I've gotten a flood of e-mails
since posting this saying that I'm a terrible bald-faced liar and the
demoscene is alive and well thank you very much. Here's a list of relevant
links:
news about the demoscene: http://www.ojuice.net
http://www.pouet.net
reviews/listings of good demos
http://www.monostep.org (click "this is a demo")
http://home.enitel.no/fractal/ http://www.scene.org (click "viewing
tips") http://cde.calodox.org http://ths.demoscene.org
http://demoo.calodox.org
downloads: ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/ (in
/demos/ and /mirrors/hornet/demos/)
Sorry I don't have time to write
something a little more eloquent, but we're pretty busy here right now. At
the very least, my apologies to the demoscene fans for slighting them. :-)
ORIGINAL POST:
I've been a fan of demoscene music ever since the
Amiga days. I often downloaded new demos more in anticipation of the music
than of the graphic effects and other technical wizardry. I was always
amazed at the quality of music that demos could play while FM synthesis was
still a new thing in PC games. The demoscene has petered out in recent
years, possibly due to the rise of 3D video hardware. MadOnion.com is still
making demos and calling them benchmarks, but aside from that and a few
other examples, there just aren't many being produced anymore. Perhaps the
demos will return when the GeForce 3, with its programable graphics
hardware, is released.
But I digress. The point wanted to bring up
was that the demoscene musicians are still around. Some have jobs at video
game companies. Others are pursuing careers as professional recording
artists. The artist in particular that I wanted to bring to your attention
is one Andrew "necros" Sega, who formed the group "The Alpha Conspiracy."
You can check out their web page at http://www.alphaconspiracy.com
The Alpha Conspiracy recently released their first album, "Cipher", under
their own independent record label. It is a collection of new material as
well as some remixes of some of their previously released music. I listened
to Cipher for the first time today and I enjoyed it immensely. Since I want
to hear more music from this group in the future, I figured I'd best spread
the word about them.
The Alpha Conspiracy describes themselves as "a
project intended to explore the expanded rhythmic, tonal, and structural
palette which modern electronica provides. The result could be broadly
categorized as off-kilter electro-indie-emo-pop." If that sounds interesting
to you, you can download several sample songs from Mp3.com. If you like what
you hear, then go ahead and order the album. I certainly don't regret the
purchase.
Company Name: 3D Realms