. _| : _____ ______________ |___| _ _______/ 16 /\___________________________ / ____________/ /\__\ _ _______/____/_____________________________ / / _________ \/__/ ______\ 16 \_____________________________ / / / `_ . .~ \____\/ _ __ ___ / / / _____ . _ \ __ ___ _/__/\ / / / / /\ _ __ __\__\/ _/__/ / ____/ /__\_________________________________ _____ ___ _ / 16 /\/ /___ __________ _ ______ _ ___ \/ /\ / 16 / /____/16\ \ / /\ / __/\ / /\ \ \ / \ /____/ / / \ / \/ /_ \___/___/ \ \_/___/ / \_/ / / \ ___\ / /_/ /______/\/ \ /______/\/ \ /_____/ // \ \ / / / \ / / \ \ \ \_\ \ \ \_\ \ //____/\____\/ / / / / / \______\/ \______\/ \_____\/ \ \ \ \ / / / / \____\/\____\ / / / / _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ / / / /__/ w /\___/ /\___/ e /\___/ /\__ / l /\___/ /\____/ / / __/____/____/____/____/____/____/____/____/____/____/____/________/ / __\ \____\ e \____\ \____\ k \ ___\ \____\ y \__________/ \____\/ \____\/ \____\/ \____\/ \____\/ \____\/WW ps: woa, a rendered askee! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | TraxWeekly Issue: #15 | Release date: 06-29-95 | Current subscribers: 248 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- /---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------[ Introduction ]------------------------------/ _ _________________ /_\ \__ / (stoney askee) ____ ______ \____ ____/____________ ______ _/ \ _/ \ \ww_/ \ _/ ________/_/ _ \ __/ \/ \ \/ \/ \ / | \__ ___ ___ _______ _/ \\ \ \\ \\ | \\/ | \_ ___ __ __ ____ /___________\__\_______\________\____|______\____________\ \__\ As of tommorow, school is officially over for the year of Grade 10... as I look back, I realize that I would much rather have not gone to school and stayed up all night on IRC (guess I did that anyways... heh!) As a graduation present, I'm buying myself a new computer! :) Popcorn's new system: - PCI Local Bus Motherboard with 512k SRAM Cache - 8megs RAM (72pin 70ns) - MiniTower Case with 200watt Power Supply, 7 bays - Built in EIDE I/O Controller with 2 16550 Uarts - Panasonic 1.44meg Floppy Drive - 101key Enhanced Keyboard - PCI ATI 64 2MB DRAM - 15" Low Rad .28DPI Monitor - WD Caviar 1.2GB HDD - MS Mouse v2.0 - Toshiba QuadSpeed CD-ROM Drive CD-ROM Games: Full Throttle Under a Killing Moon Wing Commander 3 I'm paying about $3400 Canadian for all that... I guess that's about $2250US Since almost no one followed our rules last week, I am forced to add one more. 1. All submissions must be formatted to fit within 78 columns 2. All submissions must have one blank space before the text 3. All submissions not following rule #1 and #2 will be retured to sender -Popcorn -Popcorn -campbell@fox.nstn.ca /---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------[ Contents ]---------------------------------/ ________ __________________________________________________________________ / ____/_/ __/ \ __/ / _____/ \ __/ __/ ___/__ < \____\ \ \\ \ \\____ __/ __/_\ \ \\____ \_____ \___ \ \ \ \\ \ \ww\ \\ \\ \ \ \ \ \__ _\________\________\\___\____\ \_____\\_______\\___\____\ \_____\_______\ General Articles Damnit: A Revalation of Nothing.............Psibelius Element of Style............................Chromatic Dragon Concepts in Music...........................Shawn Interviews Populus.....................................Psibelius Group Columns Epinicion...................................Psibelius Kosmic......................................Maelcum Exceedingly Great Grooves...................Maelcum Pure........................................Pyromaniac Closing Distribution Sites..........................Popcorn -> Neurosis TraxWeekly Subscribing/FTP/WWW Info.........TraxWeekly Staff /---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------[ General Articles ]----------------------------/ =[ Damnit: A Revalation of Nothing ]======================================== I was hoping to have an interesting interview with "Sammich Man" Lord Pegasus this week, but unfortunately, I wasn't able to finish his interview, so I guess we'll all have to wait another week to read the revalations of the great one. =) I don't remember if it was GodHead, or someone else, but...do any of you get tired of reading all this CRAP? Week after week, there's nothing of vital importance in here...and anything that's worth reading one week is old hat the next. And anything that's actually entertaining to read is usually spam. =) We're supposed to be a music scene newsletter, right? But since we don't have the intellectual prowess to keep our audience entertained from week to week, we have to spoof up our production with lots of 'filler' material. Just a question for all you readers out there: How many of you actually READ TraxWeekly? Not just skimming over everything and pausing to giggle at the gags, but actually spend some time? How many of you went through the entire article that Basehead wrote? Is TraxCulture your favorite? Do Lord Pegasus' "Sammich" recipes hold any weight? Do you ENJOY TraxWeekly? I'm pretty sure all of you are sick and tired of complaining that TW doesn't have something or has something that sucks, and blah blah blah. What do you people WANT now? More interviews? More musically relevant articles? Expand TraxCulture? Make it a humor mag, what??? Email any of us here at TraxWeekly...we need your input. Have a nice day. =) -psibelius [tw columnist] gwie@owl.csusm.edu --------------------------------------------------------------------------- =[ Element of Style ]====================================================== A Few Words on the Element of Style by Chromatic Dragon of BASS Productions Music. It's what we love to mold and shape in those little piano- roll style editors we call "trackers", and it is ultimately the most full and accoustic expression of the self that can create or destroy emotion with the drawing of a violin bow or the popping of a resonatix synthesizer. :) Ok, so we've passed the dramatic bit and now we have to cut to reality: what is the easiest music style to emulate in a tracker? Hmm.. the lines, the lines all a certain space apart.. if I put a bass drum and copy it using an easy hotkey I can make a "boom, boom, boom, boom" sound at a constant rate.. I add a few bleeps and wurbles and a snare in between, and what do I have? The foundation of TECHNO.. the dance music so many demo freaks have come to know and love (or hate). Let's face it.. techno is "technically" the simplest of all styles to understand: a constant beat with basically whatever you want in between. However that is a mere concept and not the definition of popular techno by any means. Like many beginning trackers I had the idea that techno was stupid and repetitive and boring and that every tracker could do nothing else. Naturally I was proved wrong. Techno is quite a popular style among trackers for it's intrinsic simplicity, but when taken to its highest levels of complexity it can sound pretty damned cool. One could apply this to many other popular styles of the day and make this statement: "a style is easy to throw down, but to take that style and make it sound interesting and/or pleasing to the ear is much more difficult." Now though many may argue that point, it is a fact and not an opinion. What I'm sure many trackers out there would love to do is break away from the terribly seductive constant beat that would thus make their song sound as though it were techno and experiment with other rhythms and harmonic interweavings. Though I'm sure many try to do this, I'm sure many find this is HARD AS HELL. I understand completely, because the tracker whether it be S3M, MTM, or XM by nature almost beckons you to write notes that fit nicely in those little lines and spaces in between, making something geometrically and asymmetrically pleasing but quite quite repetitive and predictable. I'll bet that every tracker has had this dilemma at one point or another. So what do you do to break the techno drive that has plauged you since you wrote your first tune? How do you write something that still grooves but doesn't have that techno / rave / house / acid sound? I'll add a little disclaimer and I'll say that this doesn't apply to Maelcum of KFMF. :) Here's a few tips. #1: If you have the time and resources, sample as much as you can yourself. Musings on ripping instruments aside, I've started to do this and it completely changed how I wrote. My songs were suddenly my own and not reminiscent of something else. I *strongly* recommend it. #2: Try a "swing" beat for a song or two. This is very well documented in Necros' "Advanced Tracking Tips" in TW11. #3: Again, if you have the time, track cover songs for practice. Though I've released a good number of my own, they're usually remixes, however this method helps *greatly* with varying your style. If you want a neat drum beat, listen to your favorite band and combine styles from their albums by literally copying them and then throwing in some variation of your own. Shift a snare or a ride cymbal here and there, etc.. Ms_Saigon's tracking of a song from "Chess" sounded quite well done, and though she might not know it it helped her natural composing abilities as well. Fear her in a year with 16 channels! :) #4: If you see an effect in another tracker's song that makes a riff or a solo sound incredible (coughnecrosInfinitycough) EMULATE it. I heard Infinity and for some reason the backing synth riff sounded as though it was a whole sample because it was so smooth.. then I checked the fx column and BEHOLD! There was the lovely GF0 command on every instrument. The best way for you to understand is to check it out. But GF0 is a very useful command in ScreamTracker and I learned it by actually going into a Necros tune and finding out how he did it. Yes, we've all read the Basehead article that says that copying other musicians' methods is "no way to make a name for yourself", but the key word boys and girls is EMULATE (that's why the fucker is in caps) and not copy. Remember that. Eddie Van Halen may have pionerred using the whammy bar to smack the side of the guitar giving it a weird and cool staccato sound, but even John Petrucci of Dream Theater used it in an interesting way to earn him "Guitarist of the Year" by Guitar Magazine. :) Well, that should get you started on your way to more varied tracking. There are more ways to get that little extra sparkle of individuality in your music, but when I discover them I'll write another article. Or if you know of more give me a yell in #trax or email me (address in disclaimer 2). I hope you benefit from this, because there's nothing better than a composer who writes a short motive (in composing terms that's any grouping of notes) that makes them take a deep breath and widen their eyes... happy tracking! Alexander Brandon -Chromatic Dragon DISCLAIMER: Just so there aren't any misunderstandings, I use techno as a style that pervades the demoscene with increasing rarity because it just does, and I've explained why above. For those who, like I, enjoy techno, please don't think of this article as a "everybody stop writing techno" speech. This is for many trackers with whom I have spoken who really do have problems breaking out of the constant bassline / snare rhythm and want to throw some more variation into their repertoires. I would actually be very displeased if this article caused people to dislike techno / rave / acid / etc.. because like any other style there are excellent pieces from it. Even the big guys like PM / Basehead / Maelcum will tell you that. :) DISCLAIMER #2: Heh.. yeah, there's another one of these. A few of the terms used here might be a little pretentious to use, so if you have any questions about the article or the tips, or you need help because you keep writing polkas and need to switch to a rondo allegro style or some weird shit like that, *please* don't hesitate to email me at: [ abrandon@annap.infi.net ]. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- =[ Concepts in Music ]====================================================== Concepts in Music Well, this is my first article for TraxWeekly. I figured it was about time I contributed something to this thing, since I've been reading it since #1...So, who am I, and why do I think I can write something that YOU would want to read?! Well, I'm a percussionist who will soon be going to McGill University, and on the side, I run a music related BBS and I do some tracking for a small group called New Objectives In Sound Exploration [NOISE] (WWW Page - www.citenet.net/users/danielm/noise). I'm totally in this for fun, and I'm having more and more of it since I started logging into internet and #TRAX....Ok, time to get down to business. Well, I was in #TRAX as usual, and I was trying to figure out something to write about. B0bby (b00b!) said that I should interview him, but I don't know how good an interviewer I would be so, nahh... But, then we all started talking about chords, and of course we were all busy dissing C Major, and progressions like CMaj - GMaj - CMaj. At some point, I said that C Major was just the WORST chord (and others agreed with me), but someone else said something like, "Well, C Major is just the same as any other major chord.", and I disagree completely with that statement, and that's what gave me the idea to do this article. So, now you must be thinking one of two things: 1) That I'm right, or 2) That I'm some bozo who must be whacked out of his tree, because come on, every major chord (in root position) is still made out of a major third with a minor third stacked on top. But, I say that besides the intervals that make up the chords, it's also the notes of the chord in particular that give it its specific sound and quality. In my opinion, C Major and D Major, while both being constructed the same way, with the same note ratios, do NOT sound the same. The frequencies of the notes C-E-G affect my body (and everyone else's) differently than the notes D-F#-A. Yes, they do! And, how can I try and prove this to you? Well, there's a world renowned solo percussionist called Evelyn Glennie. She's one of the best percussionists in the world today. She has perfect pitch, but she's also deaf. She doesn't HEAR the notes, but she FEELS them (In case you're saying, "Hey, she's percussionist - she doesn't play NOTES!" well, then you're not thinking of instruments like tympani which require very precise tuning...). I don't know what her personal philosophies on this subject are, but I believe that we DO feel sound, as well as hear it, and that the combination of the two senses gives us our overall perception of music. Examples of this way of thinking goes all the way back to the Ancient Greeks, with their Doctrine of Ethos. The idea was that music written in different modes would affect the population in different ways. Here are some of the modes, and what was thought of them at the time: Dorian (DEFGABCD)- Was sober yet intense and fostered composure, bravery, and virility. Phrygian (EFGABCDE) - Was found to be violently exciting and emotional, suited for certain types of Bacchic dancing. Lydian (FGABCDEF) - Was considered to be effeminate. Mixolydian (GABCDEFG) - Produced mournful and restrained reactions. I don't necessarily agree with all of these, but I find the idea to be interesting. Also, notice the comment about the Phrygian mode - How many techno/dance tunes are based around E as the tonic? A LOT! The E-F semitone is used very often...Maybe because it's easy for trackers to use, but I've tried doing techno around other notes, and I always come back to E-F, because it sounds better to me. Oh, but I guess to be truthful, I should mention that the ancient Greek tuning system was sometimes different from our own. We usually tune to A-440Hz. Well, they might have tuned A to various other pitches, anywhere from about 300Hz to 500 Hz (if I remember right). But, the E-F combination sounds good to me (for that typical techno stuff) - maybe for you, it's A-Bb - our bodies are all different. Oh, and also, when I talk about the ancient Greeks, I can only talk about modes, because they didn't have keys as we know it today. In fact, they only had 8 notes to work from - A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and Bb (in a few octaves). I'm not really sure yet how different modes, tunings, and keys affect me personally, or how they affect other people, but I DO know that they make a difference. If you want to try it, take any tune that you know, and transpose it up or down, as much or as little as you want. I think that you'll hear a difference, and you may or may not like what you hear, and I don't think this has anything to do with musical training at all. As we all know, everything around us is constantly vibrating, and sound is a vibration of the air that we hear because of our various auditory organs. And, no matter who you are, the sound of the music is vibrating off you, and causing some sort of effect in your ear (you may or not be able to hear it), and in your body. Maybe your eardrum resonates particularly well at 400Hz, and maybe your scull resonates well at 750 Hz. Perhaps your sinus cavities resonate at different frequencies as well. (All those numbers are made up, I have no idea!) But, what I'm getting at is that your body reacts to different frequencies of sound in different ways. So, music that uses certain frequencies will affect you differently. So, when you play D-F#-A, perhaps some of the frequencies are causing sympathetic vibrations in your skull, giving the chord a certain quality, while C-E-G does nothing for you, because it doesn't react in any special way with your body structure. Anyways, I don't want to get too theoretical, or too technical, because that's not what music is about. You can write awesome music without knowing any of this at all. And, in fact, what I'm saying here is based on some personal experience, and knowledge of ancient Greek music, and Indian classical music, but NOT on some hard facts that I've read in a textbook. So, what I want from you, basically, is that when you write your tunes, to maybe think about writing in a key other than C major. Maybe a change will improve the effect of your tune, and add a little spice. So, I guess that's all for now. It's 3:15am, and I've had enough...I haven't been getting much sleep lately (too much #TRAX!)...I hope I haven't left too many questions unanswered, or any ambiguities, but if I have, just let me know, and I'll try and fill in the gaps in another instalment! shawnm / NOISE shawnm@citenet.net /---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------[ Interviews ]-------------------------------/ . . . .. ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ___ ___.___________ ________ . _______ / \ _______ :___| ___\__.___ _ /________\_____ | _. _\______/_ \ /______ __\ . / \ / ____/ __ ____/ |__:___. _ _ _____/ \ /_______ . | . / \/ _/ \ | /. |/ __/ (- -) /__ \WW : | ./ \ \ . \ : / . | \ oO / \ | | \ ._________\ \ : \ . / . | O \ / |___|____\ /. /__________\ |______\ /___._|_______/_/\__/________\/ \/ . /______| \ / . . \/ . =============.=================================.============================= . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... .. . . . . --[ Interview with Populus ]------------------------------------------------ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- This week, TraxWeekly says goodbye to Populus, one of its founders. We also take a look at his personal opinions on the state of the music scene. Since this is a controversial subject, we ask you, the reader, to not take offense to anything that may be brought up here. Psibelius . TraxWeekly Columnist . [acid.epinicion.tw] Populus . TraxWeekly Founder (retired) . [defiance.epinicion] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please introduce yourself. I'm Nicolas Roberge, aka Populus, i'm in Epinicion and Defiance. I'm in computer sciences. I founded TraxWeekly with Neurosis a while back also. Since TW is a music newsletter...how would you describe your individual musical "style?" I compose what i feel...I feel sad, I do a sad song, I feel happy, I will do a very happy tune. I like to do realistic sounding tunes but with my limitations in equipement...I can't all the time. emotion = inspiration? Yes. Especially your song in the "Otherness" disk, "Wild Amazon." What on earth possessed you to compose that? =) I had a " hotel bar mingo " feeling, and probably with some help of that big phat bottle of beer. I had a simple feeling, that's all. It just hits you once in awhile...something good just "comes. So you are against necros' stand that being drunk while tracking is bad? =) Yes. When you're drunk you forget your surroundings and feel alone with the tracker. You focus on one thing. Umm...err...ehehe... Probably necros said that just to forget that in his state he has to drink like at age 27 =) I like being interviewed.. I feel all funny. Err...okay. =) What is the problem in the music being produced now? And WHY is it having such an impact on musicians? Okay. In general, it's dumb...A lot of people for a weird reason like that music. 'dumb music?' Could you be a bit more specific? Music done with no soul. People trying to track a dumb bassdrum on 2 tracks. Well, what I probably mean is big dumb phat techno music. And the problem with the currently released tracks of techno? Don't get me wrong, I love what talented people do with it. Like Maelcum and some of his gang have made it very smooth and complicated. GANG? Maelcum's in a GANG? =) Okay, you mention complexity as an element of good techno music. Yes. The music is so dumb and ugly. Many new composers think this is the way to go. They get big acclamations by doing so. Techno music in it's essence doesn't need melody. Is part of the problem stemming from the fact that many people just make a bunch of noise and call it a song? Yes. When you got a pattern with ONLY a bassdrum hitting at the same intervals on two tracks...We are seeing too much of that. What I like in tracked music is something that is dissapearing rapidly. Moby (Frederic), Jugi, HMW(Zane) did it. simplicity isn't good in techno? No.. it sounds the same. Anyone can do it. Many new groups base their style on cheap techno music. It's flooding the scene, certainly #trax and Hornet Archives. Basehead did a good example of the style of people i'm talking about in the last TW. And here is a reprint of base's article, all 59k of it (NOT. see last weeks TraxWeekly #15 for Basehead's article). Basehead, Krystall, Maelcum, Mental Floss, Inspeckdah deck did very good techno. So a lot of newer music groups are ignoring the "musical" aspect of the scene, and instead mass producing this stuff they call "techno" in order to make huge releases to impress others? Music need a mood. Hard Core techno is a big waste of sound waves. It seems to me we'd rather classify it as "distortion," or "static feedback." =) Yes. Exactly because music is very easy to do. I'll do a risky example: Pure, the belgian group, has a very good array of tunes released in every one of their packs which I listen to. But, some of their members have this sick idea of music. It sounds so terrible. I don't know why people continue to do this.. Is there someone out there who likes that awful stuff? Blue Adonis, Blaze Runner and George have released the best music of PURE. So even while some of PURE's musicians release good music that's enjoyable, some of their members occupy space in those musicdisks with trash? Yes. I hate to say that, since BLR is my friend. But his new members since the merger (except George) have just saved up dumb .XM files for fun. I think I'm the first person to critisize this part of the scene. Which is getting unfortunatly bigger. It also seems as if the XM capability for >64k samples has added to the noise. =) Yes. This is bad. I like stuff from the old amiga musicians, the best PC musicians like Zodiak, Necros, Basehead, Jak, and many many others. Necros' KFMF tunes where very good (except for that bugs in my head thing. =) Understandably, because their stuff is UNIQUE and VARIED right? They had a soul and a feeling in them. Especially DRUNK.S3M. =) Yes, and worked on for crying out loud. Mazurka is a souvenir for a lot of us that went to NAID. Some of them did actually kind nice tunes. But some were so awful. So is this problem specific to techno music? Do you see any more of this 'spamming' occuring in writers of other styles? Exactly the two bassdrum track that i did mention earlier ahaa...boom....boomboom...boom..$#%$%@^@....boom...boom...=) No, no other style has been lowered more than Techno. boom..boom ..boom..boom..boom..boom..boom..boom..boom. is more like it. No orginality. And I hate to say this, but some of these songs pass through epinicion, my friend. pop: I know. =) I just wanna suggest to new musicians. Don't fall in this trap. Techno music can be easy to do. But try to do little harmonies, even if it's harder, you'll get more from this than pounding a dumb bassdrum. All old amiga musicians very bad in their beginnings, but they evolved their unique styles and were very good in the end. Examples would be : Hollywood, Moby, SideWinder. etc. Making the music 'go' somewhere? Make your songs in the intent that you will listen this in ten years. It has to have a mood. Techno music can have that. "Son, this was my first XM."" "XM? WOW DADDY, YOU'RE SO OLD!" You are not my dad anymore. You did crappy techno music. =) Bah...=) I don't wanna put down anybody. Just work on your stuff, and don't take the easy lane! BTW, do you wanna me to tell all the readers why i left TW? populus: you LEFT tw? yes. Woah, fill me in...WHY did you leave TraxWeekly? I had less time to work for it, so i put popcorn in charge (which he wanted to do). But, each time i went in the channel, he asked me for everything...like I was still doing it. And to top that, i lost my fucking account. Provider is LLC and costed 30$ CAN a month for 40 hours.. and now it's 51$ CAN for 40 hours on the same crappy system. You didn't like being pestered all the time? Exactly. I gave the control for a reason. Was that I didn't want to be bugged about it. I think I did a good job for the first issues. I put up the WWW, mail... Damn, that sucks...don't downplay it man, you STARTED it. Yes I know. I'm still proud of it. I read the last issues, and you people are doing a superb job. But I am leaving TW for good, I now have no responsibilities on bugging maelcum for his column and bugging everybody else for articles. That's my story. I never got real good mail anyways. People complaining about the f---ing asciis. Uhhh, I already addressed that complaint. =)"Don't like the ascii's They make the letter too big. Oh god?! "Don't like the ascii's? Don't donwload the f---ing newsletter then biznatch." complaint => complaints That one thing that I hate from the new demonews (or whatever it's called now)... it's just an email messages written by many people. No offense. It has no style anymore. 01. It's basically lost the "feel" that made DemoNews a big success... I just wanna say to the readers that send stupid mail about dumb complaints: We are doing our best to deliver free of charge this newsletter. HAHAHAHAA. It's from out hearts. If it ain't enough, buy Playboy and play with yourself... That all? Yes. Hi to all! Continue THE GOOD MUSIC. Thanks for the interview. Catch ya later... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please note that the opinions stated in this interview are not necessarily the opinions of TraxWeekly, it's staff, or its readers. We hope you will take this article as a controlled viewpoint, of one person's insight on the music scene. So no offense to anyone, k? Lates... ...and a public apology to Populus (don't ask =)... -psibelius [tw] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -[?. Epinicion Column]------------------------------------------------------ ___ _______ _____________ ______ ______ _______ ______ _______ ___________ | // \\ \\_____) \\_____) \\_____) \\ \\ | : / o \ o \ \ \ \ \ \ o \ \: // _____// / \ : / \ _____/ \ / : \. \\_______/ _//______\\_|__//______\\_____//______\\_____//____| /: : \\____\\ ______________________________ oT /___//| |________________________// e p i n i c i o n \\________________| Epinicion has an interesting release from Flood Myth this week. Find it on the kosmic.wit.com site below (epi-pry2.zip). Bert goes on vacation, but not before he leaves us with 'Holidays in Italy.' Epinicion's next music disk will be featured in September. Epinicion releases as well as new work from numerous other groups can be found at ftp.cdrom.com /pub/demos/incoming/music. Most of our 1995 stuff can be found at kosmic.wit.com /kosmic/epinicion. The Web page has again moved, back to http://www.csusm.edu/public/guests/gwie/epi.html. To those thinking of joining Epinicion, or wanting to know more about our philosophy: You need not be great to join Epinicion. You need only to aspire to be great. I quote from "Synners," a novel by P. Cadigan: "We do what we do and we do it because we can." Damn straight. If you are a dedicated person striving to become better, then email us. And join us. We're here for YOU, the musician. So if you think you have what it takes, don't bother waiting. Join Epinicion NOW. Psibelius (Gene Wie) Epinicion Founder gwie@owl.csusm.edu -[Kosmic]-------------------------------------------------------------------- . . .:.........:.. ... . + _:_______ : . + . . \ /__:__ . . . + . .:::. . \ / / . ... ... ````` ...... / _/ ___/_____________.__...:::::::.:::::::. ::::: .:::::'''' + / \ \ _ \ ___.::::::: :::: :::::: .::::: :::::: / /\ \__\_\ \____ \ `::::: :::; :::::'.::::::.::::::. ..:. . /_____/ \_____________________\..::::; ``` :::::::::::::;:::::::::::::; : : \ \___.._ ......:;:::: __ _ ``:::::::``` ```:::::::`` : : \___..__.. .::::::::::: __._ . . . (WW) . . .:............ .. . ``````` .+ . . : : + ... .... ...... a constellation of stars! Kosmic news for the week in and around Thursday, June 29th, 1995 ============================================= Kosmic's World-Wide Web site was mentioned in "The NET" magazine's July issue (P86) in their WWW site directory. It was complimented for "Hours of music to download, brilliant art and incredible links," and we'd like to thank The NET for the kind words. Wired cover article here we come! =) If anyone out there has any spare hard drives (IDE or SCSI) or other hardware that you would like to donate, these things are in desperate need for the purposes of creating the content for the Kosmic WWW and FTP site. It ain't tax deductible, but you -will- get free web space for your own pages on the site, and a big shrine of memorial to you on the Kosmic home page for helping us out! There have of course been no new Kosmic releases for a while. Fear not, many more are on the way, starting next week after I return from a brief vacation. We have excellent tunes coming from ChuckB, Basehead, Lord Pegasus, and our newest member Karl, as well as the first collaboration between The Hacker and Phoenix. It rules, make sure to check it out! All Kosmic 1995 releases have undergone a name change on our ftp site. All files now use _ as their special character. For example, K-FUZZEP.ZIP is now K_FUZZEP.ZIP, etc. Now is a great time to catch up on any of the -71- releases already put out by Kosmic this year. To aid you in doing so, here is the up-to-date MLIST95.KOS for your reference: ---------------------------- cut here ----------------------------- 1995 Kosmic Releases - January through June 29th, 1995. Name Creator Tracks Fmt Length BPM Date 1 Both Sides of the Moon ....theHacker........8 MTM -14m:41s - 144 - 1/1/95 (M00N_KLF.ZIP) - crazy mix of ambient sleepiness and techno awareness 2 Fuzzy Logic EP ............Phoen­x.........--..--- -19m:43s - --- - 1/4/95 (K_FUZZEP.ZIP) - remixes of Wild Side/Eternal Drift/Diseased/C.I.R. 3 White Sands ...............Mental Floss....16 S3M - 7m:35s - 76 - 1/10/95 (K_WSANDS.ZIP) - awesome ambient track that evolves into jungle. 4 Bugs In My Head ...........Necros...........8 S3M - 3m:43s - 127 - 1/10/95 (K_BUGS.ZIP) - very strange industrial-noise song by Necros 5 Amplificator ............. Maelcum ........ 8 .MTM - 4m:03s - 138 - 1/12/95 (K_AMPLIF.MTM) - Hard acid house for 1995. 6 Subsonic ................. Maelcum ........ 8 .MTM - 6m:18s - 104 - 1/12/95 (K_SUBSON.MTM) - ambient hip-hop-ish track 7 Isotope 30 ............... Phoen­x ........ 9 .S3M - 5m:08s - 109 - 1/14/95 (K_ISO30.ZIP) - experimental ambient/IDM track 8 Thats The Weasel ......... B00MER ......... 9 .S3M - 3m:49s - 125 - 1/17/95 (K_WEASEL.ZIP) - a weird trancey nursey rhyme tune, Lots of Drumbeats. 9 UnFaithful Dream ......... B00MER ......... 9 .S3M - 3m:12s - 127 - 1/26/95 (K_UDREAM.ZIP) - Ambient Music 10 Nerve Candy .............. Phoen­x ........10 .S3M - 4m:43s - 128 - 1/27/95 (K_NERVEC.ZIP) - hard breakbeat, L.o.A.-inspired 11 Take Me Higher (Click2) .. Basehead .......11 .S3M - 8m:03s - 117 - 2/02/95 (K_HIGHER.ZIP) - cool rehaul of Necros' "Click" by basehead. house music. 12 Who Gotz Da Funk? ........ Lord Pegasus .. 16 .S3M - 2m:58s - 119 - 2/07/95 (K_GOTZ.ZIP) - an expedition into funk techno. 13 The Force ................ Maelcum ........ 6 .MTM - 4m:44s - 100 - 2/08/95 (K_FORCE.ZIP) - experimental techno track. 14 Celestial Lullabye ....... Basehead ...... 12 .S3M -14m:20s - 125 - 2/16/95 (K_CELEST.ZIP) - great ambient trance by Basehead. 15 Achaeta ............ Krystall & Maelcum... 16 .MTM - 5m:12s - 151 - 2/20/95 (K_ACHAET.ZIP) - experimental rave/techno collaboration 16 Vision of Shattered D. Mental Floss (floss) 8 .S3m - 5m:25s - 125 - 2/23/95 (K_VISION.ZIP) - classical type music 17 Dust To Dust ............. Leviathan ..... 16 .S3m - 3m:40s - 125 - 2/24/95 (K_DUST.ZIP) - mellow rock debut from Leviathan for Kosmic 18 Interphase ............... Nemesis ........ 7 .S3m - 1m:30s - 125 - 3/07/95 (K_PHASE.ZIP) - techno track by Nemesis with acid-house inspired riffs 19 Funk Saboteur ............ Maelcum ....... 14 .MTM - 7m:39s - 134 - 3/09/95 (K_FSABO.ZIP) - intelligent dance music track i wrote in december 20 Synaesthesia ............. Phoen­x ....... 16 .S3m - 6m:55s - 160 - 3/11/95 (K_SYNAES.ZIP) - heartpounding trance mixed with ambient & industrial 21 the wunderkind ........... Basehead ...... 16 .S3m -11m:34s - 112 - 3/14/95 (K_WUNDER.ZIP) - a great trance track.. starts slow and builds from there 22 Solace II ................ Lord Pegasus .. 11 .S3m - 9m:53s - 125 - 3/26/95 (K_SOLAC2.ZIP) - Kosmic returns from some time off with LP's awesome track 23 mindMeld ................. theHacker ...... 7 .MTM - 6m:30s - 164 - 3/31/95 (K_MMELD.ZIP) - indescribable (ambient + progressive house = ?) 24 The Edge of Within ....... theHacker ...... 8 .MTM - 6m:17s - 146 - 3/31/95 (K_EDGE.ZIP) - gr00vy ambient/hAArshcore remix of "Gas Planet" 25 Creepy ................... theHacker ..... 11 .MTM - 5m:00s - 127 - 3/31/95 (K_CREEPY.ZIP) - B-movie quality ambient oddity 26 Vision of Now ............ theHacker ...... 9 .MTM - 4m:20s - 144 - 3/31/95 (K_NOW.ZIP) - some kinda instrumental statement about the present (?) 27 Stressed Monotony ........ theHacker ...... 8 .MTM - 7m:04s - 104 - 3/31/95 (K_MONO.ZIP) - technically boring, yet captivating 28 Binary Relic ............. theHacker ..... 10 .MTM - 5m:23s - 152 - 3/31/95 (K_RELIC.ZIP) - old school hardcore and industrial with ambient stylings 29 Fragment ................. theHacker ...... 8 .MTM - 4m:05s - 114 - 3/31/95 (K_FRAG.ZIP) - "happy" music (from me? eet's not paseeble!) 30 Icecap ................... theHacker ...... 7 .MTM - 3m:48s - 127 - 3/31/95 (K_ICECAP.ZIP) - music derived from ice cubes (?!) 31 ñP0larñB0ndñ ............. theHacker ...... 8 .MTM - 3m:48s - 152 - 3/31/95 (K_POLAR.ZIP) - strange, ambient, melodic electro-jazz 32 Slow Descent ............. theHacker ...... 8 .MTM - 4m:34s - 096 - 3/31/95 (K_DESCEN.ZIP) - my first fairly decent ambient dub t00n The following songs are found on disk one of the Kosmic musicpack "Half-Baked" (filename K_HALF1.ZIP) 33 Digital Vapour ........... Balrog ......... ? .DMF - ?m:??s - 080 - 4/02/95 (K_DVGA.DMF) - Ambient/trance track by Balrog. Play with X-Play. 34 N'Trance ................. Maral ......... 13 .S3M - 5m:34s - 158 - 4/02/95 (K_NTRANC.S3M) - Maral's tune from the Expoze musicdisk. 35 If I Only Had A Brain (rmx) The Hacker .... 8 .MTM - 3m:33s - 138 - 4/02/95 (K_BRAIN.MTM) - A remix of the MC 900 Ft. Jesus song. 36 Caustic .................. The Hacker ..... 8 .MTM - 3m:49s - 128 - 4/02/95 (K_CAUSTI.MTM) - Strange, chip-tune like song by TH. 37 Number Crunch ............ The Hacker ..... 6 .MTM - 3m:58s - 148 - 4/02/95 (K_CRUNCH.MTM) - Sinister dark techno chiptune by TH. 38 Distant Sphere ........... The Hacker .... 32 .MTM - 8m:17s - 148 - 4/02/95 (K_DISTAN.MTM) - Ambient/Industrial hybrid song. 39 Genesis .................. Nemesis ....... 10 .S3M - 3m:20s - 125 - 4/02/95 (K_GENESI.S3M) - Rock song by Nemesis. The following songs are found on disk two of the Kosmic musicpack "Half-Baked" (filename K_HALF2.ZIP) 40 Georgia .............. Maelcum & Phoenix . 12 .MTM - 5m:37s - 114 - 4/02/95 (K_GEORG.MTM) - bizzare "dance music" collaboration :) 41 Iterate .................. The Hacker ..... 8 .MTM - 6m:29s - 138 - 4/02/95 (K_ITERAT.MTM) - trance/IDM track ala Aphex Twin vs ? 42 March of the Digits ...... The Hacker ..... 8 .MTM - 3m:56s - 208 - 4/02/95 (K_MARCH.MTM) - very strange ambient/idm track by the hacker 43 Martian Sands ............ Maelcum ........ 6 .MTM - 4m:46s - 104 - 4/02/95 (K_MSAND.MTM) - track inspired by Arabic music. 44 On The Run ............... GooRoo ......... 8 .S3M - 2m:34s - 125 - 4/02/95 (K_OTR.S3M) - a song reminiscent of KFMDM. 45 My Place In Space ........ Mental Floss .. 10 .S3M - 4m:33s - 131 - 4/02/95 (K_PLACE.S3M) - great techno track by AndrewM! 46 Quiver (Braindead II) .... The Hacker ..... 8 .MTM - 3m:30s - 148 - 4/02/95 (K_QUIVER.MTM) - Hacker's remix of Phoenixes' song "Braindead" 47 Scanning A Multitude ..... The Hacker ..... 8 .MTM - 6m:46s - 130 - 4/02/95 (K_SCANNI.MTM) - sort of like 80s industrial tracks by Cab Voltaire 48 Steel Sorrow ............. GooRoo ......... 8 .S3M - 2m:57s - 125 - 4/02/95 (K_SORROW.S3M) - Heavy Rock Guitar track. The following songs are found on disk three of the Kosmic musicpack "Half-Baked" (filename K_HALF3.ZIP) 49 The Terrorist ............ GooRoo ........ 12 .S3M - 3m:50s - 125 - 4/02/95 (K_TERROR.S3M) - Hard to classify.. reminds me of the airwolf theme some :) 50 Things ................... Floss ......... 10 .S3M - 2m:26s - 125 - 4/02/95 (K_THINGS.S3M) - melodic dance music by floss. totally catchy! 51 Jungle Fever ............. Lurch ......... 12 .MTM - 4m:55s - 125 - 4/02/95 (K_TRIBAL.MTM) - killer tribal house song 52 War ...................... The Hacker ..... 6 .MTM - 4m:43s - 146 - 4/02/95 (K_WAR.MTM) - this ain't the U2 song ;) 53 Winding Down ............. The Hacker ..... 8 .MTM - 5m:21s-132/141-4/02/95 (K_WINDIN.MTM) - euro-dance track. 54 Cliche ................... theHacker ..... 10 .MTM - 3m:53s - 164 - 4/07/95 (K_CLICHE.ZIP) - ah, the gud old days of rave (str8 from '88 ;) 55 Subterranean ............. ChuckB ........ 16 .S3M - 8m:51s - 133 - 4/20/95 (K_SUB.ZIP) - Chuck Biscuit's debut song for Kosmic 56 2deep .......... Lord Pegasus & Basehead . 16 .S3M - 7m:02s - 125 - 4/29/95 (K_2DEEP.ZIP) - a progressive house track by a duo of kosmic dudes 57 Modern Society remix .. remix by Maelcum . 12 .MTM - 4m:36s - 125 - 5/03/95 (K_MSOC.ZIP) - trance/ambient remix of Kenny C's NAiD track 58 Cybertoaster II ....... .. Quarex ......... 8 .XM - 3m:13s -4/125- 5/12/95 (K_CYBER.ZIP) - Quarex's debut release for Kosmic. Sequel to Cybertoaster. 59 Ultrasubmarine ........ .. Mental Floss... 15 .S3M - 3m:15s -6/125- 5/13/95 (K_ULTRA.ZIP) - Trip-hop piano. Sticks in your head like Mental Floss. 60 Dirt ..................... Khyron ........ 12 .XM - 4m:04s -3/130- 5/16/95 (K_DIRT.ZIP) - Hardcore Industrial Noise, Khy's first '95 release. 61 Worldwide Slack .......... ChuckB ........ 16 .S3M - 6m:29s -6/132- 5/18/95 (K_SLACK.ZIP) - Progressive acid-house by Chuck Biscuits. 62 strange turn ............. theHacker ...... 8 .MTM - 5m:21s -6/096- 5/19/95 (K_TURN.ZIP) - its bizarre quality has rendered me unable to describe it 63 Death From Above ......... Maelcum ....... 12 .MTM - 3m:30s -6/137- 5/21/95 (K_DEATH.ZIP) - techno/house quickie tune by Maelcum 64 Supertron (flight mix) ... Maelcum ....... 16 .MTM - 4m:15s -6/132- 5/24/95 (K_STRON.ZIP) - original MTM version of the first song from "Flight". 65 Equalise ................. Maelcum ....... 10 .MTM - 4m:15s -6/147- 5/31/95 (K_EQUAL.ZIP) - Groovy mellow simple house song 66 Solaris .................. Krystall ...... 14 .S3M - 5m:04s -3/138- 6/02/95 (K_SOLAR.ZIP) - strange acid-trance track 67 Things part 2 ............ Floss ......... 10 .S3M - 2m:06s -7/141- 6/02/95 (K_THNGZ2.ZIP) - Demo song from Flight's Morph part. Catchy or something. 68 Zebras in Love ........... Lord Pegasus .. 16 .S3M - 8m:50s -6/125- 6/02/95 (K_ZEBRA.ZIP) - Housing kewl thingy by lpeg.. werd. 69 Cars Kill People ......... Maelcum ........ 8 .MTM - 4m:17s -6/136- 6/14/95 (K_CARS.ZIP) - Hard industrial dance song with an ambient segueway. 70 Found (Part I) ........... The Hacker ..... 6 .MTM - 3m:31s -6/125- 6/15/95 (K_FOUND.ZIP) - a song made with sounds you hear everyday, sort of :) 71 Suburbia / High Hopes .... Basehead ...... 16 .S3M - 6m:50s -6/122- 6/17/95 (K_SUBHI.ZIP) - A 122bpm progressive house track (suburbia) followed by a remix of "High On Hope" clocking in at 144bpm. ---------------------------- cut here ----------------------------- And that's all for this week. Tune in next time, same bat time, same bat channel. - Maelcum (Dan Nicholson) kosmic@kosmic.wit.com +1-908-687-3479 Kosmic Site Info =----------------= FTP Site: ftp://kosmic.wit.com/kosmic/songs/ World-Wide Web: http://kosmic.wit.com/~kosmic/ backup site: http://freedom.wit.com/~kosmic/ -[Exceedingly Great Grooves]------------------------------------------------ Exceedingly Great Grooves Nuwz --============================== EGG 3 "Feelin' Groovy" will be released July 15th. It's not too late to get your submissions in, but hurry! This promises to be one of the best music disks of the year. -------------------------- .o$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$b. Q$$$$$$$$$$$"$$$$$$$$$$$. `Q$$$$$$$$P.$$$$$$$$$$$$$. .$$$$$P"$$$$$$$$. .$$$$$$. `$$$$$$$. .$$$$$$$o. `$$$$$$$. PC/AT: A Tracked Tribute to the Aphex Twin .$$$$$$$$P' `$$$$$$$. .$$$$$$' `$$$$$$$. Q$$$$$P `$$$$$$$. `""""' `$$$$$$$. `$$$$$$$. `$$$$$$P `"""' an Exceedingly Great Grooves Production Richard D. James, also known as Caustic Window, Polygon Window, the Diceman, Aphex Twin, AFX and various other monikers, is one of today's leading 'techno' pioneers, taking music to all extremes. His most recent album, "... I care because you do," is a prime example of this, ranging from the harsh, deafening feedback of "Ventolin" to "Alberto Basalm," a song with overtones of everything from Portishead to Steve Reich to the Beastie Boys. PC/AT is intended to be a musical tribute to Aphex Twin by tracker musicians of all styles and tastes. Submissions can be remixes, reinterpretations or covers of any songs James has written. If you are interested in participating in this unique project, contact me at the address listed below. Submissions are encouraged via email in MIME or UUENCODED at the same address. Update: submissions are starting to come in, and I've set a date of 'sometime around Assembly 95' for PC/AT's release. To ensure that your track is included, please try to get it to me by July 25 at the latest. - Maelcum kosmic@kosmic.wit.com -[Pure Resistance]---------------------------------------------------------- ____ ______/\________________ /.- \\\_ / // _ \\__ \\ // ) ))/ / // | \\/ // // ___// _/ // _| _/ /__/ / \ / // \ \_ __/\ \ // / \ \ / \ \___/ \_____/ \___|\ /\_____/ |\ ____ \/ _| \/ _ \________________ ______________/\__ __ /\______________ \__ | \\ \\ \\__/ \\ _ //\/ \/ \\ \\ \\ / | \\ // ___/ \ __/\___/ // \\ \ \\ \\ // / _| _/ /__/ \\\__/ \\ / // \\ \ \\ \_/ /__/ \ \ \_ __/\ \\ \ \\ / / | \\ _ \ / \ __/\ \ \ / \___ \\ \___ \\ / _ \ \ \ \ \ nd! \___|\ /______/________/__/______/____/_____| ___\_/\___/___/____/ Ok here I am for this weeks wonderful edition of Traxweek! Now that I have done this article once, I am going to do it in an orderly fashion from now on. Then again I probably will get lazy and it will go back to normal garbage. Well this week has been a very active one for all of the members. With MC3's deadline finally upon us and our many side projects going at the same time, I can safely say that these are exciting times for both the group and each individual member. Currently, Virtual Seeker (main coder) and I are working on the interface for our musicdisk project. Hopefully it will be something that you guys won't be disapointed with. Then Hades our other coder and only Australian member is working on some routines for our upcoming demo project which we hope to have finished by the end of the summer. Then there are our persistent musicians which have been working their rear ends off to finish up their songs for MC3. If we are lucky and everything goes right we will have 3-4 entries. So look for those soon. On a sad note this week we had Krynn (artist) leave us on some unfavorable terms. While he didn't really do much in his stay with us he was a good friend. Hopefully he will find a group that better suits him. New Releases: Heat.zip - Our intro that we coded on site at NAiD and later went on to place 4th. Size : 86555 bytes Location : ftp.cdrom.com /demos/incoming/demos Dy-funk.zip - A funkified tune by Draygen. This song is a remake of moby's tune for the No! demo. Size : 92385 bytes Location : ftp.cdrom.com /demos/incoming/music You may also find all of our productions at ftp.hsr.no /pure_res Thanks for reading pyromaniac.pr (pyro@xnet.com) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -[Distribution Sites]------------------------------------------------------- -BBS System- -Country- -Number- -Sysop- ____________________________________________________________________________ | Hack / Ploddt | Canada | 902-625-5920 | Popcorn | | Beats per Minute | Canada | 418-660-8137 | Populus | | Our World | Canada | 416-740-4346 | b0b | |-------------------+--------------+-------------------+-------------------| | Aethelwulf Utopia | USA | 309-862-4918 | Quarex | |-------------------+--------------+-------------------+-------------------| | Mindflux | Australia | +61-2-416-2513 | Force Format | |-------------------+--------------+-------------------+-------------------| | Velvet Demosite | Belgium | +32-3-3851594 | Sleeping Dog | |-------------------+--------------+-------------------+-------------------| | CybeR WeB | Italy | +39-331-310641 | ArachniD | |-------------------+--------------+-------------------+-------------------| | TH Rijswijk BBS | Netherlands | +31-70-3401534 | Raymond Dijkxhoorn| |-------------------+--------------+-------------------+-------------------| | The Digital Dream | New Zealand | +64-7-856-1376 | Black Friday | |-------------------+--------------+-------------------+-------------------| | MultiMedia GS | Singapore | (65)252-1220 | Lee Teck Chee | |-------------------+--------------+-------------------+-------------------| | The Portal | Sweden | +46-26-196363 | Coyote & Cyanid | |-------------------+--------------+-------------------+-------------------| | Sound & Vision | U.K. | +44-181-288-8444 | Rob Barth | \++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++/ If you have sent a request but don't see your BBS listed here, please re-send your mail to Neurosis! To become a site you must meet these requirements: 1. Your board must be demoscene related. 2. You must have a special directory for TraxWeekly Issues. 3. All TraxWeekly issues must be a free download. Please send all requests to ->davidk@randomc.com<- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -[Subscribing/FTP/WWW Info]------------------------------------------------- TraxWeekly is on the World Wide Web! Officially, the sites are: http://www.partek.fi/traxweek AND http://kosmic.wit.com/~kosmic/traxweek Partek is in Finland and Kosmic is in the US. So, choose the server nearest to you for the fastest connection. This page is maintained by Dragunov. TraxWeekly subscriptions are available, and can be requested in this matter: Send mail to: listserver@oliver.sun.ac.za And put in the message body: subscribe trax-weekly [your real name] If you want to unsubscribe to the list, mail the same address and write: unsubscribe trax-weekly TraxWeekly is also available on ftp.cdrom.com: /pub/demos/incoming/news/ for the most recently uploaded version, or /pub/demos/news/traxw/ for all of the back issues. /---------------------------------[ End ]------------------------------------ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------/ . :: ::: : . ..... ..............................:::.................:.... ::: : :::: : .::::. .:::::.:::. ..:::: :::: : :: :: ::: .:: :: :: WW:::: : ::. :: ::: .:: :: .:: :::: : :::.::. ::: .:: .:: .:::::... :: :::.. ... ..: ... ..:::::::::::::::: .:: .::::::: :::::::: ::::::.. ::: ::: ::: : until next week! (= .. ... .. ....... ............... .................:..... .. . :