Pirate Pete's Page of MOD Reviews

Notice I've subtitled the movements based on the images they conjure up in my head...

1st movement: 0:00 - "Acid Train". You start the song thinking, "Ah, Amiga demo, phooey! That stuff is outdated..." Then you pop on the old headphones and decide to give this song a go...in your mind you see a Acid band boarding a train bound for the CoolSound Demofest at Helsinki, Finland. You hop on board yourself to hear more; your feet can't help but boogey to the beat as the train pulls out of the station...

2nd movement: 1:46 - "Acid Jive Talkin'" - Making your way to the restaurant car for a wine cooler, you stop in the entertainment lounge to catch the show. Scatman Carrothers is regaling the audience with his hip hilarious "sca-dat-n-dit-dee-bop-de-bo" vocalizations ...

3rd movement: 3:13 - "Acid Train Redux" - As the train pulls into the next stop, you hear some joker talking about "Speedy Gonzalez". You holler "Where?", but realize you're too slow on the uptake...

4th movement: 4:18 - "Acid Tension" The train pulls out again, the slow clickety-clack of the wheels on the track lulling you into false sense of security. Little do you realize Der Kommisar is waiting for you at the end of the line...do you have the correct papers!?

5th movement: 5:15 - "Mad Gypsy Dancers" - As you pass the beautiful Hungarian countryside (on your way to Finlandia, mind you), you spot a group of gypsy dancers, madly dancing in the moonlight...

6th movement: 6:57 - "Begin the Beguine" - Back in the lounge car, you struggle in vain to tempt the Contessa de Montfort onto the dance floor for a little fancy footwork a la Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Unfortunately, you have two left feet and she knows it...

"Don't Cry" begins with some simple yet haunting A-minor / C-major piano riffs (E-C-E-B-E-G is the main tonic), bringing in an electic guitar (which sounds just a tad bit flat, BTW) at the end of the first pattern. I love the way Badlam uses two channels (four, actually, but the second two channels are only used only to increase the volume of the piano sample) to bring in the piano instrument; this makes the slow-moving riffs seem more realistic, since a human playing this piece would probably not release each key crisply, but would instead play each note legato. The piano samples (one instrument with six samples to define 7 octaves) are exquisite -- my fingers are getting itchy as my alter-ego contemplates ripping them for my own use (you don't mind, do you, Badlam? ;-))

Ambient strings are introduced early on for a good effect. The beat picks up at pattern 0x4 with a bass piano track and four more piano tracks used for A-minor/A-major atmospheric arpeggios, followed by a snare drum intro at 0x5. Pattern 0x9 repeats the major tonic with the introduction of a brass instrument at 0xC.

The artists change key to B-flat major at 0x14, followed by some fancy footwork (or should I say "fingering"?) at pattern 0x17. Alhough nothing new or cutting edge, the ending had excellent closure and is perfectly timed.

One minor irritation was the right-to-left panning of the hihat sample. Not a big problem, just unexpected for this type of piece. Also, I personally felt the piano trills at 0x14 should have been started one row earlier; the beat sounded just a bit off.

The song's opening is powerful, a percussion track which synchs with a stretch of Rev. King's "Promised Land" speech. This is followed by a soul-stirring series of string chords and kettle drums which evince the "hope" in the title. This song is filled with hope! It brings Dr. King's words to life--"Let Freedom Ring!" I don't know if I'm reacting to the song itself or to Dr. King--probably a little of both--but this piece has moved me deeply and in my opinion deserves a high rating for the excellent mix of chords and percussion with one of Dr. King's most famous speeches.

"Interludisco" is far from your run-of-the mill "disco" music (notice I classified it as "Ambient/Contemplative/Easy Listening"--IMO, at least, it doesn't fit into "disco" as the title implies, even if there is a slight disco backbeat); the opening riffs reach into your chest and grab yer heart (squeezing gently, but persistently). The word I'm searching for here is "poignant", but even this doesn't bring out the full meaning of the piece. "Interludisco" would be perfectly suited as the love theme for a "bandido" picture starring Madonna and Antonio Banderas (perhaps Spielberg is working on the script even as I write this...)

IMO, the opening strings were panned too far to the left, causing a stereo inbalance.

So, okay, you listen to the song for yourself and think, "What the heck is Pete talking about? The only voice sample present is a young woman saying 'It feels so goooooooooooood!' What's wrong with that?" If you don't know, I'm sure nothing I can say will enlighten you, but I'll give it a go anyway.... Think about it: *What* is it that the young woman is moaning so ecstatically about? Only the artist can say for sure what he intended it to mean, yet I think it's not too hard to figure out when taken in conjunction with the title of the song. And if you think this old pirate's just got a dirty mind, well, that may be true, but it doesn't change the truth of what I'm saying here. In my view, songs with racy voice samples containing double entendres have no place in an Internet filled with people of all ages and differing religious and moral backgrounds.

'Nuff said.

16-beat does a tremendous job here -- as a tracker myself, I respect these "old" 4-channel mods. It took a helluva lot of technical wizardry to coax the old Amigas to produce such sweet music as this!

"Rocktale" starts out as a "rock fantasy" piece with plenty of violins, and morphs into a good solid rock piece