I spent much of my day exhausting myself hacking Kirby's Dream Land 2, so tonight I decided to blow off some steam by doing something a little different--going to modarchive.org and using the "Random Pick!" option to hear some new tracker module music. I kept track of which mods I landed on and wrote down my thoughts on them, with a scale of Bad, Poor, Okay, Good, and Great.

the requiem (the_requiem.mod) - Okay

Nice melody, though a bit flat. Makes me think of some cathedral-like area in a top-down RPG.

f a rt c o re (f_a_rt_c_o_re.mod) - Poor

Kind of a weird mishmosh of things. Ends up just turning into noise by the end. Though I guess I shouldn’t have expected too much more out of a song called “f a rt c o re”.

well done !!! (well_done_.mod) - Good

Short but sweet, I like the fast-paced SID vibes. Not much else to say other than…well done !!! crickets chirp

xsm (xsm.mod) - Okay

One of those whatchamacallit techno/dance things with the repetitive samples/melodies. Some pretty cool ones at that, but also that weird vocal sample toward the end.

From another planet (from_another_planet.xm) - Good

Has a slow but steady buildup, maybe relies on its titular vocal sample a bit much, but nonetheless gets its idea across of some kind of otherworldly ambience.

Lost Symphony (lost_symphony.mod) - Great

The Amiga vibes are powerful in this one. Its somber yet snazzy sound is quite well done with its mix of the typical perc and bass and synth, along with some brass and woodwinds along the way.

TWINKLE BY FRED J (twinkle_by_fred_j.mod) - Uuuuuhhhhhhh

This is a 16-second rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star using one sample.

Château (jimitampc_-_chateau2.it) - Good

It’s got the brass, it’s got the percussion, it’s got the SoundCanvas-era string samples, this is a fairly rockin’ little song. Also some JRPG vibes yet again.

how.it (how.it) - Okay

Not sure what to say about this one, it expresses potential but ultimately comes off as rather repetitive and unsure where it wants to go.

North Bridge (digidz_-_north_bridge.it) - Good

Nice saws, nice C# key, a fairly well-defined direction. I wonder where something like this could go in more than a minute and a half?

>> C - V - E << (timewyrm09.it) - Good

Another one of those “repeat stuff” dance-style tunes. Some segments falter in comparison to others, but it keeps a sense of momentum. Also the saw melody in the very early/very late sections reminded me of the Pokemon GSC rival battle music for some reason.

funk along (funk_along.mod) - Great

Ayyy, now that’s a melody! One again very lovingly Amiga-like and catchy with its bass and synths and all.

D.S.R@MIX (d_s_r_mix.mod) - Good

Got some pretty cool riffs, along with the other dance/rave things I guess.

Loud Voice of Madness (ohck-lvm.it) - Good

I admire the heavy percussion, as well as the overall sense of direction in this one. Not bad for something apparently done in an hour.

Superman (wiseman_-_superman.xm) - Okay

One of those techno-ey things that relies on repeated percussion/nondescript melodies/vocals to carry it through. Can’t say it’s really my type.

untitled (obsessed_by_evil_cosmic_decay.it) - Good

That filename doesn’t lie, this one has a very desolate sound to it, and it conveys that sort of atmosphere quite well. I was honestly torn on Okay or Good for this one, ultimately decided Good because it does live up to its own ideals.

jaatelo (jaatelo.mod) - Uuuuuhhhhhhh

This one is 7 seconds long and has one sample.

EHA-CH07.MOD (chip_07.mod) - Great

Pretty neat SID tune, very pumped-up and ready for action.

HTyPe - Dload Love (htype-download_love.xm) - Okay

Ehhh, this one’s kinda boring honestly. That internal text though–”Why go out and meet people in life, when you can do the same thing virtual from your machine :-)”, stop calling me out aaaaaa.

Z o l o F t² (zoloft.s3m) - Okay

Yet another “throw stuff into the mix and live with it” sorta thing. The choir sample was neat, but overall not particularly attention grabbing, at least not as much as its instrument texts.

mix da mix (mix_da_mix.mod) - Good

A bright, peppy mix of things. I did not expect to somewhat enjoy something that mixes the likes of Crazy Frog and Somewhere Over the Rainbow into one thing, but here we are.

Voices from the past (ds_vftp.xm) - Great

Pre-listen thoughts: Holy shizzle it’s DreaMSectioN!!! I really like this guy’s work, ds_sd.xm, ds_bas.xm, ds_uf.xm, ds_confu.xm, ds_ltw.xm, and happy_vibes.xm are all bangers and you should check those out! Okay anyway here’s one of his things I haven’t heard yet (I think?), let’s see how it is.

Post-listen thoughts: After the intro, the melody picks up, with its fast percussion, dreamy synths, nice piano, yeah. I’d say it lived up to my expectations overall, he’s made some more mediocre things in addition to the ones I mentioned but this ain’t one of those.

And the winner is…

Voices from the past (ds_vftp.xm)! Yeah, I think DreaMSectioN being the finale for tonight stole the show. Genuinely did not expect him to show up. But I’ll cut it with the fanboying, the runner-up was Lost Symphony (lost_symphony.mod).