as one of those that is never far from my turntable, as my fiancee has also been popping this on in addition to my constant looping for reviewing purposes – it’s especially telling as she has no nostalgia or link to the Final Fantasy games, she just loves this take on the music.
As she should.
Chocobo & Chill makes a great first impression, with the cover sporting a golden Chocobo front and centre in an extremely detailed art style, courtesy of the skills of Liz Clayton Fuller – an artist from Nashville who specialises in nature, and it feels like she really has captured the majesty of this fictional bird. Gazing at the viewer, the Chocobo is looking directly at the record holder, as the arch of its back and tail feathers almost frame the image. There’s something really engaging about this cover, it’s the combination of the Highwind floating gently in the background above verdant fields in this bucolic setting as the Chocobo stares unblinkingly at you, it’s oddly beautiful, engaging, and somehow real.
Turning the record over, we are met with a more subdued and static image, the fields continue, sloping off as the Highwind – closer now – floats overheard. In the distance are slabs of mountains, with the GameChops logo dotted in the bottom-right, as the credits are listed on the bottom-left and the track listing features at the centre.
The vinyl is held within a black, anti-static (thank you, thank you, thank you) sleeve, and the record itself is Chocobo yellow / gold, with the inner circles on each side featuring different natural landscapes at night, it’s a really nice touch.
The music throughout the record is taken mainly from Final Fantasies 7,8,9 & 10, as explained below in details taken from the GameChops website:
Chocobo & Chill features fifteen of Nobuo Uematsu’s beloved Final Fantasy tracks flipped and remixed by beat-maker Rifti Beats. Chocobo & Chill hits with nostalgic flair, taking inspiration from the Super Nintendo’s Final Fantasy VI and the Playstation era Final Fantasy VII – X.
The album begins with “The Prelude” and “Chocobo” — two iconic tunes found throughout the Final Fantasy series, making their first appearances on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Homages to “Final Fantasy VII” follow, with a gentle rendition of its main theme featuring pianist PianoDreams. This track previously appeared as the instrumental for “Lifestream” from Mega Ran’s Black Materia: The Remake. Fans of Final Fantasy 7 will also appreciate the sweet and melancholy “Aerith’s Theme”, and the iconic “Victory Fanfare”.
The series’ next instalment, Final Fantasy VIII, gets its turn in the spotlight too, with dreamy remixes of “Breezy” and “Balamb Garden”. The album takes a dark turn with the final boss theme “The Extreme”, which is known for its appearance in Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers.
Magical and nostalgic vibes continue with Final Fantasy IX’s “Crossing Those Hills”, “Village of Dali”, and “Song of Memories”. Standouts from Final Fantasy X also appear; fan-favourite “To Zanarkand”, best known for appearing in Final Fantasy’s world-touring orchestral show Distant Worlds. The acoustic track “Sight of Spira” (also known as Spira Unplugged) takes the form of an acoustic guitar duet, and meme-worthy “Tidus’s Theme” features brass and orchestral instrumentation from Pontus Holtgren.
Rifti Beats is a beat-maker with a passion for video games and anime music. Chocobo & Chill is Rifti Beats’ first solo album with GameChops. It’s the seventh instalment in the label’s “& Chill” series.
Track-by-Track
Side A:
The Prelude – Beginning beautifully delicately and with a smattering of in-game sound effects, The Prelude is a gorgeous opening number. I saw the London Video Game Orchestra perform this live in early 2020 - I almost felt moved to tears then, and it still makes my throat quiver here. An arching note scale repeats over record crackle and sampled beats with a really tasty, swinging hi-hat and warm bass*. The instrumentation knows when to drop out and let the melodic lines breathe, and the artificial record crackle, warmth and mellow bass just makes this feel like home. A Glorious, pristine, timeless melody given real character here – a wonderful opening to the album.
CHOCOBO – The jokey fanfare that starts this, combined with the sampled hand percussion may make you think this will be a novelty song, but fret not! The moment that groovy beat kicks in alongside that phat electric bass, it’s clear that whilst the original composition is light-hearted, there’s no messing around here, it’s treated with the same reverence as the other tracks and, whilst more tongue-in-cheek thematically than others on the album, it fits right in. It was a wise choice to make this one of the briefer tracks on the album. Whilst it is a fun sojourn, there’s so much gold in the Final Fantasy history that it feels right that other tracks get more time in the sun.
Final Fantasy VII (feat. PianoDreams) – This is a wonderful, wonderful piece of music that is designed to make you hug a loved one, the ever-present low-slung bass and thudding kick-drum only seem to accentuate the lighter, more delicate moments of the song, such as fading moments of electric guitar. There are moments of true, shimmering beauty tucked away here, and the looped, samples alongside that subtle record crackle slip away at the halfway mark to let the piano take centre stage, always keeping that groovy heartbeat. The more I listen to this, the more I feel that the piano plays one of the most important parts on the album. That said, the editing on this one feels cut, I do feel like some smoother use of fading etc. would have breathed a little more life in certain sections, as there are fractions of moments where the more naturalistic sound of the piano doesn’t quite mesh with the mechanical beat of the samples.
Aerith’s Theme – A delicate melody kicks this one off, as birds chirp, and that bass and hip-hop kit work their snappy magic. It’s a basic but disarming melodic line that almost feels like it features light vocalisations in parts. The three-beat run that repeats throughout draws you into its hypnotic gaze.
Breezy - A sampled acoustic guitar rocks along under mountain-sized bass notes and classic hip-hop beats, it’s one of the simpler and more repetitive songs on the record, but the strength of melody prevails. It’s worth noting a lot of the tracks fade into each other, giving a sense of continuation on the record.
Victory Fanfare – Beginning with – yes – fanfare, this is another shorter track that could have been throwaway, but really builds on the original, and that hip-hop heart hammers hard! The growling, moody bass and snappy snare weave their magic here.
Sight of Spira (feat. Super Guitar Bros) – There’s almost a bossa nova vibe to this as a hand-plucked, lo-fi electric guitar leads us into the main track, a musical swell and then – naturally – heavy bass join in and bounce around over the clean guitar that leads the track. It gives a bluesy edge to an album that has – up until now – featured more piano than guitar. I have to mention that by this point in the album, the fact that most tracks feature a main body that is repeated twice and then fades as the third playthrough kicks in is now well-established. I assume that this is due to the lengths of the original pieces, but is something I thought I’d mention as it brings back vibes of more classic arcade-style records I’ve covered in the past. This isn’t a record that takes a handful of tracks and experiments with them, morphing and pulling them in different artistic directions in terms of length etc. The heart of the record here is driving at those original melodies and movements and relishing in them.
Crossing Those Hills – The final track on the first side of the record, this was an early favourite of mine. There’s a childlike whimsy in the way that the sounds bounce around the basic central theme, and the subtle sounds of nature and nods towards in-game effects hint at moments featured on preceding tracks on the album that add to that sense of reverence and cohesion to the series.
Side B:
To Zanarkand – Whilst there isn’t anything hugely different here, there’s something about the moody bass that makes it pop, I think it’s how it’s set against a more melancholic backdrop, there’s also an unusual sadness that permeates the mechanical drum beat. Wonderful, full mastering at the fore here – as it is throughout the record! Courtesy of DJ Cutman and Nick Townsend.
Tidus’s Theme (feat. Pontus Hultgren) – More gently wavering guitar, exposed and sparse, as if played alone on a mountaintop – until joined by that weighty bass and drum combo. There’s a weight-of-the-world sigh here, that seems oddly melded with the visual of a friend grasping the shoulder and shaking someone out of their inward funk – as seemingly portrayed by the second guitar joining in. This feels like an album highlight as it grabbed me as a more narrative-driven song as opposed to beat-driven. As the trumpet kicks in and repeated that connective central theme, it’s hard not to be swept up in the glory of it all.
The Extreme – The darkest song so far, as again the bass drives a dark heart against the surrounding melodies. Hints of vocalisations and 8-bit-like ascensions make this a great light-horror piece.
Terra’s Theme – Highly-effected piano and 8-bit melodies work with the bass and drums here, it again points to a darker second half of the album, and as these are in chronological order, it makes me think that Final Fantasy games get more interesting and melancholic as they go on! The keys and samples are the highlights here, as they tinkle delicately across the track.
Balamb Garden – We are back to prettiness and innocence here, whilst the omnipresence of the rhythm section abounds, the glassy central melody is accentuated with sound effects and a sense of general chatter as the song opens, giving a natural, human vibe. When the song opens up as it approaches the centre, it becomes almost ethereal, a beautiful interpretation of the original music.
Village of Dali – This almost feels like a continuation of the previous track and has a ‘SEGA credits’ vibe to the music, which is absolutely fine. A wonderful blend of the positive and nostalgic is delivered through a retro lens. It absolutely works as a penultimate track as it feels like the battle is over, and this is the soundtrack to a celebratory ending, whereby foes have been defeated – albeit at the cost of friends’ lives.
Song of Memories – The final song of the album, this is another pretty, and breezy track that follows on from the sense of completion that Village of Dali lays down. The central thematic piece feels like it has its roots in the ‘80s somehow, there a coolness to it that I could imagine being played as the hero drives off into the sunset.
Chocobo & Chill is a great album for fans of Final Fantasy, especially games seven through ten. These are wonderfully mellow, night-time versions of songs that are indelibly interwoven in the tapestry of gaming.
That said, after a few listens, I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen should Rifti Beats be cut loose from the constraints of the original audio, and we were treated to eight-minute, experimental versions of the songs on offer here?
It’s very possible that it’s the musician in me talking but nevertheless, Rifti Beats has captured golden versions of Nobuo Uematsu’s work here, and – as stated previously – this is proving to be a record that never strays far from my turntable.
*I swear I could hear The Undertones ‘Teenage Kicks’ in some of these basslines!
Chocobo & Chill is available at:
US – Materia Store / Light in the Attic
EU – Black Screen Records / HHV Records
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