awakenings

The oldest of the online tracks, save the classical ones. I have fun, here, playing with Impulse Tracker's Cutoff filter and manage to produce a plausible early-J.M.Jarre-esque piece. At around 2:25 a wonderful synth sound enters and a strong, Robert-Miles-style beat, heavy on the base - luuuuvely.

arctic coast

This track starts very sinister with thunder, a breathy flute and even breathy rhythm. The bass of string hits at the start is actually provided by a marimba sound transposed down a number of octaves. However, it lacks structure, sound quality and the initially promising percussion fails to deliver. There's potential though.

shaken, not stirred

Not another James Bond remix? Yep. Following attempts to do a rave version of The Sound of Music and various Christmas carols, I strike success. Some excellently placed sound bites and well recreated them music make this exceedingly entertaining.

the road

One of the favourites at the time. An otherwise good, well engineered piece of music let down by the usual duff and messy drums. I'll remix it and get it right one day. Imagine yourself in the back of a car, driving down the motorway at night with the orange lights sweeping shadows across the back of seat in front.

the road (remix)

No sooner said then done... or nearly. I improve the drums (a little) only to find something else lacking. Still needs attention in the mixing stage. Back to the drawing board.

london to paris

After hearing the Propellerheads use 1950's sound bites in there work to such great effect, I had to give it a go. This track also heralds the birth of one of my favourite of my melodies... one I've tried to remix frequently (see our island on the third album). The drums are better than most on the album, but still somewhat lacking.

london to paris (remix)

I think this marks a big improvement over the original, and although the instruments are low quality (especially the drums and piano), with a bit of treatment, the track could be made to sound professional.

wilderness

Some good drum programming accompanies some that's a bit muddled, which is also an appropriate word to describe the melodic content. Some of the synthesized sound are quite nice and original. 

to dream

In part inspired by the classical suite's the Child, this is a more souped up, 'clubby' track. I like the definition in frequencies between the timpani and marimba and love the deep warbling synth-bass sound at about 2:35. Again, the tacky drums let the piece down.

classical suite

Without a doubt, during the time I spent on these classical movements I made the most progress in composing music, I have ever made. The endeavour taught me many tacit skills which carried through to my contemporary works. The progress can even be linearly charted through the four movements here...

	the explorer
	Imagine, if you will an explorer's adventurous voyage across the atlantic. The movement, as does the entire suite, suffers from its synthesized instruments, but with imagination I believe this makes for an atmospheric and evocative piece of music which would not be out of place in a film.
	the general
	The horrors of war and the toll on its wager comprise this movement. Since this was originally meant to be a symphony (this being the second movement), themes from the The Explorer appear occasionally. This piece houses a wonderful choir sound and snare drum hit.
	the gentleman
	The third movement in a symphony can often be a waltz, which makes me think of Strauss and ball rooms - a place for true gentlemen. This movement shows the most music proficiency of the four and the computerised nature of the instruments don't present too much for distraction.
	the child
	The introduction of a music box was an inevitability when posed with this subject matter, and beginning with it, the piece charts the growth from infancy to teenage terror and has a theme of progressive development, that of the child being mirrored in the music. Like the others, perhaps a little short.