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The Modsquad

entity group PC trackers #group #chiptune #satire #traxweekly
aliases Modsquad, Bongo Jongo, Spessartini, Neon Hunter, Finrez, Radio Shock, Bottlehead, FuNkY MoDSQuaD
sources TW #77–81 — A Chip Off the Block / Chiptune Seminar, parts 1–4 (The Modsquad) · TW #87–#97 — Music Theory: A Modern Approach (The Modsquad, seven parts)
created 2026-08-30 · updated 2026-08-30

Bongo Jongo, Spessartini and Neon Hunter (modsquad@juno.com), authors of the four-part satirical chiptune "seminar" in traxweekly #77–#81 (November–December 1996) and of a musicdisk "Potato Chips" with "like 500k of chiptunes". Beneath the jokes: single-channel arpeggio chords, tiny normalised samples, QBasic-generated waveforms, extended chords with one instrument, and a size-based rating of chip songs (source: s-tw077-chip-off-the-block).

The second series (1997)#

"Music Theory: A Modern Approach To Perfecting An Old Art…" ran for seven parts in #87–#97 (30 January – 8 May 1997), signed Finrez, Radio Shock and Neon Hunter, with a fourth member, Bottlehead, introducing parts 3–5 before being expelled in #94 and "killed" in #97 (a running gag), and a guest piece by ZeroCool in #97; from #92 the parts carry "(c) 1997 FuNkY MoDSQuaD iNC". It is satire throughout — fake gear lists, "musical DNA", Elvis, a "circle of fifths" that is nothing of the kind — with a few sincere pages on drum programming, drum sampling and a form analysis of Purple Motion's Inside Out (source: s-tw087-music-theory-a-modern-approach).

chiptune · chip-samples · chord-arpeggio

Sources#

s-tw077-chip-off-the-block · s-tw087-music-theory-a-modern-approach

source file wiki/entities/the-modsquad.md · graph