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Thalamusik (from Sanxion) - arranged by FerraraReview by Chris Abbott, 23/01/2003 Ah, Thalamusik. The classic tune. Tough to cover, with listeners demanding a high standard of Sanxion… The beginning is promising, drums are tinny but purposeful, there's some effective filtered gated synth, and the bass works. However, the main leads are awful, and effectively kill the remix for me. The breaks in the piece are imaginatively done, if lacking in dynamics, and the difficult impossible-to-replicate-without-the-sid bits have been done well (with the SID lurking in there). The first whiney solo bit has been done justice thanks to suitably whiny instruments and that ever-present gated-synth effect. The second difficult bit doesn't knock me out: it's unsubtle, though it's not the worst rendition of this piece I've heard: far from it. The last solo at the end of the piece is a disappointment: the lead is just the wrong sound. It's not whiney, it's not vibrato, and it just doesn't convey that scrapey desperate sound that the SID conveys. Better leads would have given this a 7.5. |
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Tusker - Finale - arranged by FeekZoidReview by Chris Abbott, 23/01/2003 Jungle screams and atmosphere permeate this track. The Matt Gray jungle drums are cleverly mixed with other ethnic percussion to create a jungle atmosphere. Most of Matt Gray's SID bass and drums are intact here, but the lead and chords have been re-rendered with a choir-like instrument and FX. Later developments include SIDlike FX that weren't in the SID, phasing, flanging, gated synth and other additions. Some large chords never quite sound large enough. A cool throwaway distorted lead at the end should have been used earlier: it's worth the price of downloading in itself… This remix is well done, but it doesn't float my boat. This is probably unfair on the remix, but it's a reflection of my lack-of-feeling towards the original tune. Quality Matt Gray cover. |
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Meanwhile, The planet: (FeekZoid2000 mix) - arranged by FeekZoidReview by Chris Abbott, 23/01/2003 Wow. Here comes Jarre, but don't tell FeekZoid (he hates Jarre). A gourmet meal based on a tiny bit of SIDtune, this is professional, from the meaty kick drum, to the atmospheric filter usage, the long sweeps over time, the tune building to climax… and relax. Vocoded voices actually fit into this cover along with the floating pads and the rest of the atmospheric SFX, though the tune doesn't have a lot of melody to speak to. One to have in the background, I think. Might not be your cup of tea, but the quality can't be denied. |
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MicroProse Soccer Intro: Smooth FeekZoid Mix - arranged by FeekZoidReview by Chris Abbott, 23/01/2003 It's amazing the difference a good delay can make to a tune. Other arrangers might have rendered this dry and uninteresting, but Feekzoid has simply added strings, timpani, an orchestral feel, bounciness and smoothness to the original SID, all blended in seamlessly. Gorgeous work Feeky: even Galway's patented digis fit in perfectly. Must-download. |
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The Orchestral Synthasaurus Ninja - arranged by FeekZoidReview by Chris Abbott, 23/01/2003 You don't often hear guitar beginning a Ninja track. That's the first surprise with this. The second is that the SID (despite the orchestral track) is still here in FXd form, along with a distinctly Art of Noise set of drums. Then the Orchestral X-files parts starts. It's sublime: great cello, guitar and pianos, wonderful string work, nice X-Files lead, thunder… then it turns into an 80s OMD kind of cover. Well, you can't fault this tune for variety! Oh yes, the guitar solo at the end: marvellous! Must-download. |
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Savage (Boom!Tsk!Fz!) - arranged by FeekZoidReview by Chris Abbott, 23/01/2003 One of Jeroen's bouncy tunes is covered here with some suspense by Feekzoid, who cleverly builds to the payoff bassline with decent synths and restrained. The body of the piece is well done with a standard house/club rhythm section giving it a disco feel. Floaty pads and strings do the business, and clever breaks keep the interest in what is a tune you can easily tire of in its original form. I'm not sure about that lead though: or rather that octave duplication of the lead. It pulls down the piece slightly, and should be more staccato. Quality work. |
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Hawkeye Highscore Tune (Alltime lowest score ever) - arranged by FTCReview by Chris Abbott, 23/01/2003 A better entry from FTC which has some clever use of the SID. The 80s Chris Huelsbeck rhythm suits the piece nicely, and the space between the bass and the drums which is integral to the feel of a MoN piece has been preserved nicely (never play the bass and drums at the same time for a funky feel!). Some nice spacious instruments all contribute to a very early 80s cover. The original source material is quite limited, but nice enough. Overall a very pleasant cover, strangely reminiscant of Human League except it's cheerful. Nice. Very nice cover of a cheerful tune. If you like 80s, you'll like this. |
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FTC - Infodroid (Fade 2 Ambient Gray Mix) - arranged by FTCReview by Chris Abbott, 23/01/2003 Another interesting and filtered opening, with some actual bass coming through leaves you wanting more, and you're not disappointed. Some really nice synth instruments take the sustained notes, and a nice weird sounding three-note hook gives some of the weirdness that Fred was trying to convey. Somehow the normal strangeness of FTCs arranging meshes with Fred's musical strangeness to produce something special. Sonically I can't fault it except that the bass could be warmer. There's a worrying moment at 2:07 when it sounds like this might turn into Thanatos, but it soon passes. Brilliant. |
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Last V8 (short version) - arranged by FTCReview by Chris Abbott, 23/01/2003 Nice echo on the lead doesn't save this unsatisfying cover. It doesn't drag the listener along, the added chords just don't work, and the whole thing fails to satisfy. the whole SID is in here somewhere, so listen to that instead or (plug) the BIT 3 version of Last V8, which is how it should be done. Irritating cover. |
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Mayhem (18 years after) - arranged by FTCReview by Chris Abbott, 23/01/2003 More Vince Clarkiness from the master of the Clarke-ism. As usual beautiful lush sound, dry exciting electronic arps and rough synth-isms filtering into the distance. From 1:00 it gets disturbingly atonal though. Once again this is symptomatic of the chaotic strands running through FTCs work. At 1:30 asthmatic drums come in, the strings fade into a melange and the piece begins to feel very messy. At 3:30 a beautiful synth break comes back to asthmatic drums and synth, but less messy this time. Wait long enough and the messiness if back. Take your time, FTC. Master the piece you're on, and you have the ability to go far… Potentially great, but very messy. |
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BraveStarr (Subtune 2) - arranged by FTCReview by Chris Abbott, 23/01/2003 The usual FTC ambience is present and correct here in this cover of what's one of Dave Whittaker's odder arpeggio-driven tunes. Some nice piano lead over the arpeggios, and a nice breakbeat make this a pleasant-sounding but odd cover, but somehow it sounds chaotic. This is perhaps because sounds chop and change very quickly, and some sounds which should sustain a lot longer and fade off are just cut. It makes the sound very confusing, because sounds disappear just when the ear is beginning to like them. A chance is missed throughout the entire tune to have a really warm single bass note, (notoriously hard from a sound module) underpinning the beginning of the tune: something to really rattle the windows. This would have made the beginning a lot less brittle and warm. Wistful, but also confusing and choppy. Still worth the download. |
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Last Ninja Remix (tune 7) - arranged by FerraraReview by Chris Abbott, 23/01/2003 This tune has always been a smokey back-alley New York tune to me, so hearing it done so synthily is more difficult to like than it should be. The lead (which should be a smoky sax played by a real cool sax player) is a dry synth which doesn't convey the atmosphere of back-alley melancholia that it deserves. The rest of the backing is rather reminiscent of Sega's arcade work. Very atmospheric synth stabs add a touch of class, taking it from a 6 to a 7 overall. There are more atmospheric versions of this tune, but it's still worth a download. |
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Myth - tune1 - arranged by FerraraReview by Chris Abbott, 23/01/2003 Massed choirs follow Jeroen Tel's anthemic intro to Myth: an approach which works very well. I'm not sure about the drums which accompany the tune when its gets going though: they don't make my foot tap, and they're a bit random-sounding. This has always been a difficult tune to cover once you get past the memorable intro, and this cover bravely tries to inject ideas and rhythm. It's a competent Myth, but my posterior isn't heating up. Part of this may be the high-frequency challenged overall sound. Worth a download if you're fed up of really bad Myth covers. |
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Neon Nights (tune 4) - arranged by FerraraReview by Chris Abbott, 23/01/2003 This sounds like Chris Huelsbeck. It might be the piano, the choir or the JV2080 bell-type sounds. However, there's an unpleasant discordant feel here which I don't like at all. It's a subtle wrongness with the instruments: maybe some chords played at too low a frequency, but unsettling all the same. The kick drum and snare also don't go together too well: the snare is sharp in all the ways that the booming, almost tuned, kick is not. Somehow offputting. See if you agree. |
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Starforce Nova synthmix - arranged by FerraraReview by Chris Abbott, 23/01/2003 Not an obvious tune to cover, so brownie points there. Watery arpeggio and synth lead are nicely echoed, but the overall sound of the remix is cluttered and muddled. Some nice Cooksey-synth-work is good, but that wet-reverb piano isn't doing the piece any favours at all bass-wise. Worth a download if you like the original. |
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Terrafighter theme - arranged by FerraraReview by Chris Abbott, 23/01/2003 Atmospheric pads wing this remix into the right landing zone, though they take a long time to start the tune. A tense pause then takes the tune into a pad/arpeggio section. The big drum hits are very Jarre-Zooklook, but the arpeggio instrument itself is disturbingly wibbly, and the instrument used for the lead offputtingly twee. From 2:00 these problems go away, and the remix shows off the piece to best advantage. As it goes on, it again reminds me of a Sega piece, possibly because of the lack of high frequencies in the file which makes it sound like it's been recorded on tape or from a low-quality sound source like an arcade speaker. Brings the majesty out of the tune nicely. |
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Druid 2 (Fairlight Enlightment) - arranged by FTCReview by Chris Abbott, 23/01/2003 Another Druid 2 cover? Aargh! It's a personal pet hate of mine, and I just can't see why do many people cover this! Dum dum dum. Dum dum da-dum. What IS the attraction? FTC has an interesting attempt at compensating for this rhythmic tedium by using a sync-delay on lead and bass. This mostly works, but you've got to be careful when doing this, because if the wrong note creeps into the melody, you've got a repeating mess. This happens more often than it's supposed to. The string/pad sound and breakbeat here are very good, although again the bass could be heavier, and the piece has been entirely reworked in an ambient fashion. The main criticism of this cover however, is that the main lead tune is wrong. It must be fixed, because it makes this cover very hard to listen to for fans of the piece. If the lead was fixed throughout the tune, this may very well be my favourite Druid 2 cover. Would be 7 if the lead was correct, but as it is, it will probably annoy fans of the tune. |
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Humphrey - arranged by FTCReview by Chris Abbott, 23/01/2003 Every MP3 FTC creates brings him closer to Vince Clark! First impressions are very promising: beautiful arpeggio, exciting sounds, great pads. The breakbeat kicks in, and you think… hmmm, what's going on here? But the piece survives. I'm not sure it was necessary, but it doesn't repel. The lead when it comes in sneaks under the radar and is a bit subdued. However, it comes into its own when the breakbeat stops, and you get an absolutely gorgeous melange of sound: arpeggio, piano, filtered pads, lead and other amazing stuff. Then the breakbeat accompanies a great pan-flute instrument which manages to avoid sounding 'cheesey'. This part is maybe a bit overlong, but it leads into another quite magnificent quiet bit. We had no right to expect a tune this basic to sound this good. A mini masterpiece. A must-download. Pure quality, and from such an unexpected SID!. |
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Paperboy (Paperboys Lament) - arranged by FTCReview by Chris Abbott, 23/01/2003 A very non-FTC breakbeat beginning gets a groove going, and bits of the tune float above a luscious landscape filtering away. Some nice pads and an added melody bit soon come in, and (unlike the Arkanoid cover) add some variety, and a dreaminess to the tune that you'd never have thought was there. A remixer's remix, in that it takes a simple tune and extrapolates it to great sonic effect. Could do with warmer bass though. Essential download. |
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Parallax (Subtune 4) - arranged by FTCReview by Chris Abbott, 23/01/2003 OW! A nice first three seconds leads into a painful next three seconds? Why? Because the chord that is being played is wrong! And not just slightly wrong… it destroys what the piece is trying to do: the ambience is nice, the sounds are nice, though still slightly cold, but it's painful to hear. Later drums in the piece accompany some adlibbing of the tune, with some painful discords in the pads here and there, and the whole tune begins to journey towards trance/ambient territory. Once it reaches this point, most connection between the tune and the backing is lost, and the whole piece becomes an unfamiliar SID spinoff. The ingredients are nice, but if you're a fan of the SID, this is not easy to listen to. You might like it. I couldn't. |
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Rolands Ratrace (tune 4) - arranged by FTCReview by Chris Abbott, 23/01/2003 Kudos for covering a tune that Zzap felt it necessary to comment positively on in their review. However, putting a half-speed syncopated beat on an echoed version of the SID for the first 40 seconds doesn't work. The cover improves when some appropriate chords come in over the SID, but then weird Jarre-like chords fight it out with the SID until the whole thing is a bloody mess on the floor. It's painful to listen to. OUCH!! Painful, when it could have been so much better. |
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Thanatos (sleeping dragon mix) - arranged by FTCReview by Chris Abbott, 23/01/2003 First: OK beginning, some nice chords. Then it falls apart. Take an ambient tune called Thanatos. Let's take a rhythm from a drunk Hot Chocolate tribute band. Let's put alcohol into the C64 until it can't hold a note. This might be what you'd get when the blender was finished. Ow! I'm mystified by the high marks on R64 for this tune: FTC has done much better (and god knows I love his stuff!). Ow, my ears. |
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Turrican Intro Speech (nuff said mix) - arranged by FTCReview by Chris Abbott, 23/01/2003 Nice echoes and use of the Turrican speech, along with the growling bassline and great ambience makes this a good cover. There are suspicious similarities to Infodroid here though in places, confirming FTCs pet hates and likes 😊 It's a great MP3, and… revelation coming… FTC sounds like Vince Clark (Erasure)! Recommended. |
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Way of the Exploding Fist - arranged by FTCReview by Chris Abbott, 23/01/2003 Hmmm. The lead here sounds a lot flatter than some of FTC's current work, and the trademark delay-large sound doesn't quite work with what is quite an intimate tune. This tune is for fields, outdoors, temples and stuff. It doesn't quite lend itself to large indoor spaces. Some surprising string pads start off nice, but clash quite badly with the tune, and the tune starts to sound painfully messy, especially when odd synth riffs come in. Worth the download, but could have been so much better. |
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Bad Cat 99 - arranged by Frank Veeltmann offlineReview by Chris Abbott, 23/01/2003 Muffled and unsatisfying, this cover sounds like all that's worst in the 80s. There are some mood-suiting vocals and 80s percussion, but in general this piece leaves no stone turned in its quest for a quality 80s sound. Not good. And attempts to frighten me with samples of news broadcasts threatening Martian Attack won't work you know!. |
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BMX Kidz 99 - arranged by Frank Veeltmann offlineReview by Chris Abbott, 23/01/2003 First thoughts: it's the BMX Kidz sid with souped-up percussion. Not bad as far as it goes, but the rest of the instruments doing the reproduction work just aren't up to the job. 100% faithful to the SID, but for a ground-breaking piece like BMX Kidz, a few 80s percussion samples, a slightly improved rhythm section and slightly different instruments don't cut it. I guess it's unobjectionable if you like the original, though. Earth-unshattering, but at least it doesn't ruin the original. |
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Katakis medley 2000 - arranged by g2sonicsReview by Chris Abbott, 23/01/2003 Sophisticated chord pads and bell trees, along with ominous percussion give a professional sounding start. When the tune proper starts at 1:35, the yawns set in. I'm not sure whether this is because the original piece doesn't set my ass on fire (it doesn't), but the cover is lacklustre. Simple drum beat, simple bass from the SID, static chord pads, and a weird plinky lead. Colour me unstunned. Uninspiring but competant. |
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The Great Giana Sisters - arranged by Geir Ola Brandal offlineReview by Chris Abbott, 23/01/2003 A cover of Great Giana sisters has much competition. Instant Remedy's version, Chris Huelsbeck's version, Tom Novy's version, and more. How does this one fare? Not well. No ambience, it doesn't capture the ethereal mysteriousness of the title tune: that echo Chris puts in the original to convey a mysterious sense of landscape that contrasted with the cheerful 2Dness of Mario. Somehow the music made Giana a much bigger feeling game than Mario, though this was an illusion. This cover adds some dry drums to the mix, and a 'news at ten' single note backing, but nothing much else. |
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Boulder Dash (Trash Mix) - arranged by David FilskovReview by Chris Abbott, 23/01/2003 It starts with SID… so far so good, it's always a treat. Then the tune is played by erratically filtered and distorted synths, and a pretty apocalyptic breakbeat. Though intriguing, the character of Boulderdash was always conveyed for me by echo and space, mirroring the cavernous spaces in the game. My initial exposure to this music was on the Atari, where it's even more echoey, so this cover just doesn't quite fit into my mental map. It's accurate notewise, but the tune just didn't need this treatment. Towards the end if gets so distorted it's nasty: that's no way to reward people for their endurance is it? Clever but pointless. Brave experiment, but a bit of a travesty. |
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Comic Bakery (rearranged) - arranged by David FilskovReview by Chris Abbott, 23/01/2003 Unsubtle and unsatisfying version of this seminal Galway tune: the burbles lack the immediacy of the SID, and somehow the wide-open space and lightness of Galway's original is gone. The occasional pleasant harmonies (for instance, on Galway's solo) don't make up for the loss of Galway-ness that's happened here. Was this all done on C64s? It might well have been, in which case: brave move, but why bother? The recording's quite punchy though, and it IS relatively accurate. OK version of Galway's classic. |
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