K-Murdock was no stranger to video games before teaming up with Mega Ran, his involvement in video game music has certainly increased since they originally teamed up to start making music. Their album Forever Famicom quickly became a classic amongst nerdcore fans, as they made great hip hop out of Nintendo samples. Now, to kick off what’s sure to be another busy year for the producer, he drops Hero Muzik Vol. 1, an instrumental collection that promises to be the first in a series of remix albums based on his favorite role playing games.

Hero Muzik Vol. 1 is based on the music of Final Fantasy 6, composed by Nobuo Uematsu. Admittedly, I haven’t spent a lot of time with the Final Fantasy series, so I know I’m not necessarily the target audience for this album. Upon listening to the opening track, “A Dying Breed,” which is a slowly developing song, I began to wonder whether or not I could get anything out of the album as an outsider. It didn’t take much longer before I found my answer. “The Ruler’s Back,” the third song on the album, is when the music really gets going. It brings in a touch of grandeur with the theme and some nice funky drums kicking the tempo up, which makes for cross over appeal. “Gil Toss Anthem” is probably the closest we get to a party jam on this collection, and it does make for a funky processional, which I can appreciate. Where I feel the album really lives up to it’s potential, though, is “Blue Magic Bounce,” which unfolds slowly but has such an interesting melody that you don’t necessarily notice how much the music has changed until the drums really start to get funky and you start to bob your head, and you pause and say to yourself, “Am I still listening to the same song?” “Kupo-cabana” is a good song in it’s on right, but it’s especially nice since I’m pretty sure that K-Murdock is showing his hand a little by letting us know where he got a sample from for “These Words” by Panacea.

Hero Muzik Vol. 1 has it’s moments, and K-Murdock definitely has the talent to make a project like this interesting. As someone without an investment in the source material, I was still able to enjoy what he put together. I imagine those who have logged many hours in the Final Fantasy universe will enjoy it even more than I did.

UPDATE: K-Murdock has clarified that “These Words” and “Kupo-cabana” don’t share source material, they just sound similar. We regret any confusion this may have caused.