Fishsta's Music

Going back several years, back to around 1993 or so, I was a typical teenager, embroiled in the mysteries and frustrations of life, with all the usual teenage angst. Y'know the stuff I mean, when girls seemed uncomplicated and it was all about who fancied who. Being a brass bandsman by this point, my knowledge of music was such that I could actually start to create new and original stuff. Then someone else could listen to it and say, "Actually, Fishsta, this sounds like something by Queen."

Not to be deterred, I started using Soundtracker on the Spectrum and later Protracker on the Amiga to make some tunes that were ACTUALLY original. This time, when I got someone else to listen to it, they could say, "Actually, Fishsta, this sounds like cop-show music."

Fast forward to 1997, and I got my name in Computer and Video Games Magazine (I still have it somewhere), and I got in touch with a chap called Mark Raybone. We discovered we both had a keen interest in making music, in particular with Trackers. So he sent me FastTracker for the PC and some of his work. I loved it, and straight away got back into it. I created lots. I finished about half of it. But I went through them all a year or two ago, and felt that this little bit of nostalgia should be shared. Bear in mind, please, I was about 16/17 at the time most of these were created. Maybe one day I'll convert them to a Brass Band score or something!

Now, I'm not just going to include mine here... some of Mark's and some of my personal favourites will be made available too.

I'm going to try to write a little bit about each one, why I wrote it (if I wrote it), what I think of it, and if anyone can be bothered to send me their comments, I'll include them here too.

XM files are normally tiny, and will play through WinAmp, but if you want to see what's going on inside those magical files, you might want to try ModplugTracker. Simply follow the download link, select "Tracker Zip" and download and install it! For even more MOD/XM/S3M etc music, visit The MOD Archive, which is apparently still going after all these years...

Wonder
By Mark Raybone, 1997
292 Kb, 2 mins 25 secs

This is the one that really got me back into it again. I just absolutely love the samples, and the piano line works really well. Mark always loved using the piano, and it's easy to see why, he uses it very effectively here. Fantastic.


Reflectional
By Mark Raybone, October 1997
311 Kb, 3 mins 20 secs

Whenever I go through stuff on my computer, I'm so surprised at the stuff that's on there from 6 years ago, and I find something I've forgotten about. This one was written FOR me! Mark dedicated it to me and my girlfriend at the time, which was nice of him! But hey, it's still a damn good piece of music (the piano came back for this one), so it's certainly worth including here.


Do They Know It's Christmas 1997 mix
By Mark Raybone, December 1997
166 Kb, 3 mins 04 secs

One year after Mark started doing his tracking, he re-hashed his first ever MOD (One I DON'T have!) and made this version. I just think it's great to sing along to. And with such a tiny filesize, you can't go wrong.


Peace After The Storm
By Fishsta, 1997
162 Kb, 4 mins 29 secs

Having been accused of only being able to write "Cop Show" music by my good friend Richard, I couldn't see how this could possibly be construed to be of that genre. This is my first attempt at PC Tracking. It took a bit of getting used to, but eventually I was off and running. This was the first one I offered publically, and even though I'll happily admit it was dire, it didn't even get added to the Mod Archive... Still, Mark said it was good :-)


Rainy Holiday
By Fishsta, 21 August 1997
65 Kb, 3 mins 42 secs

I can tell you so much about this one! It was a rainy Thursday, I was bored, so to pass 3 hours and 25 minutes I sat and composed this. This one is DEFINITELY going to get the Brass Band treatment at some point, as it's probably my favourite composition. I so wish I'd written this one for my GCSE music portfolio! It's on The MOD Archive, and looking at the current statistics, it's reached 1094 people! However, the reviewer doesn't like it much, saying, "The only thing that I liked in that one is the piano solo at start". That's as maybe, but this is music, it's all about opinion, and at 65 Kb, you can't complain about wasting time downloading it! So please, download it now and tell me what you think.


Hey Jude
By The Beatles, 1960-something, arranged by Fishsta, 1997
42 Kb, 3 mins 27 secs

You want karaoke? Then karaoke this. And at 42Kb, it demonstrates the tiny filesizes better than my words ever could. It's even got PERCUSSION!


Hard Life
By Fishsta, 1997
52 Kb, 4 mins 10 secs

Now this one is unusual... it's based on something I composed at school, but elaborated on and made into a bit of a Rock-type piece. It's got some rhythm to it, which helps, and sounds like I've heard it before somewhere, but I can honestly say I have not knowingly nicked a musical idea from ANYWHERE to make this.


Seven Seas of Rhye
By Queen, 1974, arranged by Fishsta, 1997
51 Kb, 2 mins 31 secs

More karaoke? What impressed me here was how the opening piano figure could almost be the REAL thing! What do you reckon?