
[::: THE SOUND OF THE UNDERGROUND BY UK ALL STARS :::]
                                        






The only small thing of this release is its size. The content itself is huge. 24 chiptracks by Keito, Syphur and Joey & Splif await the listener. The first thing you notice after the start is the small interface arranged like the UK underground logo with two scrolltexts in the upper (song number, title and performer) and lower (main scroller) curved bar and the main control elements (last track, play, stop, next track) in the middle. The rest is transparent. Clicking the right mousebutton offers three more functions from which the "always on top" is very useful, because the interface doesn't take away much space from the desktop at all. We find a minimize and an exit button  in addition. There is no function to export the tracks (at least I did not find one). I would say, functionality and usability were the most important ideas behind the design-concept and it really works. Nevertheless, a button to pause the songs, a random play button and a volume control would have been great, as the more the musicdisk runs on my pc, the more I long for them!

If you take a closer look at the playlist, you will find a lot of own compositions and a few covers from well known titles such as "tainted love" and "top gun". I don't want to go into every song in detail, but just give you a brief overview of what you can expect. For the ones that imagine chiptunes as being drums, bass and a nice and easy to follow melody, let me advise you to take your time and listen to all of the tracks more than once. The first impression reveals not much of that stuff on the surface. The obvious strength of this musicdisk is that you can hear the effort that was put into nearly every song. There is a huge variation of styles inbetween the  tracks with lots of harmonies, greatly arranged drums, playful arpeggios and ambitious melodies to discover. The songs grow on you while listening to them and due to the vast amount included, hours of listening fun is guaranteed. Everything of course under the assumption that you are into chipmusic. If not, well then you better grab this one and get into it. My personal favourites are digidub (great composition), freedom cover (straight forward), tainted love (cult classic), sanctuary (inspiring), sweet dreams (so oldskool). Cheers!

Review by CONS (Bitfellas)    

[::: PLANET HIVELY BY IRIS & ROUGH UP :::]







very reminiscent of 8bit demos. The main menu is very original and simple to use. Two animated sunflowers offer a selection of tunes and information text to read, by clicking on the various petals. You can even click on the butterflies and hurt them! The flying clouds are not as innocent as they look - if you click on the first clouds at the very start, you are presented with a bonus track, which sounded a bit too much repetitive for my taste, but does the job for a hidden track! I hope that I was not the only one to find this track! There are no options to change the sound volume or pause or fastforward the tracks, which is a real pity, as otherwise the interface is very cute & interactive.

The musicdisk was coded by Xeron of Iris in C and SDL so it could be ported to as many different platforms imaginable. Indeed already today, Planet Hively is available for around 30 different platforms ranging from Amiga, Linux, OSX, PSP, Dreamcast, Xbox, Wii and even for the Acorn! It is not available for C64, which is very strange seeing that the design makes Planet Hively a perfect candidate to port over.

The most important factor in a musicdisk are the tunes themselves. There are 8 tunes from Syphus, Virgill, Lavaburn, Monk, Joey & Splif, Breed and Mod. Happy chippies would be a good overall description of these tunes. 8bit sounding music like this is always impossible to analyse, as we have heard tens of thousands of them over the past 20 years. Sometimes you wonder if it's even possible to track new ones, but the musicians behind this musicdisk surely prove that it can be done! In the end it's a matter of personal taste; so either you like the nostalgic sound of the C64 or not. The tunes are all varied and well designed in Hively Tracker, the tracker software based upon the AHX format (created by Dexter & Pink of Abyss). AHX was originally designed to create SID-like sound on the Amiga, but Hively offers 4 to 16 channels of sound, stereo panning, ring modulation and a feature rich editor. The most tasty tunes in Planet Hively are Forsaken by Virgill and Sweeties by Syphus.

Review by M4sterM1nd


[::: SKALE ROMANTCIS BY SANDS :::]








Clicking here and there through the 4 mystery and unlabeled buttons, I managed to hear the various tracks. There are a few 2 colour pictures included, which would have made sense had this been a Spectrum release, but on PC I can't see the use. The group had also released another musicdisk earlier in February (Skale Romantics, containing 9 nice ballad songs) and the interface was much more graphically rich back then.
Most tracks have already been released in shareware games at one time or another, and are composed using the groups' own Skale Tracker (based on Fast Tracker 2).

Chicken Attack Deluxe (from the game with the same name) is undoubtedly the most funny & joyful track of the lot and the fast rhythm and 14 channels full of guitar vibes will put a smile on your face. Eastern Variations is a Vangelis inspired track from the game "Scepter of Ra". This track is a typical oriental one and the melody tends to be a bit monotonous after a while. The tracks Inka and Maya both share similar traits, though Maya has some guitar riffs that truly helps to spice up the melody. Diamond Drop is a typical happy go lucky little game tune. Luna is most probably the best track, and my personal favourite, as the chosen samples add an element of mystery and quality to the whole composition. Tracker music is an acquired skill, and the 4 Sands musicians show overall good mastery in their own homebrew software.

I would dare to say that Skale Romantics had much better and stronger contents as a scene release, both musically and visually than the new Scale. However as a collection of game tunes, it somehow works. I hope that Sands will consider their next steps, and come out with a new music production with a different theme.

Review M4sterM1nd
