Aim Higher

A Toronto newcomers' music group founded in 1995 (Atlantic's "Introducing: Aim Higher" ran in TraxWeekly #20, 27 July 1995, per the TOC) by master-of-darkness (Todd Andlar) "like epinicion", because "there is little support for new composers" — people who said "Hi, I'm new" on #trax got kicked off and some big names wanted nothing to do with newbies (source: s-tw027-faces-in-the-crowd-master-of-darkness). Its members ran most of traxweekly's "Faces in the Crowd" column in the autumn of 1995. The group's own TraxWeekly column (#28, #29, #31 and again #91–#94 per the TOC) is not yet ingested.

Facts#

• Members seen in the sources (1995): Master of Darkness (signs "Master of Darkness / Aim Higher / FITC", maz@io.org); Atlantic (Neophyte / Aim Higher), who interviewed paganus and wrote the FITC song reviews and the "Not So Advanced Tracking Tips"; Dynamic Harmony (Mazurka / Aim Higher), who interviewed Fred; Paganus (also Epinicion); vicious (founder of V.S.L, a member "for less commercial, mellow pieces" and "a couple demo tracks in the works") (sources: s-tw030-interview-ender, s-tw030-interview-paganus, s-tw031-interview-fred, s-tw031-interview-vicious, s-tw032-not-so-advanced-tracking-tips).
• Releases. The musicdisk "Foundation" (fndation.zip, with two Master of Darkness tunes and two of Paganus's) and "Unification Disk VOLUME 1" (XM/S3M/MTM, unify1_1.zip–unify1_3.zip, released 1995-10-11, contact maz@io.org), with two Paganus songs including a remix of his "Heartbreak"; future disks were to go to /pub/demos/incoming/music/disks on the hornet archive (sources: s-tw027-faces-in-the-crowd-master-of-darkness, s-tw030-interview-paganus).
• How it ran. No deadlines: Master of Darkness held that "schoolwork" is a valid excuse in groups that run none, "such as Epinicion & AIM Higher", but not in deadline-driven groups (source: s-tw032-fitc-complaints). Paganus joined because Epinicion and Aim Higher "were the only ones who'd take me without a resume" (source: s-tw030-interview-paganus).
• Reputation. luv-kohli (October 1995): the scene "seems to allow more 'new faces' these days, with the invention of groups like Epinicion and AIM Higher" (source: s-tw031-interview-luv-kohli); pariah's advice to newcomers who cannot afford lessons: join a group "like AIM HIGHER or EPI" (source: s-tw043-interview-pariah). Master of Darkness's own slogan: "Just compose for yourself … POWER TO THE NEWBIES!" (source: s-tw027-faces-in-the-crowd-master-of-darkness).
• In the Toronto scene of 1995–96 beside Mazurka, V.S.L, DDT, Chill Productions and Radical Rhythms — see tracker-scene-history (sources: s-tw030-interview-paganus, s-tw031-interview-vicious, s-tw034-interview-deus-ex, s-tw043-interview-pariah).

Related#

master-of-darkness · paganus · vicious · epinicion · traxweekly · kal-zakath · tracker-scene-history

Sources#

s-tw027-faces-in-the-crowd-master-of-darkness · s-tw030-interview-paganus · s-tw030-interview-ender · s-tw031-interview-vicious · s-tw031-interview-fred · s-tw031-interview-luv-kohli · s-tw032-fitc-complaints · s-tw032-not-so-advanced-tracking-tips · s-tw034-interview-deus-ex · s-tw043-interview-pariah