it2 > xm #

Some people make music, some people write modules.

Same difference, if you ask me.

While I've been using renoise for probably a solid two decades (and +3 years, yep), I remember a time where I would be very happy to come back to my first love: impulse tracker II.

There's something comforting in loading this chunky boy of a tracker and just start loading samples into it.

While it was often criticised because it did not have pretty buttons and enforced mouse usage, it did not have a big sample view with nice waveforms and it was kinda brownish (GOLD BABY!), but what it lacked in fancy UI, it made up for with:

• superior UX,

• samples detached from instruments,

• NNAs, that thing you have everywhere now? Yep,

• A gnarly imperfect yet charming lowpass filter,

• A very efficient file format better at compressing songs,

• shittons of pattern commands (MXX to control volume for the whole channel truly helped with echo lines),

• used mostly with the keyboard,

• Actually scratch that, the UI grows on you.

I call it the vim of trackers, and no, you can't @ me.

and so it started… #

Between 2007 and 2009, I worked on several little modules for different compos, online or not.

I made these tracks when living in Rouen, especially when I was working as a web dev for a company in Le Havre, having to take a 1h45 long train early in the morning (sleeping most of it). My love for writing it2 (which are superior to xm files, let me tell you this once again) came back especially because of the WinterChip II compo – that I think I was told about by Sense – and mostly because Schismtracker was made available… it sealed the deal.

I never truly was a chiptune guy but I always have loved exploring with crappy small samples and simple waveforms in order to create Something Else™, call it a kink, it started with "Inside it" actually but really made possible because of IT2. Again, massive props to Jeffrey Lim.

Anyhoo, I released three tracks for this compo: a vic20 chip (which sounded like a cacophony of bleeps), a 16kb melodic ambient techno track (yep) and a 24kb long (8 minutes) and clicky clicky tune entitled Regards anodins which I'll hook you up to:

The same year, I actually made Avant de te perdre, a helplessly romantic song about making one last argument before losing somebody you really, really like.

bold percs <3

and so it followed… #

There were many other opportunities to make more of these tiny songs, especially at Revision2007 where I submitted "yoyo de vivre" as a 48kb it2 file. Again, it was probably not appreciated at that time because "it's not pure bleep bloop" but I had a lot of fun writing this uncommon one.

In 2008, I also remember making "Douce tendre haine", probably for the VIP08 demoparty, a small low-key one I attended with Willbe and Djamm back then. I deemed this one my own "tube de l'été", it's probably one of the most kaneel ever.

This song truly was one of my favourite modules for a while, something honest in it.

Finally, this year was also the year of the final "Pain zine" for which I wrote two modules: Et si demain and Le chat rose; I'll post Le chat rose as this is also one of my personal favourites.

(As many may have figured, I love the colour pink (and purple…) and pride myself on always finding the right shades of this colour.)

and here was a sign #

We're reaching 2009, a complicated year.

This was the year that saw the last numerica, and I brought a lot of weapons to this one party. Willbe decided to throw a little remix compo and a multichan compo. The amount of multichan songs given being approximately one (?), they played my entry against mp3s, which I did not care much about.

Some months before finally moving out of my hometown, I actually heard about a little compo called the trippy compo and decided to throw a module in the hat once again. This compo was different in essence as I had to use given samples and decided to go with what is now entitled La petite aiguille.

(again a massive thankyou to surrashu for finding the source file for me)

By the way, in 2014 Jeffrey Lim decided to drop a four-part article about 20 years of Impulse Tracker II and also released the source code for IT2

and here was a heart #

I don't remember exactly when I decided to work on exporting all the tracks and wrapping this up as an album for petite&jolie. Probably after I realised I had lost a potential release in a hard drive crash.

I felt absolutely gutted and decided that I had to conjure this unfortunate event with something… but I don't remember how I came up with "hey you know what, let's release a collection of some past modules, post-produced and everything".

It took some months to export and mix down everything… with a lot of help on the mastering from my old friend Mark Dollin who made it possible to have a sweet crunchy tape sound to it; this was a very pleasant experience to go back and forth around it.

And I felt cheeky enough to write an intro track (Ntitled2) which I also lost, somewhere, at some point; I'm still not sure actually, I need to check some old CDRs before they get unsalvageable.

It was released on the 1st of April 2010, because… cheeky.

Presented with a very cool cover by my old friend Ludovic Villain, this really sets me back a lot, the times of fixed gear and bike polo, graphic design and cool local events in Rouen, a time of sharing and fun before the Internetisation of our lives (which is probably a thing I pushed for until I realised how bad of an idea it was).

And yes, that's about it, few years of demo and online compos, a bit of Internet history, and hmmmm, yeah if you think about it, some of these songs will be two decades old in a year… 's crazy.