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Wrap

Text File | 1997-11-12 | 21KB | 515 lines

__ __ __ | \ __ ______/ |_ | | | o \ | | | / o | \ |o | | \| o| |o _/ | o\ []=======| |==| \ |=| |/ | \========[] []=======| |==| \ |=| | |\ \=======[] []=======| |==| \|=| | |=\ \======[] :: | | | \ | | | / / :: :. | | | |\ \| | /| |/ / :: : | | |/\ | \ | |/ | | / : | | / \| |\ | | | | / :. | | / \ | \ | |__| | / .: :: | |/ \| \_| | |/ : :: | /\ | | __| |\ :: []=======| / \ |=| |==| | \==========[] []=======| /| \ |=| |==| | \=========[] []=======| /=| |\ |=| |==| | \========[] |o / | | \ o| |o | | |\ o\(mansooj) |_/ | o | \_| |__/ | o | \__/ |___| |___| The Weekly Module Review Presents: --=======================================================================-- F E E D B A C K Come and get it!! --=======================================================================-- Released on November 11, 1997 Including music tracks by Anders Akerheden, BizKid, Emit, MING, Nemesis, Shih Tzu, Shrift, Skullsaw, and a co-op from CCerberus and WolfSong. Also includes a nifty 'album cover' graphic from Balistic (on two days notice, too!), and...well, some boring, randomly arranged, alphanumeric characters from Boris, also referred to as A Million Monkeys at A Million Typewriters with rather a lot of time to kill. --=======================================================================-- Welcome to the wonderful world that is the "Feedback" .nfo file! This production marks the one year anniversary of the existence of the Weekly Module Review. The WMR is a group of people who devote part of themselves to helping provide some of that rare elixir, that 'filling of the void' that follows the release of most composer's tracks: feedback! As is the usual state of affairs, there are a million trackers releasing their work for free to the public, and only a handful or so of people willing to take the time to give them something of use for their effort. I don't think it'd be presumptious to say that these people are pretty special, even if for no other reason than the reality of their limited numbers. Criticism is a loaded word. It carries with it the term 'bad' in most people's minds. I.e. 'criticism' is normally interpreted to be something someone does to insult or belittle. This is unfortunate, because criticism, in itself, is usually helpful regardless of the attitude behind it. If for no other reason than for the recipient to learn how to steel themselves up for the slings and arrows of those who are more concerned with arbitrarily ripping something to shreds for the sheer glee of it, than in justifying all their opinions regardless of their direction. What we do is just what most composers I've heard/read seem to want: well-considered, fairly given and comprehensive evaluations of their work. There are always various levels within every large set, but we strive to maintain this goal, and I believe we do the best job in town. On November 11, 1996, we produced our first batch of reviews, distributed for public consumption on Usenet. Initially, there were no set standards, and consequently, the vast majority of reviews, were not so much reviews, but brief comments. Yes, this sort of thing can be useful, especially to those composers that are anxious for any type of feedback, but comprehensive reviews harbor within them a great deal more value. At that time, all tracks under review were selected semi-randomly from the masses of releases on the biggest ftp sites, and the reviews were geared, for the most part, solely for the more casual visitor for the purposes of finding good/interesting tracks to download for their listening pleasure. (I.e. just ratings and some brief comments--not much to affect the composer, or inform other composers, but enough to serve the general public.) In early January 1997, J. Devlin asked to submit a track of his own composing. This almost instantly transformed the focus of our efforts. Once I publically mentioned that this track had been submitted by the composer himself, soon began a growing, constant influx of other composer-submitted tracks. So many, in fact, that at this point, virtually all tracks now reviewed are submitted. What this translates into is that the WMR is now serving a dual purpose. On one side we cater to the composers by producing quality reviews of their work (and this, of course, benefits any other composers who take the time to read the reviews), and on the other, we remain a source of leads for the more casual reader that is essentially more interested in getting some interesting new tracks to listen to. This is one reason why our ratings are carefully ensured to be in accordance with the tenor of the commentary itself. One reviewer's 70 is pretty much the same in meaning as any others'--which means the final ratings will retain the same level of relevancy no matter how many tracks are covered. Well, so much for the introduction, eh? Since the majority of our reviewers are composers themselves, a music pack seemed a natural idea to mark our anniversary. Even so, production on this was actually set in motion on fairly short notice less than a month ago due to my not even realizing it had been nearly a year since our unveiling. So, no fancy ANSI graphics in the text. No custom player interface (most of you know which players you like anyway, right?). And, unfortunately, I didn't even give everyone time to write introductory blurbs for their contributions. But, what's important is the music, and we have a nice selection to share. Below, you will find some relevant info on each track, and with some at least, introductory blurbs to give you some background info that may not be contained in the module's internal texts. We hope you enjoy this offering. And as we'll be around for while, there should be more to follow.... Boris, on behalf of all the past and present reviewers that have contributed to the success of this project. --=======================================================================-- Some statistics to give you an idea of what's gone before --------------------------------------------------------- Number of reviews in our database: 1925 Number of modules we've reviewed: 249 Number of those modules we've reviewed that were submitted to us directly by their composers: 66 Average number of reviews per module: 7.7 Number of reviewers that have contributed to the database: 71 Current number of reviewers in membership: 32 Number of people that have applied for reviewership, but that have either been rejected or never followed through on their bid (the vast majority of this number): 51 Number of weeks we've produced reviews (note that nearly 3 months were 'lost' while I did an entire revision of our review database to bring everything into consistency): 33 --=======================================================================-- --=======================================================================-- Alrighty, then! On to the 'zik, eh? We have a quite varied and eclectic batch of tunes for your eardrums to flutter and thump to. This is no surprise, since we are a very varied and eclectic bunch--better to examine you with, as the wolf would say, I think. As noted elsewhere above, I didn't give people much time to come up with information blurbs, so several don't have them. I happen to think they're a good insight into the track from the composer's perspective, and am very irritated with myself for bringing it up only days before this release. Be that as it may, the following bits of information should give you some early ideas of what to expect when you load up each track. Gracious and well-deserved thanks to all of the composers who did/had time to contribute to this milestone release! You, and all others that have contributed to the WMR project have made this last year more than worth all the toil and occasional frustrations. --=======================================================================-- ----------------=======================---------------- ----------------=======================---------------- ----------------=======================---------------- [an_wmr.xm] "Watering My Roses" by Anders Akerheden 10-channel XM (04:16) [Piano Improvisation] "A four minute piano improvisation. Nothing more, nothing less. A (not so fancy, but soothing) piece, to relax your mind for a few minutes of time." ----------------=======================---------------- [astronuk.s3m] "Astro Boy Has a Nuke" by Shih Tzu [Chiptune] 4-channel S3M (03:14) ----------------=======================---------------- [flies.it] "Time Flies" by MING of DiSC/Impression [Pop/Dance] 29-channel IT (03:28) ----------------=======================---------------- [ironyof.s3m] "The Irony of Force" by Shrift [Melodic Industrial] 16-channel S3M (05:09) "This was my Summer piece. It started on a whim after hearing a partially constructed tune by some friends of mine, and it turned into the strongest attempt on my part to create a very formal structural cohesion. Every piece of this song is there for a reason, both in terms of the flow of the song moment to moment, as well as in the song as a theme. In that sense I'm very content with the end result, even if I think the bass-line used in the piece was out of place, uninspiring, or clashy. I am also very happy with the ending, as it is the most involved ending I've yet produced." This is melodic pop-industrial, if there is such a thing. ----------------=======================---------------- [n-finite.it] "Elements of Infinity" by Nemesis [Pop/Demo] 32-channel IT (07:48) "I suppose I wrote this tune as sort of a birthday present to myself, not to mention for inclusion in the WMR musicdisk. I believe that it really is my best work so far, and certainly the first decent tune to come from the depths of my brain since MC5. Yes, MC5 was not that long ago, but writing 'Twilight Groove' left me quite exhausted and even wondering if I could ever bring myself to track anything else again. Nevertheless, I struggled through, wrote 'the song I couldn't name,' which was, now that I look back on it, something of a dress rehearsal for this track here. Yes, before you ask, I am aware of how this tune 'rambles' on and on, going from one idea to the next in relatively short times. Was this intentional, you ask? Well, yes and no. I think that I was intending to write something of a collage of styles, but I also think that I wanted to develop each idea further, since I think that many different parts in this track could be developed into entire songs themselves. However, I'm glad I kept it the way it is, since I feel that the ideas stay fresh, and don't become watered down by repetition. Many of the samples I used are original. The D50 samples were made by myself and God (who operated the sampler while I played the keyboard), and are from, of course, a Roland D50. the samples from the Ensoniq VFX were made by Rimbo and I, Rimbo doing most of the sampling, and both of us banging on the keys. The rest are from Ozone (the piano), and Pulse (everything else)." ----------------=======================---------------- [rr-fpast.xm] "A Future Past" by BizKid of Rebel Riffs [Pseudo-Industrial-Jungle] 14-channel XM (05:48) "Most of the samples on Future Past were taken from the Future Music Magazine's 400 Loops CD. Although the only real loop you'll hear are the drum sounds, pretty much all the music is constructed note by note. We had this track hanging around after releasing '2020: Living On Mars' and decided it would be just right for the WMR musicdisk. A little more like a standard MOD than most of RR's output, but fun all the same. Happy Burfday WMR!!! All at Rebel Riffs...." http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/clan_gilmore ----------------=======================---------------- [sideband.it] "Sideband" by Emit [Techno-Hop Ambient] 18-channel IT (04:07) ----------------=======================---------------- [sk-cnctr.med] "The Connector" by Skullsaw [Acid-Hop] 4-channel MED (04:21) (Note: be sure to look for the OctaMEDPlayer.exe in this archive if you are a Windows user!) ----------------=======================---------------- [treatme.s3m] "Treat Me to the Real" by Shrift ['Instrumental' Chiptune] 11-channel S3M (01:30) "I spent a while on this little guy, and must say I spent enough time on it to be fairly content with almost every single aspect of its entire one and a half minute length. I had some trouble with the transition at order 6, and I think the startup of the song could have been more exciting, but otherwise I think the flow is very close to the mark I was looking for. Generally speaking, this piece is chordially more happy than I think I prefer, but there is definitely a part of me that appreciates that enough to bother writing it, so here we are. This is instrumental, other. It also is a bit demoish." ----------------=======================---------------- [wolf_cc.it] "The Omega Point" by WolfSong and CCerberus [Hard Rock/Metal/Light Techno] 26-channel IT (04:00) CCerberus: "Well folks, WolfSong and I finally did the inevitable: We wrote a song together! 'The Omega Point' is our first team effort tune, and we have sorta chosen to use it as the 'Initiation Song' for our new music-production house Omega Point Productions. This turned out even better than I expected it to, with pretty much equal contributions from both of us. If you think you know our styles and can tell who wrote what parts, DON'T BE SO SURE! There was a lot of style-blending in this song, and WolfSong and I had to be pretty flexible to get our different musical styles to mesh smoothly. There are solos by both of us, and...well, just listen to it for yourself! :)" WolfSong: "I think it's kind of cool that two 80's rock band outcasts could write a song together from hundreds of miles apart in a form that neither of us would have imagind back then...and have it WORK OUT! :) But I guess that's one of the beauties of technology. In any case, I hope everyone enjoys this song. CCerberus and I had to meet in an area that we were both familiar with...Metal! Though there is a bit of techno thrown in. Keep an eye out because in all probability this won't be the last stunt like this that we pull. :)" ----------------=======================---------------- ----------------=======================---------------- ----------------=======================---------------- --=======================================================================-- Our current reviewers, in order of their joining: 001 Araneus Clones 084 002 Rebriffer Nova 085 010 Quasar Shih Tzu 086 014 CCerberus Husanak 087 016 TheKid JRice 095 017 Shrift MindWalker 097 024 Mansooj Emit 099 041 MING Nemesis 100 045 Peraphon Anders Akerheden 101 064 PanDuh Cubix 104 069 ESP Walrus26 105 071 ChroMix Kazmeyer 106 074 Fanta C Zond 3 107 077 WolfSong Old Wolf 108 079 Skullsaw Novus 109 082 Mysterium Balistic (main WMR artist) --=======================================================================-- Anyone wishing information on what it takes to become a WMR reviewer can visit our website at www.cyberverse.com/~boris/WMR/wmr-index.html. From there, you can follow the links around to see what we've done, and how you can become a part of it. This applies, of course, also to those of you who may wish to submit a track for review. --=======================================================================-- One would hope it need not be said, but I suppose it can't hurt: All inclusions in this music pack are copyrighted to their authors, and are not implied as being in the public domain. Any commercial use (and one would hope, any public use at all) of any of the contents must be with permission of any author(s) involved. If you wish to contact anyone involved with this music pack or the Weekly Module Review project, please send an email to boris@cyberverse.com. If that email happens to come up defunct some time in the future, just scan for the WMR in any large search engine. ;) --=======================================================================-- (Consummated on November 11, 1997 at 20:55 USA Pacific time)