I first started dealing with computer music in the early 90s, on my dads Macintosh. At the time, Mac started to surpass Atari ST as THE music producing machine.

Those were the days of General MIDI.

GM is a “standardized specification for music synthesizers that respond to MIDI messages”. (Thanks wikipedia). Those sounds tried to simulate real (acoustic) instruments, from agogo to xylophone. At the time, they were great. The whole orchestra at your fingertips!

Today – of course – that stuff is as relevant as bloodletting or fax machines.

Anywaay, I wanted to take a little trip to the past. The result is INCARNATION IN A CARNATION, which utilizes only GM sounds. And it’s kinda metal. Kinda.

Unnecessary fact of the day: I played the tune for a friend. After listening about 1½ seconds he said: “Doom.” (Meaning the computer game, not the metal genre, or the final judgment.)

That’s exactly what I was going for.

I wish I’d have more to say about NAMED AFTER YOU than this:

I really like the tune!

As a composition, It’s not particulary clever. Just an ever repeating drum & bass thingy + some strings. The sounds are ok. The wholesome feels both modern and retro. Typical for me I guess.

It’s just that… Somehow the tune sounds better than it’s supposed to… All the little pieces fit together flawlessly, forming a moody tune that’s just… solid and really nice and good and fun!

And I like it!

For a person that doesn’t particulary like 80s music, I seem to deal with that kind of sounds surprisingly often.

Not that I particulary dislike that stuff… It’s just that, it’s the same exploding snare drum, flamboyant synthesizers and cold & dead atmosphere all over again… You know… Knight Riders theme song is fine, Street Hawk is meh and that’s about as much I can take in one sitting.

Anywaaay, only slightly cold or dead, drum-exploding tune that probably has a mullet: PEGHEAD IS BACK.

…some piano music. Romantic, or at least -ish.

KAIHORO is a fictional village in factual New Zealand, in which a great tragedy took place. If you know what I mean…

Ode to that.

The band that’s featured in PHOTO WOULD BE NICE is a jackpot. All the instruments blend into each other beautifully, despite the fact that they represent different generations of electronic music.

There’s percussive rhodes and moog synthesizers from the 60s, SID snare drum and a wacky NES chiptune sound from the 80s, smooth synth layer probably bearing the flag of the 90s, and some other stuff, not particulary hailing for any specific decade.

In fact, I liked these sounds so much, that I used them in a another tune as well. “Star surge space purge” can be found in the electronic category.

Yes, it’s SHORTS time again. This time we got:

“Totally harmless bird flute”, which is a chirpful solo flute piece. I guess the title itself is worth a thousand words. Spring is coming.

“Turning the honey jar” is easy listening folk / pop / margarine commercial music. Pro tip, do not store honey in a refrigerator. Nor olive oil.

“Saloon tardigrades night out” reminds me of arcade video game music, early 80s I’d say. You know, Tapper, Bozo’s night out and so on…

Over.

No, it’s not a disease. It’s about the threat of iron stars.

Space sensor ribbiting. Satellite slowly turning it’s face towards the menace, making a deep, creaking sound. Small flying debris crashing, forming bigger chunks, making nearby space impenetrable.

Oh yeah, there’s no sound in space. Nor 666.

KESSLER SYNDROME is real deal though.

Oops, I meant to release WILDERNESS a month ago when it was freezing cold outside, but some other tune somehow took its place.

What we have here is a semi-musical piece, taking place up north.

I’ve never quite understood what makes some tunes new age music…

Is it the unbridled optimism? Smooth & relaxing sounds? City slicker spirituality? Does it’s composer need to wear a hippie shirt and do yoga?

Well, I only do normal stretching and my shirt is black, but some of the conditions I mentioned are certainly fulfilled in CROSSWIND THINKER.

Unfortunately, we got no “new age music”-category. Shoot!

I’ll just call it cinematic then. Closing your eyes while listening makes it true.

Let’s get onomatopoetic. We got cause of the sound, english word for it and finally its finnish counterpart.

Sneeze: Achoo – Ätsihh.
Lion: Roar – Mur.
Snoring: Zzz – Krooh pyyh.
Cow: Moo – Ammuu.
Water: Drip drop – Tip tip.
Crash: Boom – Pum.
Fart: Poot – Prööt.

Those are some of the common ones. But how do you english speakers write “buu-du”? You know, the thing baritone saxophone constantly plays in THREE MAGIC SLIPPERS?