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Demo News 104
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| Subscribers : 1616
DemoNews Issue #104 - October 8, 1995 | Last Week : 1583
------------- | Change : +33
DemoNews is a newsletter for the demo scene. | Archive Size : 1200M
It is produced by Hornet at the site ftp.cdrom.com. | Last Week : 1127M
Our demo archive is located under /pub/demos. | Remaining : 394M
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<CONTENTS>
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Uploads
Articles
Introduction................................Snowman
Review of Lotus Position by Basehead........Ryan Cramer
Interview with Basehead.....................GD
Just a Thought..............................Rimbo
The Death of Data Connection BBS............Ryan Cramer
Subscribing
Closing
=-[Uploads]-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
=----------------------------------------------------------[File Information]-=
1. All files listed below are on ftp.cdrom.com or one of its mirrors.
2. Ratings are completely subjective and do not necessarily reflect opinions
of the demo scene in general.
3. ftp.cdrom.com too slow? Try our mirror at ftp.luth.se. You may even
upload to this site under /pub/msdos/demos_upload. Note: ftp.luth.se
has not been mirroring us for over two months. This should be fixed soon.
4. ftp.cdrom.com _still_ too slow? :) Check out DN102 for info on ftpmail.
=-------------------------------------------------------------[Music:General]-=
Location /demos/music Size Rated Description
=-------------------------------- ---- ----- ---------------------------------=
Assembly '95 Four-Channel Music
/songs/1995/mod/i/illumina.zip 362 *** 2nd Illumination by Cube
/songs/1995/mod/c/crayfish.zip 327 *** 3rd Crayfish Party by Lizardking
/songs/1995/mod/b/balthas.zip 212 ***+ 11th Balthasar by Andy / Banal
/songs/1995/mod/h/holocaus.zip 213 *** 13th Holocaust by Sphinx
/songs/1995/mod/h/houseblw.zip 160 ** 15th Blowinghouse by DJ Roberto
/songs/1995/mod/b/beautifu.zip 21 *+ Beautiful Song by Feather
/songs/1995/mod/c/chujnia.zip 260 *** T.P.I. by Yoga and Spiryt
/songs/1995/mod/e/el-saoot.zip 522 **+ sa vain oot mun by Electro
/songs/1995/mod/p/peacecod.zip 369 **+ Peace and Code by ToalNkor
/songs/1995/mod/s/shredwit.zip 315 **+ Shred with me by Rage
/songs/1995/mod/z/zesick.zip 212 ***+ You make me sick by Zodiak
Normal Uploads
/disks/1995/h/halo01.zip 816 **+ Halo mdisk #1 from Blight Prod.
/disks/1995/m/moz-0006.zip 1695 ** Mozicpack #6 by Mozicart
/disks/1995/n/nothfree.zip 2391 **+ Nothing is Free by IQ and Maelcum
/disks/1995/r/raf-trn1.zip 1116 **+ [1/2] First Transmission by R.A.F.
/disks/1995/r/raf-trn2.zip 1033 **+ [2/2] First Transmission by R.A.F.
/disks/1995/s/s-ways.arj 1640 **+ Strange Ways by Halogen
/disks/1995/s/six_pack.zip 1102 *** S3M Six Pack by The Pope
/songs/1992/mod/h/hw-symp.lha 79 *** Symphonic by Hollywood
/songs/1993/mod/h/hw-wisp.lha 73 **+ Wisped by Hollywood
/songs/1993/mod/w/wei.zip 106 **** Weird Personalities by Lizardking
/songs/1993/mod/w/welcome.zip 44 ***+ Welcome home by Lizardking
/songs/1995/mod/a/aor#pewe.zip 160 ** Song Fake.2 by Audiomonster
/songs/1995/mod/a/aor#raw7.zip 162 ***+ Living in a Dream by Jogeir
/songs/1995/mod/a/atlseas.zip 56 ** Atlantic Seas by Sledgehammer
/songs/1995/mod/b/badreams.zip 130 ** Bad Dreams by Slater
/songs/1995/mod/c/chi.zip 104 *** Chipslayer by Lizardking
/songs/1995/mod/c/colour.zip 4 ** Coloured by Strange
/songs/1995/mod/c/compulsn.zip 255 **** Compulsion to Obey by Lizardking
/songs/1995/mod/e/es_space.zip 250 **+ ASP by The Electric Sheep
/songs/1995/mod/h/hw-shat.lha 66 ***+ Shattered by Hollywood/Valhalla
/songs/1995/mod/h/hw-skyr.lha 93 **** Skyriders by Hollywood
/songs/1995/mod/h/hw-soun.lha 66 *** Sound of Silence by Hollywood
/songs/1995/mod/h/hw-take.lha 18 ** Take on Me by Hollywood
/songs/1995/mod/h/hw-tet1.lha 66 **+ Tetris-Duel theme by Hollywood
/songs/1995/mod/h/hw-tet2.lha 18 ***+ Tetris-Duel music by Hollywood
/songs/1995/mod/l/liztheme.zip 100 *** LizardKing's Theme by LK
/songs/1995/mod/l/lwolf2rm.lzh 135 ** Lone Wolf II remix by Akinternal
/songs/1995/mtm/c/casd2.zip 104 *** Chorale & Shaker. by Psibelius
/songs/1995/mtm/k/k_detune.zip 170 *** Detune by Maelcum/KFMF
/songs/1995/mtm/k/k_outer.zip 193 **+ Outer Limits by Quarex/KFMF
/songs/1995/mtm/k/k_trans.zip 232 *** MusicForTransients/Maelcum
/songs/1995/mtm/l/love.zip 191 ** Love by Angelic Prod. Team
/songs/1995/mtm/s/sap.zip 102 ***+ Seven Against Peeves by Quarex
/songs/1995/mtm/s/sr-elect.zip 157 *** Electrik James by Warp!
/songs/1995/mtm/v/visio.zip 158 * Visio Beatifica by Angelic Prod.
/songs/1995/s3m/b/b2start.zip 183 *** Back To The Start by Blurry
/songs/1995/s3m/d/darkness.zip 156 ***+ Darkness by RangeRick
/songs/1995/s3m/d/dmk-arnd.zip 32 **+ Around That Corner by Hector
/songs/1995/s3m/d/dtn-bril.zip 494 *** Brilliance by The Peric
/songs/1995/s3m/d/dy-digi.zip 119 ***+ Digitalia by Draygen
/songs/1995/s3m/e/epi-ttm.zip 264 *+ TMM by Swill
/songs/1995/s3m/f/filter.zip 124 *** Filter by RangeRick
/songs/1995/s3m/f/fr-dopo.zip 164 *** Dopo il Buio by Nabo
/songs/1995/s3m/f/fred-bwl.zip 129 **** Bawal by Fred
/songs/1995/s3m/g/gr-umine.zip 146 ** Undermine by Grinner
/songs/1995/s3m/h/havitjst.zip 268 ***+ Having it all by Jester
/songs/1995/s3m/h/hot_one.zip 204 ***+ Hot One by WitchHunter/Debris
/songs/1995/s3m/k/k_autumn.zip 173 **** Autumn's Dawning by Leviathan
/songs/1995/s3m/k/k_forty.zip 222 *** Forty Days by Karl/KFMF
/songs/1995/s3m/k/k_rat.zip 267 **+ R.A.T. by Karl/KFMF
/songs/1995/s3m/k/k_sunset.zip 431 **** After Sunset by Chuck Biscuits
/songs/1995/s3m/l/latbody.zip 140 ** On your latin body.. /Highlander
/songs/1995/s3m/l/llullaby.zip 181 ***+ Lunatic Lullaby by Pegasos
/songs/1995/s3m/l/lovesong.zip 293 *** Lovesong by RuffKut
/songs/1995/s3m/l/lry-tgo.zip 164 ***+ Thegateone remix by Larry
/songs/1995/s3m/n/nm-soc.zip 105 *** Stream of Conciousness by Nomex
/songs/1995/s3m/n/no-wave.zip 221 *+ Silicone Wave by Funkee Harry
/songs/1995/s3m/p/poetry.zip 98 **+ Poetry by Ranger Rick
/songs/1995/s3m/r/reac-had.zip 366 + Gabba Reacta - Mix by Hadji
/songs/1995/s3m/r/rising.zip 191 **+ Rising by Ranger Rick and Ellipse
/songs/1995/s3m/s/sky_virs.zip 284 *** Virus Attack by D.J. YoYo
/songs/1995/s3m/s/smeg_dnc.zip 323 ** Donovan's carnival by Smeghead
/songs/1995/s3m/s/smeg_dys.zip 424 **+ Dysfunction by Smeghead
/songs/1995/s3m/s/smeg_eff.zip 286 **+ Effervescence by Smeghead
/songs/1995/s3m/s/smeg_mnd.zip 679 *** Mindstream by Smeghead
/songs/1995/s3m/s/smeg_mrs.zip 225 *** Martian Twilight by Smeghead
/songs/1995/s3m/s/solace.zip 257 **** Solace by Stalker
/songs/1995/s3m/s/sr-frere.zip 55 **+ Frere j.2 by Mat and Le Barman
/songs/1995/s3m/s/sr-reach.zip 383 **+ Reach by Styves
/songs/1995/s3m/s/sr-twilt.zip 103 *+ Piano Twilight by Music Man
/songs/1995/s3m/s/sr-wests.zip 218 ***+ West South-west by Parallax
/songs/1995/s3m/w/wheelie.zip 181 ** Busy & Push me by Wheelie
/songs/1995/xm/a/acceler8.zip 369 *** Accelerate by Deus.ex
/songs/1995/xm/c/claustr2.zip 375 ***+ Clausterphobia by Lizardking
/songs/1995/xm/c/clone.zip 438 **+ Clone by Hypnotic
/songs/1995/xm/c/crimea1.zip 814 *** Crimea in Perpetuum by The Kraken
/songs/1995/xm/d/desolate.zip 485 *** Desolate Planet by Deus
/songs/1995/xm/d/dreamsdz.zip 591 ***+ Dreams of Deez by Vogue
/songs/1995/xm/e/es_xymex.zip 224 * Black Sheep by Xymex
/songs/1995/xm/e/explorat.zip 38 *** Exploration by Vogue
/songs/1995/xm/f/foryou.zip 44 ** For You by Logos
/songs/1995/xm/f/fullsail.zip 423 **** Full Sail by Scirocco
/songs/1995/xm/h/hydrochl.zip 390 ** Hydrochloric Wasteland by Deus
/songs/1995/xm/i/igsignif.zip 661 ***+ IfSifnif by Mick Rippon
/songs/1995/xm/j/justice.zip 260 *** Blind Justice by Scirocco
/songs/1995/xm/k/k_night.zip 567 **** Night of Dreams by Krystall/KFMF
/songs/1995/xm/k/k_summer.zip 141 *** Summer Days by Khyron/KFMF
/songs/1995/xm/l/laboru.zip 193 **+ Laboru by Nathan Bowen
/songs/1995/xm/l/lbc_hc.arj 928 *+ Liberec city Hardcore by Ursi
/songs/1995/xm/m/mas_jung.zip 182 * Jungle Base by Masterbeat
/songs/1995/xm/r/rds_1.zip 111 ** Hardstyle by Riders
/songs/1995/xm/r/rds_intr.zip 100 * Cyb-intro by Riders
/songs/1995/xm/r/rumble.zip 106 ** Let's Rumble! by Zanti
/songs/1995/xm/s/se-phnkx.zip 59 **+ ??? by Sonic Enigma
/songs/1995/xm/s/seraph_.zip 169 *** The seraph by Nathan D. Bowen
/songs/1995/xm/s/si_chads.zip 32 ***+ Chadsmith by Sikamikanico
/songs/1995/xm/s/si_dream.zip 123 **** fingernail dreams by Sikamikanico
/songs/1995/xm/v/vr_llent.arj 101 **+ Henties accelerades by Verro!
/songs/1995/xm/v/vr_mskvr.arj 100 ** Moska vironeraaAH! by Verro!
/songs/1995/xm/v/vr_pardl.arj 93 *+ Pardal d'aigue bruta by Verro!
/songs/1995/xm/v/vr_resdu.arj 161 ** Residu mental by Verro!
/songs/1995/xm/v/vr_somra.arj 140 ** Somera escorxada by Verro!
/songs/1995/xm/v/vr_verro.arj 235 **+ Verro co!xeulo by Verro!
/songs/1995/xm/z/zgp-reso.zip 328 ** Restorative sounds by Nuke
/songs/1995/xm/z/zgp-smv_.zip 114 *+ Slow motion vibes by Nuke
=----------------------------------------------------------------------[Code]-=
Location /demos/code Size Rated Lang Description
=-------------------------------- ---- ----- ---- ----------------------------=
/graph/library/wgten1.zip 135 ***+ C WGT Example - Voxel demo
/graph/library/wgten2.zip 69 ***+ C WGT Example - Textured Floor
/pmode/dos32v31.zip 284 ****+ A C 32-bit DOS extender
/sound/awe32prg.zip 37 **** A C SB AWE32 programming info
/text/ttka3ddo.zip 15 **+ 3D Programming Info Text
=-[Articles]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
=---------------------------------------------------[Introduction]--[Snowman]-=
Hello all, and welcome to DemoNews issue 104!
I'm really pushing to get this issue out now, so here some quick notes
about various things:
1. Would anyone be interested in an ALLFILES.TXT mailing list?
2. Subscribers are way up this week.
3. At our current growth rate, we will be out of room in about 1.5 months.
Joy. The "under ***" music deletion system now has higher priority.
4. We are working on getting ftp.luth.se to start mirroring us again.
5. Watch out for Hornet's "Coder's Compo." Trixter is heading this up.
I'll see if I can get him to write an article about it for DemoNews.105.
6. Due to the size of this issue, there was not enough space for the next
installment of "4DOS 4DEMOS". :(
7. For those fans of the VGA Trainer Series, you are in luck! All of the
tutorials are once _again_ being converted by myself. Several things
are being changed or improved upon: no inline assembler, consistent code
formatting, better coding practices, clearer descriptions, etc. I will
not even release the first one until I have up to number 5 or 6 done (so
you still have a little wait left).
8. We are becoming hopelessly overwhelmed by the new music uploads. For
a temporary period, we are seeking an individual or two to help find
and catalog music that was released at various parties.
Gotta run now...
Snowman / Hornet - r3cgm@ftp.cdrom.com
=-----------------------[Review of Lotus Position by Basehead]--[Ryan Cramer]-=
I recently downloaded Basehead's new music disk entitled "Lotus Position"
and was quite amazed by the excellent work. The music disk does not include
an interface or a player, you must use your own player. In some ways, it
would have been nice to have an interface, but when you consider it, a
music disk is about music and not about an interface.
Basehead's Lotus Position proves that a killer music disk does not need an
interface and I believe that Lotus Position is one of the hottest music
disk releases in the PC music scene. Following is a detailed review of each
individual song. I hope that you enjoy the review!
_____Freedom at Midnight
This is a song dedicated to Basehead's girlfriend, and I guarantee you that
Basehead *REALLY* scored the night after she heard this song. As for the
title of the song, Basehead said that it has "special meaning for Sai, but
that we should draw our on conclusions". As you can see, I have drawn my
own. :)
The first thing you may notice is the huge size of this song, it is almost
one meg. If you are stuck with a 512k, or even a <GASP!> 256k GUS, then I
truly feel sorry for you. It would be worth your hard earned money to
upgrade your GUS merely to hear this song.
Freedom at Midnight is perhaps one of the most professionally sounding
songs tracked on the PC. The samples are really beautiful and abundant. The
feeling of the song is much in the same style as Basehead's ground breaking
work with his Epidemic song, and CDAGAME.S3M.
However, Freedom takes this style to a new level. The song does not sound
tracked. It truly sounds recorded and your unsuspecting friends may be
asking you what CD is playing!
What style is this music? Well, its classic Basehead style. What is
"classic basehead style" you say? Consider that to be a mix of New Age,
Jazz, and percussion oriented music. Freedom definitely fits into this
description, and it's Basehead at his best!
While Freedom may be somewhat slow to start, it does get you into a more
relaxed and music listening state to adequately prepare you for your
"Freedom at Midnight" experience. The excellent bassline work on top of
dreamy chords and background flute melodies with drifting piano chords
really creates a beautiful atmosphere.
The highlight of the song comes at the end with a really excellent jazzy
groove. The music progresses from a relaxed somber state, to a motivated,
energetic, and cheerful state at the end. It really leaves you feeling
good. This song will be one to play when you are feeling down and need a
pick me up. It works for me!
_____Passion Play
By far one of the most unique songs in this music disk, Passion Play
combines so many sounds perfectly, and still maintains a surreal feeling.
Passion Play also has the feeling of taking us on a journey with its
advanced progressions more so then much of the other music does.
It is one of my most favorite songs in the disk. This is the type of music
that I hope we get to hear from Basehead in his future efforts with
commercial game companies.
The bassline is one of the driving forces in this music and it sounds very
finely tuned with everything else that is going on in the song. It reminds
me very much of Tangerine Dream in the early 80's.
I hope that we get to hear more of this unique style from Basehead in the
future. Even though he is leaving the scene, I hear that he will still be
doing tracked music for Origin!
Passion Play is one of the major highlights in Lotus Position. Passion Play
also succeeds because it combines so many feelings into a very
non-repetitive and not especially long song. So much of Basehead's music is
very long, but Passion Play is refreshingly short compared to some of
Basehead's other music.
_____Open Your Mind
I will tell you right off the bat, Open your Mind will be many peoples'
favorite song in the entire music disk, and rightly so! The melody and
groove are so catchy that you will find yourself in such an energetic state
that it will be difficult to stay in your chair!
This song is a MAJOR contrast to much of the other music in Lotus Position.
Its very impressive that Basehead can go from relaxed and surreal songs to
totally energetic dance music like Open your Mind.
Open your Mind is some of the best dance music I've heard anywhere. I
consider this song to be far and away the best that I've heard in PC music
scene dance music. Basehead is truly the authority on this style of music.
Open your Mind continues where Arcadia-2 left off.
While Open your Mind explores many different avenues, it does not go off
tangent at any point. It always stays with the same melody. In some of the
songs best parts (mainly the beginning) there are many intermingled
electronic sounds creating and incredibly technically advanced groove!
My only complaint would be that the song does not need to be quite as long
as it is and there is a lot of repetition involved which is often the case
with this type of music.
Open your Mind is mainly driven by its percussion, powerful bass lines, and
classic dance melodies. This is the type of music the tracker was designed
for!
_____Smooth Operator
While this song has a cheezy sounding generic and over-used title, the song
has some of the best percussion work in Basehead's history! In fact, the
song *sounds* tracked because such complex percussion work is rarely heard
in recorded music.
While the progression and bassline sound somewhat generic, and the song
does not sound especially original, it is very impressive tracking effort
with an amazing groove. There is also some especially amazing tracked organ
work around pattern 24h.
This song reminds me very much of work by HeatBeat and other famous Amiga
musicians, and Smooth Operator was no doubt influenced by their work. Don't
misunderstand me though, everything here does indeed sound 100% original,
but Smooth Operator conforms to a "style" which is something that Basehead
rarely does.
Part of what I appreciate so much about Basehead's music is his lack of
conformity to any sort of style in favor of creating something entirely
new. However, as a well-rounded tracker, it is especially important to do
music such as Smooth Operator to aid in developing new styles and
understanding existing ones. For many that really appreciate this
particular style, Smooth Operator is an excellent feat of tracking wonder!
_____Last Request
Last Request has a lot of history behind it. The first fourteen patterns of
this song are entirely composed by C.C.Catch of Renaissance over two years
ago.
At the time C.C.Catch was working on this song, I was in New York visiting
the Renaissance team and we were all hanging out at Tran's apartment in
Brooklyn. Kenny brought his song on a disk and played it for all of us on
Tran's 386/16 and guitar amp.
The music was so classically C.C.Catch, and many of us fell in love with
the song from the first listen. Kenny (C.C.Catch) had been doing a lot of
techno style music and we had not heard anything in this "Amnesia" style
from Kenny in a long time. It was really refreshing to hear this work and I
think it was some of Kenny's best work since Amnesia.
At the time the song was only about fifteen patterns and was unfinished or
in a "beta" version as Kenny called it. What you hear in the first fourteen
patterns of Last Request *IS* the song that was on that disk. For reasons
unknown to any of us, Kenny never finished the song. I think that he just
did not know where to take the song after those first fourteen patterns.
I guess about a year and a half later, Kenny gave the song to Basehead to
finish, and this song became Last Request. Basehead really did a beautiful
job at maintaining the quality and evolving the song from Kenny's original
work. While Kenny's and Basehead's parts in the song are distinctly and
noticeably different, they fit so perfectly together that it makes you
yearn for more Basehead + C.C.Catch work.
Kenny's parts in this song give the feeling of being on a sailboat, swiftly
cruising the ocean. As the progression continues, you can feel the wind
blowing and the boat flying. The music is very visually stunning.
Then around pattern fifteen Basehead's section comes in and takes us under
water and into the abyss while still maintaining the original feeling, but
somewhat more relaxed. The flute melodies are among the best and most
beautiful that you will find anywhere.
Basehead's portion puts you into a surreal and relaxed state, but when
Kenny's part returns again, it brings you back into reality above water.
Much like sleeping on the beach, and waking to hear the relaxing waves and
feel the warm sun. As you might have guessed, I think this song really has
the effect of generating some visually stunning images.
The grooves in this song are also quite excellent. I would compare them
(especially towards the end) to Mannheim Steamroller's work in terms of
feeling. Last Request is sure to be a classic that will be remembered by
all in the PC music scene for years to come.
_____Steppin' Out
At nine channels, Steppin' Out is the only song in Lotus Position that is
less than 16 channels.
The Nitty Gritty bassline is really amazing and reminds me much of Moby's
work. This song also demonstrates Basehead's ability to track other styles
of music. Steppin' Out is a very impressive tracking effort of Late Night
Smoky bar type music.
While there is very little background chording, it would be unsuitable for
this style of music. The piano and lead work is also quite impressive.
Around pattern 25h, we get some BRUSH DRUMS! This is something that you
will probably not hear in any other tracked songs, and it is very cool to
hear. As much of Basehead's other music, Steppin' Out once again
demonstrates his amazing percussion ability.
The leads and piano work in this song are killer!
Close your eyes and you might think you are watching and listening to live
music at the Old Irish Pub!
_____Shades of Night 4 - Sea at Dawn
This song is the fourth in the series of Basehead's most famous ambient
work. Shades of Night 1 was perhaps one of the first ambient pieces done on
the PC, and Shades of Night 2 was what really started to get Basehead's
work very recognized. I think at the time Basehead received a lot of
varying praise and criticism about SON2. Many people just did not
understand it, and at the time Ambient music was only known to a few people
in the PC music scene.
For me, SON2 was some of the first ambient/techno music that I had ever
heard, in fact it WAS the first. Basehead DCC'd the song to me on IRC and
told me to turn down the lights, get relaxed and listen to the song with my
eyes closed. This is exactly what I did, and ever since this time, I've
been hooked on this type of ambient music. SON2 was over twenty minutes in
length!
A few months after SON2 was released, SON3 came out in Kosmic's EGG-2 music
disk. SON3 was also around twenty minutes in length, but it had a much more
professional feel then SON2 did. This can probably be attributed to
Basehead's increase in experience (compare The Orb's older releases with
their latest Orbvs Terrarvm). SON3 was also accessible to many more
people's ears and some of it did resemble the style of music that has made
Enigma so popular.
Shades of Night 4 is entirely different from the first three releases, but
it is equally ground breaking, and in many ways more-so then the previous.
The best phrase to describe SON4 would be "Heavenly Dissonant". SON4 sounds
unlike anything you've heard. The sound is very surreal and "high" feeling,
yet it is still somehow dissonant. SON4 creates an atmosphere that is
populated by visually surreal images.
Like music from The Orb, SON4 has a lot of things going on in the
background that sound very far off and full of activity. The song is based
on the depths of the sea, but many of the effects sound straight out of the
jungle too. There are many different unrelated sounds playing at once that
are moving in a musically organized fashion. This music is quite a feat and
I imagine took a lot of effort.
About one third way through the song, we start hearing some bass lines
which start to organize all of the sounds and give them purpose. In
addition, one of the highlights of this song is some of the most hauntingly
amazing and unique percussion work ever tracked!
SON4 may not be as accessible for some as the previous SON3, but SON4 is
ambient music in a much more evolved state, and it will no doubt lay the
groundwork for many aspiring ambient musicians in the future. Basehead is
the master at this type of music, and SON4 is some of his most amazing work
to date.
_____Conclusion
I hope that you enjoyed my review of Lotus Position. I really enjoyed
listening to this ground breaking music disk. 1995 has really been an
amazing year for the music scene with releases such as Necros's Progression
music disk and now Basehead's Lotus Position music disk.
FM has really taken the PC music scene by storm and taken it to new
professional extremes! It is really sad that Basehead will be leaving the
scene, but it is also good that he will be expanding his musical abilities
to mediums that can be enjoyed by many more people. I look forward to
hearing Basehead's work in the future. If you have not yet heard Lotus
Position, I hope that this review will encourage to download and listen to
it immediately!
Lotus Position can be found on ftp.cdrom.com. I will also be placing a copy
of it on my computer at work.
ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/music/disks/1995/f/fm-lotus.zip
ftp://www2.idsonline.com/pub/music/disks/bh-lotus.zip
Basehead can be contacted by email at bh@axs.net
Ryan Cramer / Renaissance - rcramer@ids2.idsonline.com
=---------------------------------------------[Interview with Basehead]--[GD]-=
Basehead (real name Dan Grandpre) is one of America's finest PC musicians.
He has been an active composer for about three years, in which time he left
his mark in several big-name groups, such as Five Musicians, Kosmic Free
Music Foundation, and Imphobia.
With the help of Necros, Charlatan, Maral, GodHead, and Khyron, Basehead
helped found the IRC #trax channel. This was a result of the overwhelming
number of musicians occupying space in the IRC #coders channel, the other
of two heavily used IRC channels for the demo scene.
Among some of his major accomplishments are "Can't fake the funk," a song
that placed third in the NAID'95 music competition, "Forever," his
contribution to the "Epidemic" musicdisk, a song in the Imphobia #9
diskmag, various songs in all three EGG musicdisks, including two of the
four songs from his "Shades of Night" series, and his musicdisk "Lotus
Position," which also contains the last of four "Shades of Night" songs.
And now, Basehead leaves behind the scene he had a big part in helping to
shape. His sudden announcement came shortly after the release of his "Lotus
Position" musicdisk. And to help clear up some of the misconceptions of his
decision, and to discuss other related matters, we bring you this
interview.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: What was your very first knowledge of the demo scene, and when?
A: Let's see... in 1986 or 1987, this kid next door (well he was 17 then)
was really into the C-64 demo scene, and I saw demos from C-64 groups of
the day... Fairlight, 1001 Crew, Danish Gold, W.A.S.P., FBR, etc.. and I
was immediately interested.
Q: Did you ever do any composing on the C-64?
A: Well, just a bit, with a few SID composers/programmers.. but nothing big
really.
Q: How long was it before you moved to a different platform?
A: I got an Amiga in '89... so I was on both the C-64 and Amiga until '91
or '92 or so when I got a PC of my own.. but, I knew what was going on
in the PC scene the whole time too since I had a friend into it.
Q: Were you in any groups during your C-64/Amiga days?
A: Yeah, so many that I won't even bother to mention... a few big ones too.
Q: Did a lot of people you knew from the C-64/Amiga scenes move to the PC
scene as well?
A: Not really.. most went on to college/jobs/etc.. I still keep in touch
with a few. Some went to the game development industry right away... but
yeah, some moved to PC too. Although I don't think the PC and Amiga
scenes have the heart that the C-64 scene did.
Q: What do you mean by that?
A: Well, it was just a lot more exciting I think.
Q: How did you get your start as a PC musician?
A: I always messed around but never really got down to business because I
never took the time to learn trackers -- I am completely programming-
language illiterate, and trackers looked too much like hex code to me.
I am a born and trained musician, and I was not used to this type of
format (beyond sheet music, I mean).. so when KingMod came out in '92, I
attempted some stuff finally.. since its sheet music interface hit
closer to home for me.
Q: What different tracking programs have you used for the PC, both that you
liked and didn't like?
A: I've used every one ever made and distributed widely... my favorite
being ST3, and least favorite being the Farandole composer. =)
Q: How, and when, did you become affiliated with KLF?
A: Well in '92 and '93 I talked to Maelcum semi-frequently.. but I was not
really a decent musician at all.. then in early-mid '94 I did "Collapse-
house" and "Shades of Night 2," which got me into EGG (the original
musicdisk), and effectively then, into KLF itself in July... it had 8
members or so at that point I believe. =)
I sorta gained the reputation of being a one-trick techno-pony, and that
really aggravated me.. which is why I released "Forever" in the Epidemic
musicdisk in late '94... and that effectively shut most everyone up
about that whole deal. =)
Q: What kind of response did you get from your song in Epidemic?
A: Sheez, a lot more than I expected.. maybe 40 (?) email or so over a
period of a few months. I'm sure I'd still get some random lamer's
ramblings about it if I still had my ssn@pcnet.com account. =)
Q: In the beginning of 1995, FM was formed .. how long was it discussed
before it came together?
A: An hour.. =) Basically the same day Andy (Necros) and Jaakko (Mellow-D)
came up with the idea, they called me.. and BigJim was around the next
day when we decided on the name. It wasn't a planned takeover of the
music scene or anything.
Q: Scoring third place in the NAID music competition, were you happy with
your placing?
A: Well.. I don't put much faith in compo placing, especially because I
think musicians should judge musicians, not just a whole crazy crowd
that isn't even really paying attention too closely. I thought my song
was better than Maelcum's, so 2nd woulda been cool.. =) but I'm not
complaining. I think the whole compo was messed up anyway. *shrug*
Q: When did you first decide to work on a musicdisk?
A: Hmm I first decided to do a musicdisk when I finished "Freedom,"
"Stepout," and "Smooth".. they were also sorta close-together projects,
and I was very happy with them... and since they weren't released
*shrug* I figured I'd wait it out, and do a few more..
Q: At first, you had planned to do it with Stalker?
A: Yeah.. that's true. I did those 3, and then figured I'd do a dual
musicdisk with Stalker, who was also working on a bunch of tunes at the
time. But that idea faded, since the disk would have ended up being
really huge, so I figured we'd each do a separate one.. hopefully
Stalker will release his for FM too.
Q: When did you make the announcement that you were leaving the scene?
A: Hmm, I don't remember exactly.. I think it was the night when I released
my musicdisk, or maybe the night after.
Q: What was the general reaction of others to that announcement?
A: It varied.. a lot of people were sad or disappointed I guess, for
whatever reasons.. a few were so to the point of anger, which pissed me
off. As far as I know, nobody was happy about it -- at least I hope not.
Q: How long did you consider leaving the scene?
A: Seriously? Well, probably since the idea of a musicdisk came to me.
Q: Did anyone else know before you made the announcement?
A: No, surprisingly.. I knew Andy (Necros) wouldn't be happy about it, so I
didn't say anything until I told everyone else.. I thought he would
leave before me, honestly, a few months ago.
Q: There was a rumor that people wondered if your decision was related to
you breaking up with your girlfriend?
A: Well. this is a strange topic.. First of all, that's not true.. let me
address this. It's nobody's business really whether or not we did break
up, or what changes that brought about.. I'm neither confirming nor
denying that we have. Problems yes, but everyone has problems. If I told
someone that definitively, it was because as usual, I was tired of
explaining myself. Leaving has nothing to do with her.
Q: What plans do you have for the future?
A: Well, for one thing, music is still in my future. I plan to release
under a major underground label (not a specific one, just in general I
mean).. and I still plan to do music for games far into the future.
Maybe I will also release a scene S3M or two in the future, but I doubt
it. I also will be doing the music for Kosmic's next demo.. since I was
considering it before I left anyway.
Q: Where will this demo compete?
A: Hmm.. if we can get it done in time, it will compete at TP5 hopefully..
I may be going to TP5, and if not, IOR would enter it anyway. =)
Q: Will you still be working with Straylight?
A: Of course.. that's what I implied by doing game music. Also, Siren
(formerly Chromatic Dragon), known to me as Alex.. is now a part of
Straylight. NO, there are not more openings... and no you can't APPLY,
so don't email me about it. =)
Q: How did you and Necros get in contact with Origin?
A: We got recommended by a certain person (who will remain nameless) who
knew them already, and he also showed them some of our work.
Q: How much time did you put into Origin's "Crusader"?
A: Hahaha... not much. I did 9 songs, and spent about 20-25 hours total.
But for future projects, I will spend a lot more time.... especially if
we end up doing the music for *censored* =)
Q: Are you currently working with any other game companies at the moment?
A: No comment =) Well, yes... and their names are *censored* *censored* and
*censored*. We hope that the Crusader series music will be noticed and
game companies will decide that tracked music is the future for game
development.. not FM/GM, and not redbook/cd-audio.
Q: So what made you decide to leave the scene?
A: Oh man.. =) Well, even though I've only been tracking for 3 years, I've
been in and around the demo scene for 8-9 years. And I've basically seen
it spiral into an abyss of lameness.. especially in the last year or so.
Also, I am sorta just plain TIRED of it.. so much more is to be done
outside of the scene. It's a good starting place, but I'm just getting
too old.. and I think I've made my mark.
Plus, college is coming soon.. I've been slacking off for too long from
higher education, and concentrating on the scene for 2 years straight..
it's time to move on.
Q: What are your plans for college?
A: Well, 90% chance of me going to Berklee in the Fall '96 semester... 10%
I will either switch to NYU, or wait another year. =)
Q: If you could pick one specific thing that helped you "make your mark" in
the scene, what would it be?
A: I think working up to some sort of level before I started giving things
out was a big part of being successful. By that I mean.. if you give out
every piece of crap you've ever done from day 1, it's going to be hard
to convince someone that you've improved: most people will give anyone a
chance at impressing them with their music, but if they hear something
terrible, chances are they won't pick up something with that label again.
Also, let the work speak for itself.. don't go around parading what
you've done. If the work deserves popularity and success in the eyes of
the scene, then it will get it regardless of how you promote it.
Q: Have you ever made MIDI music?
A: Yeah.. i used to live 5 minutes away from Majesty (an oldschool #trax
person too), who had quite a bit of midi gear.. and computer-based
sequencing software too. I've done a lot of tracks, they're all lying
around his new apartment on otari studio reels I guess.. maybe they will
be priceless someday.. (yeah right) =) But he moved... he's about an
hour away now. I didn't talk to him for like a 3 month period, and I
haven't seen him since march.. its a real bitch.
Q: What instruments or sound equipment do you own?
A: I have a big black yamaha grand piano (mega-$$$), a shitty yamaha psr
funstation, and a martin 12-string guitar from 1973 that they haven't
made for 15 years =) (it's awesome) But that's it..
Q: What other instruments or equipment do you have access to?
A: Well, I have access to a great yamaha pro tenor sax, a 15 piece drum
kit, a roland jv880, s330, akai s1000 and s3200cd, yamaha dx7-iifd, and
lots of guitars and basses.
Q: What's your favorite synth and why?
A: Although the kurzweil k2000 is probably the best, I think the dx7 gets
my vote because it just rocks the oldschool world.. it was so far ahead
of it's time. A classic, sorta like the ensoniq mirage sampler.
Q: What music theory education do you have?
A: I have about 12 years of piano performance/theory.. I played drums for 6
years, sax for 7, and guitar and bass on and off for 12 years also. As
for straight theory, well it's been on and off since I started. I
learned a lot on my own, and have had the last few years as solely
composition/ theory study. I sorta "surpassed" my original teacher, and
her teacher is my mentor now.
Q: Were you involved with music in school?
A: Yeah, from 4th-8th grade.. never in high school (9-12) because the guy
there was a dick. He had his little piano player teacher's pet who was
also in my grade.. she did everything, even jazz band.. and she SUCKED.
She couldn't improvise at all and had NO rhythm skills.. he would just
write out the whole part note for note, and she would learn it. He was a
complete dick to me, anyway... I'm not sorry I wasn't involved. Our
bands sucked.
Q: What kinds of real music do you listen to?
A: Everything from trance, to ambient dub, to acid jazz, classical, uhmm I
love 80's new wave.. Some of my favorite groups are the cure, depeche
mode, the orb, the fixx, frankie goes to hollywood, herbie hancock, eat
static, sun electric, new order, etc..
Q: Do you have any favorite tracker musicians?
A: Hmm, if you consider everyone, active and non.. my top 3 are probably
Audiomonster, Dizzy, and Vinnie (all amiga dudes). They all personify
creativity. As for now, I think Dune and Necros are really great..
Q: What was your first step when tracking a song?
A: Generally, I would come up with a set of samples that I thought would
fit the mood of the song that I wanted to do.. and then I would just go
crazy for a few hours. =)
Q: What role did theory play when you were tracking?
A: Theory sort of played a subconscious part, because it came naturally
after being in my head for so long.. definitely when I would be figuring
out the melody and general chord structure.
Q: Did you compose a lot on an instrument then transfer it to a tracker?
A: Never.. not a single time have i played on the keyboard first. =) Except
for a piano intro that I turned into a rather cheesy full song (loss),
and an idea (nostalgic).. both are nothing interesting though.
Q: What demo parties are you planing to attend at this point?
A: Well, I will hopefully be at Naid'96, Mini Impulse 2 if it happens, and
hopefully TP5 and maybe TG'96.
Q: What do you have to say to people who think you have an ego or a bad
attitude?
A: Well, I just don't think they know me at all.. just because I'm almost
the only person in the channel (#trax) who will say what their real
opinion of something is, I'm considered arrogant. Just because I'm hard
to please doesn't mean I'm egotistical.
Also, it's partly that I make it known that I think most of the scene is
a joke.. and I'm not particularly generous toward the "newbie" mob. I
only really truly help out people who I think have a lot of potential..
and I don't even do that anymore because I'm too busy.
Q: How much does others' opinion of your music matter to you?
A: Well, I'm not going to bullshit like most people do, and say "all that
matters is if *I* like it, and if other people do too, then that's okay.
But I do music for me!! *wank wank* *nose gets longer*".. I mean to a
certain extent you do it for fun, but there's also the idea of wanting
other people to like it, and you always are trying to impress someone in
some way.
It affects it more if the person is being closed-minded and saying
things that are just plain WRONG.. if they say "I didn't like it cuz it
wasn't really my style," then that's fine.. everyone is entitled to
their own opinion.
Q: Do you have any predictions for the scene?
A: Hmm, I guess it all depends on what happens with telecommunications in
the future. If it gets to the point soon that cd-audio can be
transferred by normal everyday net users at a reasonable speed, then I
think a lot more people will be getting into cd-audio.
Honestly, I think there will always be a place for the scene -- because
no matter how commercial something ends up, there are always the real
people -- the hobbyists and enthusiasts who don't care about the money.
The demo scene is the last bastion of enthusiast-only
programming/multimedia left.. and whatever comes up, I hope it is always
there.
Q: Would you like to send out any messages to anyone?
A: Yeah actually:
To all of FM: It's been great, I hope you guys continue the greatness...
Kosmic: Thanks for some great grooves, and a lot of fun at NAID...
Not to be cheesy, but to all fans and listeners of mine around the
globe. Thanks for being there.. I wouldn't have gotten nearly as much
out of it had I not had any following. Some of these people who have
been really dedicated fans/listeners that I've gotten to know really
well are: Leviathan, Epeius, Heatwave, Ryan Cramer, Floss, Lord Pegasus,
and Khyron. (and of course FM people! =)
To the rest of the scene: It has been a blast, I hope you guys continue
to have a great time like I have.
To people in general: I will still be at bh@axs.net for the foreseeable
future, and at the same snail mail address as I've given in the past in
my sample texts.. but the phone number has changed (I'd rather not give
it out).
Also, I will be hanging around #trax for awhile too.. so I'm not totally
out of it. Once I *do* have to leave IRC though, I will still drop my
head in once in awhile to see how things are going.. I want #trax, and
the tracking scene to continue and prosper, just as other people who
have built it do.
Q: Thanks for your time, and best of luck to you in the future.
A: Thanks for the interview, and goodbye to the rest of the scene.
GD / Hornet - gd@ftp.cdrom.com
Basehead - bh@axs.net
=---------------------------------------------------[Just a Thought]--[Rimbo]-=
[taken from comp.sys.ibm.pc.demos]
I'm sittin' here, staying up way later than I ought to be, and I just had
this thought I'd like to share with y'all.
Nobody wants to watch shaded 3D vector objects float around for 60 seconds
each.
If you've got a neat 3D effect, show it, and move on, OK? You realize how
much better Mighty would have been if they'd just left their
Phong/Gouraud-shading routines OUT? By the time you've sat through ten
minutes of seeing simple phong-shaded/gouraud-shaded/texturemapped objects,
you've forgotten totally about the awesome maze effect in the beginning,
and you're just bored silly.
Also, have you ever noticed that in ...just a random example... FC's demos,
NO effect stays on-screen for any length of time at all? Take 2nd Reality.
The longest effect is the vector world, but even that is brief compared to
how long NoooN or Complex or just about every other demo will force you to
stare at a phong-shaded env-mapped torus.
You know what else I miss about the demos of 3-4 years ago? The sense of
humor. Or poetry, in the case of Renaissance. Little bits and pieces
which made the demos fun to watch...or whatever...things which had nothing
to do with graphics or music or art. The scrolly needs to come back, if
only for the sake of the text that came with it. And I ain't talkin'
GREETS here, either. Greets should go...they're dull.
And why all of these black backgrounds? There's no reason why black should
be the default color. Why not a nice, rich, charcoal gray? Blue is always
a big hit. Grif's Catchup! doesn't have a single black screen in it, and
is all the better for it. Come to think of it, why didn't Catchup! do any
better at Assembly '94? I only watch three demos nowadays from that compo;
Verses, Heartquake, and Catchup!.
This all reminds me of Assembly '93, when everybody was arguing about which
great sequel should have won...CD2 or 2dR. (Gee, the same groups that make
the leading trackers for the PC trax scene.) Many argued that CD2 had
better coding; but 2dR won because it was MORE FUN TO WATCH.
Hey, I got an idea. Why doesn't someone make a trippin' demo that uses my
486/100 to the MAX and doesn't have one stinkin' vector object in the whole
thing? Now THAT would be cool.
So cut it out with the 3D objects spinning around for God-knows how long,
okay?
God bless.
Rimbo - rimbo@cs.utexas.edu
=---------------------------[The Death of Data Connection BBS]--[Ryan Cramer]-=
This is a short article to let you know that Data Connection BBS will no
longer be a major demo BBS.
Data Connection has been running since 1989, and for three years has been
one of the largest Demo BBSs in the United States. Unfortunately, I no
longer have the time to maintain the BBS as a great resource of demos, and
have decided that the BBS will slowly be reducing its focus on the scene.
In this day and age of the Internet, BBSs no longer are the place to obtain
the latest releases. Now Internet ftp sites (such as cdrom.com), IRC, and
newsgroups (comp.sys.ibm.pc.demos) are the major hangouts of scene people.
I will be focusing my time more on these avenues.
Data Connection will still continue to carry demo releases, but will no
longer be a an exhaustive resource of scene material that it once was.
Unfortunately, this is a result of a lack of time. Between school and a
full time job, I have to place my priorities elsewhere.
I would like to thank everybody that has supported the BBS through the
years, and I hope that you will continue to call and say hi even though you
may not find the latest demo releases there.
Thanks.
Ryan Cramer - rcramer@ids2.idsonline.com
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