If Leifo's mix title back in 2002 didn't give it away, he's good buds and now collaborator with Jordan Aguirre, aka bLiNd. They paired up for this blockbuster staple trance FFVII action, giving Voices of the Lifestream some extra four-on-the-floor danceable mojo action. Jordan had this to say:
"This track was side by side with Leifo almost for the whole creation of it. All the ideas we had were fed off of each other. It was a really rewarding experience. We came up with something unique and Leifos guitar playing was icing on the cake. The new chord progression really makes it dance/trance genre friendly and changing time signature from 3/4 to 4/4 was a small hurdle but worked out well. A little on the moody side, but thats thanks to the source tune. Hope you guys enjoy it!"
The downbeat here is deadly; if you feel like OCR's been lacking trance of late, this has gotta make you all sorts of happy. The addition of guitar adds texture that brings out Jordan's electronica in new ways. Granted, there's plenty of repetition here and a lot of traditional trance arrangement norms are employed, but it's done so well you forget that it may not be breaking the innovation bank, the groove is infectious, and it never really lets up. These guys collabed on the most excellent Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo: Blood on the Asphalt album, and they work quite well together. Listen to the Cries of the Planet is itself repetitious, so a trance treatment that actually capitalizes on this and makes the best of it seems very appropriate. There's not too much else to say - this is great music for surfin' the net, even if it is as Jordan points out a little moody, and I think lovers of FF7 and trance will be thrilled to see veteran bLiNd applying his mad skills, along with Leifo, to the one of the game's darker tracks.
-DiscoDanv2