pros:
- gorgeous musicality
- this is ``pop music``. you could listen to it on the bus or show it to your mum and thatd be ok
- this is ``experimental music``. very few chiptuners are playing with rhythm or texture like this in the 2012s, for obvious reasons
- theres so much detail, you can get lost in this
- its a Real Album, im not one for Full Albums usually but this is totally worth that extra commitment

cons:
- well i thought this was a con, but maybe its not - some of the songs have really abrupt transitions. however i think that fits the concept of sewing together memories and disparate elements of the past to create a new present. it works in the context of the album however it might hamper some of the individual songs. who cares i had great fun listening to this
- the drums might be mixed a little too quiet for dancing? i dont dance i wouldnt know, blip is dead now anyway

anyway i give this a cracking sixteen stars out of seventeen
****************o

personal highlights:
- "waves rush to the shore", all of it
- those drums at the start of "oil on canvas"
- "vein part 1"
- "nadir" 1:40 or so
- "ruin" intro and outro
- "advantageous" 2:20ish and also the entire song

general feelings:

love the way the albums spliced of stuff from throughtout time and also a lot of the songs are mechanically timed or free time or just loose in some way with the timing. just a general atemporality over the whole album and i love the way people abuse semantics to do something at a very low level and a very high level at the same time. also the recurring motifs... what im saying is that the album feels like an exploration of time and memory in an emotional/writing way and yet in the finest details of the songs you are exploring time and recurrence... its super neat! hurrah for fractals

also the textures here are just some of the best textures of any tracker music anyway, can probably count the number of people in Pc Tracker Music doing dedicated exploration of texture on one hand and this is just great and interesting.

track by track nonsense i typed while listening:

vampires A to Z:
intentional homage to the dr who theme? bo-wWWEEE-Ooooo
the melodies that come in at 1:50 or so are rad
think i just heard the skype noise with loads of delay on it?
damn the piano bit is super f*cking ace this is so good
this song reminds me of greek prog rock act "socrates" who had vangelis on synth for one of their albums
4:15 things really starting to get steamy *; )*
damn theres a heavy as heck Democore jam at the end, wasnt expecting that
gotta say this doesnt sound like "fast tracker 2" at all, not one bit  (only just remembered its ft2 and will forget in a minute or so), i could imagine you made this with the top of the line keyboards and musical technologies of the twenty-twelves
i think some of the transitions are a bit abrupt but basically this song is jam packed of ideas and im 6 minutes in and not bored yet so good song

-~=~-

waves rush to shore:
0:10 love this already
i love doing the C vs G loop sample thing, loops in threes or sixes or something like that
damn this is beautiful
really nice big splashy drums here, wonderful, i need drum samples this good, this is great
very abrupt ending but damn what a song

-~=~-

oil on canvas:
this beats pretty next-level
what if jean michel jarre made casio grindcore.xm
ive already heard this song but it didnt sound like this when i heard it, i think you must have changed a bunch of stuff up, i really like all the percussion in this, the songs pretty POP but its well written and the sounds are excellent
the clanking mechanical beat reminds me of: raymond scott, THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE, clanking mechanisms
the chordal stuff reminds me of: REM
the string stuff that comes in around 2:40 reminds me of some slavic pc musicdisk i used to love back when i had emotions
great outro

-~=~-

nadir:
sick wobbles, a la tipper "wobble factor" or anything by opiuo, chipstep 2k12
"children"? O:-)
COWBELL
1:45 aw hell yea!!
2:50 or so, yo mat drop it hard bangarang... this is really good even if its literally dubstep, you have the midas touch

-~=~-

vein (parts 1 and 2):
the thing youve done with the on/off synth blasting at the start of part 1 is just sublime
part 2? if thats part 1 over ill just say that was a very understated and good track
more wonky as hell beats here, interesting Chord Progression (or whatevere you call it) here, could be from the amelie soundtrack if it was played on accordion & toy piano instead of a tracker
the beats are a bit quiet i think
the messy as hell 3:05ish breakdown is interesting, almost skwee or something

-~=~-

ruin:
my god this intro is just gorgeous, sometimes i try to make music that sounds like this, haha
very abrupt drop to the solo bassline, this bass patch is so rattly, really interesting,
BoCesque after the rest comes back in, lovely
bit of cheeky 1 tick retrigger? buzzz
love how this builds and builds
3:45 yes im loving the "tracker-time" feel here, like german techno you cant dance to

-~=~-

advantageous:
thoughts on this so far -- if anyone else did this it would sound really trite, however it sounds pretty subtle/nuanced in your hands... its basically cutepop chiptunes over a hiphop beat but its working here
once the main bass/beat comes in at ~~1:00 this is just fab
1:45 or so: oh gosh, that was splendid
almost got like a 2002 progressive trance esque feel to it by now, but its just so immersive and passionate i dont care (same way i feel about 2002 progressive trance)
endings a bit cheesy but whatever, that was a great song

-~=~-

daisies:
bandcamp tried to play me this one first so i assume you think its either the best or the most accessible. i will be the judge of that thank you very much
more cowbell! and funk guitar stab
more tipper/opiou feel here although its not too similar really, just getting the modern slow synth funk vibe from it, its almost like gfunk except without the tinnitus leads. i bet snoop dogg would listen to this in the car no problem
oh wow this vocal synth around 2:30 is just wonderful
wish i could have heard a little more of that in isolation, sadly we are back to Arp Bass Grooving all too soon
hearing the dr who motif from the first track again ;3 nice to bring that back, reminds me that im listening to "an album" rather than nine songs in a row
this song is very well made and bombastic and groovy, can see why you picked it as the one for bandcamp to play

-~=~-

solitude:
with a name and a position in the track order like this i am expecting to cry at some point
this is lovely, clearly this is not the kind of thing you would do a whole album of but it works well as a closer
that one violin note that dies into nothing was a great end to your album

-~=~-

thanks for this cool as F*ck album 4mat! sorry i couldnt pay more than three pounds for it. my rents really expensive and i dont have a job

yours
sandneil

x

AOTY2014 and i havent even heared it yet

Thanks for the nice comments, I put up some liner notes/demo versions here if anyone is interested.

Notes were interesting, thanks. Album is also a winner!

holy shit!

^^^^ THIS.

Seriously, DAMN this is awesome