Skyhigh 20 Music collection review

Music collection review


Music-Collection Review:

RETRIBUTION
RETRIBUTION

by:

MHD / FENIKS
MHD / FENIKS
(now Motiv8)



INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION

Again Bizkid has put me to work. This time it's the
music reviews, that I have been put in charge of. The
initial idea was that I should review the music in
demos, much like what Syndrom does in The Pulse
(World of Demos) and PRI in Relax. However, since
there are also quite a lot of music-collections being
released, we thought that it would be in everyone's
interest to review this instead.

One could ask the question, if I was in any way
'colored' by e.g. a special taste in music, but I can
assure you all, that my taste in music ranges widely
from jazz to hardcore techno ...

I will now present you with the scale, from which I
judge the music:

00-10%   This is NOT music!
11-20%    Huuuge technical problems
21-30%   Still not good enough
31-40%   You've got "something" to built on
41-50%   Just below average
51-60%   Average - everybody does this
61-70%   Very good, but still missing something
71-80%   Even better - You've got melody!
81-90%   This kicks ass !!!
91-100%  Outta this world!

Anyway, let's get to the point - the review of
MHD/Feniks (now Motiv8) music-collection.


OUTFIT
OUTFIT

The outfit in Retribution looks better than most
collection-screens, I've seen before. There's a big
"FENIKS" fli-logo in the top, and it is drawn in a
style where each letter is designed differently, and
I must admit, that it looks good! From the middle
down, there's a list of the tunes in the collection -
moving cursors in all directions select from the 2
columns of 8 names each (16 in all). You select a
tune by pressing 'return'. When a tune is loaded, and
the texture switches to some kind of a asm-monitor,
where you look at $1000+, you can roll forward and
backwards with the cursorkeys. Also the playing-
time and the rastertime is shown. Pressing 'return'
will take you back to the 'main menu', where you can
select another tune.

The player used by MHD is not one I've seen before.
I think it was coded by Lyon/Feniks, because he's
mentioned in the credits. Anyway, the routine has
a weird init adress.. $1047 or something... strange.


REVIEW
REVIEW

As mentioned before, there are 16 tunes in this
collection, so I will not review each and every one
of the tunes. Instead I will give some general
critics to the tunes - I will also try to give some
advices to the composer.

Generally I can say, that even though this guy, MHD,
is a very unknown guy (well, to me atleast) I think
this is quite a debut. However, there are some things
I would like to comment.

The quality of the player is quite good. MHD has made
some instruments, that are different from the usual.
To give an example: he often play the snare-drum in
the base-line and thus with a filter. That adds a
more soft and deep touch to the drum - and that
sounds good I think. His base-instruments, and here
I think of the filter-settings, are also managed
nicely, so that it sounds good on a new SID.

The style of the tunes vary, so you wont get too
bored listening to these tunes. When you listen to a
composer you can often point out details, that
makes it easy to identify the composer - and MHD is
such a composer. The detail that identifies MHD is
that he usually has no 'real' lead - he doesn't use
"hold" on his leader, instead he uses short notes
and a lot of echo, much like an Amiga-composer
would do. This can sound good, but I was often
wondering where the melody was. I think that if MHD
would combinate the echo-sequences with some real
lead-sequences, his music would increase in quality.

MHD is a polish composer, and I think he is influenced
by polish music, and why shouldn't he! It's just that
in a few of his tunes, I think there are some very
strange harmonies, which i believe to be known in
polish folk-music. I am convinced that it's not
because MHD plays the false notes, coz there are
very few errors in his music. One thing he really
needs to change, is his way of sliding his notes! It's
close to the way Moon used to slide, and that really
gives me the creeps!!! His choice in harmonies would
have to change too, if he wants to be a chartbreak-
ing musician.

Here are the list of the tunes in the pack. I have
given them a percentage for the overall impression,
the tune gave me.

Mermaids  (50%)
Lyon on the Pass  (50%)
Zylion (55%)
Resstles  (45%)
3M  (35%)
Vacation  (45%)
Fortress of Doone  (30%)
The Extirpator  (50%)
Avantgarda  (55%)
ECP  (45%)
For Chaos  (55%)
Ammargedon  (30%)
Out of Tropic  (35%)
Covox  (50%)
Lightside  (45%)
Decada  (40%)

OVERALL : 44.69% = 45%

If you take the 45% and compare to the scale
presented in the beginning of this article, you'll see
that my overall impression of this music-pack is
"Just below average". However, had MHD not included
tunes such as 'Ammargedon' or 'Fortress of Doone'
the overall impression would have been better.

If I were to choose a favorite tune from this pack,
my choice would without doubt be 'Zylion'. Even
though this tune is a techno-tune, it kinda reminds
me of the kind of techno, that was the trademark of
the danish undergroup group called "The Overlords"
in 1991.

MHD has joined Motiv8, and I'm sure we'll hear more
of this musician, who with some more knowledge
could be one to look out for.

That was the review for this time. Next time, I'll
probably check out the entries of the unofficial
c64-music competition at TP5 - due to the deadlines
of this issue, I wont be able to review them untill
next time ...


With regards,
Torben Hansen / Vibrants - and then some... ;)