[chip .MODs] Oxide/Sonik - "Agnostic" (added 06/01/02) Anything related to the demo-group Sonic (later Sonik Clique) simply oozes class, especially with their best-ever line-up of chip musicians (Stargazer, Maza, Oxide, Grim, Organic, *DROOL*), and this Oxide track from 1993 or so is no exception. Not even bothering with any drums, it's pure retro flava, with lots and lots of swooping synth bends and almost SID-like percussion. You can tell Sonik musicians (all Finnish, btw) took the C64 ball and ran with it, and the synthetic results are wonderful to listen to even nowadays. Not sure where this was used in - since it's called Agnostic, something to do with an Agnostic Front demo/intro/cracktro, maybe? "Agnostic" (.ZIP, 5k) Monty/Analog - "Mario, Sometimes" (added 03/08/01) Coming out of France, Monty/Analog, who also hung out in a bunch of other groups (including Paradox, Angels, Scoopex, Equinox, Interpol, Us - thanks to the man himself for filling me in!) is one of those semi-famous but exceptionally good chip-musicians, and this track, from 1992, is darn funky, has great segues and middle sequences, and isn't actually a conversion of anything Mario-related in the slightest, heh. Finally, note the shout-outs in the song-text to some of the coolest French scene-mafia of the time (Nam, Reflex, Alex, Reverse..) - the boy got connections. :P "Mario, Sometimes" (.ZIP, 10k) Bass/TSL - "Dicky Faty Loremy" (added 22/04/01) From the Silents Germany enclave that sprung up in about 1991, releasing the rather excellent "Static Chaos" demo before disappearing almost as fast (something about some of them getting busted?), this smart chiptune from Bass, aka Patrick Lindsey, shows off his rather rockin' freestyle approach to sharp, funky chiptunes. From then on, after playing some semi-pro basketball (!), he got into the German techno scene, releasing stuff on classic German label, Harthouse. But from his early .MOD days, this is a really fun+funky piece of chiphoprisy.. "Dicky Faty Loremy" (.ZIP, 12k) Hi-Lite/TRSI - "Purple Shades" (added 19/02/01) Another crack-tune favorite, this from Hi-Lite of S!P (Surprise Productions) of TRSI - yep, a subgroup of a group, how confusing. Anyhow, Hi-Lite is renowned mainly for his chip-tunes, and was also in Scoopex too at some point, later contributing to the TRSI Records hardtrance CDs alongside Scorpik, Dreamfish and others. But this relatively early, supremely catchy effort (about 1992, was it?) is a great example of a chip-tune, only 5k zipped, and superbly bouncy. We like, we like a lot.. "Purple Shades" (.ZIP, 5k) Random Voice - "Monday" (added 08/01/01) One of those classic chip-tunes that you know you've heard a million times, but can't quite place (did this appear in a bunch of crack-intros? please advise!), "Monday" is a wonderful piece of arpegiating class from Edvin Fladen, all the way from Norway, and was released wayback in '91. In any case, Random Voice later joined Symbiosis under his real name and contributed to Bjorn Lynne's classic floppy-disc musicmag, AM/FM, but this is the only tune he's particularly known for, and we, frankly, adore it. "Monday" (.ZIP, 9k) Mel-O-Dee/DCS - "Trainer Or Die" (added 10/12/00) Not related to the Finnish Mellow-D (who later turned into fm+tpolm mainstay, md), this Mel-O-Dee was a German chip-musician who seems to have come from a rich C64 heritage, and it certainly shows in this classic crack-intro-styled tune, probably for a game 'trainer' allowing you infinite lives and so on, hence the name and the speech sample! Actually pretty large for a chip-tune (55k uncrunched!), but we'll let him off this time, since it's so cool, huh? :) "Trainer Or Die" (.ZIP, 35k) TDK/Melon Design - "Russian Theme" (added 20/11/00) TDK/Melon, aka Mark Knight, was always in the top echelon of early, catchy chip-composers, and his work with the geniuses at Melon on their tiny and brilliant Crystal crack-intros was without compare, as was this particular soundtrack to the "Tetris Intro" by Melon, a phenomenal 40k intro from back in '91.. "Russian Theme" (.ZIP, 8k) 4-Mat/Anarchy - "Share And Enjoy" (added 22/10/00) English prodigy 4-Mat was possibly the first person ever to make 'chip'-tunes on the Amiga by looping tiny samples to make reallyreallysmall .MODs, and this classic, for English crew S.A.E. from about 1990, shows that his original style is still a winning style.. chipheaven! "Share And Enjoy" (.ZIP, 4k) Nao/Anarchy+Lemon. - "Wondere Wereld" (added 11/10/00) The Dutch genius Nao, aka Supernao for when he was being, umm, super, provides us with a heavenly chiptune from back in '92, all echo-ing chords and off-beat synth stabs. It don't get a lot better than this, kidz.. "Wondere Wereld" (.ZIP, 7k) Archon/Adept - "Sextynt" (added 01/10/00) Historically one of my favourite tunes, this is by a pretty unknown German composer, ex-c64, i presume. But boy oh boy, it kicks like a mule. :) "Sextynt" (.ZIP, 26k) Grim/Sonik Clique - "Changes" (added 23/09/00) Mm, now this is a nice track, from a member of _the_ best chip-tune-makers on the Amiga, Sonik. Subtle, not piercing in the slightest, well-composed, and generally excellent. "Changes" (.ZIP, 3k) Heatbeat/Rebels+CNCD - "Intromuz-4" (added 16/09/00) It's a week of mavericks this time round, as the famedly bonkers Heatbeat weighs in with this great chip-tune, from way back in the day. Hah, the song text says "Rob Hubbard rules!! 4-Mat sucks!!" :) Heatbeat was possibly the most original tracker on the Amiga - check out his soundtrack to "Full Moon" by Virtual Dreams for an example. Heaven. "Intromuz-4" (.ZIP, 4k) Jason/Silents - "Factory Theme" (added 08/09/00) All the way from 1991, Jason gives us a really nice, soulful chip track from a RAW intro.. In case you don't know, RAW was the premiere Amiga disc-mag for most of the duration of the Amiga scene. Jason was also the guy behind the music to Melon's seminal "Ninja" and "Ninja 2".. Factory Theme (.ZIP, 13k) Jukebox/TRSI - "Harmonies" (added 01/09/00) Beautifully realised, a kinda soaring chip-track from Jukebox, latterly known as Blackthorne, and not to be confused with Jukebox/Talent from Norway, or, indeed, the Jukebox/Southern Guild in Australia who latterly became Hunz/Five Musicians. :) whoa! "Harmonies" (.ZIP, 10k) Nugget/Rebels - "Mental Frustration" (added 23/08/00) Almost entirely tracking chiptunes, this oldskool great had a particularly distinctively bouncy style. And this track, from 1992, is a great example. Great pitch-change taking you into the end of this subtle, wicked track too. :) "Mental Frustration" (.ZIP, 7k) Nuke/Lemon - "Pullover" (added 15/08/00) Always, but always worth featuring, Nuke's bouncy, echo-ed up chip style is just brilliant, and here's another one from the archives that sounds brand new. Great middle-eight style break near the end with some damn funky chip-rhythms too. :) "Pullover" (.ZIP, 5k) Pink/Abyss - "Purodex Cracktro" (added 07/08/00) Not necessarily all that old, but absolutely wicked nonetheless, this crack-intro tune from Pink shows his complete mastery of the C64-style chip, and comes out as effortlessly cool. Pink and his Abyss buddies went on to produce THX, a brilliant chip-sound-only Amiga tracker.. oldskool is the way to go! "Purodex Cracktro" (.ZIP, 6k) Stargazer/Complex - "Syfuid" (added 01/08/00) Oo, this is verging on the extremely oldskool. Pure sine wave jammin', courtesy of the excellent Finnish phreak Stargazer. Take it away, mon! "Syfuid" (.ZIP, 10k)