Commodore Remix

Ninja Sounds wrote:Dalali !! Of course. They were based in Croydon so I used to go into their office for production meetings. Can't remember the name of the lovely lady who was in charge, other than she was from India I think. Meanstreak was the game in question and straight away I can hear how rubbish the lead lines are because they removed the pitch bends and vibrato routines !! I have to say I'm amazed I got any work after that first effort.

Croydon? That's just a hop and skip away from where I currently live heh.

It would be nice, if possible, to get those two SIDs back up and running with the intended pitch bends and vibrato restored!

Mayhem wrote:

Ninja Sounds wrote:Dalali !! Of course. They were based in Croydon so I used to go into their office for production meetings. Can't remember the name of the lovely lady who was in charge, other than she was from India I think. Meanstreak was the game in question and straight away I can hear how rubbish the lead lines are because they removed the pitch bends and vibrato routines !! I have to say I'm amazed I got any work after that first effort.

Croydon? That's just a hop and skip away from where I currently live heh.

It would be nice, if possible, to get those two SIDs back up and running with the intended pitch bends and vibrato restored!

Not sure I still have that very early stuff,but tbh even with the mods on it was very uninspired stuff. I'm amazed because what should have been an inspired and ear catchy first pro effort sounds to me the exact opposite When your given a crack at the whip,whatever your line of work,you have to grab the bull by the horns and deliver to get through the door. I think Driller was a big turning point for me and when I was given a big opportunity by Mark at System 3 I definitely gave them what they wanted in the B.Knights loading tune. I remember going up to Hampstead to meet Mark in a pub and he basically said how much to work exclusively for System 3. I gave him a figure (a big one for a 17 year old upstart) and he said yes. Typically he later knocked 25% off it before I started but it was still decent.

Waz wrote:

Ninja Sounds wrote:Dalali !! Of course. They were based in Croydon so I used to go into their office for production meetings. Can't remember the name of the lovely lady who was in charge, other than she was from India I think. Meanstreak was the game in question and straight away I can hear how rubbish the lead lines are because they removed the pitch bends and vibrato routines !! I have to say I'm amazed I got any work after that first effort.

I think we're all glad you did, and many thanks for confirming Mean Streak to be yours as well. I suppose the name Dalali makes a lot more sense considering there was an Indian lady in charge.

I'm sure there are many memories of working for software companies back in the day - stuff like Rob H working on Commando overnight at Elite and having it play on every C64 in the building for when everyone came in the morning, Martin Galway's tales of Wizball with the Sensible folks etc, Ben Daglish being offered a car by Mark Cale for The Last Ninja etc.

Actually, thinking ahead, that might be something nice for the box set - recollections from yourself of each of the tunes you're going to reproduce (notably of course if they're your own). I'm also more than happy to contribute any sleeve notes, which I did for some of Reyn Ouwehand's CDs..

Actually I've got a feeling she was called Hanan. Not totally sure.

Good idea for the box set. Thanks for the offer I'll bear that in mind. Actually talk of the car offer for Ben from Mark just reminded of how into their cars everyone in the industry seemed to be. Especially the programmers. John Twiddy was driving a Golf GTI turbo nutter bastard when we we're working on Ninja 2 and I remember Mark picking me up from a train station in Watford in his Red Ferrari on my first visit to the System 3 house. And when I say house,I mean it was a house on an estate in Watford. John was living there with Mat and maybe Tim and Hugh were also resident. Not totally sure but it was a typical lads house and in the garage they had some great full blown arcade machines. It was a great atmosphere there. They later moved to a trading estate in London but that never had the same sort of buzz I felt.

Welcome Matt! As with many others on here, I grew up listening to a lot of your C64 work - Last Ninja 2 and Driller in particular are massive favourites. I'd love to see a box set production too as a result.

Thanks also for confirming Mean Streak and Yogi Bear as being yours. For years we've been trying to solve who composed the two tunes, as parts do sound familiar. Recently (as Waz has written), there was the cover of Yogi Bear called Election - so I was hoping to get in touch with you to confirm that you were the composer. It was also indeed Hanan Samara who ran Dalali Software.

Recently I saved a few of your tunes for HVSC from a chap called Cory Kin (who you may remember as Hex/Pixel Developments?) from his old work disks, which included Election and several others. It would be great if there were any others which could be recovered (possibly ones which were on CNet, but not yet preserved).

One quick question for you - but can you recall doing any music for any C64 projects that never saw the light of day?

I'm just sitting her fangirling. I've loved all your music, even the Girls Aloud stuff.

Can I give you my money now?

well im sold, if a kickstarter pops up ill definitely be putting some money towards that seeing as your one of the holy trinity that made me want to go and make music myself.

fgasking81 wrote:Welcome Matt! As with many others on here, I grew up listening to a lot of your C64 work - Last Ninja 2 and Driller in particular are massive favourites. I'd love to see a box set production too as a result.

Thanks also for confirming Mean Streak and Yogi Bear as being yours. For years we've been trying to solve who composed the two tunes, as parts do sound familiar. Recently (as Waz has written), there was the cover of Yogi Bear called Election - so I was hoping to get in touch with you to confirm that you were the composer. It was also indeed Hanan Samara who ran Dalali Software.

Recently I saved a few of your tunes for HVSC from a chap called Cory Kin (who you may remember as Hex/Pixel Developments?) from his old work disks, which included Election and several others. It would be great if there were any others which could be recovered (possibly ones which were on CNet, but not yet preserved).

One quick question for you - but can you recall doing any music for any C64 projects that never saw the light of day?

Thanks. Glad my memory isn't completely shot and it was indeed Hanan at Dalali. I also remember Cory (Hex) very well. He was one of the first CNetters to latch onto my music. I haven't seen him since one of the big computer shows at Earl's Court in 86 or early 87. He was a great guy. Whenever I answered the phone late at night I could be sure it was Cory or some friend of ours phoning via some poor US firm's conference call system. There would be C64 users from all over the world on it illegally, all chewing the cud until someone from the firm would come on and inform us we we're all breaking the law and disconnect us. I wonder what he's up to these days ? Cory that is, not the US conference call police.

I can't remember any commissioned tracks that didn't come out, though I can remember a few I never got paid for Thanks for nowt Hewson Consulants.

C64GLeN wrote:I'm just sitting her fangirling. I've loved all your music, even the Girls Aloud stuff.

Can I give you my money now?

Thanks. But as Heimi Henderson said to the Jolly Brothers "I know you're excited,but you'll just have to be patient."

Infamous wrote:well im sold, if a kickstarter pops up ill definitely be putting some money towards that seeing as your one of the holy trinity that made me want to go and make music myself.

Thanks Infamous. That's always great to hear that someone else has been inspired by my work,just as I was by other musicians.

Ninja Sounds wrote: I can't remember any commissioned tracks that didn't come out, though I can remember a few I never got paid for Thanks for nowt Hewson Consulants.

I didn't know they weren't so hot at paying people, and that's definitely not good. So they didn't give you anything for Maze Mania or Deliverance (aka Stormlord II) then? That's somewhat ironic considering quite a few composers produced a soundtrack for Deliverance but yours was chosen.

Or were there other Hewson games you made the music for but weren't credited?

Thanks for confirming Matt. If you want to get back in touch with Cory, then let me know and i'll dig out his email address for you. I've told him to pop by here also.

One thing I forgot to ask, but is Lou Gray your brother who also composed some C64 tunes (most famously for Snowball Sunday).

One obvious question I suppose Matt... there are plenty of covers and remixes for your songs on RKO, have you heard them, and if so, do you have any favourites?

Waz wrote:

Ninja Sounds wrote: I can't remember any commissioned tracks that didn't come out, though I can remember a few I never got paid for Thanks for nowt Hewson Consulants.

I didn't know they weren't so hot at paying people, and that's definitely not good. So they didn't give you anything for Maze Mania or Deliverance (aka Stormlord II) then? That's somewhat ironic considering quite a few composers produced a soundtrack for Deliverance but yours was chosen.

Or were there other Hewson games you made the music for but weren't credited?

It was just the last game I did for them. They took ages to pay the invoice and then they went into liquidation so I never got paid. But tbh the C64 financial climate was a breeze compared to the record business.

fgasking81 wrote:Thanks for confirming Matt. If you want to get back in touch with Cory, then let me know and i'll dig out his email address for you. I've told him to pop by here also.

One thing I forgot to ask, but is Lou Gray your brother who also composed some C64 tunes (most famously for Snowball Sunday).

Lou is indeed my slightly younger brother.

Matt, thank you for everything, in retrospect!

I'm absolutely interested in the release.

I know how your old-new retro-nitro box set situation feels and all the motivation from an insider's point of view as I also did a SID remix album when I made my return to the C64 scene after a 15-years long aebsence, released @C64Audio.com. Guess what... There is one of your tracks.



You were absolutely my favourite SID composer back in the days. I have huge respect for all the Golden Age C64 composers but no one made such dark, raw, powerful music like you. That absolutely set you apart. Back in the time we called you the Slayer of SID, for the famous uncompromising metal band' reference as your music was full of great guitar riffs. I always wondered, did you compose them on guitar initially or did just they carve their rock foundation by themselves in the C64 as the actual tune developed?

It is a great news to hear that your SID player code is still around on a disk of yours. A lot of C64 enthusiasts get a goosebump hearing that, including me

As for dark, evil, raw and powerful music I guess your SIDs had a lifelong impact on me. Around the early '90s I became a touring rock guitarist, a SID composer and later a recording producer but whenever I make my own thing and not working for an another production I am still chasing those raw high powered squirting sheer electric soundwaves, up to this day, regardless of the carrier or instrument.

Returning to the scene was among my best ideas in the last decade I guess. An ample of great people are around, new good friends and I found the initial inspiration why I started doing music on the first place. I started creating guitar riff based SIDs again that blast the enamel off the teeth. We even formed a band that plays SID covers on demoscene parties. Guess what... We still play Last Ninja 2, up to this day. It is still a party maker!




BTW do you guys mean, this Mean Streak (#10)? It has an ample of fine sine vibratos all around

https://myspace.com/necropolo/music/songs

I made this SID-2-SID remix a couple of years ago and no one in the scene could tell the original composer. Not even High Voltage Sid Collection guys who can probably play a SID file in mind just by reading the hex table in the C64 memory.

Now it is verified that it's yours. Man that's a very fine day