Editorial: March 2003


I'm a little late with this months editorial, but sometimes you just cannot defy time restrictations can you. We'll this month we saw the opening of AMIGAremix, and the new four way commodore forum. Both these things are good news for the comunity i feel. Eventually the board at c64audio.com will close and the remaining parts of the forum which have not already been transfered to the commodore forum will be passed to the commodore messageboard at remix64. Combine all four scenes many of us feel is a great thing. While it supresses the need to checkout two seperate forums the most important thing is that it brings together the scene somewhat, it should make the commodore forum much busier and certainly alot more diverse place to be involved.
Neil Carr

Now where does r64 go in relation to the opening of AMIGAremix? we'll there's a poll which is just edging towards the idea of remix64 becoming more diverse in it's approach and involving the newly found Amiga scene. As yet, i havn't been able to really talk with markus about it, so no decision on the future of r64 has been made. While i would like r64 to become more involved with the Amiga scene there are several issues about this which needs to be resolved and conversed about. Any restructering plans be it pro or against will be confirmed on the news pages at remix64.


Chris Abbott ponders the nature of commercial success, and ponders the green monster…

Is it me or does radioplay and commercial success happen to the weirdest people? Recently this month, An Australian group called Superfluid had a radioplay hit with a cover of Knucklebusters (their first C64 cover). There's lots of stuff better on RKO technically speaking, and a lot of stuff worse. So why does, for instance, Zombie Nation, Add (N) To X, or whatever attract success when there are plenty of worthier people and tracks? What's in the minds of the A&R People that repels them from the good stuff: stuff which is good from any viewpoint. Congratulations to those who have cracked it: no mean feat, and they deserve the success.
Chris Abbott

My answer: God knows, they must be aliens.

Anyway, and now to the main point: have you suffered from the green monster lately? Have you listened to stuff on RKO (or, god forbid, even on CD), and felt I don't know why I'm wasting my time? Everyone else is so much better than me? I think it's a pretty common feeling, especially if you're struggling againstthe technology and your own conceptual limitations.

Some of the most inspiring pieces I've heard have been the ones where I know instinctively that I wouldn't have done that: and indeed couldn't: not because of any technical thing, but because my mind and brain don't work that way. I love finding tracks like that: it's one of the reasons I was attracted to FTCs stuff. It sounded alien!

Alternatively the tracks that sometimes bother me most (and lead to the most dark thoughts about canceling products) are the ones which are in genres where I'm doing the most work, or which I know I might have done, had I the energy or ideas. It's almost like a missed opportunity. It's like if you're doing loads of dance remixes, and you do a tune which Instant Remedy later covers. How soul destroying!

I guess the only way to cope with that is to improve your game, learn from the masters, and to recognise
that they have their own sound: and you should get your own sound too, different from theirs. It's another
example of where you first have to learn the rules of a genre by studying the masters, and then learn which rules to change or break to create your signature sound. A singer who sounds exactly like another singer will hardly ever amount to anything other than a shadow of the person they're imitating: but a unique voice can define an epoch. Be that unique voice, not the shadow.


Back In Time Live Germany – what’s going on?

BIT Live Germany - June 2003 Hamburg
Man, time is running. Now it's only 4 month up to BIT Live Germany, I hope you all are as excited as I am…

As you may have noticed if you're a frequently visitor of remix64, BIT Live Germany has the pleasure to play exclusively tracks from the forthcoming remix64 Album emotions, which will officially be released in September. I bet you can't afford to miss this experience!

Some news on new web-adresses: Big BIT Live Germany-Supporter Markus Schneider has relaunched his Homepage at www.c64music.de, you can get some infos about BIT Live there, too. And please take a look at www.backintimelive.de the next days, we're going to make this the official Homepage. If it's ready, we'll anounce it at remix64, it'll be going online this week (we hope so).

I'm dealing with another (huge) Live-Act at the moment, and if this thing is going to happen…phew, you'll be blown away, I promise you! So keep your fingers crossed for me, more infos to follow…

By the way, we got some new registrations for the event, you'll have the chance to meet the remix-rocker Puffy64 at the event, who has been 'undercover' for some time. And we present Stefan Hartwig, another HVSC-Composer. The guestlist gets better and better, can't wait to announce the next VIP to you…

And don't forget the Theme-Compo, only one more month to go. Please remember the official deadline, April 1st. I'm very anxious about it and hoping for a lot more contributions to arrive in march.

Get detailed informations and upcoming news on the official hompage:

http://www.backintimelive.de, the official forum

http://forums.nekkidradio.com/c64audio.com/viewforum.php?f=32 and of course right here at remix64, the 1st place for the community.

Have a noisy march…