Kal Zakath (John Townsend)
"Aspiring musician" of Inferno Productions ('jtown' on #trax) who created and ran traxweekly's "Faces in the Crowd" (FITC) column from issue #26 (14 September 1995): interviews with unknown composers so that they are not "left in the dust" behind the big names (source: s-tw026-faces-in-the-crowd-intro). He says little about his own music; this page is about the column.
Facts#
- The format he announced: an info piece on a little-known composer, a short IRC interview on style and influences, the composer's release listing with archive paths, and an e-mail address for feedback. Applicants e-mailed him ("FITC Interview Request") with a few facts and FTP locations, got a reply within hours, and set an IRC time; musicians should apply themselves rather than through a group's coder (sources: s-tw026-faces-in-the-crowd-intro, s-tw028-faces-in-the-crowd-mesonyx).
- Interviews: #1 master-of-darkness (#27), #2 mesonyx (#28); Master of Darkness then joined him to screen uploads, and future columns were to list "notable tunes" without a
k_orfm-prefix (source: s-tw027-faces-in-the-crowd-master-of-darkness). - By #29 (6 October 1995) FITC had briefly become a separate publication with its own numbered interviews (#4 Smeghead, #5 Esper Division) and a staff of Kal Zakath, Master of Darkness, DennisC and Atlantic; on psibelius's and the interviewees' advice it was folded back into TraxWeekly as a section (source: s-tw029-faces-in-the-crowd-esper-division).
- #34 (November 1995), signed "John Townsend / Kal Zakath / Inferno / FITC Editor": FITC had started "a few months" earlier as one interview a week and grew "with the help of Master of Darkness, Atlantic, and DennisC" into "interviews, tracking tips, reviews and scene commentary"; he asked readers whether the column had changed what they downloaded, planned an "intermediate" tips column with "some FT2 tricks", edited Master of Darkness's deus-ex interview and promised interviews with amusic and mick-rippon — the latter done by DennisC in #41 (sources: s-tw034-interview-deus-ex, s-tw041-interview-mick-rippon).
- #54 (11 April 1996), signed "Kal Zakath [Inferno & TraxWeekly]", interviewing saxy: interviews, "our original focus back in the 'faces in the crowd' days", had been neglected for reviewing, so #54 carried four; "aspiring musicians" were invited to ask (source: s-tw054-interview-saxy).
- 1996, signed "Inferno/N55/CCS/TW" (jtownsen@sescva.esc.edu): interviewed rage (#60) and vegas (#62) with Kleitus (Seth Katzman, "Inferno/TW") and liam-the-lemming (#66) alone — IRC logs edited "for the sake of clarity" with his own remarks cut; Kleitus interviewed ryan-sprott alone in #63 (sources: s-tw060-interview-rage, s-tw062-interview-vegas, s-tw066-interview-liam-the-lemming, s-tw063-interview-ryan-sprott).
- His own views from those logs: composes with chord theory for the progressions and tracks the leads by ear (see chord-progressions); NAID '96 — the jury's ratings counted for about 80 % of the vote, the public for 20 %; he had reviewed two Vegas songs for TW and faulted their samples; recorded the objection that new-note-actions "encourage inefficient tracking, and reduce GUS sound quality" (source: s-tw062-interview-vegas). Defined the 20-minute-chip-compo in a line — "in 20mc, you get a set of chipsamples and have 20 minutes to write a tune" — and preferred The Trackering (a set of normal samples, one week), which "always has many nice tunes from skilled composers" (source: s-tw060-interview-rage; see compos). The TOC also lists "The Top 25" (#46, with Kleitus), a "Ratings Poem Follow-up" (#47), "New Music Reviews" (#51, #52) and "Originality: Too Much?" (#51) (TOC; not yet ingested).
Related#
traxweekly · master-of-darkness · mesonyx · hornet · dennisc · atlantic · saxy · vegas · compos · 20-minute-chip-compo
Sources#
s-tw026-faces-in-the-crowd-intro · s-tw027-faces-in-the-crowd-master-of-darkness · s-tw028-faces-in-the-crowd-mesonyx · s-tw029-faces-in-the-crowd-esper-division · s-tw034-interview-deus-ex · s-tw054-interview-saxy · s-tw060-interview-rage · s-tw041-interview-mick-rippon · s-tw062-interview-vegas · s-tw063-interview-ryan-sprott · s-tw066-interview-liam-the-lemming