Origins of Amiga demo / game music

[jizmo]

AKA Everything is a remix, Amiga edition!

Do you know a piece of Amiga music that's was either a cover without most people realising it, or a one that contains samples from some songs you recognise? Please share your findings here.

Budbrain: Megademo (1990), 'Birdy Nam Nam' part

contains a sample from

Boogie Down Productions: Breath Control, 1989

[jizmo]

Kefrens: Desert Dream (1993) score by Laxity contains a speech sample from Jean-Michel Jarre: Revolutions, 1987

Magnetic Fields' (game developers) 1990 game intro is sampled from Excalibur (1981), composed by Trevor Jones

(As pointed out by CodyJarrett, the Excalibur theme is actually Siegfried's Funeral March by Wagner)

[jizmo]

Virtual Dreams & Fairlight: Full Moon demo (1993)

contains a sample from

Jim Morrison: The Movie (An American Prayer, 1978)

[Baboon]

Jesus on E's [ Show youtube player ] ...uses a ton of big samples from the rave classic "Messiah - There is no law" [ Show youtube player ] ...although i can't find the original rave choon and this link has a horrible rap over the top of it?

It was remixed fairly recently too for a trailer for ‘Amiga Visual Commpendium Book – for Bitmap Books’ [ Show youtube player ] ...On youtube I did try posting a comment on the demo composers (Wizardspoon) channel about really appreciating the original LSD demo and also loving the new mix he had done and how good the original samples were from the Kickin record but WizardSpoon just kept deleting my comments so I guess he didn’t want anyone knowing that he used these specific samples for some reason?

[jizmo]

Baboon, you're right. Here's another link for that Messiah song
..

Speaking of rave classics, Melon Design & Crystal 'Human Target' By Static is a remix of The Project: Do That Dance (1990)

along with a speech bit from Digital Boys - Kokko (1990)

..but does anyone know the origins those "TOO MUCH DEATH!" samples?

[Baboon]

The amiga demo 'dimension x - retina burn one': [ Show youtube player ]

Is basically a complete rip from the rave choon (and excellent e.p) 'Force mass motion' VNE [ Show youtube player ]

[jizmo]

Bomb the Bass: Megablast 'Xenon 2 theme', 1988 (arranged to Amiga by David Whittaker) is a remix of John Carpenter: The End from the movie 'Assault on the precinct 13', 1976

Dr Awesome: Make Your Move, from Crusaders' Bacteria musicdisk (1990) contains a sample from Jimmy Castor Bunch: Troglodyte (1982)

[jizmo]

Kefrens - Multimegamix III by SLL

contains samples/remixes from (in chronological order):

Dr. Alban - It's My Life [Multimegamix @00:25]
The Shamen - Ebenezer Goode [Multimegamix @1:17]
Mark Summers - Party Children [Multimegamix @3:12]
Snap - Rhythm is a Dancer [Multimegamix @4:04]
Lidell Townsell - Nu Nu [Multimegamix @5:04]
Simone - My Family Depends On Me [Multimegamix @5:34]

[markpjd]

Hi,

The bit in Budbrain when the dude gets woken up (just before he starts walking with a candle) he says "What the hell?" and that sample is from the beginning of Terminator the movie - the guy in the garbage truck when Arnie spawns.

[jizmo]

Originally Posted by markpjd

The bit in Budbrain when the dude gets woken up (just before he starts walking with a candle) he says "What the hell?" and that sample is from the beginning of Terminator the movie - the guy in the garbage truck when Arnie spawns.

Nice find, I've always missed this one!

Here's the Budbrain wake up part and here's that clip from the Terminator movie (1984)

The remaining list of the Budbrain samples I've identified so far:

Budbrain: Megademo (1990), 'Kaos' is a (superior) remix of Dr Baker: Kaos (1990)

Budbrain: Megademo (1990), 'Kaos' contains a sample from 49ers: Don't You Love Me (1990)

Budbrain: Megademo (1990), 'The Circle' is sampled from KLF: What Time Is Love, 1988

Budbrain: Megademo 2 (1990), 'Loader' pairs samples from Jean Michel Jarre: Zoolook (1984) and Calypso Part 2 (1990)

Budbrain: Megademo 2 (1990), 'Africa' contains a sample from Jim Ingram: Drumbeat, 1974

Budbrain: Megademo 2 (1990), 'Africa' contains a sample from SNAP!: Cult of Snap

Budbrain: Megademo 2 (1990), 'Africa' contains a sample from Adamski: N-R-G (1989)

Budbrain: Megademo 2 (1990), 'The Trial' is sampled from Angelo Badlamenti: Twin Peaks Theme, 1990

[jizmo]

Dr Awesome: Frequency Feed (from Crusaders: Dr Awesome Music sounddisk, 1990)

contains samples from

Tone-Loc: Wild Thing (1989)
Lyn Collins - Think (1972)
Ice-T: The Hunted Child, 1989 (samples at 00:24 and 00:38)

--

Bonus: The following track, No-One Home is a conversion of Roland U-110 synth module demotune #4,(1988)

[Foul]

[ Show youtube player ]

Music by Lenny Kravitz : [ Show youtube player ]

[OddbOd]

Originally Posted by Baboon

I guess he didn’t want anyone knowing that he used these specific samples for some reason?

Nah, doubt it's anything that sinister. Although there is no [ Show youtube player ] specifically for "There Is No Law", SpoonWizard/Echo said he got a lot of the samples off a compilation called Hit the Decks Volume 2 and it's definitely on there as well as a bunch of others used in JoE's.

You're definitely right about that Mr Mysterious Edit but [ Show youtube player ] is on youtube as well.

[jizmo]

Originally Posted by OddbOd

Nah, doubt it's anything that sinister

I doubt as well, and I honestly don't want this thread to be about 'unveiling plagiarism' or pointing fingers of any kind - but instead about sharing the origins of some less known samples and sounds and putting the missing pieces of Amiga music history back together.

Anyway, back to business - I'm admittedly a bit proud spotting this one out finally:

Pat: Space Travelling, from Ackerlight Crack Intro (1988) contains (the '1-2-3-4') sample from Propaganda: Jewel, from A Secret Wish LP (1985)

[CodyJarrett]

Originally Posted by jizmo

[ Show youtube player ]

is sampled from

[ Show youtube player ]

This Magnetic Fields (and Excalibur) music is from Siegfried's Funeral March by Wagner. I understand that the Amiga version came from an out of copyright sample.

[jizmo]

Originally Posted by CodyJarrett

This Magnetic Fields (and Excalibur) music is from Siegfried's Funeral March by Wagner. I understand that the Amiga version came from an out of copyright sample.

Cheers, this I did not know - I updated the original post with the info.

Another similar sample that I don't know if it's an Amiga original or sampled from some movie - if anyone can shed light on this, let me know:

Phenomena: Interspace loader (1991) contains a sample from Warhead (1990), composed by Michael Powell

[jizmo]

Sainahi Circles by Heatbeat, from VD & Fairlight: Full Moon (1993) uses a sample from The Pulp: Metal Techno (1992)

[Mark Wright]

My points of reference go back quite a bit before those already being discussed, what with being an old fart and all of that, but here are a few Amiga demo songs I considered to be "seminal" at the time, only later to discover they were not entirely original..

Attention old-timers! How many of these do you know as purely Amiga MODs? Hopefully it'll be an education for others..

* * *

SLL - Nothing (famous MOD of 1988 as used in a Champs intro here..)

[ Show youtube player ]

...it's a cover of Depeche Mode - Nothing to Fear

[ Show youtube player ]

* * *

Knackosoft & Flynn - Tristar Intro 3 theme (outstandingly lengthy at the time)

[ Show youtube player ]

..it's a cover of Laserdance - Fear

[ Show youtube player ]

* * *

SLL's version of Ski Dance for Thrust's Ottifanten demo (covering Chris Huelsbeck)

[ Show youtube player ]

...actually Chris Huelsbeck covered this track by Panarama...

[ Show youtube player ]

* * *

This (amazing) tune by Banana from The Electronic Knights was everywhere in late 1988...

[ Show youtube player ]

...turns out (amusingly) it's a cover of this camp hispanic classic...

[ Show youtube player ]

* * *

Those will probably mean nothing to most of you, coming from the early days, but if there's interest I have a note somewhere of loads of other "assumed Amiga originals that aren't" somewhere that I can rummage around for :-)

[jizmo]

Originally Posted by Mark Wright

Those will probably mean nothing to most of you, coming from the early days, but if there's interest I have a note somewhere of loads of other "assumed Amiga originals that aren't" somewhere that I can rummage around for :-)

Some great insight here of the early Amiga tunes, Mark! I think I've all the songs you linked here in my collection (I'm an avid 80s music collector) but I never made the connection with these ones. Banana's Spring Love is not only spot on, but it's nice to hear it's actually a pretty well done rendition of the original. I've always been a fan of his arguably most well known song 'Echoing' and wondered if he got the elements for that from someplace.
--

Bitmap Brothers' Magic Pockets (1991) main theme, Betty Boo: Doin' the Do (1990)

uses samples from (or rather; is a speed up version of)

Reparata & The Delrons - Captain Of Your Ship (1968) (alternative link if geoblocked)

[Mark Wright]

I've always wondered about Echoing too.. it seemed just *too* good to be an Amiga original, but I have no evidence that it wasn't Banana's original composition. Given his skills at transforming Spring Love into "Steeeve.B" to make it his own, I don't doubt he had the talent to create such an iconic song himself :-)