|
|
DJ Bourg's Comments |
| Profile | Modules | Favourites | Comments | Messages |
Download: 
Title: Pat the pattern! :-) Filename: kzrswc2.it |
Posted Mon 15th Jul 2002
Rated 8 / 10 |
| I was surprised by the title at first sight. So I decided to check out what the song would sound... This is actually kinda good, it has got a slow groovy rhythm, some little melodies, kinda simple, but welcomed in the song. It has a good bass system, and the overall sound quality is good. Though its kinda simple as a melodic structure, it has got many sound effects that spice the overall feeling of the song, which is a good thing. Now the real fun starts here: this song is 2:00 long, and it got only 1 damn single pattern! Yes sir, only one. Here we can see that the artist has some skill: the speed is obviously slower (Tempo 100/Speed 12) to get a maximum of workspace. But what surprised me most is the fact that the user didn't has any of his instruments 'pre-made': he used normal versative instruments, and to get that accurate and detailed sound he has used lot of effects: lot of retriggers, some midi macros, volume portamentos, volume slides and global volume slides, and mainly, pattern loops. Everything has been put well and skillfully. The results are almost perfect and honestly I couldn't expect more from a 200-row one-patterned module. There's only 14 samples and they are used perfectly in the song. The original artist knew very well what he was doing. I recommend you to download this song as an example if you wanna give yourself some challenging, and to hear the result of such way of tracking. Good listening! -- DJ Bourg | |
|
Download:
Title: 001 Megafly-EBDance Filename: 001megaf.xm |
Posted Tue 2nd Jul 2002
Rated 6 / 10 |
| The song is very noisy and repetitive: all along the song, the same cymbal crash is keeping crashing loudly in the song, which screws the ambiance. The lead melody is kinda repetitive and sounds out-of-tune with the kick in the first seconds (thats because of the lead sequence, some volume effects are needed here, or you just need to move some notes). The snare roll is way too loud, I had to turn down the volume just a few seconds after turning it up :S. The song has nothing really catchy in it, just repeated loops and the same melodies here and there. The song has also no end (abrupt end). In other words, a song made by a begginier tracker. That's not a bad thing, but I hope you gotta create better songs in the future! Very basic structure. There's almost no effects, except some panning ones on the lead melody (mostly left oriented). The beat is very primitive, if we remove that ATB loop sample, only a kick is remaining. Well I think I have nothing more to say on this song. I wouldn't recommend this to anybody unless you wanna hear some begginner stuff. WEll, EBDance, if you read this, I wish you good improving in tracking (if you are still in it) and come with new and better stuff shortly! -- DJ Bourg | |
|
Download:
Title: ╜TheƒNightƒMyƒMaster⌐Died Filename: 0000tnmmd.it |
Posted Tue 2nd Jul 2002
Rated 7 / 10 |
| The piece stands out muscally. It has a good drum sequence and some good guitar samples, but sadly most of them were full sequence samples. The song often changes its melodies, so the ambiance go with it. I noticed a high frequency sound that sounded strange to my ears, so I opened the song up to my tracker to discover that it was a breakbeat loop sample (it was very high-pitched, obviously forgotten by the artist). Well the structure is always keeping on changing, which is a plus in tech rating. But for the rest, the only real tracked thing is the drum sequnce, a melody and the bass. The best parts of the song (such as guitar solos) are all ripped. It has also a kind of explosive effect that is way too loud for the song. So, as in melodic side it stands out to be a decent song, in techincal side it's worse by being about 30-40% wave samples. It may have been the artist who has recorded his loop with his own electric guitar (who knows?), but in this case why haven't you did the song in mp3 instead? My final verdict: The song is rather nice with its melodies, but as for the tracking skills, I still need to see more. Good anyway! -- DJ Bourg | |
|
Download:
Title: Running Nowhere Filename: 00009.it |
Posted Tue 2nd Jul 2002
Rated 8 / 10 |
| This is what I call quality tracked music: this one has got an impressive ambiance, and heavy samples, which are giving to this piece an excellent rock atmosphere. The lead synth-guitar is excellent as a musical side, but it just doesn't sound as realistic when it comes to the high frequencies though. All instruments are fitting well in the song, like if they had been created for being blended together in that song :D. Well the artist have chosen well his samples. The main problem about them by the way is that they aren't so clean, they have some noise sound, which decrease the overall quality sound. But I can tell that the ambiance can't be totally screwed just because of quality of samples, proof? Check the score! Really good! The song is very complete structurally. It doesn't create on me a feeling that I miss something in the song: it is very full, complete. Like I told before the quality of the samples is not that good, but a noise filter would settle the problem. Just listen to it with some good speakers and you will hear all the depth of the song. There isn't lot of effects hearable on the song sadly, I heared some portamentos & vibrato (I think) here and there, and they are fitting quite well in the melodies and the slow hard rock style of the song. This song seems to be based on musical skills and not focused on the effects or quality samples. Structurally the song has nice parts, like an intro, progressive, good, and a break near the 3/4 of the song. Seems the artist have been on the go near the end, cause he totally screwed it (a classic cymbal crash, coming from nowhere, come and finish the song abruptly), which could have been sounding lot better if he had put more energy in it. Anyway the rest of the song is absolutely fabulous, and I recommend to all of you hard rock fans downloading this, it got the real attitude! -- DJ Bourg | |
|
Download:
Title: Firebreathing Giant Filename: 0-fire.xm |
Posted Tue 2nd Jul 2002
Rated 8 / 10 |
| This is a song of the Giant serie of Felix Lindgren, which I think is better than the first (Bloodfreezing Giant). The melodic stuff, such as piano, is excellent, and the drum sequence is very well worked, especially on breaks and end-of-patterns, where they have been worked well. The ambiance (based on bass) is well structured and is workin well with everything on the song. The chorus has a better "meaning", I mean an "adventure a-like theme", which I like very much. The thing I like less though was the use of the same samples than in the song Bloodfreezing Giant. Well I know it's supposed to sound like it, due to the title, but I think that some instruments deserved to be changed. I don't know which one have been made first but I think that it isn't a good point anyway. Putting this aside, I can tell that this song is much better than the one stated above, on a musical note. Goood! Well I would say the same about technical side than in the review I made of the song Bloodfreezing Giant, since they are using the same numbers of patterns, instruments, and in fact the same samples. One thing to add though is that it's not as repetitive as the first, the sequence is better structured, with breaks, transitions, etc. And some instruments such as some strings, the piano, and the drum sequence are used with accuracy and "style". Download this song if you haven't got what you expected from the previously stated song above. Excellent work. ;) -- DJ Bourg | |
|
Download:
Title: Bloodfreezing Giant Filename: 0-blood.xm |
Posted Tue 2nd Jul 2002
Rated 7 / 10 |
| I'm actually not very sure about the genre of the song, but anyway I should be close to. This song has a nice drum sequence, though it has been used in many songs of this style. The melody chorus starts a few seconds after the beggining, which has no intro or anything look-liking that. The chorus is catchy and has a nice keyboard background sequence followed by a catchy melody. I am not into this style but as a tracked piece it has the quality and I can tell that the author knew what he was doing on this song! The melodic part is well done, without any sort of flaws, and has a progressive well-fitting structure. Keep da good work! The song actually loops on itself, probably the main reason why there isn't really an intro or an end to the song. It uses 12 channels and 14 channels, pretty respectable for a song of this style. Despite the sample quality and the good melodic structure, I found this song being a bit repetitive after some loops, mainly because of the main chorus, followed by the same sequences, well you get the point. Anyway I do think that this song has nice skills and I would recommend it to anyone who's searching for this kind of music. -- DJ Bourg | |
|
Download:
Title: humans are strange Filename: zl-human.it |
Posted Fri 28th Jun 2002
Rated 7 / 10 |
| The beggining of the trax shows at all the musical direction that is taking the rest of it: it's a dark ambiance, with mainly low saw-a-like strings samples. The dark ambiance is well created, the beggining is kinda catchy (knowing it's ambient indeed), though its sticked for too much time. At 1:16 the low strings are fading, to let the place to the main soul rhythm, and some other new melodies. The song keeps its dark ambiance through all the song. The kinda wind sound is sticking well in the song, which is mainly creating the dark effect along with the lower strings. So musically I guess (say) that it is well made about that atmosphere, some parts are quiet or empty, but variation is not very expectable from this kind of ambient. The samples that have been used in the song are well fitting into the ambiance of the song, I couldn't have chosen them better. Some effects have been used at various places in the song, such as panning and volume ones. We can't hear much of panning but volume has been used well. About the style, this is not really a song that you would listen like that, I would rather see it in a kind of underground/dark scene, in a game, if you get what I mean. Well anyway I recommend you to download this song if you are seeking for some ambient/soul slow music. Or this song may be interesting to hear in a game. -- DJ BOurg | |
|
Download:
Title: albinose Filename: albinose.mod |
Posted Sun 23rd Jun 2002
Rated 7 / 10 |
| At the starting, this song has a kind of darkish ambiance: the strings are playing that kind of dark/undergroundish melody that we can usually find in a good dark ambient dance song. The beat was faster than any other old-skool techno song I've heard, which is quite interesting to see. It was rather repetitive, that spoils a little bit the overall feeling, because this song would have been much better if there were more than one melody sequence. Although this is very short (2 minutes), some variation in drum and bass sequence would have been very nice to that song. I have no idea of the accurate oldness of that mod file, but as it is a Pro Tracker file it should be a bit old. The style though is more "recent" (ambient dance/techno), so I suppose it has been made around 1992. It has not less than 24 samples, and has obviously 4 channels. It uses some nice vocal & FX effects, but besides that point, there's nothing really catchy in that tune. That may be enjoyable for a while but that's not something that you might keep except if you really like old-skool dance tunes. -- DJ Bourg | |
|
Download:
Title: voyager Filename: voyagerr.mod |
Posted Tue 11th Jun 2002
Rated 7 / 10 |
| Another old-skool module: this one's not very experimented, but it was nice to listen. The little melody was original and good to hear. The biggest flaw is the using of very loud samples, which is resulting in a poor quality when time has come to use high-frequency samples. Another thing that could be avoided is sample looping: we can hear the string that is looped on itself, but I agree, sampling on early 90's was sorta tough due to system limitations. The song is very short: it measures only 2 minutes, but seems kinda short due to its few variations. Talking of variations, there's not a lot of these, the song is mainly beatless. It has some kicks and a kind of snare playin' at some places here and there, but that's the only thing I could say about the variation of this song. I'd suggest this song to anyone who is searching for old-skool ambient-like modules for their collection. -- DJ Bourg | |
|
Download:
Title: Did You Love Me? #Topz Filename: didyou.it |
Posted Tue 11th Jun 2002
Rated 6 / 10 |
| This track takes too much time to start. It is mainly made with some drum-a-like samples, some bass and a vocal: "Did you love me?". At the first minute, we get the full sounding. But after 2 minutes you've heard everything, which is bad cause if the song could had been more developped, which new melodies by example, it would have sound more innovative, new, and original. The sample quality is not that good, but the worst about that song is mainly the length: it measures 10 minutes! Almost no variation, the same breakbeat for 10 minutes in line has everything to give an headache or to drive ya crazy. My overall feeling about that song is that if you want a new alternative to slow breakbeat, have a ear on this song. But I warned you about the length. -- DJ Bourg | |
|
Download:
Title: Citrus Filename: ps19citr.xm |
Posted Tue 11th Jun 2002
Rated 7 / 10 |
| The author thinks this song is deserving a 10... I don't think the same, but though it has some good parts. The bass sequence is nice, but what's spoiling all the thing is that violin-string sample, used in vibrato-style, which is producing an annoying overall sound (and it's even sampled from probably another song), and in fact it isn't in tune with the rest of the song. The author should has developped more melodic elements in the chorus (and espiecally should have deleted that string before), cause he ain't worked much on it: the melodies are way too simple, as the rest of the song. Remove the bad stirng, and all you get is a kick-bass sequence. Well what should I say of this part? The sequence is very typical to trance/club songs. It contains 26-channels and 18 samples. Still the sound quality is acceptable. About the voice sample, the main problem about it is the way it is sampled, and also the loudness. The song is pretty plain on the effect side, it has almost no one. So in overall I would say that this song has nothing really special to any other trance songs, it's just plain "average". If you wanna hear something really in the average of trance, take this. Otherwise you won't miss a thing. -- DJ Bourg | |
|
Download:
Title: Black Silk Filename: BLKSILK.MOD |
Posted Sat 1st Jun 2002
Rated 7 / 10 |
| It's an early-dance anthem (anthem because of the main string sequence, which do C-C#-C-A#). It often changes its musical structure: the song in general is not repetitive, but only lasts for 1:40 so for a song of this length it's some kinda hard to get repetitive :P. Some samples though are too loud or offsetted, but everything sounds in-tune in a pretty decent way. The bass is the sample that I like the most: it goes well with the ambaince and the "bing" effect that produces this bass is just great, producing a 80's dance-pop style effect, something I never saw in any other old-skool mods. The structure in the song is always keeping on changing. Melodies change here, bassline there, beat sequence at another place... getting me? The song is made in 4-channels, and the samples are rather at low quality. But the worst part about this song is the meldoy. Sure it is catchy, but when you hear a C-C#-C-A# song, you've heard them all, which is the case for the major part of this song. So the originality is not as good as we could see on musical comments above. If you like old-skool dance mods, check this one. But if you want to hear an innovative and new melody style, just pass over this one cause you won't be satisfied. -- DJ Bourg | |
|
Download:
Title: fat sayen Filename: fat.mod |
Posted Thu 30th May 2002
Rated 7 / 10 |
| This is the second song I'm reviewing from this artist and I'm not angry to have fallen on it. I like very much Fat Warrior's style which touches a lot to the old eurodance around 1991-1992, where the usual house style was starting to become more "trancey", even if trance born in 1993. Musically I couln't say it sounds really rich: the artist tried to partly imitate Apotheosis' style (another eurodance artist, who made in 91 "O Fortuna", dance song made with an opera loop). As usual he puts old dance strings, which gives some nostalgic sound to the track, and espiacelly if you are one of thoses very-early 90's dance style, as I am. The bassline is very nice to hear too, it's the most "full" sequence-structure in the song. I was surprised in first by the sound quality of this track, which is pretty nice. I am listening with no filter, so you would say it's normal, but I know what is good quality and what isn't. This one is. Besides this, the technical side is hard to describe: just to say that the song is kinda simple, the sequence is repetitive, and usually in techno music no real musical sense is needed, espiacelly in this tune, the opera vocal does sound like (and is) a recorded keyboard instrument: the vocal sample-loop contains in itself the 3 or 4 chords originally contained in the song, so when the note changes, they're all changing, you get me? Well that's the point: kinda simple song, the old-skool techno effect with that opera loop. But it is still enjoyable for 90's nostalgic like me. But personally I prefer the other song I've reviewed about 6/8 months ago (I don't remember the name). -- DJ Bourg | |
|
Download:
Title: Grandmaster Flash Filename: reviewme.xm |
Posted Thu 30th May 2002
Rated 7 / 10 |
| Seems the artist wanted to get reviewed, if you judge by the filename :P. Well I am there, so let the reviewing go! Apparently this is supposed to be a remix, cause the author tells in this mod that "everybody has done it". The intro sounds nice to my ears, espiacelly with that orchestral strings that used to use U96 (the one that made "Das Boot", a 1992's dance-orchestral song). But otherwise, after the beggining, the melody is still the same during the few seocnds left of the song. Some melodic effects have been used, but still they are too soft or not used in a good way, anyway they are not adding any psecial taste to the song. It's just quite plain samples IMO. The author didn't use lot of effects, at ear: and when I opended this tune into my tracker I've noticed the same thing: some panning effects have been used on some instruments, but else I don't hear the pan that much cause they are hearable only when the sample starts, after that becomes mono. The drum sample have been once settled too loud so we can hear offset (or distortion) which is annoying after some time. The song is pretty short, though I can't really say I would like to hear it more. So I come to my usual overall final word: the song may be catchable for some time, but I wouldn't keep it very long time on my computer. My suggestion, for the authors, if they can see this review, would be to do a remix, more faster. This kind of strings would go well in an orchestral-dance/trance song, if you want my advice. Good work anyway!! -- DJ Bourg | |
|
Download:
Title: Tides of Destiny (Remix) Filename: tod-f99.it |
Posted Thu 30th May 2002
Rated 9 / 10 |
| The song in its overall has a nice ambiance: the musicbox a-like bells tone extended on about 2 octaves are kinda good and add a kind of "magical" effect ambiance on this tune. It doesn't have much of changes in it but still the melody is far above average and is nice enough to deserves the title of Professional. All melodics sounds well with each other elements and the ocean sample is espiacelly good to hear, spicing the tune with a calm, peaceful, and mainly "relaxing" effect. If you liked synth-pop of the 80's, that song will bring you back to these years and will make you nostalgious ;). I just noticed that the song loops on itself: that doesn't drive you crazy if you listen to it many times in a row: and in fact I rarely saw a high-skill synth-pop song like this. The samples are very harmonic between each others so technically that's the only precision I had to do, cause the rest is perfect. Download if you wanna have a good time with urself (euh, not in that sense...) and have a peaceful/calm time. -- DJ Bourg | |
|
Download:
Title: underwater future Filename: wc_undfu.xm |
Posted Thu 30th May 2002
Rated 6 / 10 |
| At the starting the melody seems promising. But as the track runs out we can figure out that it soon falls in repeatitiveness. Sadly warhawk could have done something more structured to this tune. But as I know him that was probably or maybe for a short compo! (OK, ok, I'm there to review the song and not the author :D). There's not lot of things to say about technical side: basically it's the same structure during the whole thing: some bass and lead samples are just appearing and disappearing here and there. It was probably intended to be looped, but anyway if it is that doesn't makes the song better. My final verdict: good melody, but no real interest. You will probably like this tune more than I but in general I'd say that it's not the best warhawk's I've heard (even if I've heard only a few). -- DJ Bourg | |
|
Download:
Title: -+syndrome-land+- Filename: sdmland.mod |
Posted Thu 30th May 2002
Rated 8 / 10 |
| Hehe... I like the style of this track: it's mainly an happy dance song (VERY happy, BTW). I couldn't say about the real genre of this song, but I suppose it's inspired from parade music, is it possible? Anyway the song is very happy and good to listen. I'd enjoy listening to it more than 1 minute and a half :(. It's pretty short, but that avoid some repeatitiveness, where the artist would probably fall on if he had decided to extended it. Anyway nice, and made by French people! Vive les francophones!!! :D Technically this song is almost perfect: the melody is very complex and goes well with the happy ambiance of the track. If this tune was masterized and put on MP3, I couldn't tell if it would have been done in tracker. The effects are very well used (mainly melodic effects) and for sure are going well in the ambiance of the song. So in overall I'd say that if you want some happy stuff, download this song and get happy! -- DJ Bourg | |
|
Download:
Title: Falling down Filename: falldown.xm |
Posted Thu 30th May 2002
Rated 8 / 10 |
| Wow! I espiacelly enjoy that chiptune. It has a nice and original rhythm through all the piece. And the chip nintendo-like melodies are great too. This song has many parts: the beggining sounds "dark" for a little while, which is starting in a good way this little mastapiece. After happier melodies are coming (still in this dark part). After about 1 minute the drum sequence changes a little bit and becomes more groovy. The melodies are keepin changin during all the song, which is making of this track and interesting one and sure a chip that worths the listen. Though I didn't like the outro as it ends in a fade-out (it's unoriignal if you ask me). This song is well strutured, and has many good parts. I like most the transition between the slower (darker) part of thsi song to the happier drum sequence, which BTW is very good. The samples aren't much quality but in a chiptune we could expect that. Some effects are also used, but you have to ear them clearfully. I like very much Gammis' style when comes time to write chiptunes. You should check out his work cause he and its music worth it. Happy tracking and good luck in your next tune. Viva El Old-Skool Tracker! (I am not spanish BTW!!! :P) -- DJ Bourg | |
|
Download:
Title: Eclipse Filename: exc_ecl.xm |
Posted Wed 29th May 2002
Rated 8 / 10 |
| At the first sight, I could guess that it was going to be a very good tune. I wasn't negatively surprised by the beggining: a very progressive part filled with a lot of energy. Melodic elements such as keyboards used with resonant effects (Zxx) are fitting really well in the dark ambiance of the song. The author says its Goa style, but I think it's rather progressive trance cause goa is more happier than ths tune. There's no real string-trance part (mellow) so if you are awaiting for one in that song you won't be really pleased. But still it's very enjoyable as a prog trance song, it's kinda filled with new elements and has many parts that are different from the others. In technical side, I couldn't tell anything that would change the overall sight of the song, cause almost everything is based on the melodic element. But in structure I'd say that it's the typical trance structure: intro, progressive part, mellow (absent there), full part beat sequence, climax (sometimes, almost invisible there), then outro. It's following almost perfectly this structure. The song runs at 140 BPM (which is the standard for a trance song) and has a total of 32 channels. I could expect less cause we can hear the "intergrality" of the song, meaning there's no real "depth" in the song. Sure it has its own deepness in the melodic, but in the structure itself we could figure out that it was tracked, meaning "HOW" it was tracking (I have nothing against tracking sound, I even like it!). So in the overall I'd say that it's an excellent progressive trance track, I suggest you try it, espiacelly if you like progressive trance songs, but if you download trance only for mellows (string part), you'll be kind of disappointed. -- DJ Bourg | |
|
Download:
Title: [ Dream of U ] Filename: cp_ofyou.it |
Posted Sun 26th May 2002
Rated 7 / 10 |
| That's the typical happy hardcore style which has been added to it a litlle touch of the Dream genre. The results are enjoyable: the song is musically complete and melodic, the trance touch to the happy hardcore is always good to ear. Though I have to say that the song in its overall is very previsible: another way to say "repetitive"; not much variations, which is the problem with hardcore songs. The vocals are very nice, I like how the artist used it, and also the fact that he tried to make an hardcore style issued from the mid 90's, when the "euro happy harcdore" appreared. Nice. The technical side of an happy hardcore song is most of the time hard to properly rate, due to fact that happy hardcore is quite simple to track: basicly the drum sequence is made with a kick, and hi-hat, maybe some other drums here and there and a loud breakbeat. But beside this everything seems to be OK with this track, samples are at quite good quality, they are all 8-bit but 6, but anyway who cares? As soon as the sound is nice I wouldn't say "it's bad cuz samples are 8-bit", get it? So in overall: this song is quite enjoyable, if you are an happy hardcore fan, so if you are one of those, get it! -- DJ Bourg | |
|
Download:
Title: Power_of_American Filename: power_of.mod |
Posted Sat 25th May 2002
Rated 5 / 10 |
| Almost all the song is only a simple flute melody line, which decrease a lot the musical score because it gets very annoying after 2 minutes. At some other places we can hear strings and some other panflute lines, but the song in itself is very very very repetitive. And the crash cymbal is used like a hi-hat, which always sound bad when a cymbal is used like this. Really the song will not catch attention. You heard the beggining, you heard everything. That's too bad cause the original was a very good eurodance tune. Nothing to say about the structure: the song is VERY repetitive, uses like 5 or 6 samples. Well we can guess that it's an old song. But already in 1993 the technology was evolved enough to do more complex songs. So why I gave a score of 6.5. With more work the song could be much more better. Sorry. -- DJ Bourg | |
|
Download:
Title: Imagine [TSEC ] Filename: imagine.xm |
Posted Sat 25th May 2002
Rated 9 / 10 |
| As I was browsing into the best-ever mod charts, I saw this song by TSEC, unreviewed. I was totally amazed by the musical quality of this song, we rarely see this kind of quality in today's trance mods. It all started with low string, extended on 2 octaves (well I think), which is giving some depth to the song. That's when the full sequence comes, at approximately 1 minute, that the song really starts: the piano is absolutely great, like in others TSEC song I've heard before. The sequence is great too, and I like when, near the end, the authors transposed the musical elements by 2 semi-tones, which really catch my ear's attention. I really have nothing to complain about else in the musical rating, maybe just about the end, it ends too much abruptly. Beside that, TSEC really knew that they were doing. The only thing that I don't like very much with TSEC (with their '97 and '98 songs) is their lack of originality about the choice of the samples. They are always using the same piano, bass, and so on. Hopefully for them they don't have all the same structure, or else they wouldn't have been so popular with these songs. Not a lot of thing to say besides this: just to tell that if you liked songs like Dreams, you sure should download this one for your personnal collection, cause it worths it. -- DJ Bourg | |
|
Download:
Title: mv_voyag.xm Filename: mv_voyag.xm |
Posted Sat 25th May 2002
Rated 8 / 10 |
| This track is starting with background strings, which sound good at the first hearing. So the song continues, and new dance elements (keyboards mainly) are included in the song. The song has a little chippy sounding (with some square wave samples I think), which is adding an old-skool touch that I love :P. The song is totally melodic in all its integral: all melodic elements are going well with each other, which is a quality that many trackers are still not mastering in their tracks. The song basicly has some changes, but they aren't as big as they could be. Maybe I'm asking too much from the artist :). Anyway this song is very good. On structure, I don't think it's the best I've heard: its pretty the same all during the song, but it has minor changes which add originality to it. The samples are in quite good quality, so I don't think I have to comment on this point. I like although the way he used the melodic effects in the song, like in the beggining, which add depth and a "mystical" or "mysterious" theme to the song, if you get what I mean. So, in overall, I'd say this: it's a very nice song, a mix between 80's and 90's dance style, so if you like end-80's synth-pop techno-dance tunes I'd recommend you to check out this one. -- DJ Bourg | |
|
Download:
Title: on every street Filename: on_every.xm |
Posted Fri 24th May 2002
Rated 7 / 10 |
| This is a typical type of dance/trance, but still it is good. It starts out with a pretty typical kick sample, and then comes a typical bass sample (yep, it's typical!). And so comes the lead strings tune which is not original (sure, it's good, but it has been used in soooo many other songs). The idea of the song could be better if it had been better developped, cause the structure is the same in all the song. And after 3 minutes the song can get annoying (because of the fore-string in the song that plays almost the same note all along). But maybe I am wrong about the melody's originality, becuase in the notes it's written that it's a cover of another song. The structure is the same all along the song: after the intro, everything's going on the same rhythm. There's no variation. So that makes the song becoming boring after some time. On another side, on the bass sample, the artist didn't cut the bass sample, so the low bass sample is playing during all the pattern and it can disturb your ear after a while, and espiacelly if you're listening with headphones. So the song is not very complex in an overall sight, and a little bit boring, after thinking about it. If you wanna download some dance/trance you can go download this one. -- DJ Bourg | |
|
Download:
Title: dancing freud Filename: dfreud.xm |
Posted Fri 24th May 2002
Rated 7 / 10 |
| The song in itself is based on the dark stirngs that starts already from the beggining, They are not so bad, but still I like the mood that it is producing during all the song. The author put into the song a sliding effect, done with a normal dance hi-hat. I never saw that kind of effect used with an hi-hta, which is a oriignal idea. The song really starts at about 2:10 with a first real bass melody that we can hear from this point. And so progressively more melodic elements get in the song, as many electronic effects. But near the end, the song is getting once again like at the beggining, with only the dark strings playing. Some nice effects have been used in there, but sadly most of them are concentrated on the second minute and the first half of the third minute, and not everywhere else. The samples in general are in a good quality, which is benefic in the overall sounding of the song (some great ambient needs to get some real sound quality to be good, atleast that's my point of view). They are going well with the dark ambiance that the artist tried to create. Sadly most of the points flew away becuase of the structure: the intro was way too long (the dark strings playing alone with the bassline) and that's the same way with the outro. So in an overall point of sight, I'd say that the full potential of the song hasn't been used in a good way, but still sa a dark ambient song it's a terrific one! -- DJ Bourg | |
|
Download:
Title: twin licking Filename: twins.mod |
Posted Wed 22nd May 2002
Rated 6 / 10 |
| At the beggning this sounds like a first attempt at doing happy hardcore. Well as I know Gammis for being an old tracker (no offence about ur age Gammis! :P Meant old in trackin' experience), I thought that he knew what he was doing. But anyway I think this mod is pretty annoying. It could sound lot better with other samples. Espiacelly the distorted sample that plays for a heavy bass sample. I think the only bad thing there is a bad choice of samples. They are too hard and some others are at a too HIGH volume. On the technix side I don't know what to say... Oh yeh first it's a 4-channel mod, something that I never forget to tell in a review ;). If we put aside the fact that the samples are *crappy* this song is well tracked. Anyway happy hardcore doesn't require lot of knowledge in tracking: 80% of the song is in the chosen samples. So I will close this topic... and just finish by sayin' that: never mix chip & HHH (heavy happy hardcore), cause it could give annoying results. Anyway I appreciate this song for its energy, even if I have to lower volume of my player. I guess you had made it some time ago. -- DJ Bourg | |
|
Download:
Title: "Spring Wave" Filename: a43-spri.it |
Posted Wed 22nd May 2002
Rated 7 / 10 |
| It's starts in an abrupt way, but good: good bassline, on an "exciting" drum sequence. So the strings comes. They look likes good at the first hearing, but they are outuned with the rest of the samples. Later on, when we can hear the full seuquence, we can clearly hear that all the artist didn't took the time to "finetune" his song: they all sound just a bit outtuned of course, and some are just uncleaned. If he had worked a little bit more on that song, it would sound better, believe me. But still it's better than other sort of trance that I heared before. Wasn't very hard to track, since trance/techno is essentially one thing: cut/paste notes. Sadly that's a reality on the trance-tracking scene: most are doing variations on a song simply by taking the full sequence, duplicating it and editing them only by using cutting and pasting. My advice to all trance trackers: go FURTHER! That's the main idea and the overall thought about this track: it is too repetitive, and uses too much the same variations over and over. By theré s a way to improve and I believe you can do it. -- DJ Bourg | |
|
Download:
Title: ritari reiska Filename: keskaika.xm |
Posted Wed 22nd May 2002
Rated 6 / 10 |
| Honestly I don't know if a song like this deserves a review, but I'm going anyway: it's another chiptune, mainly made with saw (triangle) wave samples. The melody is not so bad, but is does not vary enough to catch my attention. And adding to this, it ends too abruptly. There's alittle kick who's following with the saw melody, but that's all. It's a 4-channel Fasttracker file, and he used some effects in the song. But that's all. Nothing really exciting on this tune. Good anywayz ;). -- DJ Bourg | |
|
Download:
Title: kossa Filename: kossa.xm |
Posted Wed 22nd May 2002
Rated 7 / 10 |
| I usally don't listen to tracked ballad-rock, but as I recognized the melody (some parts sounds like R.E.M.'s "Man on the Moon") I wanted to hear more. Minute by minute I found it being kinda repetitive. There's not lot of variations in the beat structure, and after a while the guitar becomes a little bit annoying (I think it is oversampled, so there's a kind of hiss sound). Though it is getting repetitive, the artist succeed in creating a quality sound even with low samples. The beat sequence is well-done, I have no doubt about it. My suggestion would be to change the main samples: they are oversampled, so they sound "annoying" after a certain while. In overall: if you liked songs like R.E.M.'s Man on the Moon, and if you like chiptunes, you gonna like this one. Peace! -- DJ Bourg | |
|
Download:
Title: another boring day Filename: anotbday.xm |
Posted Wed 22nd May 2002
Rated 6 / 10 |
| A little chiptune we got there. The melody is slow, not so groovy, so to be clear, the title represents clearly what the mood of the song is in reality... Wow. At the hearing, I can guess that it doesn't require a great tracker knowlegde for doing it. There's some effects here and there, but besides that, the song just goes plain. The samples are chip-ones, and they are pretty low in tone so you guess that add a more "flat taste" to the song. I wouldn't be surprised if the artist would had done this in purpose. Good anyway ;).-- DJ Bourg | |
|
Download:
Title: Respirator Filename: respirator.xm |
Posted Wed 22nd May 2002
Rated 7 / 10 |
| Musically the genre of this song was hard to describe: it starte out with electric quitar leads, which are very nice BTW, and then come some nice dance drumline, and later on a more ambient-like back string and synth-lead as a main tune-melody. In total: that gives us a good old-skool ambient song, but with little bit more effort it could be better (i.e.: it ends in fade-ou, which is unoriginal according to me). On the technic side, there's nothing really special I could tell there: its a 4-channel Fasttracker file, composed ij the early days of Fasttracker I guess, if we can realy on the samplq quality and the style (1993-1995 were peak-years on ambient music in the mod-scene I think). In overall: if you like old-style ambiant you might like this tune. -- DJ Bourg | |
|
Download:
Title: alternate planet Filename: altplnet.mod |
Posted Wed 22nd May 2002
Rated 6 / 10 |
| At the beggining, this song has an old eurodance/house of the 90's which I liked very much (expressed by the house piano melody). Sadly some piano chords are offtune so the song turn out to be kinda boring after a while. That's too bad cause it could have got a nice old 1991-1992 dance-house feeling. Aside that, it has some vocal drops such as "hey dj", "uhh!" and female "bass!", which are nice into this song. Still, has a 4-channel mod, you couldn't expect more from a mod file in terms of quality. Almost all samples are ripped from real songs so I guess this wasn't very difficult to mix together. In overall: if you like old house you should check this. Otherwise just skip it. -- DJ Bourg | |
|
Download:
Title: Sounds of decay Filename: sndodc.xm |
Posted Wed 22nd May 2002
Rated 7 / 10 |
| The song was kinda long to download, due to its size and the low-bandwidth of the Mod Archive. This song has got a nice beat sequence during all the song. But on the melodic side it's not very developped. I know, jungle is made of buzzing samples and hard drum samples, and is mainly very strict in terms of melody, but the minimal to do would have been to put at least a little melody theme in it. Otherwise it sounds repetitive. On the sample side, one thing that is probably decreasing the download hits is the filesize: some samples are incredibility big (uncompressed file: 3,3 MB). And already we can hear that some samples aren't that high quality. It would have been better to downsample some samples, since most of them are "noise" or drum samples. In overall: that's a nice jungle song, but a melodic theme would fit well in this song, cause it is just repeating itself at some places. -- DJ Bourg | |
|
Download:
Title: arvids fredag Filename: arvids.mod |
Posted Wed 22nd May 2002
Rated 7 / 10 |
| One of the rare 80's pop songs I heard. This was pretty a surprise to hear that, and frankly I don't hate that. Still it was made early in the 90's, and includes some nice 80's style and melodies. Somewhere in the song there's even a little melody of the famous hit 'We're not gonna take it', and probably other melodies from other songs aswell. There's just that throwing-up sample that I didn't like that much (it doens't fit well in the song and is playing at too high volume for the rest of the song). Well, if you search a song that really got the 1980's pop-dance feeling, download this one for sure! Not very difficult to notice that this file has been made in the early 90's: it's a mod file, 4-channels, 15 8-bit samples. But honestly I expected more channels from this song. Anyway it is already good as it is, so I say it again: if you are searching for a real 80's dance tracked song, you've found it! Just dissapointing thing that the author didn't include his name. -- DJ Bourg | |
|
Download:
Title: Calm mod! Filename: mod.xm |
Posted Wed 22nd May 2002
Rated 7 / 10 |
| The beggining is promising (at least for an easy-listneing tune). The little melody creates a soft and relaxing atmosphere. It could be an excellent beggining for a slow (the genre) metal song. The most dissapointing point of this song is that it runs for about 2 minutes and that after the first minutes theres no more variation, and the song stays beatless (just the same piano-guitar like sample, and a string in the background). But as quoted in the comments, this was mainly composed for using in other songs (so in itself this wasn't really a *complete* song). Anyway that would be nice if someone take this song and remix it in a spectacular ambiant song. If someone is going to do this, tell it to me. In this song, there's no instruments, but that would be nice if some could be used, espiacelly for volume effects, the main sample is fading way too fast, it screws up the feeling of the song. Besides this, the song has only 6 channels, which is not very tough to guess. In overall: the song is pretty empty, though the intro could be used in another song. -- DJ Bourg | |
|
Download:
Title: be_there_with_lsd! Filename: btwlsd.mod |
Posted Wed 22nd May 2002
Rated 7 / 10 |
| At the ear, and in the comments, we can notice that this is a pretty old song (1992). It's in the pop/chip style, since its instruments are kinda simple and that the filesize is not that big. The melody is catchy, I like the different samples the author used in there (panflute, and anoter kind of flute (?) as a main melody)maybe this is a cover of a previously released song, I'm sure I've heard this melody somewhere. Anyway I like the sounding of this little piece. Nice. Not a lot of things to say about the technical side of the song: it's looped (lasts for about 2 minutes), and as we could expect from a mod file, its 4-channel and everything is on 8-bit but I don't care very much (old-skool mods rules, even if they are low quality, so why bother on arguing on quality of those ones?). In overall: this is a nice little melodic pop/chippy tune, but the fact is that it keeps your attention for about 20 minutes, after this you just get bored of it. -- DJ Bourg | |
|
Download:
Title: Over the ocean Filename: ra_ocean.it |
Posted Sat 2nd Feb 2002
Rated 9 / 10 |
| I had heard the remix of this song by AceCream, but never the original. So I searched for it on Modarchive and I found it, listen it, and now I'm about to comment on it. This song is very deep, espiacelly in the low strings, that forms most of this song. High and low strings are very well used together (high string used as the lead melody). The drumline is very clubby, with some house elements, that make it sound harder. It is not to hard nor too soft, it is just perfect. The song long lasts for 5 minutes and 42 seconds, which is a reasonnable lenght for this structure and this kind of song. You don't get bored when listening to it becuase of the presence of many elements (parts) that keep you listening and wanting for more. The depth of this song is so "high" and well-put that it is almost unbelievable that this song have been composed on a tracker (I wonder how many time I've said that in a review :P) In overall, this song is da bomb! Ouf... my Modplug Tracker never have been bugging like this in the past... I thought that my system was going to crash (600MHz 196MB Mem): more than 131 channels used! This artist obviously used new notes actions, probably for his fades (helping for the smoothness of the track), and perhaps because 64 channels weren't enough! :) Mmm, lots of other effects had been used, I detected some retrigger effects (I don't see them too much in today's mods), and lots of panning has been used, giving a better overall surround effect to the song. I was expecting this song to goes at a speed of 3, but at my great stupefaction I saw this song's going on 64-rows patterns at speed 6 (with the overall sounding of this mod you wouldn't expect that) maybe that would explain the retrigger effects! Will stop here for comments...now my overall comment : this song is 100% pure Hard Trance stuff, no flase or wrong notes, good samples, just perrrrrrfect! I'd recommend this song to anybody who want to hear the real good trance sound. And by playing this mod you will get the main reason why .IT files are much powerful than .XM, if you don't already know : New Notes Action! (No discrimination to .XM BTW :P) ...ouf what a review ;) Have a good time with this tune! -- DJ Bourg | |
|
Download:
Title: The Hidden Empire (KK) Filename: hiddenempire.s3m |
Posted Fri 25th Jan 2002
Rated 10 / 10 |
| Before this track, I only knew Karsten Koch for his famous "Aryx" (That many people, including me, tried to remix). After listening to this I was complety amazed. This song's a kinda dance/ambient song, realized 1 month after Aryx, in april 1995. And I can fairly say that this is the best old-skool ambient dance I have ever heard! The melody is absolutely wonderful, the beat is catchy and the ambient lead & piano together are more than perfect. The peak point of the song (1:35) just give me chills out with listening to it. It's a shame that Karsten Koch has to be knowed only with Aryx (just because it came with the ModPlug stuff), this is probably one of the best old-skool ambient/dance tracker along with Purple Motion and all the others! Every Aryx fans should hear this song. And even more people. Very melodic. Yeah. Now on the technical side... This song is made of 8 channels and 13 instruments, but it is so well-tracked that we could think that it has been tracked with twice of them. At ear you can't even tell if this song has used effects, but the depth of the song just make them useless (except for panning, that would be nice to put in) In overall : absolutely great song, the best I've hear so far (yes, the best!). If you liked Aryx and Purple Motion's "Unreal", you'll love this one! -- DJ Bourg | |
|
Download:
Title: Believe Filename: believe_.xm |
Posted Sat 12th Jan 2002
Rated 9 / 10 |
| This song is a coop between AcidSoul and Gammis, and it turned out very well! This song has a kinda progressive techno-synth beggining, followed by soft strings, adding a trance flavour that I enjoy very much! The main break at 1:05 is one of the best part of this song. A long but very good and strong vocal is started, while in background the strings and synthes are coming back, very progressively, one after the other. Later in the song we can hear some nice electronic and keyboards, which are adding to the song a little astral/trance-chip style that I enjoy! Now the only bad point : why this song's finishing in a fade-out!?! For me, a faded-out song sounds just like an unfinished one. Good song deserves good ending!!! Sorry guys :(. What I have to say in technique case? This song goes out at a speed of 153 BPM, and uses 26 channels, but it sounds like it used 40 or more! The use of panning had helped for sure! Lots of panning and volume effects are used, even panning envellopes as used (I rarely saw those envellopes in a song). In overall : I recommend this song to everyone in search of excellent techno/trance tracked music. Good job AcidSoul and Gammis! You got a 9.0 from me ;). -- DJ Bourg | |
Title: Freadom
Filename: coldness.s3m
Rated 8 / 10