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There was a time we could reliably be counted on to deliver a music-themed
artpack every year or so, dropping them in 2018, 2019 and 2021. Well, this
collection should demonstrate that the artists in our community never stopped
making art on musical themes, we were just too distracted by other collective
undertakings to get together a big push to collect and release it all, so it
piled up and made a very impressive, thematically consistent mound we could
admire. But why keep it to ourselves? 2024 is here and we have some musical
debts to repay and obligations to fulfil. The beat goes on and the music dont
stop.
Last month we released the SED0124 music disk of unreleased SONiC EQUiNOX
tracker music from our historical colleagues in area code 604 but mostly
Onyx, including nearly 200 songs and hours of period listening enjoyment
airing Feb 27th on CJSFs Bitcouver broadcast with a highlights reel!
For this collection, we had a couple of very active creators who really wear
their musical inspiration on their sleeves, so across this artpack you will
see a lot of people who make a little bit of music fanart once in a while, and
a couple of people AtonalOsprey and Blippypixel, come out and take your bows!
who make a ton of it on a nearly nonstop basis. The two of them are between
them responsible for nearly half of everything in this artpack. The rest of us
have been gently icing this cake.
Of possible interest, this collection isnt just limited to visual art
adaptations of album artwork, portraits of musicians and tableaux of musical
experiences from the perspective of the fan or consumer... two of the first
three files, sorted alphabetically, actually saw use as album art themselves.
3S and Adel Faure and AXB as well, come to think of it, a little further down
the alphabet arent just making fanart adaptations of album art, theyre
actually making the actual album art themselves! And of course, no Mistigris
artpacks since the beginning have been complete without being graced by a
little of Melodias music, and this one is no exception, not just making the
album art but just making the album itself!
I dont think anyone is appearing in this artpack for the first time, but this
pack does feature rare appearances by gkmac on the teletext front as well as
some guest ANSI screens by Nitron and what we believe to be the first-ever
released ANSI screen by The War On Christmas. Despite all that, this grouping
of work is a little light on the ANSI art front, and thats not accidental.
Granted, no one is cracking open Mist packs in search of the latest greatness
in that medium, but we serve up what we can.
Next month we aim to be making our third consecutive music-related release in
three consecutive months. Originally these three artpacks were envisioned as
one colossal entangled collection, which is partly what led to so much of it
going unreleased for so long. Last month we released some computer music no
one had heard of since Mists year of establishment, 3 decades back! We
patiently unbraided them into three streams: last month, old tracker music
this month, music fanart next month -- ANSI music. ANSI music?!@
Yes, ANSI music is one of those things, like ANSImation and the use of blinking
colours, that the ANSI art format supports but which was left behind as the
underground computer artscene diverged from the Public Domain of TheDraw-using
ANSI art mainstream artists on their FidoNet regional hubs. The mainstream
quickly became dismissed as irrelevant, as the underground style burgeoned by
leaps and bounds, but we wonder if perhaps a little baby hadnt been thrown out
with the bathwater at that time. In any case, if a practice has been long
dismissed as irrelevant, thats absolutely where we belong!
Consequently, we had a few silent ANSI art screens chilling in the incoming
directory for this artpack that were postponed -- youll be seeing them next
month, very textily, singing their hearts out in PC Speaker tweets and bleeps.
Its been the plan for long enough that Andyh proclaimed that 2023 was going to
be the year of ANSI music, and weve reached the point where it seems almost
inevitable that were going to belatedly fulfil that pledge. And then?
Probably an unthemed artpack in April. Its been long enough!
Thanks to LDA for providing our awesome mix tape FILEID.DIZ design this time
around! My little Pink Floyd header, one of a long, long series of Dark Side
of the Moon computer art adaptations we have shared with the world, was a
failed attempt on my part to adapt an iconic album art illustration to the
very limited constraints dictated by a FILEID.DIZ ... sure, it looks
straightforward enough, but how do you draw a rainbow when deprived of the use
of colour? Nice try!
Anyhow, I would like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves and
I hope we passed the audition.