

This release immediately grabbed my attention as I saw it appearing on pouet.net, for two major reasons. First, Brainstorm's list of musicians is one of the most impressive in terms of both size, and sheer talent. Any production involving these people is almost guaranteed to deliver some quality music.











And secondly, an interesting theme was chosen. The musicians were put to work with the requirement of only using samples from the infamous ST-01 sample collection. The ST-xx disks, initially distributed for use with Karsten Obarski's "Ultimate SoundTracker", made a distinctive mark on early Amiga music, remaining popular for years. The samples themselves have become heavily overused in the eyes of many. Also, by modern standards they are pretty bad in terms of fidelity. None of this need to be a problem when skilled musicians are involved, though. So I was curious how this requirement would turn out.

The interface is not very innovative, but it's functional, and visually appealing as well. Codewise there's nothing too technical either, the intro sequence features a tunnel effect and the full credits for the production. The interface features a spectrum analyzer, a floating glenz vector distorted in sync with the tune currently playing, and occassional small 'sparkles' along the edges of interface elements (also synced).









The tracklist contains 32 songs, for a total duration of 1 hour and 37 minutes. Living up to the title of the production, all tunes are in fact made with trackers, ranging from good ol' Protracker, through PC software such as Modplug, Milkytracker, Schism Tracker, all the way to Renoise. The only exception is the contribution by Romeo Knight ("Last-1 Left"), which (presumably) is full studio work. Using the full force of his production environment, Romeo Knight managed to make those tired old samples sound really quite awesome :).

Module collectors should be pleased to learn that the songs are not packed inside a data file or within the executable itself; they can be grabbed from the data directory.

With the sample restriction, it's inevitable that a lot of songs have distinct Amiga-ish vibes written all over them. Surely nostalgia will play a huge factor for many listeners. That said, there's plenty of variety in styles and approach, and the ST-01 pack is in itself large enough to not make all songs sound all too similar.

Overall, I was not disappointed despite my high expectations. All involved musicians demonstrated their skill, and despite the pitfalls of the concept the production is sufficiently fresh. My personal highlights of this musicdisk are: Jazzcat's "Thinking of TIT", Ruth Linde's "ST-01 Song", Virt's "Keep Shredding Little Man" and "Nightfall Over the City", Xerxes' "One Lap to Go", and C-Jeff's "Mr Funkstone at the BBC".

Production summary for "Tracked in Time":
Platform: MS Windows
Code: Imbusy, Deathy
Graphics: Critikill, Pride
Music: Axel, Buzzer, C-Jeff, DJ Joge, Jazzcat, Mice, Mystra, Prm, Romeo Knight, Runaro, Ruth Linde, Serpent, Virt, Xerxes
Coordination: DJ Joge
