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Download: Title: NO FATE Filename: no_fate.it	Posted Mon 31st Oct 2005 Rated 6 / 10
First patterns were very strange, because of bass was not synchronized with drums. Main part reminds about some tough metal-fancy guys from early 70th. The guitar lead is well arranged and in general this track appears to be a free creation. Something like live perfomance in one mod. You don't need to love it and IT does not need your love. You should just feel its core. A plenty of dissonated moments and missouts are smoothed by track's internal creativity. Nice quality for only 8-bit samples. But while the guitar leads and basses are sounding very well, strings sounds too unlimited. Using sudden cut-offs and rapid panning here is not a good idea, cause the result is missing out of the line.

Download: Title: Homeland Filename: homeland..mod	Posted Mon 31st Oct 2005 Rated 5 / 10
Is it possible the track with less then 100 kb filesize and only 1 minute and 30 seconds of playback time to have three trackers at once? I know this is possible now. Saying frankly, I expect more. This tune is too ordinal, nothing to remember after next track from your playlist starts. Four channels... Johan was playing lead, Lennart took the bass and Janik kicked the drums? Let's think this was just a first attempt at writing. Adding little panning here would be a nice idea. Low (kick) drum sounds a bit out of the whole line, lead theme sounds buzzing a bit. Technical impression from this work is the same as musical.

Download: Title: StarSpheres - by Fosho Filename: foshoclp.it	Posted Mon 31st Oct 2005 Rated 5 / 10
Harmony is an important foundation of music. Sometimes its violation creates a very unique and memorizing sound. But not in this case. Intriguing concept of this track is cruelly terminated by annoying disharmony. The theme sounds separately of background. And the background is to monotonous for less then a five minutes overall. The samples were used well, the result sound wholly. Impulse Tracker format provides a tracker with multiple effects for samples, but I did not find any of'em here. This can be an XM equally well.

Download: Title: "Datum flow" Filename: dflow.it	Posted Mon 31st Oct 2005 Rated 8 / 10
Soft and easy listening track, imbued with digits. The theme combines well with background arrangement and makes a very charming sound line. The flow suddenly changes in the middle part of the track, but this is a well turn. I always talk about variation in music. In some cases there can be little diversity because of style limits or other situations (particulary in game music), but composer should mostly use various methods while tracking. Aymes made it very well. All samples are used very well, with no sudden tricks or bugs. Some of them sounds tightly a bit, especially at high frequences. The whole track sounds like a chip tune, but its filesize makes me to expect a better quality from this trick. It should be a perfect chiptune.

Download: Title: voyager 3 Filename: voyager3.mod	Posted Mon 31st Oct 2005 Rated 5 / 10
My pre-taste thought was about spaceship voyage. In real life my thought became a medieval european... western! Listening this track, I imagined about funny cleric and his unlucky adventures. The track that boosts imagination is a good track at least. But I can't say good words about main melody - too simple and too jumpy. I found only 1 minute of fresh music in more then 2 minutes overall. Other part is nothing but repetition. Pan separation is the main problem here. You hear the theme in you left (right) ear and the drums at background in your right (left) ear. I can't say this is a good idea. This track was produced in very ancient 1991, but I heard some really impressive tunes from those times.

Download: Title: I love you Filename: rn-iloveu.xm	Posted Mon 31st Oct 2005 Rated 4 / 10
When you start to listen a track with over 6 minutes of playback time, you're waiting for diversed composition. It's realy vexing not to get what you were waiting for. Simple and easy melody, barren background and no diversity - that's all I can say about this track. It's not really bad at all, but it's very hard to sit and listen four patterns for six minutes. The Love is not so simple, I guess. No serious bugs in samples were found here. Except the work with volumes. I made out the vocal sample only after it was last played with no music background. Background keyboards arrangement is also very silent.

Download: Title: Battle with the Void Filename: klbz_voidbattle.it	Posted Thu 6th Oct 2005 Rated 8 / 10
Hmm, interesting tune. The way this track was developed almost parallels the talent of the oldschool game console music designers. Upon first hearing this I had my doubts about how this track would develop mainly because of the heavy arpeggio use that kinda made it a little earie, maybe it was meant to be so since my ears actually tuned in to what I was actually hearing, but longterm it slowly and gradually gets more and more annoying, but not too much. It still isn't a bad idea though. Okay, the song starts off with a hip rhythm, then the arpeggio comes in, generally setting the mood of the track. One thing to note, the song has two parts to it, both fitting together rather well. No real definitive melody is noticed in the first part, yet what the artist does with the other half of the track is really cool. It's almost like another song takes the place of the old one since the only part that remains the same throughout this part is the bass line, and... I typeth too mucheth. Anyway, I'm pretty sure any oldschool or chip fan would enjoy this tune. Very nice indeed. The artist made use of some very nice 8-bit Gameboy/Nintendo samples, and the way it was all put together actually made it sound authentic. Quite a number of tempo and speed changes was a nice touch to transition from one part of the song to the next, especially a part that was going to be a different speed anyway. Other than that the most common effects used are volume and arpeggio that is used most frequently throughout the track. Ah, let's not forget the portamento and vibratos used in the latter part of the track, which I thought personally was the best part of the piece. As simple as this piece sounded, quite a bit of effort was put into this by the looks of it. Very good.

Download: Title: No Time Remaining Filename: klbz_notimeremain.it	Posted Mon 3rd Oct 2005 Rated 6 / 10
Alright, I shall begin by saying this is a very pleasant and interesting tune, and it's screaming potential throughout most of the length of the tune. The track opens up great with its leading guitar instruments and a very cool melody, but after the pause in the tune just when the flute comes in is where I feel the potential of the song could have skyrocketed what the artist really wanted to accomplish. It just feels like it's empty when the guitar melodies repeat in spite of the flute (which did added a nice emotional touch to the track overall, but it just isn't enough). The mood the track delivers comes in short spurts, it doesn't flow. More or louder strings could accomodate the guitar. Nyeh, mere suggestions. Pretty tune overall, could be better though. Well, this tune has a little bit of both simplicity and complexity. The guitar melodies generally stay the same. Awesome samples especially the taiko drums, I personally would have loved to hear them added to the guitar and flute verses rather than drift with the beat in the background, and maybe more samples could have been added to give the song a fluid emotional feel. Also, just a suggestion, a little more reverb might have helped with this one. This piece has a lot going for it, not bad. Oh, and that final pattern in the end could be cut in half though, just to save those precious seconds :)

Download: Title: distant fantasies Filename: dcm-difa.xm	Posted Sun 2nd Oct 2005 Rated 8 / 10
The track starts with a little funk then breaks down into a real attention-grabbing ambient theme, followed by a simple main melody and dance beat. Though the song takes about a minute to get itself warmed up, when it does; however, it keeps the listener tuned in with its good-mood verses and follow-up breaks. Not quite a roller-coaster ride of a song, but it's nice and smooth, it goes in a warmup, cooldown, warmup, cooldown pattern, while new material is constantly added to keep the song fresh. Alright, now the issue I seem to have with this tune: even though it's about four minutes long, it feels short, like some extra parts are missing. Perhaps the artist didn't quite do enough to variate melody or give the tune a big finish which I felt the track needed in order to be complete, but really that's it. Very nice tune overall. Whew, this tune looks and even sounds complex, using up to 32 channels and flooding most of them with effects that still leave me questioning how the artist put this work of art together lol. It's simply amazing that how such a simple melody could be used over and over while adding stuff to it and still make it so interesting to hear. The samples were excellent, a few rips so it seems, but no matter. Again, the only gripe I would have would be the closing structure of the tune; the two patterns of closure at the end I thought was a good idea, but the matter is what goes on before it closes, kinda difficult to explain... okay I can't, so I shall close by saying good work. :)

Download: Title: Relinquish Filename: darkclub.s3m	Posted Tue 27th Sep 2005 Rated 5 / 10
The track opened well, and very unique compared to what I've heard before. It starts right into the beat where the bass breaks into an extremely dynamic yet repetitive melody that unfortunately doesn't fit too well in places where the rest of the track's notes demand it to, and since that bass line repeats itself throughout the length of the track (with all the tracks I've reviewed, I guess something has to), it gets old quick. Another issue would be the use of a cheap sounding electric guitar-ish sample used in order to add some extra spice to the tune, which failed when it portamento-ed to a rather hard-on-the-ears high note. However, one highlight of the song would be the background samples which create a quite pleasant ambient effect and delivers a calming mood to the whole thing, with the bass being its contrast... kinda interesting how the artist put the whole thing together and managed to loop it. Not bad for a first mod, quite original. As for the song structure much cut and paste was used, and as far as I can tell, there are some effects lurking in a couple patterns that probably don't need to even be there. A few volume changes were used mainly for the repetitive percussion and main bass line. The offsets used for the ambient samples were quite effective though. Speaking of which the samples used were great except for a poor quality synth sample. Overall the song was kept very simple. Not too good, but not too bad either.

Download: Title: The Day After Filename: dayafter.it	Posted Sat 24th Sep 2005 Rated 3 / 10
Noise with a beat, that's it. For just over 6 minutes the song speaks to me in a language that I cannot determine. I have no idea WHAT this is, but it's a long ways off from music. The track starts with a dance bass drum and... jumbled, off-key, and consistent high hats played throughout the entire length of the track, then this seemingly backward-sampled cymbal comes in, only adding to the noise. Because of these offset high hats the song has no real definition and it takes away the luster from EVERYTHING the artist was trying to accomplish in this track. But if this annoying percussion had some sort of order or even removed completely, the artist does some pretty good ambience work. I would have to disagree with some of the instruments the used to make the unique rhythm in many places, but it's not so bad when the percussive jargon is removed from the song. Sorry, but if this song is done I wouldn't think so. Apparently the artist used Impulse Tracker for this one and judging by some of the effects and sounds used, this track gives me a pretty good idea that the artist knew what he/she was doing as far as creating the mood, but why the off-key high percussion? The samples were good, but the choice of samples used were a bit poor in places, particularly toward the end where the final beat in the track creates some mad resonance before (it loops). There's no real room for potential in this piece other than fixing the consistent noise that's played throughout the six minutes of the track.

Download: Title: blue insanity Filename: d-b-blue.it	Posted Sun 18th Sep 2005 Rated 7 / 10
This tune has something really going for it, even though no real definitive melody was used. The way it opened was great, and it delivered a kind of "buckle-up" atmosphere. The track's base notation is practically the same throughout the length of the track, particularly with the bass; it sticks to the same note until about 1:25 into the track where a pleasant bit of variation is used, but eventually reverts back to its apparent "comfort zone," even while the leads do their best to keep the song interesting, the song gets dulled gradually. Perhaps the lack of a good lead melody is to blame; still it feels as if songs like these... don't need one, since the tune delivers raw action anyway. Not half bad a tune overall, even for a first time. A couple things to comment on would be the artist's excellent choice of samples and his brilliance in using nifty effects that keeps the listener wanting more. In fact, it feels as though the artist's (what I call) "bells and whistles" effects make up a good portion of the backbone of the artist's style of music.

Download: Title: Flares Filename: d_flares.xm	Posted Thu 15th Sep 2005 Rated 7 / 10
The song becomes interesting right from the start and goes straight to the point with the electric guitar lead, though it would have benefitted with some cymbal percussion. The general concept of the track is awesome, just due to the bit of emotion that's delivered... just a bit to make the song attractive, but alas, another abrupt ending. No climax, no warning, nothing; however, the timing in which it ended was fine, so no terrible harm done. Another thing with the tune is that by the tenth pattern there's a change in instruments to keep the song flowing, a kind of koto sample was used which was a good idea in my opinion, but aside from what was playing beside it, that particular sample lacked note variation needed to keep the song fresh. Overall, interesting tune for the first couple of listens, not a bad one either. On the technical side the song was kept fairly simple, with some minor complexities here and there. Lots of volume, panning, and note delays used, seems out of the ordinary tune. The samples were great, mostly 8-bit samples, and it looks like some of them came straight out of a soundfont . I'm lovin' that bass for some odd reason, maybe it's because right on-key with the percussions, even though notationally it's based around one note at the beginning of every pattern. Nyeh, it works.

Download: Title: gasoline Filename: gasoline.mod	Posted Tue 13th Sep 2005 Rated 10 / 10
HOLY COW WHAT A TUNE!!! At first I didn't believe it until I plugged it in the tracker, but there are only 4 channels in this mod. This track kinda takes me back to the 80s (ah, the good ole' days) with its low-trumb intro, kinda like a muted electric guitar mimic. The only, ONLY downside to this work of art is the suggestion of turning the volume down a tad when listening. Those synth high notes can cause some mad resonance, no harm done at all though. Honestly, words cannot describe this piece other than "Wow." The artist had every tracker effect at his disposal and dang if he used a grand variety of them, effects that even I've never been familiar with. And though with a repeated patterns and a little more fitting lead variation, this tune rocks... and did I mention only four channels were used throughout the 4:12 of this track? All in all this piece is nothing short of amazing.

Download: Title: e195-high_standard Filename: e195.mod	Posted Tue 13th Sep 2005 Rated 7 / 10
Ah, another 4-channel mod, and a pretty decent one too. BUT it's not without it's minor glitches and... MAJOR annoyancies. The track started extremely well with pluck pizzicato and background synth, then percussions picked it up and it just got better from there, until this one unique lead sample burst in and it felt like the artist ran out of juice to continue the variation of the lead, and it just got downright annoying from there. It's like waking up to a bucket of ice water over your head. Also, the closure... where is it? True it sounds like the track was designed to loop, but after four and a half minutes? Anyway, bravo to a technically professional tune, yet the music aspect of it needs a little more work. The technical part of the track is what gives it a professional feel to it. Stretching a song to just over 4.5 minutes while using only 4 channels is amazing enough, but for a song of this type the channel usage has its ups and downs, which I won't get into at this point. The minor trouble in the technical side is, after listening to this track five or six times I noticed some points where the lead, bass, and background intruments tend to bump into each other volume-wise, but other than that, until the (personally, honestly) lousy vibrato-carried lead near the end of the tune, the track's pretty good.

Download: Title: Base Stomp -MScope- Filename: d-base.xm	Posted Fri 9th Sep 2005 Rated 7 / 10
This track has an excellent theme going on about it, but the song itself feels a bit rough around the edges, and I'll try to address that issue into detail. First off, the song starts in a kind of hip-hop bass, which is successful in keeping a positive mood throughout the entire song with its variety and portamento effects, and the rhythm it has with the percussions is great. But here's the problem, at the beginning, after the bass and percussinos have been introduced, a lead piano kicks in and it has tons of potential from the beginning, but the note play with it doesn't seem to take the song anywhere since the same lead was repeated after 6 quick patterns. Also the way the track just abruptly said "Okay I've had enough" and closed; nothing but a pause in the percussions and bass save for the bass drum solo, then boom it's done. This tune can be improved quite a bit. The artist really set the scene for something really cool in this one. The artist chose mostly 16-bit samples plus a very fitting drum loop, and as far as effects go, they're pretty much focused on the bassplay. Everything else is mostly volume control, yet I noticed a few retriggers and offsets to give the percussions a little luster, and some pattern breaks. Everything was done pretty well here, nothing extraordinary, but good.

Download: Title: A Song X Filename: e3monp.it	Posted Tue 6th Sep 2005 Rated 7 / 10
Well ain't this a prit-ty lit-tle happy tune :) There's a nice guitar and background sample combo to introduce the song. Not too repetitive, but the guitar use tends to get a tad dull after the while it's played, no real harm done though. The tune has a groovy high-hat rhythm. The heavy bass drum does its part in the main lead of the track, but it sounds a bit too much in the softer parts. Overall the tune's not bad, pretty good actually, but something's missing with this track... it leaves a lot open for more instrumental activity, which would make it sound... more complete. The song in general was kept nice and simple, the artist used some volume play and note delays for the guitar, which is a nice touch. While looking at the patterns I see a lot of bare channels, all of them are used and are orderly, but as I mentioned before, a little more could have been put into this track to make it better, but that would be up to the artist. Nice tune.

Download: Title: Don't Stop (DS edit) Filename: ds_atb.xm	Posted Mon 5th Sep 2005 Rated 9 / 10
This is most likely the best remix of ATB's tune "Don't Stop" as well as one of the best introductions I've ever heard. There's so much at work that makes the song as good, if not better, than the original piece. With that aside, the piece starts off with a drumloop, bass, and a very awesome-sounding atmospheric string sample. The original ATB art isn't performed until 6 patterns later, apparently still introducing the track. The background strings were effective when they were used to introduce the song, but they seem to lack power when backing up the lead melodies. Maybe it's because they've been repetitiously played with short pauses through almost half the length of the track before taking a well-earned break, though one would have to listen carefully in spite of the melodies at play. To my ears hat's the ONLY issue hindering this track from its 10 rating. There weren't a whole lot of effect techniques used save for volume and portamento control, which was vital for the lead melodies. The samples were awesome as was the simplicity of the track in general. The note structure and progression was both emotionally inspiring and attractive to the listener. A most excellent piece of work overall.

Download: Title: TIL E Filename: e.it	Posted Mon 5th Sep 2005 Rated 6 / 10
There's a few issues where the artist might have done a little over the top in a few places, starting with the very beginning of the tune where the artist doubles the amount of channels for the clean guitar to have its intro... maybe. It doesn't do any real damage to the track, so it's probably preferential. The big issue with this piece is that there's a string sound that joins in with the clean and distortion guitars and just leaves an audible mess, and it kills the full potential of the track. Still this tune has a lot going for it; it's got a pleasant attention-getting style and it persevere's throughout its length. Not a bad song overall. Only volume control and ten channels made up the three and a half minutes of the track. The samples used were awesome, and the song's structure was well versed until its closure, which ended relative to the way it started, and it works. However, the string used in concert with the guitars leave not quite the nails-on-chalkboard sound that note conflict makes, but it's still a tad unpleasant to the ears. The note structure would be the only thing I'd change in this piece. Again, not bad.

Download: Title: War Song Filename: dan3.mod	Posted Sun 4th Sep 2005 Rated 2 / 10
Oh.... my.... this is bad. It begins and ends with decent-sounding but repetitious clean guitar, then completely out of the blue comes a fragment of rock in which the artist attempted to lift the song up from its extreme dullness of guitar playing notes over and over again, then without any hint of warning, without any flow, the guitar playing its intro to close the tune. After listening to some extent to the middle part of the track it almost seems like the artist was trying to do a remix of something. If it was original, there wasn't bad creativity going on, but where's the rest of it? The song is nothing more than a fragment within fragments, it's incomplete, and to be honest, I don't see how this song could be improved, it has absolutely zero potential if that mid section never existed. As for the effects and whatnot of the piece; Volume changes, four channels, 8-bit samples and a whole lot of copy/paste are all that makes up the technical structure of the tune. The samples weren't bad at all, they were just used poorly and in some cases repetitiously. There's not much else I can jot down, the tune was approached poorly and it ended as such.

Download: Title: song of the damned Filename: damned.it	Posted Sat 3rd Sep 2005 Rated 7 / 10
A shame the artist didn't leave any info on this upbeat and kinda catchy tune, even though it does sound a tad familiar... The song starts off in a soft drum n' bass, then the background and lead melodies kick in. What was most interesting to listen to was that nothing feels the same in this song save for the familiar jazzy lead, which is played in two sessions. Though it needs to be pointed out the track is rather short, just over two minutes, and the major issue I'm having with this track is when the lead hits those high notes it gets rather uncomfortable to the ears, but that's it. Great tune. Looking over the effects and technical structure of the song left me wide-eyed. The artist definitely knew his/her stuff and it showed with what he/she used here, mostly portamentos, note cuts, and midi macro fx. Actually those effects made up most of the background instruments, that's it, the rest was based on the samples and note structures.

Download: Title: Start Believing Filename: e-believ.xm	Posted Sat 3rd Sep 2005 Rated 8 / 10
This rather hefty tune is a remixed compilation of four of Robert Miles' tunes: Fable, Start Believing, In my Dreams, and Children. Being a Robert Miles fan I'm only too familiar to his original works and remixes of every sort, and these artists did an excellent job in replicating his work, though a few critical issues need to be pointed out. The lead piano instrument has some considerable lackluster in the Fable and Children sections (as does the guitar), however the track has a very professional feel to it (when attempted upon by three artists I'm relieved that is to be expected) Also to comment are the nice background samples used to help bring good old atmosphere to the track, adding more pleasantness to the lead melodies. It's kinda sad that not much originality save for a few notes and percusions was heard throughout the twelve minutes and 40 seconds of this track, but no real harm done. Nice work. There are some very active offsets, volume slides and sets, vibratos, and lots more. The samples used (most of them 8-bit) were very impressive. The only two instuments I would have to argue about would be the piano and guitar. The piano in the Fable and Children remix didn't quite settle in right, as well as the guitar in the Children section. The best thing about the effects useage is that it was kept at a very consistent, non-repetitive pace. Whatever was used that worked in the original pieces worked in this track. Very nicely polished.

Download: Title: HAAAAATE!!!!!! :O Filename: angsty.xm	Posted Fri 2nd Sep 2005 Rated 5 / 10
To start off, the first introductory bass played was pleasant until a new, rather unfitting bass joined in. After a rather interesting introduction, the track breaks into percussions, stops, then the song is about takes off into a barely-tolerable chip-breakbeat melody. There's just too much going on in two major areas of the track to make it easy to listen to, with 17 channels playing full blast. The song's more of a happy tune than an angry one, though the percussion used was played... quite angrily, and it doesn't harm the ears until everything else is played beside it. I wasn't too thrilled with the closure, though the way it closed was pretty interesting. Not a bad one overall, and was kinda rough in getting itself started, but there's plenty of room for potential. Just a suggestion to fellow listeners; hold on to something when listening. :P Very unexpected stuff was used here to move the song around; Offsets, panning sets, channel and global volume control, portamentos, vibrato, and a whole lotta groovy low-quality sounding drumloop samples, which were effective for a song of this nature, and even though most of the chip samples worked fairly well together, they could have been better, but the effects are really what gives this song a plus rating; sharp, on-key, interesting.

Download: Title: In Your Arms Filename: iyarms.xm	Posted Thu 1st Sep 2005 Rated 7 / 10
Potential! Much potential this one has. It's a very nice happy tune that starts... well, a little too abrupt. The artist put just a little bit too much too early in the song and doesn't give the song a chance to flow... well maybe it did, but it's rough. After that the mood and atmosphere of the song is great, until the lead eventually gets not quite dull but repetitive in more places than one. In the 21st pattern it sounds like a technical issue: sounds like a conflict with the string and xylophone-ish instruments, and it's enough to make the listener cringe. It flowed nicely through the second half of the pattern though. One highlight of the track is how it closed itself up; the song slows down and the instruments change from the piano to a very pleasant and peaceful guitar with the xylo to finish it up, very nicely done. It's really not a bad track overall, just those meticulous areas that can be corrected if a little more time was spent going over the song (I've had the same problem with my music). Lots of offset effects were used, the artist knows how to alter a sample to keep a song interesting, and it showed in patterns 17 through 20, that and a little bit of volume, position jumps, speed control were used. The samples were okay, but some could have been a tad bit better, the artist could have used a better piano sample but it still worked in this case, the orchestral hit... well, it was ok. It may sound a tad too sharp, maybe it was an attention-getter? Anyway, not a bad one, could be better. Okay I'm done.

Download: Title: Astral ass Filename: d-b-astr.it	Posted Thu 1st Sep 2005 Rated 7 / 10
This tune reminded me alot of some of the music in Half-Life 2. It starts fairly well with low strings, then breaks in the bass drum and high hats, and the song kicks into a special-effects riot. Very solid and clean rhythm, which stays consistent throughout the length of the track. The song has some slight changes in variety, but it seemed that overall it wasn't meant to be various. The main bass hangs on to one chord throughout and was kinda monotone (though the artist tried to change it up a bit), a tad uninteresting, but the beat it delivered was cool and almost made up for it. The big issue with this track is that the artist begins to climax the song, right when I was expecting the "Big Finish" the song fades out into closure. The song length isn't bad, but with those new lead notes climaxing toward the end, the song should have been extended. At this point it just feels incomplete. Maybe the artist ran out of ideas going toward the end? All the potential felt like it was just sitting in the backseat of this track. It's a nice little 'for-fun' tune though. The technical side of this song is nothing short of great. Plenty of Volume, portamento, panning slides and some synth "bells and whistles" samples. It's apparent the artist knows exactly what effect to use and when to use it to make a song interesting. Each pattern is as lively as the one before it if not moreso. The track seems a tad experimental with all the effects used, but each one had its purpose, nothing was thrown into the track without reason.

Download: Title: Acrid Reality Filename: d-b-acre.it	Posted Wed 31st Aug 2005 Rated 8 / 10
This track has to be one of the most interesting tracks I've ever heard. It starts off with... I can't even describe it it's nowhere near what I'm used to hearing as a song opener. Then it jumps into a lead bass rhythm and pretty much takes off, getting only better from there. There's plenty of variety all-around, the more times I listened to it the better it got. Just the sheer complexity of this song gives it a Pro rating. Now for the downsides: At about 1:36 into the track there's a kind of slap-snare used to spice up a huge bass drum, neither of which seemed to fit well. It broke the attention away from the lead notes in the song, and it was just a little too much over the top. And the track itself ended with pretty much the same effect as when the song began, which was fine, but before that there was no hint that the song was about to close, which left me staring at the monitor. Just minor glitches, nothing to take away from a fantastic track. There was so many effects used to create variety during transitions that just made the tune awesome, the samples were superb save for a few percussions. Almost everything was 8-bit, yet the heavy panning slides, portamento changes, volume changes and even position jumps are really what gave the song its strength, and their useage almost never let up through the song until the end.

Download: Title: Dancing Souls Filename: ds-souls.xm	Posted Wed 31st Aug 2005 Rated 8 / 10
The song starts off simple in pizzicato strings and what appear to be an ensemble voice, then picks itself up in complexity with dual percussion loops and a distorted saw wave, and the song practically takes off from there. All the sounds fit nicely together, and though with no definitive melody, for just over 7 minutes the song has plenty of variation and it transitions very nicely. Halfway through the track, just when the song seemed like it was about to repeat itself over, the artist breaks it down with the pleasant voice ensemble and piano, creating a very soothing atmosphere. The only real problem is some of the base melodies (1, or 2 at the most) seem almost too repetitive before something else takes a stand in front of that melody (which the artist does a good job with; and it works, a great way to keep the song flowing). However, towards the end of the track piano base melody was repeated, and dulled the ending a bit. It felt rushed during the last 30 seconds of the track. Perhaps the distortion sound near the start and middle of the track could have been used to finish it off? Since it was used to help the start of the song take off and near the center to keep the mood up, it wouldn't hurt to have built a little climax at the end. Overall, the tune was nicely done. As for the technique I see absolutely no mistake with the artist's choice of sounds, as he used some fantastic (mostly 8-bit) samples. Some parts to take note of in the track are that in the first half of the track made very good use of portamento, volume, and offset techniques to keep the song interesting, especially the dual drumloops which were kept flowing variantly with just 2 channels. This is obviously a work where the artist knew what he was doing to keep a song flowing for as long as seven minutes, though the most noticeable possible mistake (as mentioned before) was right at the end where it felt like it was just rushed, and that's one of only a few parts I noticed that could've been better. Nice one

Download: Title: -=Aazmat=- Filename: aazmat.mod	Posted Mon 27th Jun 2005 Rated 7 / 10
Well folks, all I can say in this sentance is "I aint never heard a mod like this one!" More simply, this song is random, very random, kinda funny too... I have no idea what the artist's intentions for this song was, but I can only guess it was meant to be humorous, but it is a pretty cool song overall, just well, random, id recommend that anyone dl this one. Hey, you can always delete it if you dont like it ya? Oh! and another thing, even at 3 and a half minutes, it supports looping pretty well! At 4 channels and 14 samples, id say Aazmat did a really good job writing Aazmat, (i meant to say that, dont worry :) ). But, here is the kicker, there are absolutely no effects in this song, not even a set volume is present anywhere, which i personally found to be quite cool, considering the nature of the song and all the samples blending together in a twisted sort of harmony, without any help from effects... So to Aazmat; "Wicked Aazmat song man!"

Download: Title: abc for me Filename: abcforme.mod	Posted Thu 9th Jun 2005 Rated 6 / 10
Well, here is a happy litle chiptune, at 32 seconds long, its not hard to listen to the whole thing, but is great for looping, so this one is great for any chiptune collector, good for any mod collecter, bad for someone who dislikes either happy or uppity chiptunes. One thing I really liked about this song is that, unless you are listening to it looped, its different throughout, not the same thing over and over and over and.... yeah... Overall, good little chiptune, and at 1 kb where can you go wrong? Hmm... well, a whole lotta stuff goin on here, 4 channels, every one filled to the brim, lots and lots of vibrato and volume slides, couple of portamento slides here and there, 4 samples, overall, pretty simple, for a chiptune anyway... Well, to Lsd, Good Job then!

Download: Title: Abby someone Filename: abbysome.xm	Posted Wed 8th Jun 2005 Rated 7 / 10
Overall, i found this to be a very good peice of music... I'll start off by saying when you first start playing "Abby Someone", it has a darkwave-ish style to it, but not too much later you can definitely tell out the ambient/atmospheric feel, and shortly after, is accompanied by a soft drum'n'bass feel, and then the mix is accompanied by an exerpt (seemingly anyway) of one of those really old black and white horror movies, kind of odd addition, but overall, it playes out very well, and at 3 min, 39 sec, it doesnt get old very quick... I personally found this to be a very cool song, and is in my favorites... Well, nothing special here, other than some panning adjustments and volume settings... At 32 channels, there is a lot going on, but it was all pieced together very well, the instuments are good, nothing spectacular, but still pretty good... Overall, id say, "Great Job!" so, to Marki, Great Job!

Download: Title: Robot Electric Orchestra Filename: bz-reof.it	Posted Tue 31st May 2005 Rated 8 / 10
And why "orchestra"? Well, who cares about my question? Yeah, no one. But is this "robot electric"? No doubt, it is. And it is damnly good electric. And why "robot"? Hey, forget about me - just grab, load, listen and feel yourself deeply electrized. This is a very good sample of electronic styled music. Nice synth, nic pads, nice idea. And nice work at all. It just a bit "overcrying". Let's see... I'm hearing a precious perfect sound line here. Everything is placed "with mind": samples, panning, filters. Nothing to say more here - my fault-finding is getting off. For playback I was using XMPlay v3.x with the following settings at the MOD tab: interpolation - off; ramping - sensitive; surround - mode2; MOD playback mode - FT2.

Download: Title: Inventional Love Filename: inventio.xm	Posted Tue 31st May 2005 Rated 8 / 10
The theme of love is a dominant in music all around the world. May be it's because we all love music? But let's forget the philosophy and prepare this subject. The whole atmosphere of this tune reminds me about music themes from some French movies like "Emmanuele" or "Man and Woman". Something very tender, full of romantic dreams and sincere emotions. Very nice instrumental at all. The arrangement of main melody is also at the top. No serious problems were found here. Everything is ok, except some moments with second brass sample - its sound is jammed a bit by the main sound line. In brief: quality, interesting, logic. For playback I was using XMPlay v3.x with the following settings at the MOD tab: interpolation - off; ramping - sensitive; surround - mode2; MOD playback mode - FT2.

Download: Title: The only Filename: only.xm	Posted Tue 31st May 2005 Rated 7 / 10
Oh, a meditational thing! It was so much to think about while listening this tune... Dark waves, doom pads and rythm drums are gathering an atmosphere of something mysterious. This composition has not so much arrangement, but you won't mark this - it's attracting you to its shadowed core. Ha, I like this! The subject tune sounds differently with surround set off and on. If the surround effect is set off, then you'll find a disharmonized panning - most of the sound line is placed to one channel. Setting on the surround effect solves this bug. Nothing to say more - everything is ok. For playback I was using XMPlay v3.x with the following settings at the MOD tab: interpolation - off; ramping - sensitive; surround - off/mode1; MOD playback mode - FT2.

Download: Title: Destination Anywhere Filename: vim-destanywh.xm	Posted Tue 31st May 2005 Rated 7 / 10
Why don't we get up and move our reins a bit? This tune will inspire us. I can't say it's very dynamic for such genre, but it sounds lively. Not a masterpiece, but a sturdily-build tune. It's just a bit hardish. My experiments with different surround sets show nothing - panning is alright. Generally, it sounds a little overamplified, but that's not a real problem. All included, all placed well. For playback I was using XMPlay v3.x with the following settings at the MOD tab: interpolation - off; ramping - sensitive; surround - off/mode1/mode2; MOD playback mode - FT2.

Download: Title: "Hero's Song" by ZF Filename: zf-hero.xm	Posted Tue 31st May 2005 Rated 6 / 10
"Orchestrated" introduction gives place to dynamic main part. And then heroic "refrain" is entering. Interesting mix at all, but... I can't shake off some feelings I've heard such kind of music before. No talks about plagiarism, but this tune reminds me about "Unreal" soundtrack. Same style, same soul. As a matter of fact, it sounds slightly cheap. Don't you think a "hero" should be powerful? But panning, effects usage, sample work are alright. For playback I was using XMPlay v3.x with the following settings at the MOD tab: interpolation - off; ramping - sensitive; surround - off; MOD playback mode - FT2.

Download: Title: Cruel World Filename: cruel.xm	Posted Mon 23rd May 2005 Rated 1 / 10
The abnormal beginning of this tune did not make me think about life (as it's recommended by author). This drum introduction is one of the most extraordinal introductions I've ever heard. I can't say this module is too dark and depressive, but I can sincerely say it's very hard to be listened. Over 6 minutes of something... unnatural. There aren't much samples in this work and also aren't much work. Most of the patterns are the same and contain nothing to be really corrected. In the whole tune sounds completely, but same pieces (such as hard rock guitar) are too unbalanced

Download: Title: Peace III (2000) Filename: peace3.xm	Posted Mon 23rd May 2005 Rated 8 / 10
I can feel myself lying at the sweet sand of the south beach near the warm ocean while listening this tune. That's my general impression about this tune. In some point of view the subject is too long - you won't find many variations. Some elements (such as scratches, piano, sound effects) are placed very well - they are not breaking the whole composition. As for me should be a bit shorter, but it's only up to author to decide. Stereo separation is ok. I can say the same think about panning. All samples are 8-bit, but you won't ever feel it (instead reading the data in your player). The whole sound line is waving normally, no peaks and no mistakes.

Download: Title: World of Peace Filename: znm-wopeace.it	Posted Fri 13th May 2005 Rated 10 / 10
Wow... another extraordinary melodic trance song by Zanoma (Marwan Green Critter). This song was well worth the wait, having been composed in 2001 and uploaded just recently in 2005. Like all of Zanoma's previous works, this song is a technical and musical masterpiece. The main melody begins immediately, which can be likened to an emotionally uplifting arpeggio. As the song progresses, more and more complexity is applied, especially when the song hits it's trance aspect versus the atmospheric opening. This part is the most striking - the melody remains identical, but is instead composed of quickly stepping harmonics, giving the song a definite pulse. Midway through the song, the song switches pace and melody, becoming pure electronic trance, building anticipation for the finale, which is a return to the original melody whilst reapplying all the previous ground covered in the song. The music rating of this song is probably more accurately an 9 due to the fact that the same melody is used throughout (which is why it is trance, I guess), which can make it lacking in repeat listenability value. The reason I put it at 10 is because I realized that this song has extraordinary potential, due to the strength of the melody and the fact that it is one of the most emotionally uplifting pieces I have found on the Mod Archive. Very rarely due you have a song that actually inspires feelings like this one. Zanoma remains in my estimation one of the most tecnically well-versed trackers in the entire modscene. This song demonstrates his volume and portamento wizardry, and is a shining example of how to track a song professionally. If the makers of ModPlug knew what he could do with their product, I am quite positive they would be proud.

Download: Title: No Mans Land (Remix Filename: nomansland.mod	Posted Wed 20th Apr 2005 Rated 4 / 10
A remake of No Mans Land by DJ Sakin and Friends.. I haven't heard the original tune so I can't judge the quality of the remake, so my judgement will be based on pure merit. The intro lasts around 1:30, its long drawn out, repetitive and boring, using little more than a few synth drum loops with little variation. Near the end, at 2:44 things finally start to pick up with a long overdue climax which admittedly lacks substance and power, but uses some half-decent stereo effects, playing the same sample slightly delayed in 2 channels. It is short lived however, and the outro is again a little boring and repetitive, so when looped the mod seems to lack overall variety. On the up side though, the repeating fade-out at the end used the same sample as the lead rhythm, so the ending feels 'right'. All samples are 8bit, but it doesn't spoil the some are 11-22 seconds long which suggests they might be sampled from the original song? Regardless they are blended quite well at the climax of the song. Since it was written by the author in 2 hours it is obviously supposed to be taken lightly, and thus I don't feel it necessary to offer pointers for improvement as it probably isn't a reflection of their true skill.

Download: Title: Return of the King Filename: stone_ro.xm	Posted Fri 1st Apr 2005 Rated 5 / 10
Not all styles can be tracked so easily. The orchestral compositions are hard to be composed, because of some samples limitations. But there're still brave people which're trying to break this limit. Here is the sample of such courage try. I've found only two serious troubles here. First of all, I can't recognize the MAIN THEME. But I allow this was the author's special idea. Some sound effects (like twinkles or china bells) and instruments are unplaced a bit. They're sounding illogical in the whole line. That's the second trouble. This tune needs no power, it needs a balance of samples volumes. Panning is good, quality of the samples has nothing extraordinal too. I can be wrong, but sometimes it seems the whole sound line is hindering itself. Low frequency samples (like bass) should be shifted down a little, there volume need some decreased. String samples have too high frequency - tune is suffering from high repeat rates.