Master of Darkness (Todd Andlar)

Founder of AIM Higher, a newcomers' group "like epinicion", the first "Faces in the Crowd" interviewee (September 1995) and within two weeks one of the column's interviewers; the sources are his own FITC interview and the two #29 pieces he took part in (sources: s-tw027-faces-in-the-crowd-master-of-darkness, s-tw029-faces-in-the-crowd-smeghead, s-tw029-faces-in-the-crowd-esper-division).

Facts#

• Started in February 1995 when Imagix of Epinicion gave him a Sound Blaster 16; three months of "serious composing" by September 1995; drawn in by the Mazurka musicdisk and b0bby of Mazurka's music BBS in Toronto. Influences: Maral of KFMF (Spirit Realms), the TV show Electric Circus, friends Atlantic and Imagix (paganus, see below); Malakai of Neophyte challenged him to try demo music (source: s-tw027-faces-in-the-crowd-master-of-darkness).
• Tool: scream-tracker-3 — "I believe FastTracker is better, but my IRQs screw up" (source: s-tw027-faces-in-the-crowd-master-of-darkness; see fasttracker-2).
• Founded AIM Higher because "there is little support for new composers"; newcomers get kicked off #trax and ignored by big names; "Just compose for yourself … POWER TO THE NEWBIES!" Releases on the hornet archive: Towards Happiness, Out of Shadows (S3M) and the AIM Higher disk fndation.zip; he had received "a 1 1/2" star rating (sources: s-tw027-faces-in-the-crowd-master-of-darkness, s-tw029-faces-in-the-crowd-smeghead).
• FITC staff: volunteered to screen unknown composers' uploads; interviewed smeghead (#29, "Interview #4"); wrote the column's comments note announcing its merger into traxweekly and defending the "Suggested Songs" section (sources: s-tw027-faces-in-the-crowd-master-of-darkness, s-tw029-faces-in-the-crowd-smeghead, s-tw029-faces-in-the-crowd-esper-division). He went on to interview Ender (#30), Vicious (#31), Deus Ex (#34, edited by Kal Zakath) and Pariah (#43) and wrote the FITC "Complaints" article (#32) (sources: s-tw030-interview-ender, s-tw031-interview-vicious, s-tw034-interview-deus-ex, s-tw043-interview-pariah, s-tw032-fitc-complaints); the TOC also lists his "AIM Higher" column (#28, #29; not yet ingested).

As FITC interviewer and columnist (October 1995 – January 1996)#

• Interviewed ender (#30, conducted 1995-10-07), vicious (#31, conducted 1995-10-18) and deus-ex (#34, edited by Kal Zakath), signing "Master of Darkness / Aim Higher / FITC", maz@io.org — the same address as Aim Higher's "Unification" disk (sources: s-tw030-interview-ender, s-tw031-interview-vicious, s-tw034-interview-deus-ex, s-tw030-interview-paganus).
• "Complaints" (#32): group deadlines make members "produce MORE" rather than "compose WELL"; valid excuses (illness, no inspiration, broken hardware) versus invalid ones (homework, no feedback); "LET PEOPLE DO WHAT THEY WANNA DO WHEN THEY WANNA DO IT" (source: s-tw032-fitc-complaints; see tracking-workflow).
• His own story: came onto #trax "buggin necros and basehead and then complaining", "lashed out against everyone in anger", and learned that "RESPECT IS EARNED, NOT GIVEN" (source: s-tw030-interview-ender).
• On ripping: credit when possible; reusing a signature sample (Skaven's "BLAST") the same way is wrong; otherwise "WHO REALLY CARES" — and rips "always (unexplainably) lose some fine-tuning and quality" (source: s-tw031-interview-vicious; see sample-ripping). Guitars in modules are looped samples fit only for chords, "other than big-jim" (source: s-tw029-faces-in-the-crowd-smeghead).
• Has written "everything from just fooling around with percussion, to house (recently) to dance, to some stupid guitar solo", now "mostly trying ambient/demo"; questions being in four or five groups; downloads "everything for the reviews of FITC" (source: s-tw031-interview-vicious). Newbies "release something they made in two hours, rather than wait a month"; hoped to interview DefeX after Deus Ex (source: s-tw034-interview-deus-ex).
• #43 (log dated 28 December 1995, printed January 1996): interviewed pariah, announcing "a (long-awaited) comeback of FITC" and a series on the Toronto scene. As a Demonews reviewer: "I might've possibly marked the VSL stuff 1/2 mark higher", but "just because the other reviewer gave it lower doesn't mean he's wrong or biased against dance" (see hornet). His theory of the dance-vs-demo prejudice: future-crew and Renaissance "made demo music the thing to do", leaving dance music without precedent, and fasttracker-2's sound quality brought the 1995–96 wave of trance/dance and the jibe that dance "is so easy to make in FT2" — "IT'S NOT THE STYLE. IT'S THE COMPOSER."; he had seen "too many purple motion ripoffs"; remembers DDT with Vicious and "Imagix (now paganus)"; cites "deus ex of Chill" complaining of unfair Demonews marks (source: s-tw043-interview-pariah).

Related#

kal-zakath · smeghead · traxweekly · epinicion · kosmic · scream-tracker-3 · hornet · ender · vicious · deus-ex · pariah · paganus · atlantic · sample-ripping · tracking-workflow

Sources#

s-tw027-faces-in-the-crowd-master-of-darkness · s-tw029-faces-in-the-crowd-smeghead · s-tw029-faces-in-the-crowd-esper-division · s-tw030-interview-ender · s-tw031-interview-vicious · s-tw032-fitc-complaints · s-tw034-interview-deus-ex · s-tw043-interview-pariah · s-tw030-interview-paganus