Adventurer #15 31 июля 2004

Демо

Reviews - demo 2003 review: Detroyt, Why?, Extazy, Microcosm, Wirne, Alienate, Sailor, The Source, Evenless, Fuck You Scene, Caprize, Resurrection, demo22, Weed, China Restaurant.

Demos as is. Nothing more.      
Flying/DR & Miguel/CPU          

Detroyt by TBK+4D
(ASCII'2003, 1st place)

miguel> As a matter of fact, I was
waiting for another demo from
4D+TBK at that time, the one they
hadn't finished for CAFe'2002. But
there appeared some rumours, that
they prepared something different
for ASCII. Maybe guys decided to
avoid chunks this time and we'll
see something new and interesting,
I thought. So, I downloaded the
party stuff and started watching.

From the beginning of the demo I
was shocked with those circles
from some old (approx. 1997 year)
Haujobb demo or anything else, wha-
tever, taken from pc. I still have
enough of attention to notice in
those 'circles' a scrolly with cre-
dits, and among the authors' nicks
G.D. Immediately I thought of so-
mething converted from pc (since
that pc effect with circles was
used).

And again I was rejoiced with lo-
gos made by pROF, but it was a
well known for a long time fee-
ling, so they seemed like routine.
Of course, every pROF's logo is ma-
de professionally, but it becomes
boring to see.

I'm not a coder so I'm not deeply
concerned with coder's techniques
used here, but I should notice,
that animation conversion is made
good enough. I remember the anima-
tion that we tried to make in a si-
milar way for Adventurer#12 intro.
One of the main reasons why we ma-
de everything jump and shiver was
that we couldn't convert it from
pC with high quality. But here we
can see, that creators managed to
make it right, except, maybe, that
pinions.

Let's proceed with music. By those
circles in the beginning I was
prompted to wait for something ma-
de in 97-98's style, sounding like
tracks from the best demos of that
time. And I think I was right,
anyway, noone makes music like
that nowadays.

Technically, I always tried to
avoid of using a whole channel for
drums. Of course, it is a good pos-
sibility to make drums sound like
drums and as complicated as you
want. But I think the main problem
is that there are only few musici-
ans possible to do that. Besides,
if you're making your tune for
ACB, displacement of noise towards
the one channel (with my ABC) ma-
kes the track sound slightly con-
fined. However, in some cases the-
re is no possibility to do what
you want in any other way. So, I
think, there's is a vital necessi-
ty to use ABC/BAC/ACB modes in de-
mos now.

Another thing that bother me is en-
velope. I like when it sounds good
and rich. So, usually, I make the
whole volume of music a little lo-
wer to allow these vibrations to
be heard. Here, in this track,
it's almost lost.

Besides, there's a good trick I of-
ten use. The usage of fifth notes
instead of tonics allows to arran-
ge the envelope's part in very dif-
ferent ways, increase the whole
drive. I hope Key Jee knows about
that. Anyway, the soundtrack for
this demo, as i think, was made
long ago, before Key Jee joined
the army, and if he would make it
now, using all advises listed
above, it would sound different.

But there is a moment that I don't
like - the reaction of scene. I of-
ten see quatations from this demo
and it makes me think, that there
are some people, for whom detroYt
has become an overwhelming break-
thru in demomaking, especially af-
ter the dictatorship of chunks.
And this fact gives some additio-
nal pop traits to this demo, what
is categorically not welcomed by
me.

flying> Splendid work of, maybe,
the most prominent for now 'com-
bined' team TBK+4D, has impressed
all visitors of ASCII'2003, and, I
think, the whole crowd of speccy
freaks.

The demo absorbs from the first
moments of perception and 'rele-
ases' only with the final fading
of sound and stop of motion at the
screen. By the strenght of impact
it could be set in one row with
such a masterpieces as 'Shit 4
Brainz' by Progress and 'The Loop'
by 3SC. Beautiful code, stunning
work of designer (graphics, design
of 3D scenes and especially work
with fonts) and excellent so-
undtrack, that merges with the vi-
suals by the means of perfect syn-
chronization - all those parts,
compiled together, are making up
this outstanding product.

Examining 'detroYt' from the
technical point of view, it could
be understood, that it bases on
two players of vector animations,
however, in my opinion, for the
first time it was used to repre-
sent 3D scenes of such kind. In ad-
dendum to this, according to the
statement of authors, the scene
with 3D pinions is an example of
high quality data packing (i hope,
they'll decide to release the sour-
ces of this effect alongside with
the packer, as I did it in my time
with the packer of ZXA animations,
written for Jam). Also one or two
articles in some magazine, about
the process, technique and ruses
of creation, preparations and con-
verting of vector animations, used
while making detroYt would come in
handy.

Considering this work not by it-
self, but in surrounding of
another demos, appeared on speccy
by the last few years, i would
say, that creators of 'detroYt'
(besides the number of works from
other platforms, not to mention
classic Amiga intro by Delirium,
works by The Black Lotus and Kaspa-
rov on PC, with it industrial at-
mosphere) were influenced such
things as 'The Loop' by 3SC (the
first scene with punched details
bears a strong resemblance to the
similar process in 'The Loop')
and, maybe, ours 'Jam' (it could
be just my biased opinion as one
of the authors of this work, but
the scene with pinions, by its sty-
le and and implementation raises
associations with 'Jam' anima-
tions). Maybe there is a light
influence of works by Skrju (but
it could be a mutual influences
i.e. both teams are getting so-
mething from each other). And this
is truly great if I'm right, becau-
se they are giving a new look to
those ideas, finding out somewhat,
not explored by the others.

Sizing up, it could be only said,
that this demo is a 'must see' and
examine for everyone who have an
interest to the speccy demoscene,
as an example of magnificent work,
opening new horizon in demomaking
on speccy.

Why? by Skrju
(ASCII'2003, 2nd place)

miguel> Next demo from skrju. And
this work again reminds me of
another pC demos, maybe by Kew-
lers, or maybe Fukwit Daddy/Hau-
jobb. I don't know why kq and sq
made what they did, but that accu-
sations in the lack of ideas that
appeared after the party I can on-
ly regard as stupid and ridicu-
lous. I still believe that there
are not so much people who un-
derstand this demo in any way, may-
be different way that was ex-
pected.

As I understand, the demo is based
on lyrics, written by
i_don't_know_who, maybe kq, be-
cause he made the gfx presented
here. And I think he grafically
described what he wrote by words.

nq aka Nik-O seems to be a real ma-
niak. I suppose, the purpose of
every creative person is to reali-
ze yourself in any occupation that
you like. But it's hard to imagine
what you want to do, the result of
your work, especially, it's almost
impossible to conceive this track
made by Oleg. I think this style
of music, that Nik-O developed du-
ring some last months (or years)
is not so popular as those melodi-
cal tracks, remixes and covers
that Nik-O made before. The first
proof that I can offer - the re-
sults of latest music compos, whe-
re Nik-O didn't get what he de-
serves.

I know most of tricks that Nik-O
can use, some of them we discussed
in emails, but sometimes I have a
feeling that he uses too much of
them in one track. Moreover, when
my approach to composing has
changed and now I try to make mu-
sic as simple as possible.

However, I like the fact that
Nik-O stopped flooding the scene
with his music, that makes every
single track more valuable, I
think. And it's a pity that he co-
uldn't visit CAFe this time.

flying> If this work by Skrju is
examined not by itself, but in the
one row with the other works of
this team, then the tendency of de-
velopment is clearly seen. Because
'Why?' is something middle between
released before 'Summermilk' and
the last one 'FUCK you SCENE'. Al-
ready deprived of colours, but not
of text, the music started its mu-
tation, becoming a 'FUCK you
SCENE' soundtrack later, now this
is not a set of sinking in noise
sounds, but something merely
alive. 'Transferred' from one work
to another, fx becomes resemblant
to the mutant, we'll see in 'FyS',
but still, this is something rela-
tively normal. And the size of
'Why?' is similar with 'Summer-
milk', not 'FyS'. Rather hard to
perceive, but at least not so dep-
ressive as 'FyS'...

For some reason, there is no desi-
re to examine 'Why?' by itself,
let it be seen the brick, construc-
ted by Skrju, in some global work
of art. But if this tendency will
continue - I'm already scared by
the next brick...

Hmmm... Another Brick In The Wall?
It's interesting, why I have such
associations in the present mo-
ment? Maybe because of 'Pink
Floyd' is playing in my head-
phones?

Extazy by Milytia
(ASCII'2003, 3rd place)

miguel> The final release of this
demo became available just after
CAFe, though it took the 3rd place
at ASCII. I've seen an opinion in
Internet that it's even better
than those presented at CAFe this
year. Ridiculous.

As for me, at the first sight it
may seem too childish. Of course,
Milytia is a young team, the repre-
sentatives of so called 'new wave'
spekka demo scene. And there are a
lot of traits of this style here
in this demo - minimalism in gfx,
code and music. The main thing
they are laying on is idea. But, I
think, it's too optimistic.

A few words about gfx presented in
Extazy - like in other earlier
works it's still glumsy, lines and
contours are far from ideal and
those faces are killing me... The-
re are some good logos, but it's
not enough.

Simple melody, playing in this
demo, makes me think, that life is
not so bad as it may seem, that we
must have a lot of joy and pleasu-
re from flowers, lover's face, fri-
ends and so on. Really, music is
made without any pretence, its pur-
pose is to bring some melancholic
and calming vibrations, do not
bother the listener.

But the main drawback is the en-
ding, which is too abrupt, you
don't know what to do, I had a fee-
ling that I have to run for fire-
men :) I hope that Milytia will ma-
ke the proper conclusion out of
this.

flying> Though this work by Mily-
tia appeared only a few months be-
fore 'Caprize' (reviewed above) -
comparing those two demos, one
can feel a serious progress of a
team through this period of time.
'Caprize' has a neatly expressed
(although, not original in the
most of it) style, while 'Extazy'
is quite blurred, its parts practi-
cally are not connected together.
Also, technically, this is not a
revelation - low amount of simple
effects (all could be seen in the
middle of 90s) are working not so
fast. There are undisguised draw-
backs sometimes, like 'hanging' ef-
fects (when the screen remains
uncleared after end of fx), or
thrash, creeping at the screen in
'greetz' part. Melody is attrac-
tive, and felt like it was compo-
sed especially for the demo, but
there are problems with synchroni-
zation. In general demo looks we-
aker, than 'Caprize' but it is ve-
ry light and leaves a pleasant
impression after it. And what rejo-
ices more, that even the next
their work is a great step for-
ward, that means, we can wait con-
tinuation of this course and more
quality works from Milytia.

Microcosm by CPU
(out of the party)

miguel> This is the first work of
duet inward, recently appeared on
scene under the label of CPU. I
think some people understand why
it happened, especially those
who've been at CAFe this year.
Elph's mental condition influenced
by music, literature and other dif-
ferent things, now produces inte-
resting kinds of psychodelic emoti-
ons thru Spekka.

The second person is a well-known
member of CPU - Moran. With his
epilepsy, affecting all what he
creates, and whole life attitude,
he had already frightened us brin-
ging out his plans and ideas. But,
as I think, he had no proper sup-
port to realize what he wanted and
thats why he often tried to force
himself to make something with
CPU, though he didn't need it.
Here, in microcosm he had a chance
to release. But I still don't beli-
eve that what he is showing to us
as his inner state is true. For me
he is still a person without
strong purposes and directives and
that doesn't let him to realize
himself completely in whatever he
wants to do. Apparently, h doesn't
know what he wants. And I think,
and that's a pity, that again he
found somebody able to direct him,
who sees the object of creation ve-
ry defined, as you understand,
it's elph.

Music itself is an attempt to make
dark ambient using Spekka. Of co-
urse, not so many people can appre-
ciate it at its true value and the-
re are some reasons, beginning
with unability to understand this
sort of music, following with qua-
lity of your home stereo... I'll
just mention that elph is one who
possesses all necessary require-
ments for this, otherwise he wo-
uldn't make such products.

However, I think that most of ppl
doesn't understand, why there are
2 versions of microcosm. It is due
to differences of AY frequency on
different Spekkas, and it affects
the envelope, which is the main
instrument used in the soundtrack.
Its period varies so the structure
of track, its rythm changes and so-
und turns into jumble. So inward
made the second version with enve-
lope fix so you could tune the so-
und in the right way.

Of course, there are some ppl, who
can't understand the meaning of
what happens on the screen and so-
unds in the ears, i'll just say
that after 5 minutes of action you
can just turn the volume and low
frqs up, switch the lights off,
lay down and close your eyes...

flying> Hmm... After Honest 15 mi-
nutes in contemplation of this
demo, i came to conclusion, that
my brains need something psychot-
ropic, to catch the escaping per-
ception of this work :) I'll bet-
ter return to 'Evenless' - it is
easier to perceive and spiritually
closer to me.

Wirne by ZeroTeam
(out of the party)

miguel> You know, making such re-
view is not an easy work. I've wat-
ched every work not at once, try-
ing every time to percieve deeper
in every detail, trying to de-
cipher the meaning of things, the
reasons and purposes, I've been
thinking much about what would
I've done if I tried to make a de-
mo with those elements that I saw
and how it would look like, how it
must be. And now you try to watch
microcosm, lying about 25-30 minu-
tes on a bed, listening drones,
perceiving the innerself and then,
after it stops, go to wirne. I can
only compare it with a brick fal-
ling on the head.

Many different logos, effects of
the early 90ies, progress is al-
most absent. Everywhere.

Sometimes I have a feeling that eu-
ropeans stuck in this 'oldschool'
stereotype, or you can call it as
you like, whatever, maybe it is
just stubborn persistence, I don't
know, but for as me, I think they
are unable to compete with russi-
ans in using Spekka for high level
programming, design, simply demos
as a whole, and that's why they
place this unability under the
term of 'for fun', showing their
'sense of humour' and it becomes,
honestly, quite boring.

flying> As it is said at the begin-
ning of the demo - the concept was
founded 5 years ago and only now
it have seen the light. Better
later, then never (maybe authors
of 'Genetic Error' will follow the
example of ZeroTeam and we will
see their work?

The demo itslef reminds me the
works of early 90s, as for composi-
tion, type and the level of ef-
fects, so for the whole spirit. I
remember, that I myself did a lot
of such an effects in 1995-1996.
Everything is pretty nice, simple
and light, very good for nostalgic
reasons, but not enough for a mo-
dern demo.

Alienate by HPRG
(Assembly'2003, 4th place)

miguel> Boring again...

flying> Our European friends from
HPRG in the second time took part
in the world's biggest demoparty -
Assembly with their new Spectrum
work. It can't be ignored, cos it
lets the representatives of other
platforms to remember (or maybe
to get acquainted in the first
time) Spectrum and about it's de-
moscene. So, let's take a closer
look on the product.

At first, you don't need to read
credits to recognize Yerzmyey's
graphics style and this defines
the style of the demo, cos you
can't expect a technical revela-
tion, but a vivid demo, filled
with light and humour, maybe a
little specific humour. At first I
should say, that authors didn't mo-
ve far from their original style,
everything, mentioned above, fits
good to this work. The level of ef-
fects is about 1995-1996, if we
compare it with russian demos,
even mentioning, that I watched
the final version, there are some
mismatches (for example, after the
attribute tunnel, the screen depac-
king is done without clearing of
the attributes). However the demo
leaves good impression with its
light mood and atmosphere. Be-
sides, the opportunity to choose
AY or General Sound would please
the owners of this device (or emu-
lator users).

Speaking about the presentation of
this work at Assembly -this great
in itself, especially taking into
account participation in oldschool
democompo. But it could be de-
sired, to see the demo, represen-
ting modern standarts in speccy
demomaking, competing here.

Sailor by HPRG
(out of the party)

miguel> ehhhhhhhh....

flying> Does everyone remember
low quality poland demos in late
80s? Seems like one of it remained
in a dust for the last 15 years
and seen the light only now.

The performance is absolutely low.
The point is understood, but this
is not the cause to watch it :)

Weed by TBK+4D
(CAFe'2003, 1st place)

miguel> I don't know why TBK deci-
ded to make such and so called
demo. Just to win, or it was real-
ly deep in their minds, they real-
ly ever had any experience in this
sphere? But this light propaganda
of hash and narcotics in general
as a key to the possibility to un-
derstand more than usual consumer
has found its audience at this pop-
sy CAFe party. And that was the
right action from TBK - they won
the compo. Other examples of such
approach, I think, can be found ea-
sily, but they hadn't such success
screen with Bob Marley and can-
nabis, last years' Black and White
demo.

So, I guess, people that like main-
ly visual side of a demo are eve-
rywhere, they don't bother them-
selves with thinking about the dee-
per meanings. And they did their
task, as a bull reacts on a red
cloth.

What about music? I don't even
know how to make a soundtrack for
a demo with such idea, so I won't
judge Key Jee for his competence
or uncompetence, you can do it by
your own if you like. Anyway, mu-
sic is simple and ordinary, though
professionally made. But there's
one moment that I like most -lyri-
cal part before colours start (3
channel melody with reverberation
and a simple envelope part) and
patterns after it. So, I think,
that's it.

flying> The second work by TBK+4D
in 2003 year, presented at the
party, second masterpiece and for
the second time - deserved first
place. And if detroYt was a revela-
tion in the sphere of new ideas of
effects realization and new direc-
tions in explorations, 'WeeD' not
just continued this movement, but
added new elements to that, making
this work really remarkable.

At start it should be said, that
here we can see at least 2 comple-
tely new techniques, or more preci-
sely saying - the development of
new techniques, first presented in
'detroYt', but done here at a qua-
litatively new level. At first, re-
alization of sufficiently complex
3D scenes with the help of vector
animations. And if in detroYt we
saw fullscreen 3D with industrial
bias, then here, animation is com-
bined with 2D objects, thus, the
whole screen is moving and repre-
senting a single whole itself.
That let the authors to accent the
central object, adding the dyna-
mics to a whole scene, using vec-
tors. In the second place, there
is of course stunning fullscreen,
coloured animation at the end.
Black and white version we could
observe in 'detroYt', but colours
add a lot to the spectacular ef-
fect! Except those two main innova-
tions, there are some minor set of
new ideas. Pay an attention, for
example, how the 3D figures are ap-
pearing and vanishing at the
middle of the demo.

But 'WeeD' wouldn't be such a
great occurence, if presented it-
self only a demonstration of a new
technologies. Fortunately, authors
did a great effort and made each
component at a very high level. Ex-
cept marvellous code, there is
high quality graphics and excel-
lent music, reflecting the atmos-
phere very well. All this properly
fitted together and looks as a
single whole. Different by its na-
ture parts are gathering and ma-
king up a picture, and this pictu-
re is telling a story. Yes,
exactly, this demo has its plot,
not primitive or shallow at all,
but forcing to think.

Besides, i dont know if it was an
author's idea, or it just appeared
to be so, but 'WeeD' rouses a
clear associations with film 'Pink
Floyd - The Wall', directly to the
part, where 'Don't Leave Me Now'
is playing'. I think, those, who
saw the film will understand me:)

And there is one more thing, i ha-
ve a strong associations with, whi-
le watching 'WeeD' - ours
'Forever'. Though, the authors are
saying, that this is only a coinci-
dence (and I'm inclining to belie-
ve them) - however, there are some
moments, that 'came' from
'Forever' as it seems to me. This
is not derogates 'WeeD', but maybe
even vice versa.

One more time congaratulations to
TBK+4D with the victory in main
party of the year!

demo22 by Eye-Q
(CAFe'2003, 5th place)

miguel> Do not vote, please...
It's right. Everything moves too
slowly on the screen. However, at
the very start of the soundtrack
it seems that it's gonna be a hard
drive trackmo. But only disappo-
intment apears. Why they released
this demo? It's not even about the
code, gfx, nor music. It's defini-
tely not finished.

I think that this demo is an ef-
fort made by Organism to support
the party and to make the speccy
scene remember about his crew -
Eye-Q, at least for another year
while their competetors MHCG chan-
ged to de Marche and started to
conquer the 'more progressive' pC
scene.

flying> By the way, practically
everything, that could be said
about this work of Eye-Q, they
said at the beginning of the demo:
' There is no cool code... just la-
me effects from Organism. There is
no gfx from Rion... just some con-
verted shit. There is no good
fix... just nice track from
Icengreen. There is no demo... and
we sucks this year... ' This
description fully reflects the
demo22 itself. Really - converted
(not by the best way) graphics,
3-4 rather primitive effects (the
authors didn't care much about
speed optimization), total lack of
music synchronization, and the so-
undtrack, energetic enough, poorly
fitting the slowness of visuals.
What is this - team crisis or ele-
mentary lack of time and desire to
do something? Hope this is tempora-
ry occurrence, the previous work -
demo21 was a step forward, maybe,
the movement should be continued?

Resurrection by OHG
(CAFe'2003, 2nd place)

miguel> I can't even find the pro-
per word to describe this demo.
OHG strikes back? What for? They
tried to demonstrate treir ability
to 'make demos' on spekka? I
guess, they are pleased with re-
sults of this performance. And
they call it 'oldschool'. I see
nothing that can remind about
oldschool. Such statements can on-
ly make clowns out of Jocker and
his mates, already showed their
'sport spirit'. Maybe organizers
are quilty in 'commercial' appro-
ach of making demos. As it was pos-
ted on Scenergy - I'd like bananas
instead of prizes!

I hope there will be no more such
kind of shit.

flying> Rather unexpectable event
after a few years of silence Omega
Hackers Group returned to Speccy
with the new work and even got the
second place in demo compo of the
main party of the year, leaving be-
hind the works of the very active
at the moment teams. This makes me
happy and shows - Speccy Forever!

Demo starts with the words
'Oldschool never die' - this is
true, good classic effects when do-
ne at high-grade are always loo-
king good. And this work gave us
opportunity to recall several clas-
sic works of past years (of co-
urse, here effects look a little
different, because dumb copying
would look worse, than an own view
at the same fx). Honestly saying,
couple of chunk effects of later
period are coming off the track,
but generally, it didn't spoil the
whole picture. From the other
side, using converted low quality
graphics along with such a slogan
was a mistake.

In summary, this is not bad work,
but the most important is the fact
of its appearance itself and
those, who did it, not the things
happening on the screen.

Caprize by Milytia
(CAFe'2003, 3rd place)

miguel> I think, guys just didn't
know that the track they chose to
be a soundtrack had taken the se-
cond place at millennium'1902. And
I think Milytia didn't cared much
while making this demo. They certa-
inly had no time to make the so-
undtrack by themselves, the music
from their last work was something
to hear though. And those funny
phrases like 'no kopia',
'Alternfiva? Yes!' and 'cyber
punks U' in greets. I couldn't de-
cipher what's written in graffiti
style, so next time i'll certainly
ask them about it...

flying> Examination of this demo
rouse controversary feelings in
me... By the one side - all time,
you watch the demo, the deja vu
syndrom, the feeling, that you ha-
ve seen this all... But by the
other side, this mix borns so-
mething new...

The very beginning - vertical
lines, moving downwards - stable
association with Detroyt by
TBK+4D, released not so long be-
fore. Really, if those lines would
form a wireframe 3D scene, it co-
uld be a marvellous impression!
But it would be TOO similar with
Detroyt:)

First fx, and again that feeling
'Summermilk???'. Authors reject
those doubts :) But the feeling re-
mains the same... The scrolling
texture, combined with sideway
graphics, crossing it, raises memo-
ries of Melange and some other
works.

But, in spite of all this, and ob-
vious dead level of code (2-3 very
simple effects - there is not much
to code) the demo looks great, it
done in one style, there is drive,
becouse of very energetic so-
undtrack and good synchro. It per-
ceived very smooth and not loads
the watcher (but 'concerned' demos
could be very good, if done well
and speccy has various examples,
everyone knows of), that fits the
party very good.

Guys from Milytia could be congra-
tulated - this is very successful
work, the only thing that could be
desired - YOU should be recognized
in your works, not anyone else
(look above about Alienate) :)

Fuck You Scene by Skrju
(CAFe'2003, 4th place)

miguel> I think it's not so good
to make a demo about scene, at
least, call it like this, 'cos it
doesn't deserve it. In my opinion,
it is the press' task to discuss
about scene, it's absence, pre-
sence, whatever.

At the other side, I can feel the
denying of all stereotypes and
cliches that established during
few last years and applied to eve-
rything, and demos in particular.
And that's why, and like adv#14,
fuckyouscene has appeared. It's
now time for another scene, but
not for everyone.

For me, the kq's leadership in
skrju's creative process is get-
ting obvious. I don't know why,
anyway, I'm sure that sq has much
to say, but somehow kq presses on
and makes dicisions. Also, I sus-
pect, that nq didn't make a so-
undtrack especially for this demo,
I suppose, he has a basic line -
to make music for skrju and whate-
ver he composes with such
approach, any weird thing, fits
the 'spirit of skrju'. I guess
that everything that deals with
music, it's realization and it's
content, they place upon nq's sho-
ulders. Anyway, the result is qui-
te good.

flying> It is extremely hard to
express an opinion about this work
of Skrju. Those guys are always on
the edge in their point of view at
the world and so in the ways of
selfexpression. Sometimes falling
into extreme, they nevertheless
open new views at the way the demo
could be. This time those 16kb
adherents demonstrated the work,
consisted of sequence of black and
white screens, stored unpacked on
the disk... Add to this only one
'effect', already seen in previous
their demos and music, composed
from the minimal set of samples.
Now, deliberately corrupt the fx
and music, till they seem a result
of a broken computer or a bad disk
thats the way of partly picturing
what 'fuck YOU scene' is. But this
is only the outer side.

Look, deeper inside of what you
see and hear. Sinister, opressing
industrial visions... Faces of pe-
ople with only fear, pain and suf-
fering inside their eyes... Me-
lody, dying in the flood of
noise... Code, mutated beyond re-
cognition, but still trying to sur-
vive... Graves... That should be
seen... That should be pondered...
That is far too serious...

Thanks Skrju.

Update: I think, this demo would
ideally fit to never conducted com-
po of 'social' demos at CAFe'2002
(leaving no chances to the 'Traf-
fic Of Death' by PoS WT). However,
scarcely Skrju could take part
there.

Evenless by CPU
(CAFe'2003, 6th place)

miguel> In the beginning, I'd like
to look at this demo from the
other side. The only 2 effects
which are nothing in particular,
weird pictures oddly entitled, co-
lours are chosen awry, music is
dull... Besides, there's no such
word in english. What does it
mean? Where's the plot and what is
was made for?

Am I right? No? And now some
facts. I wont tell any secret,
there's no reason for it, more-
over, we apprehend it as a whole,
not concerning about it's compo-
nents.

It's a mantra. I tried to use all
my imagination while composing the
soundtrack. To satisfy your curiou-
sity, I'd say I played it on my gu-
itar in D-minor :) The other parti-
cular feature - is the track's
structure. We put 6 pictures in
the demo cos it is based on 6 pat-
terns, repeating from start to the
end. Six, not 4 or 8 as usual. The
measure plays the main role here.

Also, I had to work on sound, I
should especially notice drums,
which I wanted to be here, but so-
und not so heavy as it could be.

That all, I think.

Finally, I have to notice, that
this track I made in 2 days, i.e.
much quicker than usually. This
circumstance remains a miracle for
me, logically explainable though.

flying> Everyone, who are slightly
familiar with the history of the
demoscene, and remembers the
8-10 years old works, undoubtedly
understand, what demo became a
prototype of this cyberpunks'
work. This is 'Timeless' by Tran,
of course, released in 1994 on PC.
Even the name of the speccy 'ver-
sion' - 'Evenless' have something
in common with the name of the ori-
ginal, that gives one more stimu-
lus to conduct such an associa-
tions.

It should be said, that a spectrum
variant is simply splendid!
Authors succeeded to reproduce
this famous multilayerness and mu-
tability, the sense of psyche-
delia, for what original 'Time-
less' is beloved even now. But un-
like Tran, who released 'Timeless'
for no particular reason, CPU deci-
ded to represent their work at
CAFe, where such a thing, of co-
urse, was misunderstood. This co-
uldn't be watched at a party, it
should be done at home, in si-
lence, calmly submerging deeper
and deeper, penetrating and dissol-
vig in its infinity. Party has
another atmosphere, that is the re-
ason of such a low place, this ex-
cellent work got at CAFe.

Update: hmm... elfh/cpu said, they
never saw 'Timeless' and in accor-
dance to that didn't tried to do
its speccy version... Strange
things happen - those two absolute-
ly independent works are very simi-
lar visually, and carrying the sa-
me spirit :) I didn't correct the
text, that would be even more inte-
resting :)

The Source by CPU
(CAFe'2003, 7th place)

miguel> Inward again try to invol-
ve us in the depth of their minds.
Now they use the most comprehen-
sible way - thru words, but I
guess, most of people didn't read
the text due to the lack of educa-
tion. Also they could be surprized
that thesource took part in the de-
mo compo at all, maybe there appea-
red some followers of demo prese-
lect. Fuck'em!

This time again inward made music
by themselves. I don't think it's
crap, I'm sure they get what they
want, but there are some moments
that I don't like - some samples
and one mistake. Maybe it's not so
important for them, especially
Moran, who's tracks are full of
such mistakes and faults, but for
elph... When the track is playing,
although there are no drums, but
the whole rythm presents and you
can feel it, and there is a place
when the measure breaks. I think
it happens because they didn't ma-
ke an effort to hear it and to se-
lect an appropriate size of the
pattern.

elfh> look for the final ver-
sion...

As elph says they have some other
tracks already written, so I hope
they'll be more careful.

flying> Another one Inward from cy-
berpunks. The realisation and spi-
rit is very close to Microcosm,
but personally, I liked it more
even notwithstanding the lack of
support of substances to penetrate
nirvana, i was imbued :)

It is scarcely should be examined
(and so Microcosm) from the techni-
cal point of view - it is not in-
tended to this. But this is the
great source to get totally stoned
:)

China Restaurant by Triumph
(out of the party)

flying> It's hard to describe this
work by Triumph... Because, inspi-
te of presence of every needed com-
ponent the emphasis is not done on
it, but on the text, that authors
wanted to deliver to the public.
Poem, written by the person, impri-
soned by the false accusation (as
it said at the end of the demo).
The poem worth reading, that mean,
the demo should be watched from
the beginning to an end. But there
is no sense to appreciate this
work from the point of view of de-
momaking, there is another core...
Therefore look (read) everything
by yourself and then make your opi-
nion about it.