Spinne
Group: Members
Posts: 397
Joined: May 2003 |
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Posted: July 14 2004, 15:20 |
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Well, if you have eMule I suggest to download the APE files that are there and have been taken directly from the demo. APE is a lossless format so once you restore the wav files or made an audio CD with them you have an exact copy of the original while MP3 are a lossy format, in fact 128kbps MP3s are the standar on internet but aren't CD quality. The eMule link is ed2k://|file|Mike.Oldfield.-.The.Millennium.Bell.(Early.Mix.including.Excalibur).-.APE.Format.-.By.
OMA.rar|303839712|A4D1B8C9905C96CCD9F9E302B7C34B2B|/
| Quote (Jammer @ July 11 2004, 11:30) | | I also noticed that Amber Light is placed after TMB. I didn't download the whole album, but perhaps this might be differently structured. If anyone has heard it in full please let me know if I'm downloading something different to what the finished album was. |
Well, all the songs are different, some slightly but different. Nativity (Peace On Earth) has no lyrics at this stage, only a voice singing the tune. Also no chorus and a variation at the end that makes the track not so monotonous. Pacha Mama has also some changes on lyrics and instrumentation. Santa Maria is more similar to the final one but has some differences too (for example, the male chorus aren't present). Sunlight Shining Through Cloud has not Amazing Grace on its lyrics and features... a rap  It also has a little and shy guitar solo near the end. The Doge's Palace is completely instrumental, no chorus and some interesting (IMO) variations on the tune. I haven't checked Lake Constance but I think is also slightly different but I don't know exactly what  Mastermind is nearly the same with the gangs sounds at a higher level and more noticiable. Broad Sunlit Uplands as in the promo version includes some Winston Churchill's speches at the start and end of the track. Emancipation (Liberation) doesn't include excerpts fron Anne Frank's Diary, it's totally instrumental. Also it includes a drum sample from another well-known album. Could you recognize which one?  The Millennium Bell is a totally different track that for some reason had been rejected as Excalibur. This one was replaced by a new one that uses the same tittle and also mixes a few tunes from the previous tracks. And this are the only similar facts between the track on the demo and the one released. The main tune of this track was lately used on the first MusicVR Amber Light has a different start, the guitar solo is made with other instrument and as you can imagine, this time the song has an end (not as the official one that ends suddenly).
I used to think that having done a lot of new music for MVR maybe he could have used the tune of Excalibur on the game and the song that better suit this description for me was the song played at the swords game. I was wrong, but not so much. The main tune of Excalibur also appears on BSU so there wasn't exactly something not published. But as I have said before there was another song on this demo that doesn't appear on the final version, and is the track TMB. And this time yes, the main tune of this track is used on MVR, on the bat cave sequence. But also there's a curious fact on the sword game music. All the demo tracks that Mike upped to his page while working on MVR where included on the final game except two: Landing and Daliphant. Well, the sword game theme has the same tune that Daliphant but done with electric guitars and usually both are mixed together on MVR fan mixes... but this is another topic 
Before ending this long long answer (hope nobody has fallen sleep  ) I have to say that a long time ago I did my own version of a cover for this demo based on the original demo and the official album sleeves. The ones on that page that torbenyj has said are very tiny to be printed, so maybe you would like to have a look here. And also the Excalibur lyrics have been discussed here. Maybe we must start discussing on the rap lyrics of the SSTC demo
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