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                         "WAVE UPON WAVE" by YM ROCKERZ
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system... ST, STe, Falcon, 512KB RAM, RGB

size..... 9o KB

code..... ABYSS of CREAM, TAO of CREAM
grafix... EXOCET of JFF/PYJAMA
musics... 5o5, D-FORCE, DMA SC, MC LASER, MILHOUSE, TAO

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Finally it was finished  and is reality now, the  long awaited  first chip musix
demo by the YM ROCKERZ. Ok, atm I'm writing this review  the demo isn't released
for  public, I just got a semi-finished  preview, but as it seems the  final one
will not differ much from this one.

"YM ROCKERZ?" surely is  your first question... Yes, YM ROCKERZ, it  isn't a new
band, but a project born out of the fact that today, in the  year 2ooo, the last
years big ST revival  has already found it's end. Not much happened  on the demo
front, not much projects  are in the pipeline or even dying  because of the lack
of interested coders.

But the mentioned ST revival last year brought us a blast of chip musix again we
missed for years now. An old Atari tradition was brought back  to life and those
people can't leave their fingers from all those chip music editors and need some
ventil now, to bring their tunes to a bigger public.

And so the YM ROCKERZ project  was founded, just  bring the created  sounds with
chip musix demos to the public and to support the scene in this way, if there is
no possibility to take part in a demo. Atm. the following people  belong to that
project...  5o5 of CHECKPOINT, D-FORCE of FUN, DMA SC of SECTOR ONE, MC LASER of
.tSCc.^iCEBiRD, MILHOUSE and last but not least TAO of CREAM.
And because of TAO's coding  skills and the help of a few other  peoples they're
able to do something together... great idea I think.

Ok, enough crap, let's go over to the real review...

At first I have to mention that the demo is very similar to the .tSCc./CREAM msx
demo called "SONGS FROM DISTANT EARTH" or better it os more or less based on the
same sources, but why not.
The YM ROCKERZ demo starts in the same way, telling  some stuff in a  white font
on black  background, like we should  try to imagine a time where  chipmusix are
forbidden and so on, followed by a nice YM ROCKERZ logo in  graffity style, done
by EXOCET and followed again, by the heroes that belong to this label. Meanwhile
this stuff is  brought to the screen, a nice chipping sidmusic is  played in the
background...

Finally the  main menu was coming up, showing the same YM ROCKERZ logo on top on
a squared  background, surrounded by red  stars... Under the  logo the  theme or
title (?) was displayed in  small letters and beneath  the title the menu  where
you can  select the  single tunes  is coming up. You can scroll up and  down and
select with pressing "RETURN".

Last but not least in the lower part of the screen a long vertical story scrolly
is displayed, telling some strange psycho story or something.

Lets come to the musix. There are 6 musicians involved in that demo and everyone
brought 2 songs to it. Names like 5o5, DMA SC, TAO and MC LASER are surely known
to everybody, but MILHOUSE, a fairly good newcomer, who is composing maybe since
last year  chip musics and D-FORCE of FUN, who wasn't known to me  as chipper at
all so  far, showing that the guilde of  chip musicians  is still  growing, in a
time where ST demos are going to be seldom again.

The tunes by 5o5 are titled "MELODIE" and "CLOUDS", the first one is a funky and
poppy  tune, using high sounds and as the title says it's very  melodic. The 2nd
one reminds me a bit to some old ST game musix, is some kind of sentimental, has
clear sounds in the beginning, but the whole theme is brightening with the time.
Two good tunes, maybe not  typical 5o5 sounds, who created more and more strange
tunes in the last time.

D-FORCE's tunes  coming up next, called "BYTES" and "PLINK". The first  one is a
blip-blopping  and slow one that is later filled up with sid voices as well. The
second starts with some chip drumming stuff. It sounds a bit strange in my ears,
doesn't really hit my chip musix taste. The first one is better  as I think, the
second surely finds his lovers as well. A good start anyway in my eyes.

DMA SC is known for his melodic demo tunes, and so his 1st one, "MAGNETIC MIND",
is also used as intro tune for this demo. It reminds me hard to the style of the
good old  SCAVENGER of SYNERGY. The second is called "WONDERLAND SPEEDWAY", also
a demo'ish tune, not too fast, but the first one is nicer... at least for me.
After all they're both very good and of typical DMA SC quality.

The next tunes were composed by my  group mate, MC LASER. The first  one's title
is "DAS SIDHAEUSER TOR" and should remind with the title to a module he did some
time ago that was called "DAS TANNHÄUSER TOR". And you know what? It  is a chip-
conversion  of the  module. The second tune, "FLAINIAN", is also a  good demo or
better a typical demo tune. Two nice tunes...

MILHOUSE is the next man on  the Yamaha, bringing two  songs called "SHORT CUTS"
and "POLARNOID" to our ears. And because it is usual to compare people with some
others the first one who comes into  my mind, is ANTICHRIST of SECTOR ONE. Yeps,
MILHOUSE's tunes remind me in some way, in style and used noises and sounds hard
to that french chip musix hero.

The last appearing musician  in here is also the longest active chip musician as
well... TAO of CREAM, master  of  the buzzer! I  think  everybody  knows  him or
better  his  tunes. His  two titles "SHIFTER" and  "SIDSHIMES" don't  using  his
latest invented strange sounds  and buzzing effects in the way as in other tunes
he did in the  last time. Both are  slow sounds, maybe thought as  musix for the
endparts of demos or something and esp. the first one reminds me hard to another
chip musix.... grmmmlll... I know that tune! Wait... in some parts it reminds me
to a tune SCAVENGER did for the SYNERGY game "CRAPMAN", but I'm not sure...
Anyway, this sound rocks!

Oki, that's it for the musical score and I have to go over to the...

FINAL WORDS...

Not only the idea  behind YM ROCKERZ is nice, also their  first release is good.
Ok, it doesn't feature any coding highlights, no special effex, just some fading
and a scroller, but it's a music demo at first. The grafix  are nice pixeled but
a bit sparse, just one logo, two times used, an ok font and a stylish background
and that's all, but here again, it's just a music demo, where you  should focuse
on the musix mainly, and those are great. Esp. the point of different  composers
and so  also different  styles, is a big one. So  the whole  demo isn't  boring,
because it can go to your nerves  to listen to 1o or more tunes  composed in the
same style by the same musician. So after all it's a great little chip demo!

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originality...  6o % - Esp. for the YM ROCKERZ idea...
effex.........  1o % - Just a scrolly and some fading...
grafix........  75 % - Quiet ok, but too less...
musix.........  95 % - Without nearly no exception great tunes!
design........  65 % - Stylish colours, fading, but a bit more would be good...
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all in one ...  61 % - Some effex stuff would have brighten up it a bit more...
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.tSCc.                                                                   moondog
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