TATICLINE July, 2000
// Monthly Scene E-Zine 135 Subscribers
Table Of Contents
Opening:
Message From the Editor
Letters From Our Readers
Features:
Takeover 2000 -- 64k Intro Competition With Comments
The VIP2 debate -- Ripping and Crediting
The Root -- How They Got Involved This Month: Stalker
Columns:
Music:
In Tune -- Blue Zones Robotic Electric Orchestra
The Listener -- Music from Smash, Twilton, Pretty Boy Cross Over
Retro Tunage -- Colors of Neptune by Ari
Demo:
Intro Watch -- Transagression 3 by MFX
General:
Scene Dirt -- News Rumors
Call to Keyboards -- Music Packs Out-Of-Date
Link List -- Get Somewhere in the Scene
Closing:
Credits
Message From the Editor
Talk about busy. This issue was whipped up with a weed-whacker minutes
before deadline.
Ok, no really. But it was a close one.
With everything going on in my life, Static Line is still my pride and
joy, and I dont see anything that will change that. I have a great
staff Gekko and Tryhuk both work overtime to provide quality articles,
and even when hes busy, Seven still writes something. The readers are
great as well. Thanks to all of you who wrote to express your support
and prayers for my mother. Her kidney was removed taking out most of
the cancer, but shes not yet. Things are going okay, but she starts
her Immuno-Therapy treatments this week, so we got a ways to go.
But, this isnt a group therapy session, so lets get onto the part you
guys really care about!
We got a packed issue this month. Aside from all our regular columns,
we have some comments about Takeover 2000 from Gekko. We also have more
about the VIP2 Demo debate The classic ripping debate with a twist.
We also have another article for The Root sponsored by Tryhuk: This
month, Ari writes.
Got a few new subscribers this month, and Im glad to see that. In the
upcoming months, youll see new changes to the way things work
hopefully, as we now have access to our very own server. Im not
going to share too many details, but be forwarned: The mailing list
will move soon. Those of you already subscribed wont have to
resubscribe, but the application process may change a bit. Ill keep
everyone posted.
--Coplan
Takeover 2000
64k Intro Competition With Comments
By: Gekko
The previous Takeover brought several of the finest intros of 1999 I
was a bit disappointed to see the entries to the intro compo this year.
Here follows a very brief summary on all of them.
-- The results --
1. 104 points pluxity by distance tomic warp / tpolm unik
2. 78 points shortest route by analog44, dipe, flow rieha / array
3. 78 points soepkip10 by ... / kontvlokken posse
4. 75 points hello by mnemonix and friends / kaleido
Pluxity by Unik+TPOLM
req: Windows/DOS
ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/incoming/TAKEOVER00/in64/pluxity.zip
Fine and well-designed intro: nice colors, simple flatshaded objects,
halftones, wireframe rendering. It is however not unik at all. There
are no original parts, but all is arranged very neatly. The code is
slow.
Shortest Route by Array
req: Windows 3d card DirectX
ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/incoming/TAKEOVER00/in64/a-sroute.zip
This intro is the first release of Array. It is only 36 kilobytes in
size and it is quite short. The music is a simple but fine chiptune.
Probably the weakest point of the intro is the design. There is a cheap
blue-green setup from the beginning till the end. Most of the time there
are 3d effects with spheres and cubes. At the end a fine morph is shown
it looks something like a waving flag and it is very impressive. If only
they had spent more time on the outlook.
Soepkip 10 by Kontvlokken Posse
req: Windows 3d card OpenGL
ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/incoming/TAKEOVER00/in64/soepkip10.zip
Simple intro in oldschool style. There is not too much to say about this
one. The oldschool effects have been the same for about 15 years now.
Hello by Kaleido
req: Windows DirectX
ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/incoming/TAKEOVER00/in64/kaleido-hello.zip
This is a mediocre intro. The design is bad, despite all efforts eg.
the transparent squares. The colors are bad, the same for the font.
There are simple particle fields, plasma/tunnel things and friends:
these somehow dont look fine and they are cliches. There are two more
original effects: light glow rings and a waterfall. The waterfall is
quite spectacular. The intro is spiced up with jokes: the ring on the
phone-part and the solar eclipse effect.
--Gekko
The VIP2 debate
Ripping and Crediting
By: Seven
Yesterday, I took the last exam of my student life. Well, lets hope
it was the last one, cause we dont know the results yet, but Im fairly
positive about it. One easy way to force yourself to study a lot is to
bring your PC to the shop with the request to put a 3D-card in it, as I
still havent got the thing back. Hence my temporary absence from the
Screenlit Vertigo corner, which I promise to make up for next issue. The
importance of having a 3D-card in todays demoscene is getting higher
and higher. At TakeOver 2000, the best 3 demos require all hardware
acceleration, and 2 of the best 3 intros too. And for a demo-reviewer,
nothing is more frustrating than being unable to watch the newest demos,
especially when everyone is praising them sky-high. Such was the case
with VIP2.
VIP2/Popsy Team is an invitation demo for the Very Important Party 2
in France, and it placed 1st at the TakeOver democompo. Popsy Team has
already proven that they can make fine demos, such as Minds Evolution
or Nothing New, but the reactions to VIP2 were extremely positive. The
best demo of 2000, These guys are god and Popsy Team are my new
heroes were among the messages heard in comp.sys.ibm.pc.demos. However,
things quickly changed when it was found out that the MP3-soundtrack,
was a song from Fear Factory, a commercial band. Neither the credits in
the demo nor the infofile mentioned Fear Factory, and although no-one
from Popsy Team was credited as the author of the music, the general
conclusion was: This Is A Rip! In a few days time, c.s.i.p.d was flooded
with almost 500 messages on the subject. I dont remember them all by
heart :, but Ill summarize the main points so dont flame me if I
dont quote something exactly.
Popsy Team admitted immediately that the soundtrack was from the Fear
Factory album Obsolete, and that they had used it because they liked
it so much. Fear Factory wasnt credited because the demo was finished
at TakeOver, and they had a lot of last-minute problems while the
deadline was coming closer. Rather than re-linking and re-synchronizing
the demo, they decided not to include the already drawn Fear Factory
credits, and to add these in the final version. The TakeOver audience
would surely recognize the song, or at least realize it was a
commercial track due to the high quality.
A lot of people were not happy with this explanation. If you work on a
demo for 2 months, then the credits could have been included much
sooner, even *before* you add your own credits. And a note in the
info-file does hardly takes a minute to write. Besides, several people
who were at TakeOver said that they had not recognized the music, as
some didnt even know Fear Factory, and thus thought that someone from
Popsy Team had made it. Here some Popsy Team members admitted that they
had been wrong, and mentioned that a final version with credits was
almost complete. But that wasnt the end of the discussion.
A smaller but significant part of c.s.i.p.d thought that is was simply
unfair to use commercial material at a democompo, even if you credit
the original authors. Commercial music is recorded at high-end studios
with expensive equipment, and a non-professional musician cannot reach
the same quality. Besides, using a commercial track when there are so
many good scene-modules out there is an insult to the trackers. Here
Popsy Team argued that they had made the demo just for fun, and that
winning a compo should not be the main goal of a demogroup. And thus
an unfair advantage is meaningless. Besides, it had been done before:
the demo State Of Mind/Bomb uses an MP3 from Senser, a commercial band,
and the demo is still at the top of the charts. That wasnt really a
good argument, because State Of Mind had caused an equally big
discussion when it was released, and the general consensus was that
Bomb got away with it this time, but that it shouldnt happen again.
Also most people did not agree with the compos-are-only-for-fun
argument, but thought it was OK to make a demo with commercial material
as long as you dont compete with it at a compo.
An even smaller part of c.s.i.p.d had the opinion that even the
demoscene should obey the copyright laws, and thus use no commercial
stuff without the explicit permission of the authors. They referred to
the Jay Newingham case, and argued that its hypocritical to protect
the work of scene musicians while at the same time allowing sceners to
use the works of real-life artists. If you dont know, Jay and his
Planet-X band had ripped music of Unreal/Pulse, Basehead and Purple
Motion/Future Crew, putting their own names on the tracks. A massive
mail-campaign resulted in the ripper being thrown out mp3.com. You can
read the full story in Grendels article in Pains February issue. The
more underground-minded part of the scene found this over the top, after
all the demoscene was born out of the warez and game-crackerscene, so we
shouldnt behave as lawyers.
A number of other topics was discussed in sub-threads, such as whether
making a demo with pirated tools is the same as ripping music or
graphics general conclusion: its not, whether there are any demos
with non-commercial MP3s Yes, a lot, so prohibiting the use of MP3s
is not an option, and why people enter compos for the big-screen
experience, for the fame, and some for the money.
-- Conclusion --
As the demoscene grows, its harder to reach consensus on topics as
this. Only a few rules are more or less agreed upon by everyone:
1 Always credit your sources. Putting your own name under some elses
work is a major crime in the scene, but not crediting is almost as bad.
Never assume that people will recognize it: not everyone listens to
you favorite band, not everyone has played this game no, not even
Quake, and not everyone knows that graphician. Give credit where
credit is due, both in the demo and the info-file.
2 Dont use commercial stuff without permission for demos at compos,
for the organizers could be held responsible for
copyright-infringement. Showing, distributing and even simply storing
your demo somewhere will be illegal, and while its your own risk if
you release it yourself not at a party, organizers do not want legal
troubles that could jeopardize future parties. As a matter of fact,
most parties have already a no copyrighted material-rule.
If they had know beforehand that people would make so much fuss about
it, they definitely would have added those credits, said a Popsy team
member G-hell or U2, I dont remember. And indeed, its often a
matter of not knowing the rules, combined with laziness or lack of
time. So if you hear of someone making a demo with ripped stuff, do
them a favor and warn them for the negative reaction.
--Seven
-- Related URLs --
The original VIP2 is at the moment in:
ftp.scene.org/incoming/TAKEOVER00/demo/vip2.zip 7164K
but will move sooner or later to: ftp.scene.org/pub/parties/2000
New version at the Popsy Team website: http://popsyteam.rtel.fr
The Pain website: http://pain.planet-d.net
The Root
How They Got Involved
By: Ari aka: Stalker
Sponsored By: Tryhuk
I was, am, and always will be a tracker. Tracking is an unrecognized,
unappreciated, and misunderstood art. Just like any other instrument,
tracking takes years of dedication and practice to get anywhere. Those
beginning years are what I will speak of in this article. My name is
Ariel Gross, and I used to go by Stalker, and I used to be a woman.
Just kidding about that last part.
It all started when I was 13 and I was browsing a local BBS. I found
an unusual music file called GRAVE.MOD ... I thought, what the hell is
a MOD? A good friend of mine that had just recently shelled out over
100 for a SoundBlaster Pro filled me in with the details. You could
actually download free software to make and listen to free music. It
was a mind-boggling idea, and I was into music, took piano lessons for a
year when I was four years old, and I thought what the heck, I can do
this music thing.
After about four months of tracking and digging as deep as possible in
an attempt to find more about MODs, I found the sweet haven for tracker
junkies like myself known as the demoscene. I went on a demo rampage,
downloading every Future Crew, Renaissance, and Triton release ever.
When I found out that these groups were using tracked music for their
demos, I simply had to be a part of a demo group. I couldnt stand it.
Another month after that, I was posting on several BBSes hailing the
coming of the new entertainment known as DEMOS, and I was contacted by
Zilym, a younger teenager that was a brilliant coder that was into
coding demos. Well, to make a long story short, about six months later
we formed Gentilezza, which turned into OTM, the SUPER DEMO POWERHOUSE
YOU KNOW AND LOVE. Ok, so we only released one demo, and the entire
thing was made in text, so it was really a textro... But I like to
glorify. Fellow OTM tracker Tek tek.dMusic.com and I would frequently
bounce music off each other, unknowingly pushing our musicality and
preparing ourselves for newer and better trackers, such as Impulse
Tracker, which is what I still make the majority of my music on today.
Then the day came where I found Psychic Monks. I wasnt too concerned
about the demos, but was completely dumbfounded by the musician -
Necros. After a couple attempts at contacting him, I was finally
successful, and he told me of an underground IRC hideaway known as
trax. Thank goodness for trax, because it gave me the opportunity to
form relationships with many brilliant musicians, and springboarded me
into a group known as FM, or Five Musicians. Later I found out that I
was Purple Motions replacement... Purple Motion being the musician for
Future Crew. Needless to say I was flabberghasted. I was a member of FM
for a short while until one day I woke up on the wrong side of life and
climsily quit the group. FM was my claim to fame, a name that people
trusted, a means for me to distribute some music and actually get
feedback.
Well, it has been many years since I have been a regular in trax,
been a member of a tracking group does Analogue count?, or really
given any serious thought to the demo scene. Its a sad truth.
However, my musical endeavors have not strayed. I work on music daily,
struggling to find time around my fiancee, my own business
www.absmot.com, and other silly hobbies that I have picked up over the
years wanna see my magic nose goblins collection? ... I am still
highly commited to tracking despite the thousands of dollars I have
poured into MIDI equipment. Tracking is an artform that has stolen my
heart and will never give it back. I was, am, and always will be a
tracker.
As last words, I would like to thank everyone in the tracking scene
for supporting me for so long, and a special shout out to Necros now
known as the Alpha Conspiracy, www.alphaconspiracy.com. Also check out
my most recent tracks at ari.dMusic.com or www.cosmicbaby.com.
--Ari aka: Stalker
In Tune
Blue Zones Robotic Electric Orchestra
By: Coplan and Setec
-- Introduction --
For those of you who never had the opportunity to read Trax Weekly, I
used to write this column for the legendary magazine. While I wrote for
TW, I did a review of Blue Zones Melodious World. During the review,
I fell in love with the Blue Zone style. The review lead me to request a
membership in the group Immortal Coil, and Blue Zone happily accepted.
When I picked up Static Line, I made a policy that I would not review
songs by people associated with Static Line or Immortal Coil. The good
thing about the folding of Immortal Coil is that, since I no longer have
a shared affiliation, I can review tunes by my former group-mates.
This song is not a new song. It is dated March 31, 1999. If I
remember correctly, thats when things started to die down with Immortal
Coil. The song was never released under the iC name, and Im not sure
it was even released at all. But, you can get it this month from the
Static Line website on our Current Issues page.
-- Coplan --
One of Blue Zones talents is that he can make musical gibberish
sound like musical beauty. Those of you familiar with his style will
notice the influences by Jean Michel Jarre, and the computer based
Demoscene. Its true, hes gotten the best of both worlds in all his
music. To this day, Blue Zone is one of my favorite scene musicians,
and this is one of my favorite tracks. It took me almost a year to
proove to myself that my feelings arent routed from biased. The peice
is just incredible.
Theres a lot going on in Robotic Electric Orchestra, and I fear
that I cant quite understand it all, nor can I communicate to you why
its just such a beautiful song.
The tune opens with a haunting bunch of riffs, very little base at
all this is why I call it haunting. Then he kicks in with a solid
base line though very subtle and some percussion. Its at this point
that we begin to see the complexity of the Blue Zone style. I can mute
what seems to be the lead instrument channels 17, 18 and 26, and I
still have a solid peice of music. Thats what interests me! Like a
hand woven blanket, you can remove one strand, and the blanket will
still hold together. But this is no quilt.
One of the great aspects about this song is the fact that tune flows
from one part to another. There are repetative riffs that carry from
one part of the song into the next, and then faded out as a new lead
instrument is introduced. Start at order 13 for a demonstration. You
hear what could be the chorus to the song: some very high pitched synths
doing a simple riff. Then at order 14, you have a slightly lower
pitched synth come in with long, pitch sliding notes sliding up,
sliding down, whatever seems fit. Then, at order 18, the sliding
synths come in with a different riff so that Blue Zone can carry into
the next part which starts at order 20, which is an outro riff, one that
signals the near end of the song. But the very end of the song sounds
like it could be the beginning of the song. I got a wierd idea that the
song could be played backwards or forwards without loosing any quality
to the song. I havnt officially tried it, but I wouldnt be surprised
if it sounded just as wonderful backwards.
I find it hard to explain why I love this song so much. I can only
give you a minor glimpse with what I just wrote. But the truth of it
all is that even the greatest of musical critics which I am not would
have trouble explaining why things sound good. In this case, I feel
that if I were to continue dissecting the song, you wouldnt learn
anything more, so I leave you with this comment:
Robotic Electric Orchestra is simply a song that everyone needs to
hear to understand its power. Its a complex song with simple parts,
all combined in a tapestry of sound. It has a quality that can be
matched by few, but one that many have tried to achieve.
Until next time.
--Coplan
Song Information:
Title: Robotic Electric Orchestra
Author: Blue Zone
Filename zipped/unzipped: bz-reo.zip / bz-reo.it IT 2.14
File Size zipped/unzipped: 1.4 MB / 1.5 MB
Source: http://ic.l7.net/statline/current.htm
In Tune is a regular column dedicated to the review of original and
singular works by fellow trackers. It is to be used as a tool to expand
your listening and writing horizons, but should not be used as a general
rating system. Coplans and Setecs opinions are not the opinions of
the Static Line Staff.
If you have heard a song you would like to recommend either your own,
or another persons, We can be contacted through e-mail useing the
addresses found in the closing notes. Please do not send files attached
to e-mail without first contacting us. Thank you!
The Listener
Music from Smash, Twilton, Pretty Boy Cross Over
By: Tryhuk
Sorry people, but I had finals this month, I didnt find time to
write a bigger review, so this month it will be a bit shorter. Also
during holidays I dont expect to make big downloads, so if somebody
wants to take care during upcoming 2-3 months until I get a job,
feel free to write something for this column.
-- Other tracks --
Norfair belongs amongst my favorite musicians, and one of the main
things I like in his music are the awesome leads. With Lair of souls,
Norfair follows the tradition he had in anxiety together with Hunz.
Well, those leads are so nice. The style of the track is, again,
somewhere between funk and jazz.
http://www.kosmic.org Lair of souls xm and mp3 version available
One of the tracks that really hit me this month is Oranje bloom by
Pretty Boy Cross Over released at monotonik. Youll immediately notice
a bit of unusual percussion, well used resonant filters and distance-like
attempt in construction of the ambient atmosphere and its minimalistic
changes. Same way go main instruments, which play a simple and repetitive
melody, but it works. It is a VERY nice track.
http://www.mono211.com pretty-boy-crossover-oranje-bloom.mp3 5.8mb
Another track that touched me from the first sound: Echoes colide
with upcoming sounds and form a melody in the style somewhere between
Andreas Saag, Esem and T.Wilton. It has fresh and novel sound,
interesting ideas and stable rhythm. Second good consecutive release
by Twilton. Please grab Room for one!
http://www.noisemusic.org twilton-noiseroomfor1.mp3 4mb 2000
I just had to visit mp3.com homepage of Smash, where he has mp3
versions of some of his tracks. One I havent heard is Once more,
a dark jazzy trip-hop with a lot of Last train atmosphere, but
evolving in a different way. Extremely good music!
http://mp3.com/superjazz oncemore.mp3 4.3mb 2000 tlt rerelease
Last track I want to mention is Trust you, trust me by Twister.
Although it is assigned as dnb, it has signs of ambient music with the
background soundscapes and significant echoes, that give to the track
more full feeling, but they dont take over it. Also dnb line shows
signs of being influenced by modern electronic and breakbeat things,
and some of the occasional sounds will remind you also on Portishead.
http://www.tdr.scene.org TOKYO173.ZIP mp3 7.2mb 5.6.2000
--Tryhuk
Retro Tunage
Colors of Neptune by Ari
By: Tryhuk
In the beginning, I had problems accepting music from a guy who was
called Stalker, later Ari. His music has weird progression, some tracks
are very eccentric by everything that can be eccentric. Still, once you
accept this style, you find out that his music is beautiful.
Among his best releases definitely belongs his analogue releases
Pour toi, belle and Colors of Neptune. Both tracks have nice
leads, although you cant always exactly say what can be considered
as the main instrument. As i said, I love the way the leads move
and every time I listen to it, I discover a part I didnt remember
and I just wonder how I could miss it. But thats not all, Ari also
works good with tempo and breaks, and his percussion is quite evolved
that was, IMHO, his weakest point in his oldest releases and that
makes the track look shorter than it is. And style? It just cant be
described. It is ambient, sometimes jazzy, a bit influenced by chip
tunes, experimental and above all original. Its a nice music with
lovely leads and chords, that will touch your heart.
I know that this review does no justice, but trust me - get this music.
Song Information:
Title: Colors of Neptune
Author: Ari
Release date: 1997
Length: 3m 27s 3m 21s trimmed
Filename zipped/unzipped: ari-nept.zip / ari-nept.it
File Size zipped/unzipped: 520kb / 818kb
Source: ftp.scene.org/pub/music/groups/analogue/...
--Tryhuk
Intro Watch
Transagression 3 by MFX
By: Gekko
Winner 64k intro at Plutonium 2000, Finland
MFX won fame for their realtime raytracing intros. They havent
released such an intro for a longer while. Now they are back with one,
probably under inspiration of recent fine raytracing intros - Heaven 7
by Exceed, for example.
The intro starts with a big subsampling bug big white squares, and
similar artifacts appear through the intro. The screen intentionally
gets boxy several times, this hides the bugs a bit.
The music is a spinning, fast house track. Its tempo gives the mood of
the intro although I must say that its not my style at all.
The intro is very minimal there are no texts, poems, credits,
greetings, logos, pictures: it is plainly a sequence of raytracing
scenes. The camera is moving very fast, it follows the tempo of the
music. Some of the scenes are: a mushroom, a flying eye, a glass and
capsules, a scene with bouncing sphere looks alike to radiosity, but I
dont think it is, a snowman standing in a little temple or?. There
are countless other scenes, too.
The music is plain and fast one can say the same for the video.
Transagression 3 is kind of raw but very energetic.
--Gekko
Scene Dirt
News Rumors
By: Coplan
-- scene.org Hard Drive Is Full --
There have been reports that the famous scene service is having
storage problems. For more information, mail staff@scene.org.
-- GFX Needed for a 100kb Game --
Gedeon of Paradise Studios is looking for some 2D graphics for a
100kb game to be presented at Inscene 2000 next week. E-mail Gedeon
for details: gedeon@cyberdude.com
-- Underground Conference 4gw Results --
The results for the Underground Conference have been posted. For
information, visit the results page. Anyone got an English
Translation?
http://uc4gw.untergrund.net/results.txt german
-- Sista Vip Looking for Pixlers --
Sista Vip is looking t make some demos, bus seems to be short on
artists. If youre interested, take a look at their website, or contact
Thx: SistaVip@yahoo.com
http://www.sistavip.exit.de/
--Coplan
Scene Dirt is a semi-regular column offering the latest tidbits of
information to its readers. If you have any bits of information that
you think should be here, contact coplan coplan.ic@rcn.com and offer
as much information as possible.
Call to Keyboards
New Topic: Music Packs Out-Of-Date
By: Coplan
-- New Topic: Music Packs Out-Of-Date --
I made a discovery several months ago: Phluid is still alive!
When Immortal Coil broke up, a long time friend of mine, Subliminal,
joined the legendary group. I was quite surprised to know it still
existed.
For those of you who may be new to the scene, or for the ignorant,
Phluid has been around for many years. Its one of the old skool
music groups, like Kosmic. They are the musical brance of ACiD, which
is well known for its ANSI and ASCII art of old. At one time, Phluid
was a great music group, and perhaps they still are. But I couldnt
tell you, because I dont have the means to download their music packs.
Phluid has a very interesting philosophy: If you release music in
packs, people will get exposed to the less known trackers as they
download the packs for the well known trackers. A keen philosophy, and
that is how many of Phluids trackers ever got recognized in the
mainstream. And it worked too, but only because at the time this trend
was started, mods were maybe 2 and 3k.
So I went to the Phluid website, because I was curious about the new
music from Subliminal. I fear that I was unable to download his song,
because it was part of a huge music pack. Actually, the July pack is
divided into two packs, each about 26 MB. Unfortunately, both packs are
labeled the same: These packs include releases from our new member,
Ubik, and also a guest release from Rimbo. Musicians featured in this
pack include: Bibby // JelloKnee // Kneko // kXmode // :m.zero //
patientzero // RS3 // Subliminal // Troll // Ubik.
Very respectible bunch of musicians, but I dont have the resources to
download a 26MB pack, let alone two of them. Tracks are very large
these days. Ive seen tracks out there that are larger than 5 MB each,
and it is assumed that these are the tracks that make these packs so
huge. Unfortunately, I only have a 56k connection, and too much other
stuff to be doing. I wouldnt mind downloading a pack once, but every
month or two?
The method is a bit out-of-date, dont you think?
Youre opinions here, please.
--Coplan
Link List
Featured Site: Fusion Music Crew
http://members.home.nl/cyrex/
Writeup By: Coplan
I havnt had too much chance to browse around, but this is a new group
from what I understand. The web page is clean and easy to navigate.
The group is small, but it looks like its got a lot of potential. They
got quite a few releases at the moment, so jump on over there and check
them out.
Demo Groups:
3g Design..............................http://3gdesign.cjb.net
Aardbei.....................................http://aardbei.com
Acid Rain..............................http://surf.to/acidrain
Agravedict........................http://www.agravedict.art.pl
Anakata..............................http://www.anakata.art.pl
ANDESA Soft International..................http://andesa.da.ru
Astral..............................http://astral.scene-hu.com
Astroidea........................http://astroidea.scene-hu.com
AtomiK....................................http://atomik.ini.hu
Bomb..................................http://bomb.planet-d.net
BlaBla..............................http://blabla.planet-d.net
Blasphemy..............................http://www.blasphemy.dk
Byterapers.....................http://www.byterapers.scene.org
Calodox.................................http://www.calodox.org
Chrome..............................http://chrome.scene-hu.com
CoPro.....................................http://www.copro.org
Damage...................................http://come.to/damage
Dance...................................http://dance.flipp.net
Defacto 2..............................http://www.defacto2.net
Dolops......................... ........http://dolOps.scene.hu
Exceed...........................http://www.inf.bme.hu/exceed
Fobia Design...........................http://www.fd.scene.org
GODS...................................http://www.idf.net/gods
Green.....................................http://green.dyns.cx
Grif........................http://arrabonet.gyor.hu/rattgrif
Haujobb......................................http://haujobb.de
Hellcore............................http://www.hellcore.art.pl
IJSKAST.............................http://www.ijskast.cjb.net
Immortals..............................http://imrt.home.ml.org
Infuse...................................http://www.infuse.org
Just For Fun...........................http://jff.planet-d.net
Kilobite...............................http://kilobite.cjb.net
Kolor................................http://www.kaoz.org/kolor
Kooma.....................................http://www.kooma.com
Label zero.........................http://labelzero.pganet.com
Mandula.........................http://www.inf.bme.hu/mandula
Monar................ftp://amber.bti.pl/pub/scene/distro/monar
Nextempire..................http://members.xoom.com/NEXTEMPIRE
Ninja Gefilus.........http://www.angelfire.com/or/ninjagefilus
Noice.....................................http://www.noice.org
Orion..............................http://orion.arfstudios.org
* Popsy Team............................http://popsyteam.rtel.fr
Quad........................................http://www.quad.nl
Rage........................................http://www.rage.nu
Replay.......................http://www.shine.scene.org/replay
Retro A.C...........................http://www.retroac.cjb.net
Rhyme................................http://rhyme.scene-hu.com
Skytech team............................http://www.skytech.org
Sunflower.......................http://sunflower.opengl.org.pl
Suspend......................http://www.optimus.wroc.pl/rappid
Tehdas...................................http://come.to/tehdas
Tesko..........................http://www.scentral.demon.co.uk
The Black Lotus.............................http://www.tbl.org
The Digital Artists Wired Nation.http://digitalartists.cjb.net
The Lost Souls...............................http://www.tls.no
TPOLM.....................................http://www.tpolm.com
Trauma.................................http://sauna.net/trauma
T-Rex.....................................http://www.t-rex.org
Unik.....................................http://www.unik.ca.tc
Universe..........................http://universe.planet-d.net
Vantage..................................http://www.vantage.ch
Music Groups:
Aisth.....................................http://www.aisth.com
Aural planet........................http://www.auralplanet.com
Azure..................................http://azure.zerion.com
Blacktron Music Production...........http://www.d-zign.com/bmp
Chill..........................http://www.bentdesign.com/chill
Chippendales......................http://www.sunpoint.net/cnd
Chiptune...............................http://www.chiptune.com
Da Jormas................................http://www.jormas.com
Fabtrax......http://www.cyberverse.com/boris/fabtrax/home.htm
Five Musicians.........................http://www.fm.scene.org
Fridge...........................http://www.ssmedion.de/fridge
* Fusion Music Crew................http://members.home.nl/cyrex/
Goodstuff..........................http://artloop.de/goodstuff
Ignorance.............................http://www.ignorance.org
Immortal Coil.............................http://www.ic.L7.net
Intense...........................http://intense.ignorance.org
Jecoute.................................http://jecoute.cjb.net
Kosmic Free Music Foundation.............http://www.kosmic.org
Level-d.................................http://www.level-d.com
Miasmah.............................http://www.miasmah.cjb.net
Milk.......................................http://milk.sgic.fi
Mah Music.............................http://come.to/mah.music
Maniacs of noise...............http://home.worldonline.nl/mon
MAZs Sound homepage.............http://www.th-zwickau.de/maz
Moplayaz..........................http://ssmedion.de/moplayaz
Mono211.................................http://www.mono211.com
Morbid Minds..............http://www.raveordie.com/morbidminds
Noise................................http://www.noisemusic.org
Noerror......................http://www.error-404.com/noerror/
One Touch Records......................http://otr.planet-d.net
Park..................................http://park.planet-d.net
Radical Rhythms.....http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/merrelli/rr
RBi Music.............................htpp://www.rbi-music.com
Ruff Engine................http://members.xoom.com/ruffengine
SHR8M......................................http://1st.to/shr8m
Sound Devotion................http://sugarbomb.x2o.net/soundev
Soundstate.........................http://listen.to/soundstate
Sunlikamelo-D...........http://www.error-404.com/sunlikamelo-d
Suspect Records........................http://www.tande.com/sr
Tequila........................http://www.defacto2.net/tequila
Tempo................................http://tempomusic.cjb.net
Theralite...........................http://theralite.avalon.hr
Tokyo Dawn Records........................http://tdr.scene.org
UltraBeat.........................http://www.innerverse.com/ub
Vibrants................................http://www.vibrants.dk
Wiremaniacs.........................http://www.wiremaniacs.com
Others:
Arf!Studios..........................http://www.arfstudios.org
Calodox demolinks exchange.....http://calodox.planet-d.net/cde
coders..................................http://coderz.cjb.net
Comic Pirates.........................http://scene-central.com
Demonews Express.........http://www.teeselink.demon.nl/express
Demo fanclub........................http://jerware.org/fanclub
Demoscene.org news forum..............http://www.demoscene.org
Digital Undergrounds.....................http://dug.iscool.net
Doose charts...............................http://www.doose.dk
Dreams2 CD.........................http://nl.scene.org/dreams2
Freax...................http://freax.scene-hu.com/mainmenu.htm
GfxZone............................http://gfxzone.planet-d.net
Hugi size-compo...............http://home.pages.de/hugi-compo
Orange Juice.........................http://ojuice.citeweb.net
PC-demos explained.....http://www.oldskool.org/demos/explained
Pixel...................................http://pixel.scene.org
Scenet....................................http://www.scenet.de
Sunray..............................http://sunray.planet-d.net
Swiss List.................http://www.profzone.ch/vantage/list
Swiss Scene Server.......................http://www.chscene.ch
TakeOver................................http://www.takeover.nl
Textmode Demo Archive.................http://tmda.planet-d.net
Hungarian scene page...................http://www.scene-hu.com
Trebel...................................http://www.trebel.org
Zen of Tracking.........................http://surf.to/the-imm
DiskMags / SceneMags:
Amber...............................http://amber.bti.pl/dimag
Amnesia...............http://amnesia-dist.future.easyspace.com
Demojournal....................http://demojournal.planet-d.net
Dragon......................http://www.wasp.w3.pl/pages/dragon
Fleur................................http://fleur.scene-hu.com
Heroin...................................http://www.heroin.net
Hugi........................http://home.pages.de/hugidownload
Music Massage......................http://www.scene.cz/massage
Planet Chartmag...........http://www.agravedict.art.pl/planet/
Pain..................................http://pain.planet-d.net
Scenial...........................http://www.scenial.scene.org
Static Line......................http://www.ic.l7.net/statline
Total Disaster...................http://www.totaldisaster.w.pl
TUHB.......................................http://www.tuhb.org
WildMag...........................http://www.wildmag.notrix.de
FTPs:
Amber.......................................ftp://amber.bti.pl
Cyberbox.....................................ftp://cyberbox.de
Flerp.....................................ftp://flerp.scene.hu
Scene.org..................................ftp://ftp.scene.org
Skynet archive.................ftp://acid2.stack.nl/pub/skynet
ACiD2 Archive.............................ftp://acid2.stack.nl
Editor: Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan.ic@rcn.com
Assistant Editor: Gekko / Gergely Kutenich / gk@scene.hu
Columnists: Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan.ic@rcn.com
Dilvish / Eric Hamilton / dilvie@yahoo.com
Gekko / Gergely Kutenich / gk@scene.hu
Louis Gorenfeld / gorenfeld@vrone.net
Setec / Jesper Pederson / jesped@post.tele.dk
Seven / Stefaan / Stefaan.VanNieuwenhuyze@rug.ac.be
SiN / Ian Haskin / sin@netcom.ca
Subliminal / Matt Friedly / sub@plazma.net
Tryhuk / Tryhuk Vojtech / xtryhu00@stud.fee.vutbr.cz
Virt / virt@bellsouth.net
Technical Consult: Draggy / Nicolas St. Pierre / draggy@kosmic.org
Jim / Jim Nicholson / jim@kosmic.org
Static Line on the Web: http://www.ic.l7.net/statline
ftp://flerp.scene.hu/scene/DiskMag/StaticLine
To subscribe to the Static Line mailing list, send an e-mail message
to majordomo@kosmic.org with subscribe staticline your e-mail in
the message text. You will then be asked to confirm your addition to the
mailing list. Expect a new issue during the first weekend of each
month.
To unsubscribe from the mailing list, send an e-mail message to
majordomo@kosmic.org with unsubscribe staticline your e-mail in
the message text. Your subscription will then be removed.
If you would like to contribute an article to Static Line, be aware
that we will format your article with two spaces at the beginning and one
space at the end of each line. Please avoid foul language and high ascii
characters. Contributions should be mailed to Coplan
coplan.ic@rcn.com.
See you next month!
-eof---------------------
// Monthly Scene E-Zine 135 Subscribers
Table Of Contents
Opening:
Message From the Editor
Letters From Our Readers
Features:
Takeover 2000 -- 64k Intro Competition With Comments
The VIP2 debate -- Ripping and Crediting
The Root -- How They Got Involved This Month: Stalker
Columns:
Music:
In Tune -- Blue Zones Robotic Electric Orchestra
The Listener -- Music from Smash, Twilton, Pretty Boy Cross Over
Retro Tunage -- Colors of Neptune by Ari
Demo:
Intro Watch -- Transagression 3 by MFX
General:
Scene Dirt -- News Rumors
Call to Keyboards -- Music Packs Out-Of-Date
Link List -- Get Somewhere in the Scene
Closing:
Credits
Message From the Editor
Talk about busy. This issue was whipped up with a weed-whacker minutes
before deadline.
Ok, no really. But it was a close one.
With everything going on in my life, Static Line is still my pride and
joy, and I dont see anything that will change that. I have a great
staff Gekko and Tryhuk both work overtime to provide quality articles,
and even when hes busy, Seven still writes something. The readers are
great as well. Thanks to all of you who wrote to express your support
and prayers for my mother. Her kidney was removed taking out most of
the cancer, but shes not yet. Things are going okay, but she starts
her Immuno-Therapy treatments this week, so we got a ways to go.
But, this isnt a group therapy session, so lets get onto the part you
guys really care about!
We got a packed issue this month. Aside from all our regular columns,
we have some comments about Takeover 2000 from Gekko. We also have more
about the VIP2 Demo debate The classic ripping debate with a twist.
We also have another article for The Root sponsored by Tryhuk: This
month, Ari writes.
Got a few new subscribers this month, and Im glad to see that. In the
upcoming months, youll see new changes to the way things work
hopefully, as we now have access to our very own server. Im not
going to share too many details, but be forwarned: The mailing list
will move soon. Those of you already subscribed wont have to
resubscribe, but the application process may change a bit. Ill keep
everyone posted.
--Coplan
Takeover 2000
64k Intro Competition With Comments
By: Gekko
The previous Takeover brought several of the finest intros of 1999 I
was a bit disappointed to see the entries to the intro compo this year.
Here follows a very brief summary on all of them.
-- The results --
1. 104 points pluxity by distance tomic warp / tpolm unik
2. 78 points shortest route by analog44, dipe, flow rieha / array
3. 78 points soepkip10 by ... / kontvlokken posse
4. 75 points hello by mnemonix and friends / kaleido
Pluxity by Unik+TPOLM
req: Windows/DOS
ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/incoming/TAKEOVER00/in64/pluxity.zip
Fine and well-designed intro: nice colors, simple flatshaded objects,
halftones, wireframe rendering. It is however not unik at all. There
are no original parts, but all is arranged very neatly. The code is
slow.
Shortest Route by Array
req: Windows 3d card DirectX
ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/incoming/TAKEOVER00/in64/a-sroute.zip
This intro is the first release of Array. It is only 36 kilobytes in
size and it is quite short. The music is a simple but fine chiptune.
Probably the weakest point of the intro is the design. There is a cheap
blue-green setup from the beginning till the end. Most of the time there
are 3d effects with spheres and cubes. At the end a fine morph is shown
it looks something like a waving flag and it is very impressive. If only
they had spent more time on the outlook.
Soepkip 10 by Kontvlokken Posse
req: Windows 3d card OpenGL
ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/incoming/TAKEOVER00/in64/soepkip10.zip
Simple intro in oldschool style. There is not too much to say about this
one. The oldschool effects have been the same for about 15 years now.
Hello by Kaleido
req: Windows DirectX
ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/incoming/TAKEOVER00/in64/kaleido-hello.zip
This is a mediocre intro. The design is bad, despite all efforts eg.
the transparent squares. The colors are bad, the same for the font.
There are simple particle fields, plasma/tunnel things and friends:
these somehow dont look fine and they are cliches. There are two more
original effects: light glow rings and a waterfall. The waterfall is
quite spectacular. The intro is spiced up with jokes: the ring on the
phone-part and the solar eclipse effect.
--Gekko
The VIP2 debate
Ripping and Crediting
By: Seven
Yesterday, I took the last exam of my student life. Well, lets hope
it was the last one, cause we dont know the results yet, but Im fairly
positive about it. One easy way to force yourself to study a lot is to
bring your PC to the shop with the request to put a 3D-card in it, as I
still havent got the thing back. Hence my temporary absence from the
Screenlit Vertigo corner, which I promise to make up for next issue. The
importance of having a 3D-card in todays demoscene is getting higher
and higher. At TakeOver 2000, the best 3 demos require all hardware
acceleration, and 2 of the best 3 intros too. And for a demo-reviewer,
nothing is more frustrating than being unable to watch the newest demos,
especially when everyone is praising them sky-high. Such was the case
with VIP2.
VIP2/Popsy Team is an invitation demo for the Very Important Party 2
in France, and it placed 1st at the TakeOver democompo. Popsy Team has
already proven that they can make fine demos, such as Minds Evolution
or Nothing New, but the reactions to VIP2 were extremely positive. The
best demo of 2000, These guys are god and Popsy Team are my new
heroes were among the messages heard in comp.sys.ibm.pc.demos. However,
things quickly changed when it was found out that the MP3-soundtrack,
was a song from Fear Factory, a commercial band. Neither the credits in
the demo nor the infofile mentioned Fear Factory, and although no-one
from Popsy Team was credited as the author of the music, the general
conclusion was: This Is A Rip! In a few days time, c.s.i.p.d was flooded
with almost 500 messages on the subject. I dont remember them all by
heart :, but Ill summarize the main points so dont flame me if I
dont quote something exactly.
Popsy Team admitted immediately that the soundtrack was from the Fear
Factory album Obsolete, and that they had used it because they liked
it so much. Fear Factory wasnt credited because the demo was finished
at TakeOver, and they had a lot of last-minute problems while the
deadline was coming closer. Rather than re-linking and re-synchronizing
the demo, they decided not to include the already drawn Fear Factory
credits, and to add these in the final version. The TakeOver audience
would surely recognize the song, or at least realize it was a
commercial track due to the high quality.
A lot of people were not happy with this explanation. If you work on a
demo for 2 months, then the credits could have been included much
sooner, even *before* you add your own credits. And a note in the
info-file does hardly takes a minute to write. Besides, several people
who were at TakeOver said that they had not recognized the music, as
some didnt even know Fear Factory, and thus thought that someone from
Popsy Team had made it. Here some Popsy Team members admitted that they
had been wrong, and mentioned that a final version with credits was
almost complete. But that wasnt the end of the discussion.
A smaller but significant part of c.s.i.p.d thought that is was simply
unfair to use commercial material at a democompo, even if you credit
the original authors. Commercial music is recorded at high-end studios
with expensive equipment, and a non-professional musician cannot reach
the same quality. Besides, using a commercial track when there are so
many good scene-modules out there is an insult to the trackers. Here
Popsy Team argued that they had made the demo just for fun, and that
winning a compo should not be the main goal of a demogroup. And thus
an unfair advantage is meaningless. Besides, it had been done before:
the demo State Of Mind/Bomb uses an MP3 from Senser, a commercial band,
and the demo is still at the top of the charts. That wasnt really a
good argument, because State Of Mind had caused an equally big
discussion when it was released, and the general consensus was that
Bomb got away with it this time, but that it shouldnt happen again.
Also most people did not agree with the compos-are-only-for-fun
argument, but thought it was OK to make a demo with commercial material
as long as you dont compete with it at a compo.
An even smaller part of c.s.i.p.d had the opinion that even the
demoscene should obey the copyright laws, and thus use no commercial
stuff without the explicit permission of the authors. They referred to
the Jay Newingham case, and argued that its hypocritical to protect
the work of scene musicians while at the same time allowing sceners to
use the works of real-life artists. If you dont know, Jay and his
Planet-X band had ripped music of Unreal/Pulse, Basehead and Purple
Motion/Future Crew, putting their own names on the tracks. A massive
mail-campaign resulted in the ripper being thrown out mp3.com. You can
read the full story in Grendels article in Pains February issue. The
more underground-minded part of the scene found this over the top, after
all the demoscene was born out of the warez and game-crackerscene, so we
shouldnt behave as lawyers.
A number of other topics was discussed in sub-threads, such as whether
making a demo with pirated tools is the same as ripping music or
graphics general conclusion: its not, whether there are any demos
with non-commercial MP3s Yes, a lot, so prohibiting the use of MP3s
is not an option, and why people enter compos for the big-screen
experience, for the fame, and some for the money.
-- Conclusion --
As the demoscene grows, its harder to reach consensus on topics as
this. Only a few rules are more or less agreed upon by everyone:
1 Always credit your sources. Putting your own name under some elses
work is a major crime in the scene, but not crediting is almost as bad.
Never assume that people will recognize it: not everyone listens to
you favorite band, not everyone has played this game no, not even
Quake, and not everyone knows that graphician. Give credit where
credit is due, both in the demo and the info-file.
2 Dont use commercial stuff without permission for demos at compos,
for the organizers could be held responsible for
copyright-infringement. Showing, distributing and even simply storing
your demo somewhere will be illegal, and while its your own risk if
you release it yourself not at a party, organizers do not want legal
troubles that could jeopardize future parties. As a matter of fact,
most parties have already a no copyrighted material-rule.
If they had know beforehand that people would make so much fuss about
it, they definitely would have added those credits, said a Popsy team
member G-hell or U2, I dont remember. And indeed, its often a
matter of not knowing the rules, combined with laziness or lack of
time. So if you hear of someone making a demo with ripped stuff, do
them a favor and warn them for the negative reaction.
--Seven
-- Related URLs --
The original VIP2 is at the moment in:
ftp.scene.org/incoming/TAKEOVER00/demo/vip2.zip 7164K
but will move sooner or later to: ftp.scene.org/pub/parties/2000
New version at the Popsy Team website: http://popsyteam.rtel.fr
The Pain website: http://pain.planet-d.net
The Root
How They Got Involved
By: Ari aka: Stalker
Sponsored By: Tryhuk
I was, am, and always will be a tracker. Tracking is an unrecognized,
unappreciated, and misunderstood art. Just like any other instrument,
tracking takes years of dedication and practice to get anywhere. Those
beginning years are what I will speak of in this article. My name is
Ariel Gross, and I used to go by Stalker, and I used to be a woman.
Just kidding about that last part.
It all started when I was 13 and I was browsing a local BBS. I found
an unusual music file called GRAVE.MOD ... I thought, what the hell is
a MOD? A good friend of mine that had just recently shelled out over
100 for a SoundBlaster Pro filled me in with the details. You could
actually download free software to make and listen to free music. It
was a mind-boggling idea, and I was into music, took piano lessons for a
year when I was four years old, and I thought what the heck, I can do
this music thing.
After about four months of tracking and digging as deep as possible in
an attempt to find more about MODs, I found the sweet haven for tracker
junkies like myself known as the demoscene. I went on a demo rampage,
downloading every Future Crew, Renaissance, and Triton release ever.
When I found out that these groups were using tracked music for their
demos, I simply had to be a part of a demo group. I couldnt stand it.
Another month after that, I was posting on several BBSes hailing the
coming of the new entertainment known as DEMOS, and I was contacted by
Zilym, a younger teenager that was a brilliant coder that was into
coding demos. Well, to make a long story short, about six months later
we formed Gentilezza, which turned into OTM, the SUPER DEMO POWERHOUSE
YOU KNOW AND LOVE. Ok, so we only released one demo, and the entire
thing was made in text, so it was really a textro... But I like to
glorify. Fellow OTM tracker Tek tek.dMusic.com and I would frequently
bounce music off each other, unknowingly pushing our musicality and
preparing ourselves for newer and better trackers, such as Impulse
Tracker, which is what I still make the majority of my music on today.
Then the day came where I found Psychic Monks. I wasnt too concerned
about the demos, but was completely dumbfounded by the musician -
Necros. After a couple attempts at contacting him, I was finally
successful, and he told me of an underground IRC hideaway known as
trax. Thank goodness for trax, because it gave me the opportunity to
form relationships with many brilliant musicians, and springboarded me
into a group known as FM, or Five Musicians. Later I found out that I
was Purple Motions replacement... Purple Motion being the musician for
Future Crew. Needless to say I was flabberghasted. I was a member of FM
for a short while until one day I woke up on the wrong side of life and
climsily quit the group. FM was my claim to fame, a name that people
trusted, a means for me to distribute some music and actually get
feedback.
Well, it has been many years since I have been a regular in trax,
been a member of a tracking group does Analogue count?, or really
given any serious thought to the demo scene. Its a sad truth.
However, my musical endeavors have not strayed. I work on music daily,
struggling to find time around my fiancee, my own business
www.absmot.com, and other silly hobbies that I have picked up over the
years wanna see my magic nose goblins collection? ... I am still
highly commited to tracking despite the thousands of dollars I have
poured into MIDI equipment. Tracking is an artform that has stolen my
heart and will never give it back. I was, am, and always will be a
tracker.
As last words, I would like to thank everyone in the tracking scene
for supporting me for so long, and a special shout out to Necros now
known as the Alpha Conspiracy, www.alphaconspiracy.com. Also check out
my most recent tracks at ari.dMusic.com or www.cosmicbaby.com.
--Ari aka: Stalker
In Tune
Blue Zones Robotic Electric Orchestra
By: Coplan and Setec
-- Introduction --
For those of you who never had the opportunity to read Trax Weekly, I
used to write this column for the legendary magazine. While I wrote for
TW, I did a review of Blue Zones Melodious World. During the review,
I fell in love with the Blue Zone style. The review lead me to request a
membership in the group Immortal Coil, and Blue Zone happily accepted.
When I picked up Static Line, I made a policy that I would not review
songs by people associated with Static Line or Immortal Coil. The good
thing about the folding of Immortal Coil is that, since I no longer have
a shared affiliation, I can review tunes by my former group-mates.
This song is not a new song. It is dated March 31, 1999. If I
remember correctly, thats when things started to die down with Immortal
Coil. The song was never released under the iC name, and Im not sure
it was even released at all. But, you can get it this month from the
Static Line website on our Current Issues page.
-- Coplan --
One of Blue Zones talents is that he can make musical gibberish
sound like musical beauty. Those of you familiar with his style will
notice the influences by Jean Michel Jarre, and the computer based
Demoscene. Its true, hes gotten the best of both worlds in all his
music. To this day, Blue Zone is one of my favorite scene musicians,
and this is one of my favorite tracks. It took me almost a year to
proove to myself that my feelings arent routed from biased. The peice
is just incredible.
Theres a lot going on in Robotic Electric Orchestra, and I fear
that I cant quite understand it all, nor can I communicate to you why
its just such a beautiful song.
The tune opens with a haunting bunch of riffs, very little base at
all this is why I call it haunting. Then he kicks in with a solid
base line though very subtle and some percussion. Its at this point
that we begin to see the complexity of the Blue Zone style. I can mute
what seems to be the lead instrument channels 17, 18 and 26, and I
still have a solid peice of music. Thats what interests me! Like a
hand woven blanket, you can remove one strand, and the blanket will
still hold together. But this is no quilt.
One of the great aspects about this song is the fact that tune flows
from one part to another. There are repetative riffs that carry from
one part of the song into the next, and then faded out as a new lead
instrument is introduced. Start at order 13 for a demonstration. You
hear what could be the chorus to the song: some very high pitched synths
doing a simple riff. Then at order 14, you have a slightly lower
pitched synth come in with long, pitch sliding notes sliding up,
sliding down, whatever seems fit. Then, at order 18, the sliding
synths come in with a different riff so that Blue Zone can carry into
the next part which starts at order 20, which is an outro riff, one that
signals the near end of the song. But the very end of the song sounds
like it could be the beginning of the song. I got a wierd idea that the
song could be played backwards or forwards without loosing any quality
to the song. I havnt officially tried it, but I wouldnt be surprised
if it sounded just as wonderful backwards.
I find it hard to explain why I love this song so much. I can only
give you a minor glimpse with what I just wrote. But the truth of it
all is that even the greatest of musical critics which I am not would
have trouble explaining why things sound good. In this case, I feel
that if I were to continue dissecting the song, you wouldnt learn
anything more, so I leave you with this comment:
Robotic Electric Orchestra is simply a song that everyone needs to
hear to understand its power. Its a complex song with simple parts,
all combined in a tapestry of sound. It has a quality that can be
matched by few, but one that many have tried to achieve.
Until next time.
--Coplan
Song Information:
Title: Robotic Electric Orchestra
Author: Blue Zone
Filename zipped/unzipped: bz-reo.zip / bz-reo.it IT 2.14
File Size zipped/unzipped: 1.4 MB / 1.5 MB
Source: http://ic.l7.net/statline/current.htm
In Tune is a regular column dedicated to the review of original and
singular works by fellow trackers. It is to be used as a tool to expand
your listening and writing horizons, but should not be used as a general
rating system. Coplans and Setecs opinions are not the opinions of
the Static Line Staff.
If you have heard a song you would like to recommend either your own,
or another persons, We can be contacted through e-mail useing the
addresses found in the closing notes. Please do not send files attached
to e-mail without first contacting us. Thank you!
The Listener
Music from Smash, Twilton, Pretty Boy Cross Over
By: Tryhuk
Sorry people, but I had finals this month, I didnt find time to
write a bigger review, so this month it will be a bit shorter. Also
during holidays I dont expect to make big downloads, so if somebody
wants to take care during upcoming 2-3 months until I get a job,
feel free to write something for this column.
-- Other tracks --
Norfair belongs amongst my favorite musicians, and one of the main
things I like in his music are the awesome leads. With Lair of souls,
Norfair follows the tradition he had in anxiety together with Hunz.
Well, those leads are so nice. The style of the track is, again,
somewhere between funk and jazz.
http://www.kosmic.org Lair of souls xm and mp3 version available
One of the tracks that really hit me this month is Oranje bloom by
Pretty Boy Cross Over released at monotonik. Youll immediately notice
a bit of unusual percussion, well used resonant filters and distance-like
attempt in construction of the ambient atmosphere and its minimalistic
changes. Same way go main instruments, which play a simple and repetitive
melody, but it works. It is a VERY nice track.
http://www.mono211.com pretty-boy-crossover-oranje-bloom.mp3 5.8mb
Another track that touched me from the first sound: Echoes colide
with upcoming sounds and form a melody in the style somewhere between
Andreas Saag, Esem and T.Wilton. It has fresh and novel sound,
interesting ideas and stable rhythm. Second good consecutive release
by Twilton. Please grab Room for one!
http://www.noisemusic.org twilton-noiseroomfor1.mp3 4mb 2000
I just had to visit mp3.com homepage of Smash, where he has mp3
versions of some of his tracks. One I havent heard is Once more,
a dark jazzy trip-hop with a lot of Last train atmosphere, but
evolving in a different way. Extremely good music!
http://mp3.com/superjazz oncemore.mp3 4.3mb 2000 tlt rerelease
Last track I want to mention is Trust you, trust me by Twister.
Although it is assigned as dnb, it has signs of ambient music with the
background soundscapes and significant echoes, that give to the track
more full feeling, but they dont take over it. Also dnb line shows
signs of being influenced by modern electronic and breakbeat things,
and some of the occasional sounds will remind you also on Portishead.
http://www.tdr.scene.org TOKYO173.ZIP mp3 7.2mb 5.6.2000
--Tryhuk
Retro Tunage
Colors of Neptune by Ari
By: Tryhuk
In the beginning, I had problems accepting music from a guy who was
called Stalker, later Ari. His music has weird progression, some tracks
are very eccentric by everything that can be eccentric. Still, once you
accept this style, you find out that his music is beautiful.
Among his best releases definitely belongs his analogue releases
Pour toi, belle and Colors of Neptune. Both tracks have nice
leads, although you cant always exactly say what can be considered
as the main instrument. As i said, I love the way the leads move
and every time I listen to it, I discover a part I didnt remember
and I just wonder how I could miss it. But thats not all, Ari also
works good with tempo and breaks, and his percussion is quite evolved
that was, IMHO, his weakest point in his oldest releases and that
makes the track look shorter than it is. And style? It just cant be
described. It is ambient, sometimes jazzy, a bit influenced by chip
tunes, experimental and above all original. Its a nice music with
lovely leads and chords, that will touch your heart.
I know that this review does no justice, but trust me - get this music.
Song Information:
Title: Colors of Neptune
Author: Ari
Release date: 1997
Length: 3m 27s 3m 21s trimmed
Filename zipped/unzipped: ari-nept.zip / ari-nept.it
File Size zipped/unzipped: 520kb / 818kb
Source: ftp.scene.org/pub/music/groups/analogue/...
--Tryhuk
Intro Watch
Transagression 3 by MFX
By: Gekko
Winner 64k intro at Plutonium 2000, Finland
MFX won fame for their realtime raytracing intros. They havent
released such an intro for a longer while. Now they are back with one,
probably under inspiration of recent fine raytracing intros - Heaven 7
by Exceed, for example.
The intro starts with a big subsampling bug big white squares, and
similar artifacts appear through the intro. The screen intentionally
gets boxy several times, this hides the bugs a bit.
The music is a spinning, fast house track. Its tempo gives the mood of
the intro although I must say that its not my style at all.
The intro is very minimal there are no texts, poems, credits,
greetings, logos, pictures: it is plainly a sequence of raytracing
scenes. The camera is moving very fast, it follows the tempo of the
music. Some of the scenes are: a mushroom, a flying eye, a glass and
capsules, a scene with bouncing sphere looks alike to radiosity, but I
dont think it is, a snowman standing in a little temple or?. There
are countless other scenes, too.
The music is plain and fast one can say the same for the video.
Transagression 3 is kind of raw but very energetic.
--Gekko
Scene Dirt
News Rumors
By: Coplan
-- scene.org Hard Drive Is Full --
There have been reports that the famous scene service is having
storage problems. For more information, mail staff@scene.org.
-- GFX Needed for a 100kb Game --
Gedeon of Paradise Studios is looking for some 2D graphics for a
100kb game to be presented at Inscene 2000 next week. E-mail Gedeon
for details: gedeon@cyberdude.com
-- Underground Conference 4gw Results --
The results for the Underground Conference have been posted. For
information, visit the results page. Anyone got an English
Translation?
http://uc4gw.untergrund.net/results.txt german
-- Sista Vip Looking for Pixlers --
Sista Vip is looking t make some demos, bus seems to be short on
artists. If youre interested, take a look at their website, or contact
Thx: SistaVip@yahoo.com
http://www.sistavip.exit.de/
--Coplan
Scene Dirt is a semi-regular column offering the latest tidbits of
information to its readers. If you have any bits of information that
you think should be here, contact coplan coplan.ic@rcn.com and offer
as much information as possible.
Call to Keyboards
New Topic: Music Packs Out-Of-Date
By: Coplan
-- New Topic: Music Packs Out-Of-Date --
I made a discovery several months ago: Phluid is still alive!
When Immortal Coil broke up, a long time friend of mine, Subliminal,
joined the legendary group. I was quite surprised to know it still
existed.
For those of you who may be new to the scene, or for the ignorant,
Phluid has been around for many years. Its one of the old skool
music groups, like Kosmic. They are the musical brance of ACiD, which
is well known for its ANSI and ASCII art of old. At one time, Phluid
was a great music group, and perhaps they still are. But I couldnt
tell you, because I dont have the means to download their music packs.
Phluid has a very interesting philosophy: If you release music in
packs, people will get exposed to the less known trackers as they
download the packs for the well known trackers. A keen philosophy, and
that is how many of Phluids trackers ever got recognized in the
mainstream. And it worked too, but only because at the time this trend
was started, mods were maybe 2 and 3k.
So I went to the Phluid website, because I was curious about the new
music from Subliminal. I fear that I was unable to download his song,
because it was part of a huge music pack. Actually, the July pack is
divided into two packs, each about 26 MB. Unfortunately, both packs are
labeled the same: These packs include releases from our new member,
Ubik, and also a guest release from Rimbo. Musicians featured in this
pack include: Bibby // JelloKnee // Kneko // kXmode // :m.zero //
patientzero // RS3 // Subliminal // Troll // Ubik.
Very respectible bunch of musicians, but I dont have the resources to
download a 26MB pack, let alone two of them. Tracks are very large
these days. Ive seen tracks out there that are larger than 5 MB each,
and it is assumed that these are the tracks that make these packs so
huge. Unfortunately, I only have a 56k connection, and too much other
stuff to be doing. I wouldnt mind downloading a pack once, but every
month or two?
The method is a bit out-of-date, dont you think?
Youre opinions here, please.
--Coplan
Link List
Featured Site: Fusion Music Crew
http://members.home.nl/cyrex/
Writeup By: Coplan
I havnt had too much chance to browse around, but this is a new group
from what I understand. The web page is clean and easy to navigate.
The group is small, but it looks like its got a lot of potential. They
got quite a few releases at the moment, so jump on over there and check
them out.
Demo Groups:
3g Design..............................http://3gdesign.cjb.net
Aardbei.....................................http://aardbei.com
Acid Rain..............................http://surf.to/acidrain
Agravedict........................http://www.agravedict.art.pl
Anakata..............................http://www.anakata.art.pl
ANDESA Soft International..................http://andesa.da.ru
Astral..............................http://astral.scene-hu.com
Astroidea........................http://astroidea.scene-hu.com
AtomiK....................................http://atomik.ini.hu
Bomb..................................http://bomb.planet-d.net
BlaBla..............................http://blabla.planet-d.net
Blasphemy..............................http://www.blasphemy.dk
Byterapers.....................http://www.byterapers.scene.org
Calodox.................................http://www.calodox.org
Chrome..............................http://chrome.scene-hu.com
CoPro.....................................http://www.copro.org
Damage...................................http://come.to/damage
Dance...................................http://dance.flipp.net
Defacto 2..............................http://www.defacto2.net
Dolops......................... ........http://dolOps.scene.hu
Exceed...........................http://www.inf.bme.hu/exceed
Fobia Design...........................http://www.fd.scene.org
GODS...................................http://www.idf.net/gods
Green.....................................http://green.dyns.cx
Grif........................http://arrabonet.gyor.hu/rattgrif
Haujobb......................................http://haujobb.de
Hellcore............................http://www.hellcore.art.pl
IJSKAST.............................http://www.ijskast.cjb.net
Immortals..............................http://imrt.home.ml.org
Infuse...................................http://www.infuse.org
Just For Fun...........................http://jff.planet-d.net
Kilobite...............................http://kilobite.cjb.net
Kolor................................http://www.kaoz.org/kolor
Kooma.....................................http://www.kooma.com
Label zero.........................http://labelzero.pganet.com
Mandula.........................http://www.inf.bme.hu/mandula
Monar................ftp://amber.bti.pl/pub/scene/distro/monar
Nextempire..................http://members.xoom.com/NEXTEMPIRE
Ninja Gefilus.........http://www.angelfire.com/or/ninjagefilus
Noice.....................................http://www.noice.org
Orion..............................http://orion.arfstudios.org
* Popsy Team............................http://popsyteam.rtel.fr
Quad........................................http://www.quad.nl
Rage........................................http://www.rage.nu
Replay.......................http://www.shine.scene.org/replay
Retro A.C...........................http://www.retroac.cjb.net
Rhyme................................http://rhyme.scene-hu.com
Skytech team............................http://www.skytech.org
Sunflower.......................http://sunflower.opengl.org.pl
Suspend......................http://www.optimus.wroc.pl/rappid
Tehdas...................................http://come.to/tehdas
Tesko..........................http://www.scentral.demon.co.uk
The Black Lotus.............................http://www.tbl.org
The Digital Artists Wired Nation.http://digitalartists.cjb.net
The Lost Souls...............................http://www.tls.no
TPOLM.....................................http://www.tpolm.com
Trauma.................................http://sauna.net/trauma
T-Rex.....................................http://www.t-rex.org
Unik.....................................http://www.unik.ca.tc
Universe..........................http://universe.planet-d.net
Vantage..................................http://www.vantage.ch
Music Groups:
Aisth.....................................http://www.aisth.com
Aural planet........................http://www.auralplanet.com
Azure..................................http://azure.zerion.com
Blacktron Music Production...........http://www.d-zign.com/bmp
Chill..........................http://www.bentdesign.com/chill
Chippendales......................http://www.sunpoint.net/cnd
Chiptune...............................http://www.chiptune.com
Da Jormas................................http://www.jormas.com
Fabtrax......http://www.cyberverse.com/boris/fabtrax/home.htm
Five Musicians.........................http://www.fm.scene.org
Fridge...........................http://www.ssmedion.de/fridge
* Fusion Music Crew................http://members.home.nl/cyrex/
Goodstuff..........................http://artloop.de/goodstuff
Ignorance.............................http://www.ignorance.org
Immortal Coil.............................http://www.ic.L7.net
Intense...........................http://intense.ignorance.org
Jecoute.................................http://jecoute.cjb.net
Kosmic Free Music Foundation.............http://www.kosmic.org
Level-d.................................http://www.level-d.com
Miasmah.............................http://www.miasmah.cjb.net
Milk.......................................http://milk.sgic.fi
Mah Music.............................http://come.to/mah.music
Maniacs of noise...............http://home.worldonline.nl/mon
MAZs Sound homepage.............http://www.th-zwickau.de/maz
Moplayaz..........................http://ssmedion.de/moplayaz
Mono211.................................http://www.mono211.com
Morbid Minds..............http://www.raveordie.com/morbidminds
Noise................................http://www.noisemusic.org
Noerror......................http://www.error-404.com/noerror/
One Touch Records......................http://otr.planet-d.net
Park..................................http://park.planet-d.net
Radical Rhythms.....http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/merrelli/rr
RBi Music.............................htpp://www.rbi-music.com
Ruff Engine................http://members.xoom.com/ruffengine
SHR8M......................................http://1st.to/shr8m
Sound Devotion................http://sugarbomb.x2o.net/soundev
Soundstate.........................http://listen.to/soundstate
Sunlikamelo-D...........http://www.error-404.com/sunlikamelo-d
Suspect Records........................http://www.tande.com/sr
Tequila........................http://www.defacto2.net/tequila
Tempo................................http://tempomusic.cjb.net
Theralite...........................http://theralite.avalon.hr
Tokyo Dawn Records........................http://tdr.scene.org
UltraBeat.........................http://www.innerverse.com/ub
Vibrants................................http://www.vibrants.dk
Wiremaniacs.........................http://www.wiremaniacs.com
Others:
Arf!Studios..........................http://www.arfstudios.org
Calodox demolinks exchange.....http://calodox.planet-d.net/cde
coders..................................http://coderz.cjb.net
Comic Pirates.........................http://scene-central.com
Demonews Express.........http://www.teeselink.demon.nl/express
Demo fanclub........................http://jerware.org/fanclub
Demoscene.org news forum..............http://www.demoscene.org
Digital Undergrounds.....................http://dug.iscool.net
Doose charts...............................http://www.doose.dk
Dreams2 CD.........................http://nl.scene.org/dreams2
Freax...................http://freax.scene-hu.com/mainmenu.htm
GfxZone............................http://gfxzone.planet-d.net
Hugi size-compo...............http://home.pages.de/hugi-compo
Orange Juice.........................http://ojuice.citeweb.net
PC-demos explained.....http://www.oldskool.org/demos/explained
Pixel...................................http://pixel.scene.org
Scenet....................................http://www.scenet.de
Sunray..............................http://sunray.planet-d.net
Swiss List.................http://www.profzone.ch/vantage/list
Swiss Scene Server.......................http://www.chscene.ch
TakeOver................................http://www.takeover.nl
Textmode Demo Archive.................http://tmda.planet-d.net
Hungarian scene page...................http://www.scene-hu.com
Trebel...................................http://www.trebel.org
Zen of Tracking.........................http://surf.to/the-imm
DiskMags / SceneMags:
Amber...............................http://amber.bti.pl/dimag
Amnesia...............http://amnesia-dist.future.easyspace.com
Demojournal....................http://demojournal.planet-d.net
Dragon......................http://www.wasp.w3.pl/pages/dragon
Fleur................................http://fleur.scene-hu.com
Heroin...................................http://www.heroin.net
Hugi........................http://home.pages.de/hugidownload
Music Massage......................http://www.scene.cz/massage
Planet Chartmag...........http://www.agravedict.art.pl/planet/
Pain..................................http://pain.planet-d.net
Scenial...........................http://www.scenial.scene.org
Static Line......................http://www.ic.l7.net/statline
Total Disaster...................http://www.totaldisaster.w.pl
TUHB.......................................http://www.tuhb.org
WildMag...........................http://www.wildmag.notrix.de
FTPs:
Amber.......................................ftp://amber.bti.pl
Cyberbox.....................................ftp://cyberbox.de
Flerp.....................................ftp://flerp.scene.hu
Scene.org..................................ftp://ftp.scene.org
Skynet archive.................ftp://acid2.stack.nl/pub/skynet
ACiD2 Archive.............................ftp://acid2.stack.nl
Editor: Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan.ic@rcn.com
Assistant Editor: Gekko / Gergely Kutenich / gk@scene.hu
Columnists: Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan.ic@rcn.com
Dilvish / Eric Hamilton / dilvie@yahoo.com
Gekko / Gergely Kutenich / gk@scene.hu
Louis Gorenfeld / gorenfeld@vrone.net
Setec / Jesper Pederson / jesped@post.tele.dk
Seven / Stefaan / Stefaan.VanNieuwenhuyze@rug.ac.be
SiN / Ian Haskin / sin@netcom.ca
Subliminal / Matt Friedly / sub@plazma.net
Tryhuk / Tryhuk Vojtech / xtryhu00@stud.fee.vutbr.cz
Virt / virt@bellsouth.net
Technical Consult: Draggy / Nicolas St. Pierre / draggy@kosmic.org
Jim / Jim Nicholson / jim@kosmic.org
Static Line on the Web: http://www.ic.l7.net/statline
ftp://flerp.scene.hu/scene/DiskMag/StaticLine
To subscribe to the Static Line mailing list, send an e-mail message
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the message text. You will then be asked to confirm your addition to the
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To unsubscribe from the mailing list, send an e-mail message to
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If you would like to contribute an article to Static Line, be aware
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See you next month!
-eof---------------------
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