Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger Arranged Version: The Brink of Time (Performed by GUIDO (Hiroshi Hata and Hidenobu Ootsuki))

9/10

I'm almost done with these reviews, and somehow, this is one of the few times I'll talk about Napster. While many of my peers may have used Napster to "steal" music, I used it to preview stuff, and to find new things to buy. One day in 2000, I was looking up some Chrono Trigger songs on Napster, and up popped versions from this album, The Brink of Time.

Today's Internet is awash in cover versions of video game music. Also, the idea of taking a couple of hours to download a song, and fretting that you didn't pay for it is pretty quaint. If anyone wants to listen to The Brink of Time for free right now, they can just go to Youtube and immediately stream it. Back at the turn-of-the-century, though, things were different.

I didn't like the idea of not paying for music I was frequently enjoying (I haven't really lost this feeling), and I shelled out some dough in 2000 to import Chrono Trigger Arranged Version: Brink of Time. My favorite video game soundtrack for my favorite video game, redone in an acid jazz style? I was all over it. Better yet, the album was overseen by Yasunori Mitsuda, this music's original composer. I couldn't wait to hear this whole thing after listening to a couple songs on Napster, a service which, I should reiterate, is solely responsible for me learning of and buying this album 21 years ago. 21 years later, after I've heard more video game soundtrack covers on the Internet than even the Internet can remember, I think The Brink of Time still stands head and shoulders above. 

For this project, Mitsuda teamed up with a musician duo called GUIDO, made up of Hiroshi Hata and Hidenobu Ootsuki. Perhaps the ace in the hole here is that this was recorded and released just months after the game was in 1995. The incredible reverence Chrono Trigger's soundtrack evokes now didn't exist at the time. This allowed Mitsuda, who intentionally wanted to do something uniquely original, and GUIDO to really approach these songs with fresh eyes. All ten pieces covered here are among the best ever originally composed for a video game, and for the most part, Mitsuda and GUIDO mess them up in the best ways possible. 

"Chrono Trigger" kicks the album off with a reinterpretation of the game's original theme, sticking more closely to straight jazz. It's an appropriately upbeat take that adds soaring strings in the right places, but then...

The bridge comes along, bringing tons of echo to the sax, weird keyboard noises, and leading to a raucous and incredible breakdown. It's a rush. Then things change completely with track two, "Secret of the Forest." The original version of this song has a firm argument on "best video game musical composition of all time." It's a beautiful, mysterious song, and it's transformed here into an easy listening, soft rock, Weather Channel background song that strangely works almost as well as the original. Thankfully, mostly due to the awesome Rhodes and additional keyboard work, it remains incredibly atmospheric, like the original, even with the change in tone. That chill jazz guitar solo at the end of the song is smooth like butter.

Up next, two songs highlighting Chrono Trigger's villains (with the game's awesome story, the term "villains" in one of these cases is debatable) take full advantage of the acid in "acid jazz." They're trippy takes, with "Zeal Palace" exploring space and spacey textures, and "Battle with Magus" verging from drugged-out spaghetti western, to baroque horror, to the seventh inning stretch for a baseball game solely attended by vampires. These songs are wonderfully weird, but somehow keep the spirit of the originals.

The album changes gears once again with another Weather Channel soft rock take, this time for "Corridors of Time." The charm of this version not only comes from its thick atmosphere, but the way it suddenly shifts into a 4/4, steady-ahead rhythm that paves the way for six straight minutes of jazz guitar and organ solos. This song also forgoes the horns that are the bedrock of so much of the rest of Brink of Time, and somehow it doesn't even matter. The musicianship on this, and the nine other tracks is just so top notch, with secret MVP, the bass playing, always holding things together. This is such a special album, from the quiet atmospheric beach at night intro of "Undersea Palace," to the mind-bending and warped fight music of "World Revolution," to the smooth jazz of "Brink of Time," to the unexpected folk and world music of "Guardia Millennial Fair," to the all-out bliss of the bossa nova finale, "To Far Away Times," which has a female vocalist wordlessly sing the original song's famous melody. 

The Brink of Time, even if it's not quite perfect, is still a landmark achievement in video game cover music. It features better arrangements and more talented musicianship than nearly any attempt at video game covers to come in the 21st century. It may not play by the rules, and it may not dip into the most obvious genres, but it's an incredible listen to this day, and I absolutely adore the fadeout on "To Far Away Times," which gives the impression that the Chrono Trigger party will never end. Considering the amount of video games I've played since Chrono Trigger, and the fact that not a single one has unseated it from my "favorite video game" throne, it's only fitting. 

A timeless soundtrack for a timeless game, even in this bizarre, yet lovable acid jazz form.


1995 NTT Publishing
1. Chrono Trigger (クロノ・トリガー) 6:13
2. Secret of the Forest (樹海の神秘) 6:10
3. Zeal Palace (ジール宮殿) 4:46
4. Battle with Magus (魔王決戦) 3:46
5. Corridors of Time (時の回廊) 7:15
6. Undersea Palace (海底神殿) 4:09
7. World Revolution (世界変革の時 ~ラストバトル) 6:03
8. Brink of Time (時の最果て) 2:45
9. Guardia Millennial Fair (ガルディア王国千年祭) 6:28
10. To Far Away Times (遥かなる時の彼方へ) 5:08