haze (haze.mod)

Overall Impression (10/10)

A magical atmosphere in this one. An expertly done chillout tune, a mashup of longer samples and one shot ones. If you needed an infusion of creativity, this here is definitely the right drug.

Technique, Arrangement, Composition (10/10)

You don't need to go far. Pattern 1. The tune starts with what should be the ending of the previous pattern - like, when you start a piece with a turnaround of a chord progression.

But linus opts to set it in the same pattern. He then uses an EE2 command in one place to delay the pattern by 2 rows and then an E60-E61 for a single pattern loop.

This allows him to compensate for the delay in the beginning and arrive in time for the second pattern, which now begins properly, at row 0.

There's also a bit of a mystery for me.

Linus uses the standard Set Speed command change in order to get the beat to shuffle, by doing F08 F04 F08 F04.

If you look closely at pattern 5, on rows 32-36 he suddenly uses different speeds: F01 F0B F02 F0A. I am not sure why he opts for this, since 01+0B, 02+0A and 04+08 all make up 12 ticks. So, there should be no difference. I tried replacing this with 08 04 and could make out no difference. So, not entirely sure what's achieved by this.

Development (10/10)

As usual, a clean well-balanced mix from linus here. Natural panning, entirely sidestepping the awkwardness of the format's hard pan.

Sample 16's delay loop is slightly out of beat. I would say it sounds fine and could be intentional, because in many other cases linus doesn't fail to make the delay sound exactly on beat.

Creativity (10/10)

The sample chord sequence is absolutely mesmerizing.

Linus says that he had created the samples himself. But, honestly, even if he would take them from somewhere, coming up with the resulting tune based on what he's got is not a simple task.

He employs a lot of very creative transitions. For instance, notice how he has the main theme in channel 2 and the delay in channel 1.

Then, in pattern 0 he introduces the voice sample, which, obviously, takes up space. But instead of removing the delay for the sake of the sample, he removes the main line, leaving the delay lingering, which creates this fantastic ducking effect. And then in the next pattern the chords return to full force, as if going ducking back. And because of the hard pan of the mod file, the chords sort of fade back in. It's a small thing, but adds so much to the tune.

The bassline is sublime.

Enjoyment (10/10)

Probably, my favorite from linus so far. The mood here transcends reality. It's a whole world created by just four channels and some samples: glorious!