While his frequent collaborator K-Murdock gave us an instrumental collection of songs based on Final Fantasy 6, Random revisits his album with Lost Perception based on Final Fantasy 7. The album is called Black Materia: The Remixes, but this isn’t a straight up remix album, in that it doesn’t match up to the original album track by track with different versions. Instead, Mega Ran gives us an assortment of remixes, re-imagined songs, and completely new material in a new sequence. It sits somewhere between remix album and a second volume of material based on the same theme.

It’s a bit of a unique set up for a record, but there are a few elements to sort through to make it easier to digest. First up are the remixes. There are some really good remixes on the album, but most of the remixes don’t stand incredibly far apart from the original songs. Mega Ran and Lost Perception handle the majority of the remixes, and the songs are perfectly enjoyable when you listen to them on their own and I think they would have benefited from a few more points of view to give really new takes on the songs. To be fair, I think the source material might lend itself to a particular style that most producers would have similar takes on, but I think more variety would have spiced things up a bit. The other element to examine is the new material, and Mega Ran has some really good songs to add to the collection. One of the really interesting things about Black Materia and Mega Ran in general is the way he is able to move between writing songs about the narrative of Final Fantasy, playful songs that fall under the general nerdcore umbrella, and some really biting, heavy rhymes. That he’s able to weave these styles together on one record is where his talent really shines. A small sample of this can be seen moving from “Valentine,” featuring RoQy TyRaiD to “Ninja Girl,” to “Cid’s Theme (Remix),” featuring PhillHarmonix. “Valentine” is about a character in the game with a dark past, but is really song about a man coming to terms with his demons. It doesn’t rely as heavily on video game samples as others, so it sounds like you could easily slip this onto another album and many listeners wouldn’t know they difference. “Ninja Girl” is a humorous song using video game samples placed in a pop/R&B/hip hop context to tell a lighthearted tale about trying to date a ninja. This moves into “Cid’s Theme (Remix),” which sounds both lyrically and sonically like it could only belong on a video game-themed album. All three songs are good, all bring something different to the table, and all flow together well. The only other copmlaint I have with the album is that at twenty two tracks, they could have stood to lose a couple of tracks just to make it a more comprehensive listen from start to finish, or maybe break it up into two volumes.

Black Materia: The Remixes isn’t the game changer the original album was for his follwers, but the new material does provide a few new fan favorites. Any new listeners will get quickly learn why Mega Ran has developed this following.