Be Excellent To Each Other

Hello, all! I thought you might possibly be interested in this here bit of promotional gubbins, so here it is. Ahem.


First there was Amiga Power.

Then there was no more of it.

Now, in the year of oh lord 2019, Amiga Power returns – in musical form!

Yes, really.

Launching next month on Kickstarter, it's Amiga Power: The Album With Attitude! A deluxe double-CD collection of more than 30 brand spanking new Commodore Amiga game remixes, all of them connected with the mightiest computer games magazine ever conceived by human beings, and featuring the tuneful talents of (in alphabetical order):

Andrew Barnabas; Phillip Blake; Alistair Bowness; Allister Brimble; Fabio Cicciarello; Mike Clarke; Fabian Del Priore; Adam Fothergill; Olof Gustafsson; Jogeir Liljedahl; Chris Jerden-Cooke; Carl Jermy; Joi; Jon Hare; Chris Huelsbeck; Barry Leitch; Alex May; Anthony Milas; Patrick Nevian; Jason Page; Instant Remedy; Brian Sadler; Matthias Steinwachs; Jeroen Tel; and Tim Wright.

It's all set to be really rather super, even if we say so ourselves.

More news will follow very soon indeed. In the meantime, you may wish to direct your peepers towards the following related web-places...

https://twitter.com/Amiga_Squarehttps://twitter.com/Amiga_Square
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100025232384399https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100025232384399

Ta muchly for your kind attention. We now return you to your regularly-scheduled web-nattering.

Well that's... Unexpected.

An Amiga chiptunes remix album doesn’t sound like a product reflecting the spirit of AP, if I’m being honest. Particularly latter-day AP.

Very early on I wondered if an Amiga Power remix album would actually be do-able given the frequent comments in AP about having to play games with the sound off to escape certain tunes, and of course the semi-infmamous J Nash-penned Tool Of The Devil feature from AP43 denouncing all game music as, well, the tool of the Devil. However, three things quickly became apparent.

1. Most of the AP team (with the exception of Tim Norris) did not share J Nash's blanket loathing of all game music.
2. Most of the AP team (with the exception of Tim Norris again) had oodles of suggestions when it came to naming Amiga game tunes they liked a great deal.
3. Even J Nash made exemptions, remarking within AP's pages on the splendidness of the soundtracks accompanying such games as Legends and Guardian on the CD32.

Also! The reliably interesting contents of AP's coverdisks have provided further inspiration for a whole bunch of niftily different remixes. Hopefully the full tracklist will surprise you pleasantly.

And yes, It's A Skull is on there.

Sold.

How is this not getting ridiculed as spam like anything else would? Because it mentions 'Amiga Power'?

There's a lot of AP fans on here. It's relevant and friendly enough. Hardly the same as a drive by attempt to sell hookie sunglasses.

Or bestival.

I bought a bigger dick the other day. This won't be as good.



Well now I want a stage show.

Professional BEEX Grump Level 10.

I'm sorry I don't fetishize an old magazine, I guess.

My mid life crisis is still yet to pass, so I'm keen to revisit my youth with something like this.

I was going to write something shitty and snarky trying to be funny, but changed my mind. I frequent this forum directly as a result of the often excellent discussions and members on the World of Stuart forums, many of which then moved here, and I originally started going to WoS because of a nostalgia trip - an Amiga forum pointed me there when I mentioned Stuart and his writing for Amiga Power.

I think AP is a common thread between many of us here.

Evening!

It is certainly true that I was an occasional poster on the WoS forums back in the day, and I'm sure I posted a couple of messages here a few years ago in a discussion about other magazines that Jonathan Nash had contributed to, though my "Posts" counter over to the left there would seem to contradict this. Anyway, the whole reason I thought to mention the album here was because I knew of BeEx from my WoS days, and I knew that lots of AP fans frequent this place, and hence might conceivably be interested to know of the album’s existence.

To fill in a bit of background: my name, as you’ll likely have spotted, is Matthew Smith. I didn’t program Manic Miner (sorry), but I have been an AP fan for the best part of two decades, and I was inspired to embark on this wee endeavour after working as co-producer on an Amiga music project organised by a friend of mine. I enjoyed the experience such a lot that I found myself keen to produce a similar project of my own, and an Amiga Power tribute album seemed like just the thing.

As mentioned previously, it’s going to be a double-CD release; the first disc is going to contain remixes of Amiga tunes personally nominated by former AP contributors (including most of the illustrious editors, along with Gary Penn, Mil Millington, Kieron Gillen and various other lovely persons), while the second disc is going to feature tracks inspired by assorted games and demos that appeared on AP’s coverdisks over the years.

There’s also going to be a fairly substantial liner notes booklet accompanying the CDs, with more than 80 pages of info about the tracks along with behind-the-scenes trivia, song lyrics and interjections from the AP bods, and there are some secret bits and pieces planned as well. I dare say it’ll all prove to be rather entertaining, if the Kickstarter goes well.

Fuck Amiga Power.

Your Sinclair 4 Life.

Tsk. Stewart Lee warned me about you.

This may only be the 3rd best Matt Smith, but he has stiff competition and there’s no shame in that.

Aw, shucks.

Fuck Lee, Herring 4 life!

Arf!

In other news, a splendid chap named Alec Foster was kind enough to interview me about the AP album for a site named Vintage Is The New Old, and the resulting feature can be read via the following link. Possibly it may be of interest.

https://www.vintageisthenewold.com/amig ... ickstarter

Hello, all!

Work on the Amiga Power album continues unabated, and the Kickstarter homepage is very nearly ready for unveiling. For now, here's the album cover artwork, created by comics supremo Roger Langridge and featuring The Four Cyclists Of The Apocalypse brandishing their instruments of destruction.



More info to come soon...

Well, it's official – the Amiga Power album Kickstarter campaign will be launching on Friday, March 29th. And at last I can reveal just some of the numerous remixes that will be making an appearance on it. They include (deep breath)...

Apidya; Banshee; Blob; Cannon Fodder; The Chaos Engine; Fantasy World Dizzy; Fire & Ice; Gloom; Harlequin; Hired Guns; Jetstrike; Lotus Turbo Challenge 2; No Second Prize; Pinball Fantasies; Sensible World Of Soccer; Shadow Fighter; Speedball 2; Stardust; and oodles more, including a new rendition of the perennially splendid Valhalla tribute It's A Skull. In total, you'll be getting 35 tracks spread across the album's two CDs.

Also! There is now a dedicated AP album Facebook group. Do drop in if you happen to be passing; there will be tea and sticky buns.

https://www.facebook.com/albumwithattitude

You had me at Shadow Fighter.

I remember having that one Christmas at the same time as some brilliant desktop speakers. They sounded amazing with that theme playing through them! Colour me interested.

The 29th is going to be a busy day.

Copyright laws will change and make the album illegal

Hurrah!

Original composer Fabio Cicciarello is on the remixing duties for that one, so hopefully it'll prove pleasing.

Mm, it is rather. My hope is that people will welcome something fun to think about for a bit.

But of course.

Just a wee update to say that if you tune into SceneSat Radio this evening between 6pm and 8pm GMT (7pm to 9pm CET), you'll get to hear an AP album exclusive. Tonight's show has a smooth theme, and one of the more tranquil tracks from the album will be included in its entirety.

https://scenesat.com

With less than a week to go before the AP album Kickstarter campaign launches, it's time to share a remix preview with you all, courtesy of the extraordinary Brian Sadler (composer on Harry Partridge's spifftacular Starbarians series). As you'll discover, he's created a frankly fantastic orchestral arrangement of the theme from Banshee, as featured on one of AP's May 1994 coverdisks. Zounds, eh?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y82qaaj0TlI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GH-c5UdWEk

As the AP album Kickstarter draws closer, here's an extra-special promo treat from the amazing Farook Shamsher of Joi. It's the first of three studio remixes that he and his late brother Haroon created back in 1993 while working on the soundtrack for The Chaos Engine.

The third of the tracks – nicknamed the Play With Me Mix – will be available exclusively on the Amiga Power album; and as a special bonus for everybody to enJoi, Farook has fantastically kindly agreed to allow Chaos Engine Remix 1 to be released for free on YouTube and SoundCloud. Hurrah!

https://soundcloud.com/matthewsmith2/ch ... x-1-by-joi

As you'll discover, the SoundCloud version of the track includes a download link so you can nab a copy of the mp3. Hurrah 2!

I hate to say it, but I prefer the music on the original game. It'll be interesting to see how the rest of the album compares.

That's quite all right! Of the three Chaos Engine remixes Joi created back in '93, this one has quite a different style from the soundtrack of the game; it's understandable it won't be to everyone's taste.

The track that's appearing on the album itself is quite a different beastie. Nicknamed the "Play With Me" mix, it combines a whole bunch of themes from the game (including the title tune, the menu theme, and the music from worlds two and three) into a rattlingly energetic whole that sounds like it's powered by pistons and clockwork. It's my personal fave of the Joi remixes, and you'll be able to hear a clip of it in my following post...

The Kickstarter campaign for Amiga Power: The Album With Attitude launches at 9am (GMT) tomorrow (Friday, March 29), but you can hear a whole bunch of remix clips from the album right now via this handy-dandy YouTube vid, featuring the work of Joi, Barry Leitch, Allister Brimble, Jogeir Liljedahl, Mike Clarke, Fabian Del Priore, Patrick Nevian and Jason Page. Splends!

This compilation is also available on SoundCloud, just over here:

https://soundcloud.com/matthewsmith2/am ... ompilation

Evening, all! I'm pleased to report that Amiga Power: The Album With Attitude is now up and running on Kickstarter; you can view the campaign video below (featuring a very silly voiceover from someone or other), and if you'd care to lend your support by making a pledge and/or spreading the word about the project, that would be utterly splendid. The Kickstarter homepage can be accessed via this link. Ta muchly, folks!

Best of luck to you, dude with the quality initials.

Thank you kindly!

supported it... a new bitof AP writing , i can't resist

That is tremendously spiffing of you. Many thanks!

Who from AP is assisting in this venture? J Nash?

No, J Nash is incommunicado. Several others though, who picked a game to be featured on the album and then wrote a little about it in an accompanying booklet.

Awww, J Nash was my favourite.

I’m not convinced audio of Amiga music is the best way to celebrate AP, but best of luck to the OP anyway.

Hey remember that AP reunion video? Now that was an amazing celebration of AP. I must go rewatch that again.

Link plz, sounds like a good thing to watch while I should be working

I can’t find the video, maybe there wasn’t one, but here’s the audio.

https://m.soundcloud.com/romaudio/the-a ... er-reunion

I don't remember there being a video.

Is he ok? Does he need help? Is he not even speaking to Mil any more?