/ t r a x w e e k l y .______/______ ____ .____ .______ ________________________| /. /___/ /_____________| /______| / \__ ____ \ _ \ | / : / ____/ ____/ ____/ |_ / / : / | | / / _| _\ / | /\ / ___/ ___/ / __/_ / ::| |::\ \_ \__ | _ \::| / | \ | \ \__ \_ _/::: : | \___ / | |___/ | |____\______/\_____/ |___/_____\ | . |___| \ /___|___| |___|asciidoneby:WW/RZM\___| |___| | | : | Issue Number: 36 | : the music scene newsletter. . : Release Date: 11/30/95 | . 1 9 9 5 | Subscribtion: 419 : . . /-[Introduction]------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------/ _ _________________ /_\ \__ / ____ ______ \____ ____/____________ ______ _/ \ _/ \ \ww_/ \ _/ ________/_/ _ \ __/ \/ \ \/ \/ \ / | \__ ___ ___ _______ _/ \\ \ \\ \\ | \\/ | \_ ___ __ __ ____ /___________\__\_______\________\____|______\____________\ \__\ We did it!!! We passed the 400 mark!!!!!!!!!!!$&%$@%*@%%#^%#*! Thanks to all of you who have supported TraxWeekly by subscribing. This week, we have gained over twenty more readers alone! Faces in the Crowd formally leaves TraxWeekly, due to internal administrative problems. Atlantic, DennisC, and Master of Darkness are now part of the regular writing staff, bringing you articles, reviews, and interviews. Not many articles this week, since a large number of us are in recovery from Thanksgiving, but expect more next time... Let me remind all of you that anyone that wishes to contribute to TraxWeekly may do so, and any group desiring to feature their own group column is welcome. Psibelius [TW] gwie@owl.csusm.edu /-[Contents]---------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------/ ________ _________________________________________________________________ / ____/_/ __/ \ __/ / _____/ \ __/ __/ ___/_ < \____\ \ \\ \ \\____ __/ __/_\ \ \\____ \_____ \__ \ \ \ \\ \ \ww\ \\ \\ \ \ \ \ \_ _\________\________\\___\____\ \_____\\_______\\___\____\ \_____\_______\ General Articles 1. New Music Reviews.................................Atlantic 2. TraxCulture.......................................Random Lamers Group Columns 1. Epinicion Productions 2. eXtreme Terror Corps Closing Distribution Subscription/Contribution Information TraxWeekly Staff Sheet /-[General Articles]-------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------/ --[1. New Music Reviews]---------------------------------------------------- G'day folks, Atlantic here. Unfortunately, the regular Faces in the Crowd article which has appeared in Traxweekly in several issues has fallen apart. John Townsend (Jtown on #trax) disappeared several times with computer problems, making it difficult for the rest of the staff to pull the article together. A few weeks back, he completely vanished, and hasn't been contacted since. Hopefully Jtown is alright, and merely couldn't maintain his access to the net somehow. In the meantime, however, I felt that I should continue doing reviews of new pc music, usually by trackers that the majority of the scene is not familliar with. Here are my objectives with this article: 1. Help at least some musicians get the recognition they deserve. 2. Provide you, Mr./Ms. Sceneperson, with some fresh and interesting new music to listen to. Why should you pick up this new music? Well the answer has more to do with you than me. My underlying purpose in wanting to continue this feature is to try and do something, however little, to prevent the scene from becomming elitest. We all have our favorite artists, and we like to watch the ftp sites for their new releases. There's nothing wrong with this, but if it becomes the only source of new music, then a whole lot of people are unfairly getting the shaft. You may even be one of them. So if you know what I'm talking about here, then you'll see that it's to all of our advantage to check out some fresh, talented musicians. The obvious problem with this system is my own person bias. I am very openminded when it comes to music, as I am in general. Nontheless, I feel it necessary to try and offset it somehow (tracker jargon there.. =P) Here's my offer. My impression is that a whole crapload of us know of musicians who are skilled, and deserve more recognition. If you're one yourself, that's peachy too. I think it'd be wonderful if we could get this music out there through my article. And Here's how (sorry for sounding like an informercial). Pick a song by that musician. If they aren't into composing anymore that's alright, although I -strongly- prefer musicians who are active. Attach the song to me in email (as566@torfree.net) in MIME format (not UUencode: that stuff drives me wild), or send it to me on #trax where I can usually be found around 4-7 PM EST. It is important to include the following info: - Artist's Alias (Artist's Real Name, if known) - Date of Release (If not known, approximate) - Where it can be found (ftp site & directory) - Artist's E-mail Address (Very important!) Obviously, doing this does not necessarily mean that the song will be recommended, it still has to filter through me. If it's composed well though, it will be. The style (whatever that means) is entirely irrelevant. I hope that some of you find the offer attractive. In the meantime, now that that's out of the way, here's this week's recommendations. Since I've been backlogged for a few weeks, some of these are a little old now. =) Reviews for week of November 23 - 30 ---------------------------------------------- Artist..........Mick Rippon Song Title......"Existing" [existing.s3m] DOR.............October 30 1995 Email Addy....Rip@hunterlink.net.au Found: ftp.cdrom.com (\.21\demos\music\songs\1995\s3m\e\existing.zip) Comments: Another song from Mick Rippon, without a doubt one of the finest new trackers around. Probably the nicest aspect of this song is the beautiful chord progression which remains as the theme throughout the whole song. As usual, Rippon's synthy leads augment that progression well to form a full- sounding melodic piece. The percussion line might have supported the rest of the song more if it had more variation, but the other parts of the song were impressive enough to render this a very small concern. Artist..........Contagion / Massive Song Title......"The Mission" [tmission.xm] DOR.............August 9 1995 Email Addy....massive@knoware.nl Found: ftp.cdrom.com (\.21\demos\incoming\music\songs\xm\tmission.zip) Comments: The smooth introduction in this song caught my attention right off. I think the appealing thing about it is the sample choice, and the degree to which the samples sound like they were really meant to be together. Contagion has mixed the elements of the song together with skill, such that it sounds quite smooth and balanced. Good use of panning as well. Something noticable unique was the use of a sample to create a reverb effect - a good idea, and a technique that added to the thickness of the percussion. A professional sounding song. Artist..........Mike X / Xenon Development Song Title......"Reach for the Sky" [reachsky.xm] DOR.............October 15 1995 Email Addy....not listed! arrrg. Found: ftp.cdrom.com (\.21\demos\music\incoming\songs\xm\reachsky.zip) Comments: I liked the groove and mood to this song. The sampling is quite well done, and is original if we are to take Mike X's lack of giving sample credits as an indication of that. Has an excellent spread of frequencies, and consequently, passed the spectrum analyzer test with flying colors. Had a thick and powerful overall sound, but I felt it needed to be longer. The song didn't feel like it lived-up to its full potential. Artist..........The REW / Nostalgia Song Title......"Rivendell" [rivendel.xm] DOR.............July 8 1995 Email Addy....therew@intermedia.nl Found: ftp.cdrom.com (\.21\demos\music\incoming\songs\xm\rivendel.arj) Comments: The sheer originality of this song just blew me away. The style is unique as far as I've heard in my day. What would you call this - Medieval?? The progressions in this tune are different and interesting. This is one of those relaxing tunes you can leave to play in the background whilst you study, or do some other menial task. Great choice of samples in going with the flute and oboe for the lead. Hard to describe, but definately worth picking up. ------------------------------------------------ Well, that's all for this week. Take care folks, and please take me up on my offer if you can, for all of our benefit. - Atlantic / Aim Higher & Traxweekly (as566@torfree.net) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --[2. TraxCulture]-----------------------------------------[Random Lamers]-- "How cultured are we?" This week, an IRC capture from a while ago I had saved but never decided to put into print, along with a very recent one which features another Basehead wisecrack (again =). - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - *** bja (Tommy@blandest.liii.com) has joined channel #trax whats this channel for? the tv show? bja: f---ing goats. THE TV SHOW?!@?#!@?#!?@#?!@#?!@?#!?@#!?@#?!@?# someone give this guy a klue :) AHAHAHAHAHHAHA -> =enchanter= .kick bja =enchanter= Attempting to kick bja ... *** bja has been kicked off channel #trax by Enchanter (requested) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - mrdata: no...soundblasters sell cause they're in every fing store and bundles with cdroms and all sorts of "multimedia" bullshit... god: marketing and, sb's are cheap. <_mrdata--> god: like I said.. it has only what idiot computer users want.. basic sound. therefore it comes in multimedia packages... <_mrdata--> god: otehrwise, why isn't GUS or something similar in multimedia packages? because idiots don't know what to do with 32 channel Make the GUS $120, and everyone will buy one. mrdata: it's not what they want...it's what they know about how much is the gus at right now? <_mrdata--> god: I had a good long talk with a worker at a computer store in this area and she says that people don't want to spend the extra money for 32-channels and all these features.. they just want stupid sound effects in windows and some basic sound. that's why soundblaster pro/16/etc are so popular <_mrdata--> god: now those who AREn't idiots (like * in #trax and #coders) we know what to look for.. mrdata: 150 is about what a sb16 is if i'm not mistaken...sounds like the same price to me :) god: uhh...n.o. and Sb16 is $59.99 last time I checked (like, today). A SB16 at $150! more like $60! <_mrdata--> god: and gravis sound cards aren't all that avilable either. (oh and btw, gravis sound cards are not directly SB compatible god: i saw your mom at kay-bee for $19.95... *** [LAUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*%$@%^#%!&^@*%!&^&^] *** <_mrdata--> god: for people who know what they're doing, SB compatibility doesn't matter but idiots buy a SB16 because of the compatibility ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- /-[Group Columns]----------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------/ --[1. Epinicion Productions]------------------------------------------------ ___ _______ _____________ ______ ______ _______ ______ _______ ___________ | // \\ \\_____) \\_____) \\_____) \\ \\ | : / o \ o \ \ \ \ \ \ o \ \: // _____// / \ : / \ _____/ \ / : \. \\_______/ _//______\\_|__//______\\_____//______\\_____//____| /: : \\____\\ ______________________________ oT /___//| |________________________// e p i n i c i o n \\________________| -New members to the group include Drive (3ag9zjk6@praline.net), Nomex (nomex@primenet.com), and Shapeshifter (shapeshifter@index.com). Currently, there are 116 members in Epinicion! -Epinicion's BLT musicdisk features 42 songs by numerous talented EPI musicians. 5 files, 6.8 megs. You can find it at the site below. -Preparations are underway for XMAS'95!. Please send your submissions to gwie@owl.csusm.edu via mime or uue. Holiday tunes of any kind are accepted, and NO, they don't have to be "normal." Song deadline is December 23rd. -ALL of Epinicion's 1995 releases can be found through ftp at: kosmic.wit.com /kosmic/epinicion. -Epinicion's NEW webpage can be found at the following address: http://www.csusm.edu/public/guests/gwie/epi.html. The page now features links to the FTP site, along with email to every single member!* * Every single member since September 1995, that is. Updates for all new members will be completed when the holiday mdisk is released. Psibelius (Gene Wie) Epinicion Founder gwie@owl.csusm.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --[2. eXtreme Terror Corps]------------------------------------------------- ..:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::.. .:::. _____ _____ _______)\ ____)\ .::::.. ..:. \ | / \/ \ .:. .: \ : / \ _____\ ch::.. .::. / \___ ____ / |______ .::.. ..:::. / : \ / \ . \ .:. ..:._/ | \ \_ \ :. .:: \______|_____/_______/ ____________/ : ..:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::. xtc .:::. The article placed in last week's #tw was an old one. It said that XTC was about to die. Well, fortunately, much has happened since. We kicked a non-productive member out, and three new ones are about to join! Can't tell you who they are (yet), but two make hardcore techno and one other is coding ... errrr ... stuff. =) Anyway, XTC is back on it's feet again (after the first serious dip). We released a new song by Phonc(ie), called Secret Kind Of Love. It's a remix of Skol's original (Skol, if you read this, thanx for the original!) As you can see, we have a new ascii style and file_id.diz. Big thanks to bleys [bleys@gil.net] who made a cool ascii file_id.diz for us. Some new breakbeat tunes are coming up, so watch out for them (if you like techno). The XTC ftp archive is online ... it's on uniserve (-sigh- ... :) ed.) and you can find it's adress below. More news? Well, if y'all want to get in touch with the Dutch demo-scene, be sure to download the first issue of iNSiGHt somewhere, it's a new +31 diskmag and should be downloadble on ftp.cdrom.com/.21/demos/incoming somewhere, i'll upload it there. XTC MEMBERS. Deniax founder, hardcore techno Serialkiller Doors for RemoteAccess 2.0x Phonc(ie) breakbeat tracker/remixes Tormentor gabber muziq yours truly pr, sysop As always, if you want to join XTC, i'm only an email away. We're looking for graphicians, ansi/ascii artists, coders and trackers. (That pretty much sums it up -ed ;) FTP archive: ftp.uniserve.com/pub/gamesnet/XTC/ Till next week, Ch:ilm/X.T.C ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- /-[Closing]----------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------/ TraxWeekly is available via ftp from ftp.cdrom.com /pub/demos/incoming/news (new issues) ftp.cdrom.com /pub/demos/info/traxw/ (back issues) TraxWeekly is also available via WWW from http://kosmic.wit.com/~kosmic/traxweek http://www.partek.fi/traxweek To subscribe, send mail to: listserver@unseen.aztec.co.za and put in the message body: subscribe trax-weekly [name] (NOT address) To unsubscribe, mail same and: unsubscribe trax-weekly (in message body) Contributions for TraxWeekly must be formatted for *76* columns, must have a space preceding each line, and must be readable and understandable. NO HIGH ASCII IS ALLOWED. Different country code pages cause major problems in international distribution, so we must stay with regular text. Contributions should be mailed as plain ascii text or filemailed (MIME/UUE only) to: gwie@owl.csusm.edu before 6:00pm EST (North America) every Wednesday. TraxWeekly does not discriminate based on age, gender, race, political preferences, religious preferences, or eliteness. For questions and comments, you can contact the TraxWeekly staff at: Editor: Psibelius (Gene Wie).................gwie@owl.csusm.edu Columnists: Atlantic (Barry Freeman).............as566@torfree.net DennisC (Dennis Courtney)............dennisc@community.net Island of Reil (Jesse Rothenberg)....jroth@owl.csusm.edu Master of Darkness (Todd Andlar).....maz@io.org Mhoram (John Niespodzianski).........niespodj@neonramp.com Trifixion (Tyler Vagle)..............trifix@northernnet.com Graphics: White Wizard (...)...................aac348@agora.ulaval.ca WWW Page: Dragunov (Nicholas St-Pierre)........dragunov@info.polymtl.ca TraxWeekly is a HORNET affiliation. Copyright (c)1995 TraxWeekly Publishing, All Rights Reserved. /-[END]--------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------/ . :: ::: : . ..... ..............................:::.................:.... ::: : :::: : .::::. .:::::.:::. ..:::: :::: : :: :: ::: .:: :: :: WW:::: : ::. :: ::: .:: :: .:: :::: : :::.::. ::: .:: .:: .:::::... :: :::.. ... ..: ... ..:::::::::::::::: .:: .::::::: :::::::: ::::::.. ::: ::: ::: : until next week! (= .. ... .. ....... ............... .................:..... .. . :