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Title: -effectoad-
Filename: _effectoad_.mod
Posted Tue 4th Dec 2007
Rated 9 / 10
Sort of industrial Jean Michel-Jarre. Long piece; 6m13. Very well done. Dramatic synth/techno piece. Liked the piano, although it's perhaps a little tinny in places, and some of the drums are OK, others are on the poor side. Overall though the samples are pretty reasonable. Starts to lose it a bit at the 4m30 mark, then stops and switches to a different, faster melody. Hm. Not so sure about the join between the two pieces, although the second one certainly does make for a good finale. 7-9. Hey, wait, this is a 4-track?!? Now I /am/ impressed. Make it 9-10.

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Title: I Wonder Why ?
Filename: wonder_y.xm
Posted Tue 4th Dec 2007
Rated 7 / 10
Drum and snare are to too loud in comparison to the background melody. Quite a pleasant saddish tracker somewhat spoilt by poor balance between the samples. Very nice flute samples and melody, apart from the glissandos in
mid-track and at the end of the piece which /really/ didn't work. You can't do that with a real flute, so doing it in a mod rather destroys the illusion of it being a piece played on actual instruments. :-( But even in its current flawed state, it's a 7 - technically and musically very good, and I think if the sound levels of the instruments were better-balanced it would
be 8-9. How about putting the rhythm section more in the background and the melody in the foreground ... ?

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Title: Why Dream?
Filename: whydream.it
Posted Tue 4th Dec 2007
Rated 3 / 10
A slow melancholy almost-tune. Not unpleasant background noise, and quite nice samples, but not really much musical happening here. Just notes going up and down like waves on a beach. Restful, though. 3-4.

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Title: verstaerkungsring .
Filename: verstaerkungsring.mod
Posted Tue 4th Dec 2007
Rated 2 / 10
A collection of fast-paced tracker effects that don't really ever gel into an actual tune. Then there's a pointless voice sample halfway through which adds nothing to the track but pushes the tone towards silliness, and then a few other silly touches later on. 3 or 4 if you're in a silly mood, or are ten years old, 2 otherwise.

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Title: un peu + a l'ouest
Filename: unpeuplu.mod
Posted Tue 4th Dec 2007
Rated 6 / 10
It's a silly Western themed mod. Very The Good the Bad and the Ugly. Starts out pretty much deadpan, then gets increasingly silly towards the end. Well done. The whip and gun samples are a bit poor though. I do like the whistle - it sounds like a real person. Is it? The harmonica is spot-on in some spots, and quite poor in others, but this is partly used to poke fun at the tune as it continues. 6-7.

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Title: tutorial-drums.xm
Filename: tutorial-drums.xm
Posted Tue 4th Dec 2007
Rated 1 / 10
A trivial 4-second tutorial loop. 1. Is there more to the tutorial than just a few random tracker files with 'tutorial' in their names? If there's a link or something, might be worth providing it ...

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Title: StarRider II / Tren
Filename: tre_str5.xm
Posted Tue 4th Dec 2007
Rated 6 / 10
This is an epic-style sci-fi piece (positively galloping, in fact), and it's one I quite like. Again, it would benefit from losing a minute or so of repetition. Its melody is also a bit simplistic - its main single musical motif is rather overworked. But still, good samples and good technique help make for an above-average piece. 5-6.

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Title: tb.trance plant
Filename: trance_planet.xm
Posted Tue 4th Dec 2007
Rated 8 / 10
Trance/Dream trance piece - starts out very quiet. 4M, nearly 9m30. Well, I know that's common for the genre, but it's a bit long IMV. Excellent samples which set up and sustain the intended ambience very well. Gets going quite nicely by about 1m30. It is a very good piece, but not a genre I'm a big fan
of. Still, 8.

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Title: trance experiment #1
Filename: trance_experiment_1.xm
Posted Tue 4th Dec 2007
Rated 8 / 10
For a mere experiment, this trance track ticks all the right boxes. Sounds quite professional, actually. Could do with perhaps a smidge more variety, but there are good touches throughout, so that's at most a minor nitpick.
Could be perhaps a little shorter - 3m30 would have been about right, I think. But it's still very good. 7-8.

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Title: TRÆ∩CεMISSIO∩
Filename: trancemission.s3m
Posted Tue 4th Dec 2007
Rated 8 / 10
Professional-sounding trance track with slight Asian overtones to it. Good length, (3m), good samples, well-chosen level of musical variety. Liked the melody. Whatever instrument it is sounds a bit like a voice sample, but isn't, and it adds a nice ethereal quality to the track. After a run of duds, hearing this one made a pleasant change. 8-9 . Recommended.

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Title: trafalgamar.pt
Filename: trafalgamar_pt.mod
Posted Tue 4th Dec 2007
Rated 2 / 10
Eight minutes from a 135K 4-track? Not such a good sign. There are bits of this piece which have a coherent melody, and bits that sound almost disjointed. Cut those bits out and you'd probably have enough material (including passable samples) for a very good 3-4 minute track. But stretching it to a rather incoherent 8 minutes of musical pastiche does it no favours at all. This ... mess sounds like it's been cut-and-pasted
together from about six other tracks - and judging from the sample text comments that may well be the case. 2-3.

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Title: Techy o
Filename: techy_o.mod
Posted Tue 4th Dec 2007
Rated 2 / 10
Lots of thrashy techno energy, but the artist has no real idea what to do with it. So the whole thing just sounds like someone fooling about with tracker effects. 2. For fooling about it's reasonably technically impressive, but it's not yet music. Better luck in future, Hades.

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Title: tales_from_heaven_-_epic_islona_intro.mod
Filename: tales_from_heaven_-_epic_islona_intro.mod
Posted Tue 4th Dec 2007
Rated 1 / 10
By the sounds of it, a couple of quite cool samples from some game or other. Really disappointing; the initial zoom sounded very good, and I thought it was going to be a really cool track. A few seconds later, that sample got cut off too early and I realised I was only going to get 27 seconds of junk. Scores 1, unless you're after an 'epic swoosh' sample.

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Title: swaxi^casava2
Filename: swaxicasava2.mod
Posted Tue 4th Dec 2007
Rated 4 / 10
Starts out with a sort of 'clockwork Egyptian' vibe, which could have made for an entertaining tune. Then loses its original creative spark in a checklist of pretty common tracker techniques. Shame. 4 overall, but with patches of 7 mixed in here and there.

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Title: The Happy Tune.
Filename: su_happy.xm
Posted Tue 4th Dec 2007
Rated 8 / 10
This one I like. Quietly happy. Very nicely done, couple of well-timed key changes. A little bit unusual as well. Nice samples, and overall I see little about the track to dislike. Very good. 8.

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Title: Surrender The Rain
Filename: surrendr.mod
Posted Tue 4th Dec 2007
Rated 6 / 10
Sort of ethnic greek discoish mod. Hard to describe. Good samples, including one that reminds me a bit of a zither. I'm not a fan of voice samples in any tracker, but these are well done. I wonder if this might be a reworking (or at least incorporates elements?) of a traditional tune. Not really my cup of tea, but well done in its way. 6-8, maybe 9 for someone who appreciates this style more than I do.

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Title: STOROCHLITEN
Filename: storoch.mod
Posted Tue 4th Dec 2007
Rated 6 / 10
Easy-listening elevator music. Slightly groovy, in a cheesy 60s sense. Rather bland, but technically well done. Reasonable level of musical variety too. A very good use of 87k and only 4 channels. 6

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Title: speedchase
Filename: speed_chase.mod
Posted Tue 4th Dec 2007
Rated 4 / 10
Not bad for a 4-track, but doesn't really match the expectations given by the title. Stops and starts, and it's only a minute long. 4.

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Title: sparapaaczci
Filename: sparapaaczci.xm
Posted Tue 4th Dec 2007
Rated 4 / 10
Generic tracker with a syncopated beat. Not bad musically - better than many, but still plenty of room for improvement. Say 4-5 overall.

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Title: kai suhiro mahai
Filename: kai_suhiro_mahai.mod
Posted Tue 4th Dec 2007
Rated 2 / 10
Techno noise. No discernible melody. Doesn't even go anywhere musically. Can't really see any point listening to it, so 2.

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Title: Soulmate dreams II
Filename: smdream.mod
Posted Sun 2nd Dec 2007
Rated 3 / 10
Another rather dull track where not much goes on. Sounds like the theme tune for a rainy day in the city. What is that 'white noise hiss' in the background supposed to be? 3.

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Title: skull quest i
Filename: skull_quest_i.mod
Posted Sun 2nd Dec 2007
Rated 3 / 10
4-track slow, mostly chip mod. Goes on for five minutes, which is tooo long. Not much goes on musically; it goes up, it goes down, it goes up again. A drum does stuff in the background. A sound basic musical motif that doesn't get embellished anywhere. Dull. 3, I suppose.

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Title: skjettik.pp
Filename: skjettik.mod
Posted Sun 2nd Dec 2007
Rated 3 / 10
Cheesy vocals which first reminded me of Mexico, then of a Slavic language. Set to a repetitive drum and snare background. A bit of a silly. 2-3.


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Title: Silk Cut
Filename: silk_cut.xm
Posted Sun 2nd Dec 2007
Rated 3 / 10
Like two tracks in one. The first part is a dance piece with an ethereal tone to it. Quite pleasant, and a bit different, but the ethereal motif is repeated to death. Then restarts in an almost completely different style at 2m30, whereupon the etheral motif returns unaltered. 3-4. Technically good, but not enough musical variation.

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Title: shrimps_on_outer_space.xm
Filename: shrimps_on_outer_space.xm
Posted Sun 2nd Dec 2007
Rated 5 / 10
... Why shrimps?

Leaving that question unanswered, the piece starts out as a rather thin synth track, but after a weak start I quite liked the piano melody which started at 1m20. A solid 5. Would benefit a lot from less tinny piano samples and a fuller intro (more instruments, more going on) with 30 seconds taken off. Also, it ends like the music has been stopped with a switch, which is disappointing in such an otherwise promising piece. Maybe a problem with my player? Assuming not, this track could have been 6-7 or higher with some refinements.

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Title: -=≈Satanen≈=-
Filename: satanen.mtm
Posted Sun 2nd Dec 2007
Rated 5 / 10
Ooh, my first MultiTracker mod. Quite a good rock guitar piece. Not a brilliant rock guitar piece - it's not going to shake the house foundations whatever volume you play it at - but OK. 5-6.

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Title: Room Of Emptyness ÿ
Filename: room_of.mod
Posted Sun 2nd Dec 2007
Rated 3 / 10
Chip-ish mod with quite a nice lilting melody. Quite a good voice sample, but I don't really see what it adds to the piece. Unexceptional overall, but listenable. 3-4.

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Title: Prison Feelings
Filename: prisonfeelings.it
Posted Sun 2nd Dec 2007
Rated 5 / 10
A mix of quite-well done oppressive prisonish atmosphere and perhaps slightly too free-sounding ballady bits. Technically fine, but I question the balance of the composition slightly. Good harp samples at the start. 4 musically, 6 technically.

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Title: pollena 2001
Filename: pollena_2001.mod
Posted Sun 2nd Dec 2007
Rated 5 / 10
Dance track with a slight sci-fi vibe to it. Starts out very good for a 4 track mod; sounds like 6 tracks , but levels out at about 1m45. Overlong, and gets rather repetitive because of it, but nevertheless, there's a lot of artists could pick up a few tips from this one. 5-6.

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Title: physical.xm
Filename: physical.xm
Posted Sun 2nd Dec 2007
Rated 6 / 10
Could do with a better clap sample, but quite a likeable dance track, if a bit on the bland side. Good song length; not too long. I never like voice samples though, but I'll tolerate the 'c'mons' interspersed through this one. A good 6; maybe 7 if dance is your bag.

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Title: peyotl.mod
Filename: peyotl.mod
Posted Sun 2nd Dec 2007
Rated 2 / 10
Bagpipes, whistles, clangs and other nonsense. Ow. As I reserve 1 for songs that actually appear corrupt on my player, I'm reluctantly giving this a 2. Spare your ears, unless you /want/ them pierced.

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Title: Pentatonic
Filename: penta.it
Posted Sun 2nd Dec 2007
Rated 3 / 10
A bit thump crash to begin with. Sounds like a novice's first or second 4-track mod. More creativity than many at this level though. 3-4. Not one to listen to more than once, but perhaps the artist's later works bear attention?

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Title: Party People (i.t.h)
Filename: party_people_i_t_h.xm
Posted Sun 2nd Dec 2007
Rated 3 / 10
Bit of a waste of 16 channels. You get the feeling you could do this with 6. Not very creative. Why do they all start saying 'Ow' at about 2m30? What sort of party is this? Repetitive. Listenable, I suppose, but nothing special. 3.

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Title: outerspace girl. 150bpm.
Filename: outerspace_girl.it
Posted Sun 2nd Dec 2007
Rated 3 / 10
The 'swish' samples are a little too intrusive, and if they were toned down a couple of notches this would be a moderately boppy sci-fi track. Would have liked less repetition of the voice samples too. A track with some promise that doesn't manage to fulfil its potential; a failed 6. Call it 3-4.

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Title: on_the_run
Filename: on_the_r.mod
Posted Sun 2nd Dec 2007
Rated 5 / 10
Average 4-track synth pop. Does nothing wrong, and personally I quite like it, but to be honest it's a bit 'thin'; not great music. Sounds like only 2-3 tracks are in use for much of the time. On the other hand it has more of a melody and better musical variety than many tracks at this skill level. 4-6. Another one you feel might benefit from revisiting once the original artist gained some more experience.

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Title: No battery
Filename: no_battery.mod
Posted Sun 2nd Dec 2007
Rated 3 / 10
An excellent intro for a cool techno song. Unfortunately, after the first intro finishes, the main song sounds like an intro too. So, where's the song itself? Rather a disappointment. 3.

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Title: Move it - remix
Filename: move_it_-_remix.mod
Posted Sun 2nd Dec 2007
Rated 5 / 10
Passable remix that manages not to completely lose the plot from the original version. 5-6. A good use of 4 tracks and only 130k.

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Title: Memory of sorrow
Filename: mos.it
Posted Sun 2nd Dec 2007
Rated 6 / 10
Liked the guitar intro. An above-average fantasy piece, usable as a mood-setter. Patrol Returning to City, or something. Bears more than one listen. 6-7.

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Title: miracle of -unts-
Filename: miracle_of_-unts-.mod
Posted Sun 2nd Dec 2007
Rated 3 / 10
12 minutes of play from a 508k 4-track mod. Overall, feels a bit like the soundtrack from a rather mellow megademo. After a slowish start the music changes every minute or so, so reasonable variety. Didn't like the voice samples; too altered from their original pitch - sounded cartoony. No particular sections that stood out as exceptionally good, but managed to
sustain interest, variety and a coherent musical theme across 12 minutes, which isn't bad going. My favorite bit is at about 10-11 minutes. 3-4.

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Title: miracle-days
Filename: miracle-days.mod
Posted Sun 2nd Dec 2007
Rated 5 / 10
Initially promising, then gets lost in a loop of the same repeated melody and takes a long time to escape. Overall, a good use of a 4-track mod - it sounds good enough that one wonders how much of an improvement could be made by giving it better samples and expanding it to 8-12 tracks. 5-6. And potentially 7-8 if remastered?

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