Aquaphobia - 1993 / spring (AQUA.S3M)

Overall Impression (10/10)

A very special track for me, because when I got into tracking and then learned about demoscene history, I realized that when I was a kid in New York in 1993, this kind of music was being written. And I didn't even know!

Incidentally, another very important producer for me, Young American Primitive, had his album released in 1993 as well.

What awesome innovative music is being written today - and we don't even know?

Either way, it is thanks to this track that every spring I now have an inkling towards a bit of tracked music, because I remember myself in 1993, in spring, hanging out on a playground near a pool, while Purple Motion pens this amazing tune.

Technique, Arrangement, Composition (10/10)

If you wanted to include a tune with a tracker, so that it can be used to teach people how to use it, many of Purple Motion's works would fit. Aquaphobia is no exception.

It has everything - from the more usual vibrato and portamento effects, to showing how to take advantage of the K command (which does both vol slide and vibrato).

He uses the classic key change, which is one of those tricks that a tracker makes really easy to implement. But in this case it feels natural and totally appropriate.

Development (10/10)

One thing that we, veteran mod music fans, might be forgetting is that this legendary 8 channel s3m employs hard panning, more reminiscent of the good old mod format. And yet, Purple Motion manages to completely hide that fact. The panorama is natural and is instead used to enhance the soundscape.

I also love the overall sound aesthetic: those nifty digital basses create a very bouncy groove, while not oversaturating the piece with low frequencies.

Creativity (10/10)

There are many ways to define demostyle. One way to look at it is 80s synth samples wielded to create music with a tracker. And as a tracker as a tool has its own very specific abilities and limitations, it shapes the result in a very particular way.

Aquaphobia has this interesting feel: clearly very 80s sounds, but the result is something fresh. Not anything you would hear written in the 80s and definitely not in the mainstream space.

A lot of the things PM does here are not necessarily groundbreaking as far as techniques go, but at each turn the decisions he makes benefit the tune.

For example, he expertly combines the bubbly synth with the digital bass in pattern 5, on channels 1 and 7. The former plays at octave 6, the latter at octave 5, and each is playing a different pattern. This simple track create busyness that would otherwise be difficult to achieve.

When he creates a delay for the lead in patterns 9-16, he delays it by as much as 6 rows, which then creates a lovely interaction between the notes of the delay and the actual lead, making the melody sound much more complex.
At one point, by the way, right at the start of the melody, you already have a delay, as if carried from the previous pattern. But the notes are F G A#, which doesn't match any of the note sequences in the lead. I wonder if this was a lucky mistake, since this sounds awesome, or if this was a deliberate decision.

The melodies themselves are fresh and very visual. The tune is called Aquaphobia, but sounds more like Aquaphilia!

Enjoyment (10/10)

Another reason why this tune could be shipped with a tracker as not only a great piece of music, but also a module you can learn from.

Notice how there's not a single spot in this tune where nothing happens. PM makes sure that at any given time there is either movement or an effect or a melodic phrase. Look at the patterns 1-7 that transition from the intro to the theme. It could have been a rather boring set of patterns, but PM fills every second with action.

The structure is also notable. A lot of demostyle music is written more akin to a soundtrack than a song, so you frequently get many different parts, as opposed to a verse-chorus scenario. Aquaphobia does obviously have a theme, but it's interspersed with variations and sub-themes.

Additional Comment

Overall, such a unique tune. Think about it - this was written in 1993. And think about what you would hear on the radio at the time. Tracked music went in a completely new direction of musical thought. Aquaphobia by Purple Motion is definitely an example of a very different music language.