TW #24 — In Review: the ASM95 music entries (Necros)
The first instalment of necros's review column, "the best and not-so-best of the new music stuff out this week", devoted to the music released around Assembly '95 (ASM95). Ratings are on a ten-point scale drawn as [******+...].
Key claims#
| Song | Author | Format | Rating | Compo result | Necros's verdict | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Catch that Goblin" | skaven / FC | S3M | 6.5 | won the ASM95 multichannel competition | a "surprisingly strange orchestral ditty", about 2.5 minutes, uptempo, "full of sound effects", between the Second Reality end-credits music and Danny Elfman's Beetlejuice; technically decent, the "crazy symphonic" film-score sound done well, but "trite" once past the cuteness — "personally I do not think it is worthy of being a compo winner" (it won "the overwhelming majority of votes … perhaps because it screams THIS IS A SKAVEN SONG, VOTE FOR ME?") | |
| "Respirator" | Zodiak / Cascada | XM | 8.5 | did not reach the 15-song final cut | lush 1980s feel, a heavily echoed guitar lead over "sparkling synth pads", good samples and catchy grooves; only two main sections, repeated — "I wonder what was in the jury's minds this year" | |
| "Distance" | [[the-zapper | The Zapper!]] / Force Ten | S3M | 7.5 | disqualified from the voting because of the extended samples | Zapper, "a fine Montreal native, and leader of the music group Force Ten"; the main theme is built on two extended samples from a Mr. Big CD that set up the chord change, then drums, "really really nice" fretless bass and organs make "a very nice modern rock groove"; heard first at the Mini-Impulse party, "I could _barely_ tell that this was tracked"; weak structure — the same guitar riff repeats, "possibly because of the extended samples being somewhat limited"; "would have made top 10 easily" |
| "Temple of the Sun" | Yolk / Parallax (Amiga group) | S3M | 7.0 | 7th at ASM95 | breakbeat with trance pads, "simple yet very danceable"; the charm is the sample quality | |
| "Illumination" | Cube / Dee | MOD | 5.5 | 2nd in the four-channel competition | huge sampled synth sequences plus the guitar samples from Jogeir's Guitar Slinger; "it's just stacking big samples on top of each other", and Cube does not say whether the riffs are his own MIDI sequences or an audio CD | |
| "Crayfish Party" | Lizardking / Triton | MOD | 6.0 | 3rd in the four-channel competition | unlike his usual "catchy chord progressions and deft leads": techno verging on industrial, "take the old 2nd_PM.S3M, and speed it up 150%"; the Purple Motion-style fast siner riffs on a techno beat "just doesn't work" |
(source: this article; column signed "Necros / Five Musicians / Legend Design", ftp dragon.axs.net /pub/demos/songs/necros/)
Practical takeaways#
- Party compos of 1995 had a jury pre-selection (a "final 15-song cut"), a big-screen playback and rules against extended samples: a song built on two sampled riffs was disqualified however good it sounded — the constraint Zapper himself wrote about in #25 (s-tw025-loops-and-extended-samples).
- Necros's yardsticks, in his own reviews: structure (two sections repeated, or one riff over and over, costs points even with great samples), sample quality, and whether the sample set took skill — "stacking big samples" does not.
- Two ways to lose him: symphonic "cuteness" without lasting substance, and a familiar style transplanted onto the wrong beat (Purple Motion-style siner riffs over techno).
Notable quotes#
- "I could _barely_ tell that this was tracked, quite a fine job by Zapper."
- "At least the original Guitar Slinger was innovative in it's use of riffs."
Relevance#
Compo results with names and formats for 1995 (Assembly's multichannel and four-channel competitions), the disqualification that illustrates the extended-samples rule, and Necros as a critic — his structure-first standards match his own "Advanced Tracking Tips II" (s-tw015-advanced-tracking-tips-ii).