Commodore Remix

Maindrian wrote:Hmmm, that's a shame, I can't get it working. Any clues people? I'm about as emulator savvy as a housebrick. It would be nice to hear those tunes since they're not up at HVSC.

You'll need a loader that's able to load >$d000 (under the I/O area). Either download Action Replay cartridge image from the net and use it, or load the file via monitor (in VICE only):

- attach the diskimage
- press alt-m to get into the monitor
- type the following:
bank ram
load "LTL*" 8
- type 'x' to leave the monitor, and 'run' to run the program.

Oh yes, this only applies to Larger than Life, the other demos load normally.

Choose 8580 SID emulation for the best playback.

Kjell was one of the best musicians (in any platform or instrument) I've heard. Some amazing tunes. Dozens of them in fact. And the demos were really well designed. I still listen to his music a lot with my C64.

Download CCS64 v3.1 Unzip it somehwere.

Run CCS.exe

Open the zip file containing the demo.

Drag and drop the .d64 or .prg file into the CCS64 Window and the demo should start.

S'alright Analog, I've got it going in Vice now. In CCS64, it'd get as far as the intro message before just stopping altogether.

Bloody hell, that opening image is blood curdling. There's something off about the music to me. Like the intro left a bitter taste in my mouth, I can't really ease into it. There's not much in the way of hooks. Even the chirpy ones seem strangely lifeless.

Still, Delusion is a beautiful piece. It shimmers and lurches, rushes along, reaches great peaks... And then, after a couple of minuites, charges off into this brilliant beat driven SID stomp and just keeps going. Just when you think it's hitting the end, it pulls another trick out of the bag. How many false endings!? How many musical diversions!? Its like an odd electronic stream of conciousness. I'm stuck listening here while I type, just to see what's going to happen next...

Ta for pointing me in the direction of this one Soppa and ta Abad for helping me get it going. While I can't say it's been a happy listen, it's certainly an interesting one.

Maindrian wrote: Bloody hell, that opening image is blood curdling. There's something off about the music to me. Like the intro left a bitter taste in my mouth, I can't really ease into it. There's not much in the way of hooks. Even the chirpy ones seem strangely lifeless.

I watched the demo yesterday and didnt know what to think of the image, almost like I was numbed, really surreal.

Today I had my final class for getting my work Resume updated and help with my Job find. Right in the middle of class the Image popped in my head and got saddened thinking about the whole situation.

All said and and done...I'm glad the memory of him and he's work is kept alive.

Another Kjell's work that is really worth looking at is "Ghost escapes body", the disk (tape?) image has a program "My last will", which is kind of a nice read, where he tells a bit about himself. Also, sadly enough the demo intro pic also features a gravestone which reads "Kjell Nordbo 1975 -"

edit:

http://noname.c64.org/csdb/release/?id=9600

In that demo Scroll down to "Invisible" and press the "Commodore" Key in CCS64 is the LEFT CTRL Key.

And there is a cryptic letter in there.

Poor poor bastard

Analog-X wrote:In that demo Scroll down to "Invisible" and press the "Commodore" Key in CCS64 is the LEFT CTRL Key.

And there is a cryptic letter in there.

Those are actually the lyrics to the tune. It's pretty hard to sing along though.

I dunno, rather than trying to keep on the dark side of things, I like the humour of Death or Kjell crashing the whole thing at the end. If that was the intention. I can imagine a few people going "Eh?"

Maindrian wrote: I dunno, rather than trying to keep on the dark side of things, I like the humour of Death or Kjell crashing the whole thing at the end. If that was the intention. I can imagine a few people going "Eh?"

heheheeh Yes. I was like...hmmm I think my Emulator crash...Maybe I should load this in Vice and see how it works...than I read the text in the other Demo explaining that the ending was intentional.

Maindrian wrote:I could give you a fuller list if you like. Kjells music seems to vary from the incredibly basic, almost dated sounding (but often incredibly catchy), to these wonderful technical feats of true genius. I'm not overly familiar with the world of the c64 demo scene, but blimey, the stuff knocked my socks off.

I've listened to most of his work by now, and totally agree with the statement that the music does vary from rather simple sounding (though indeed catchy) to really "full" pieces which sound really like the sid is giving out all that it can. Sadly I have to use an emulator, and it's ages since I've used c64 so I can't really say how close they sound compared to real thing.

I guess you could really say that he was a pioneer, and also one of the rare late contributors to the c64 demoscene, there are some really original and probably very remixable tunes in there. Just to name couple of tunes I now remember on top of my head, "business" as well as "not without my c64" are really catchy tunes, great work by Kjell. And like Analog-X, I'm also really happy to see that Kjell's work is kept alive, I hope his work would be remixed more, some really nice tunes there! I'd do it myself, but unfortunately with my skills I'd just make it sound worse

Somewhat the same fate happened to an Amiga composer who composed e.g. the demo song for the Art of Noise (AON) program.

Ok, first of all sorry to bring this thread back up again, I can imagine there are people who'd want this topic to not be discussed.

Ok, now all that's out of the way , I'd just like to tell that I listened some more of Kjell's tunes, and there's this one tune I really really like and have listened more than a few times. On the "Journey to Mirrorland" music disk, there's the sid "I Skogens Makt", which I think is a superb tune and is just screaming for a remix. I guess I'd just as well could've posted this in remix suggestions forum but hopefully this topic will gather some well needed remixer attention too

Soppa wrote:Ok, first of all sorry to bring this thread back up again, I can imagine there are people who'd want this topic to not be discussed.

I think keeping someones memory alive is not a bad thing, and besides we are celebrating for what they accomplished when they were with us, rather than how they left us.

Maybe someone should make an entire website dedicated to those from the scene who are no longer with us.

Yes, I don't think it hurts to honour him here.

Hey, there tons of tunes of Kjells that'd make for fantastic remixes. I wish I had the sheer musical talent to do the lot of them.

What I love about certain tunes of his is the places they take me. For instance, when I first heard Replaced (One Must Go), over the sweeping intro, I imagined a beautiful alien craft, a gorgeous etheral machine sweeping down from the heavens as people watch in awe... Then, when the music takes a sudden serious turn, I imagined the craft suddenly laying waste to everything.

That sounds utterly wierd, but that's what I tried to capture when I remixed it. This great epic scenario, turning to sudden horror. It's the same with Strange Little Linn as well, it starts of fairly sinister and suddenly launches into this jaunty little off kilter jig.