Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Oh man, this is amazing. I'm teary-eyed with nostalgia, too.

For anyone who is unfamiliar with the demoscene and tracker music, here are some recommended old-school tunes to spin up to get a feel for the art at the time. (Someone more in touch than me will have to lead you to the new school!) Just keep in mind the technological limitations on some of these songs: 4 channels, maybe 100k all-in for such wonderful music. Truly amazing.

My recommendations, running from 1986-1993ish: Karsten Obarski - Crystal Hammer Firefox - Galaxy 2 Uncle Tom - Poseidon Jester - Elysium Captain - Space Debris Tip + Firefox - Enigma Mantronix - Act Of Impulse 4-mat - Red Sector Theme Romeo Knight - Cream Of The Earth Greg - Odyssey Part 2 Jugi - Onward Ride Laxity - Desert Dream

I'm sure others can add more. What amazing times!



The in-game metal-ish music for Psygnosis' The Killing Game Show, by Ray Norrish: https://www.stef.be/bassoontracker/?file=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.m...

Tim Wright's percussion-rich Shadow of the Beast 2: https://www.stef.be/bassoontracker/?file=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.m...

Frederic Hahn's Dear Rob, quintessential chiptune dedicated to Rob Hubbard: https://www.stef.be/bassoontracker/?file=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.m...

Fleshbrain's Graveyard #2, kinda spooky, kinda Art of Noise: https://www.stef.be/bassoontracker/?file=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.m...

The Alibi, originally by Laxity: https://www.stef.be/bassoontracker/?file=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.m...

Then there's Chris Huelsbeck's music for Turrican and co., but he had his own format, TFMX.


That shadow of the beast track ... oh man!


I'm just going to throw in my recommendation of virtually -anything- by Moby:

https://www.stef.be/bassoontracker/?file=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.m...

Damn - this player is awesome; I was never someone who could make tracker music, but I loved to listen to it back in the day on my Amigas (both of which I still own). Getting new MODs from Fred Fish and other ways was always a treat.

Ah...and Octamed...this has brought a touch of nostalgia, etc - for me. Those times are long past, but a bit of them can still be enjoyed with this software.

So - thank you, exogeny.


My favorite by Moby was Knulla Kuk : https://elmobo.bandcamp.com/track/knulla-kuk

I thinks he calls himself Elmobo these days.


I thought you were talking of Richard Melville Hall. I did not know about this other Moby ;)


Added links to your titles (not BassoonTracker integrated) (at this time, modules.pl was down, I assume from HN flood)

Karsten Obarski - Crystal Hammer (couldn't find module, only Youtube: https://youtu.be/FN1Km1rEbLs)

Firefox - Galaxy 2 https://modarchive.org/module.php?42781

Uncle Tom - Poseidon https://modarchive.org/module.php?75579

Jester - Elysium https://modarchive.org/module.php?40475

Captain - Space Debris (part of Bassoon's example tracks! Also:) https://modarchive.org/module.php?57925

Tip + Firefox - Enigma https://modarchive.org/module.php?42146

Mantronix - Act of Impulse https://modarchive.org/module.php?32865

4-mat - Red Sector Theme https://modarchive.org/module.php?56673

Romeo Knight - Cream Of The Earth https://modarchive.org/module.php?120017

Greg - Odyssey Part 2 https://modarchive.org/module.php?98947

Jugi - Onward Ride https://modarchive.org/module.php?50820

Laxity - Desert Dream (found 3 rips on ModArchive, not sure which one's the best. Here's one of them:) https://modarchive.org/module.php?36889


If we're dropping recommendations, three talented artists from the early 90s here:

Bjørn Lynne - 12th Warrior https://www.stef.be/bassoontracker/?file=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.m...

Jogeir Liljedahl - Suspiria https://www.stef.be/bassoontracker/?file=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.m...

Purple Motion - Shadowrun https://www.stef.be/bassoontracker/?file=https3A%2%2Fapi.mod...


Karsten Koch - The Blue Valley (darn, S3M can't be played on Bassoon) https://modarchive.org/module.php?37685

Skaven - Catch that Goblin!! https://modarchive.org/index.php?request=view_by_moduleid&qu...

Skaven - 2nd Reality (from the absolute classic demo) https://modarchive.org/index.php?request=view_by_moduleid&qu...

Uplink, the hacking video game, actually used a bunch of classic tracks as its OST: https://youtu.be/8Esv7RPM--c


Catch that Goblin was amazing, when it started playing at the partyplace, everyone sort of stopped not paying attention to the compo, and turned their heads with a "wtf" face. IIRC some of the samples got Skaven in trouble with Disney.


Catch that Goblin!! and 2nd Reality were so amazing to me when I was into trackers.


Yeah Skaven had some tracks in Bejeweled as well :)


Thought I'd post some favorite later-1990s and early 2000s tracker tunes:

Radix / Mosaik / Jakob Svanholm - Yuki Satellites (32-track, 1999) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3aBbUL32oo

Norfair / Carl Åborg - Obtuse but Smooth (32-track, 1999) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Doxmc1W7WNI

Norfair / Carl Åborg - Chillzone (32-track, 2000) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6OR3zKUq7s

Hunz / Hans van Vliet - Sarah's Song (year unknown, early 2000s?) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYQUlUXQxR8

-----

Hans and Carl did a collab on The Flame (also early 2000s): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZe8thnsr1M

Hans and Jakob did a collab on No Way Out but the Sky, released on Jakob's (Mosaik) Aerials album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew2Qe3-YCdQ

https://mosaik.se/album/aerials


Two of my favorites:

Madness took me from Mental Hangover by Scoopex:

https://www.stef.be/bassoontracker/?file=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.m...

Global Trash 3 v2 from Hardwired by The Silents:

https://www.stef.be/bassoontracker/?file=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.s...

Both demos where trendsetting and truly ahead of its time.


Audiomonster's music on Ice by TSL was phenomenal. https://youtube.com/watch?v=JaG1vIkmhk4 the first track was worth removing the disk to be able to listen the whole thing. I believe he now scores movie soundtracks.


One of my all-time favourite chiptunes from 1996:

Funky Stars aka Hybrid Song

https://modarchive.org/index.php?request=view_by_moduleid&qu...


One more to add - Hired Guns soundtrack, amazing. Still Listen to it regularly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AddWUtIuFu0


> Captain - Space Debris

Actually part of the sample set on this tracker :)


For me, part of the fun was finding and fetching mods on BBS's before getting to hear them.


Stéphane Picq - Fremens https://www.stef.be/bassoontracker/?file=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.m...

Stéphane Picq - Wormsign https://www.stef.be/bassoontracker/?file=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.m...

Stéphane Picq - Jumping Jack'son https://www.stef.be/bassoontracker/?file=https%3A%2F%2Fmodla...

> "I think this is the mellowest classical tune around. Pachelbel must have been smoking some good shit."

https://www.stef.be/bassoontracker/?file=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.m...

Martin Iveson - Bubba'n'Stix Level 2 https://www.stef.be/bassoontracker/?file=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.m...

Jester - Crack the eggshell! https://www.stef.be/bassoontracker/?file=https%3A%2F%2Fmodla...

Jester - Harm me with harmony https://www.stef.be/bassoontracker/?file=https%3A%2F%2Fmodla...

Jester - Spice it up https://www.stef.be/bassoontracker/?file=https%3A%2F%2Fmodla...

Uncle Tom - Occ San Geen+ https://www.stef.be/bassoontracker/?file=https%3A%2F%2Fmodla...

Chorus & Sid - Killing Floor 2.1 https://www.stef.be/bassoontracker/?file=https%3A%2F%2Fmodla...

Chorus & Sid - Coffee Blues II https://www.stef.be/bassoontracker/?file=https%3A%2F%2Fmodla...

Chorus & Sid - Coffee Blues III https://www.stef.be/bassoontracker/?file=https%3A%2F%2Fmodla...

4mat - Wizardry https://www.stef.be/bassoontracker/?file=https%3A%2F%2Fmodla...

4mat - Chuck Rock title https://www.stef.be/bassoontracker/?file=https%3A%2F%2Fmodla...

I wanted to also link Economy 5 by XTD, the hidden track for Technological Death by Mad Elks IIRC, but the player seems to choke on the hashes, or I did something wrong: http://modland.com/pub/modules/Protracker/XTD/


Nice to see Space Debris as a selected demosong. A few other favourites:

Oldschool classics:

heatbeat/rebels - street jungle https://www.stef.be/bassoontracker/?file=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.m...

Banana/TeK - Echoing aka demosong.nst from the Sound Blaster 2 disk https://www.stef.be/bassoontracker/?file=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.m...

4mat/anarchy - 4mat's madness (manic chiptune) https://www.stef.be/bassoontracker/?file=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.m...

Game music:

Nation XII featuring John Foxx - theme from Gods (gods17/into the wonderful) https://www.stef.be/bassoontracker/?file=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.s...

Allister Brimble - px.bladswede remix! (theme from Project-X) https://www.stef.be/bassoontracker/?file=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.m...

More techno-ish styles from the mid/late 90s:

vim!/mono - call me persephone (shimmeringly creaky mo'wax-style trip hop) https://www.stef.be/bassoontracker/?file=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.m...

twilight/mono - inevitable (junglish rave breaks subside into orbital-esque arpeggios) https://www.stef.be/bassoontracker/?file=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.m...

randall / suburban bass - in complete darkness (jungle/happy hardcore) https://www.stef.be/bassoontracker/?file=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.m...

superna0+dreamfish+thefoxii/mono - tri buta gaz (intensely minimal acid techno) https://www.stef.be/bassoontracker/?file=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.m...

dune/orange (later brothomstates on Warp Records) - mark a.j. pisses off (idm/techno, distorted kicks all over the place) https://www.stef.be/bassoontracker/?file=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.m...

Yep, I miss the Mono netlabel: http://www.simoncarless.com/monotonik-a-net-label-1996-200/


Yes! I miss the tracking scene. Some amazing music came out of that format.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: