After rebuilding my computer system and software installations, I entered period 2 of my composing history, when I began developing my own style. At the beginning of it, I decided to concentrate exclusively on completely original pieces, as I slowly began to become aware of the ongoing fracas over copyrighted cover versions being available on websites. Until then, I had been collecting a substantial number of cover versions that I felt were "almost" right / good enough, with the intention of repairing and remixing them. To date, I have only worked on one such midi - and that's not available here either, for the same old reasons - I'm concerned over potential copyright exposure. This second period - the last 6 months of '99 - was all about developing techniques and generating ideas faster than I could realise them. As a consequence the results were somewhat hit-and-miss; some are absolutely apalling, even cringeworthy (though other people have liked some of what I consider garbage, which is why I've made them all available here). But amongst the dross are a few gems.... # Name (Length) Size Download Links Comments       13 City Life (5:31) 82K This was the piece that first inspired the stylistic description "Cinematic" for my work - someone else's comment, not mine! But one that I could not agree with more strongly. This piece was the first that came out almost exactly as I had envisaged it, and it remains a favorite even today. 14 Acting In Concierto (6:26) 15K Zipped (182K Unzipped) An original song constructed using a completely different method to my then-usual techniques. Instead of creating variations on a melody, I created a set of melodies using a common rythmic pattern for each verse, then ensured that no 2 bars were exactly the same in melody and instrumentation - ringing in changes even within individual verses. To unify the whole thing, I then added a common melody for the chorus (with the same perpetual variations in instrumentation) before throwing in a whole heap of bridges between items (no 2 of which are exactly identical), plus a pair of counterpoints (with still more instrumental variations) based on discarded bridges linked together. The result is a track which is undeniably based on a common theme, but which is never predictable, even in terms of what instruments will be playing! For a long time, this track remained a fixture of my favorites list. 15 The Tide Of The Years (7:24) 18K zipped (211K Unzipped) I was musing on the philosophy of aging, and the way that we never feel older - just slower and less able to do the things that we used to do. But aging is as inevitable as the tides - no matter how hard we ignore them, the years persist in accumulating, until we can no longer deny them... and our youthful dreams just drift out with the tide. And then I tried - with at best partial success - to capture the whole process, and philosophy, and emotional context, musically. An ambitious project, but if you don't shoot high, you can never tell how high a mark you can hit. 16 Gothic Baroque (4:26) 118K This was an attempt to combine two very disparate stylistic concepts - the swirls and unneccessary frills of Baroque music, and the bleak austerity of Gothic music. It didn't quite work. 17 Into Psychosis (5:48) 18K Zipped (168K Unzipped) This was a spin-off from the more ambitious "Tide Of The Years" project, and one that succeeded perhaps a little too well. It was also a return to a more "storytelling" approach. This is the tale of an ordinary person who slowly accumulates stress and depression until he can no longer cope. For a while, a holiday provides a safety valve, but they never seem long enough, and eventually he snaps. The tune itself was inspired by the less-than- comfortable notes that form the "psychosis" verses - in other words, the end of the first verse. I am still very happy with the "holiday" choruses, and take intellectual pride in the way that no matter how unsettling the melodic theme is at the start, it sucks the listener in until it sounds almost reasonable - before the chorus provides the much-needed reality check. But, two days after completing this, I received word that a friend of mine had committed suicide from depression and stress, and I was never again able to listen to this piece objectively. 18 Amps At 30 Paces (7:32) 21K Zipped (418K Unzipped!) Originally intended to be the intro for another song, it not only didn't fit that purpose but was too good to throw away. The first time I found a midi instrument mix and arrangement that actually sounded like guitars on the Sounblaster-16. Despite the uptempo nature of the track, it's actually done at a much slower tempo than most - the notes are just shorter I guess! A peice of pop without deep meaning, which after creating "Into Psychosis" made a welcome change. This was completed in one evening, start to finish. The tune is obviously inspired by the notion of two guitarists facing off like gunslingers in a western.... 19 Tears Falling In The Rain (12:08) 16K Zipped (279K Unzipped) This is the fourth version of this track - the first one had to be overhauled when the into was exrtracted and converted into "Amps At 30 Paces", the next two fell foul of system crashes just as the song was being finished, forcing reversion to a much older version and create the ending again from scratch (I still think version 2 was the best, but that's gone like the ghost of electrons past). The song is a slice-of-life story - someone (could be male or female) in the middle of a painful relationship breakdown, standing in the rain so no-one can see them cry, with the occasional explosion into rage or self-recrimination. The final version is about 7 minutes longer than version 2! Despite a troubled birth, this remained a favorite for a long time. 20 Ghosts Of Christmases Past (9:30) 30K Zipped (293K Unzipped) This has nice bits, but I didn't quite manage to pull it off for the whole tune. The notion was to try and encapsulate my memories of each christmas I could remember - the innocent joys, the time Cyclone Tracy wiped out an entire city, the bittersweet reminders of relatives wh ohad passed away the year before... 21 Summer Sunset (3:55) 137K You'll find that "Sunsets" are a recurring subtheme in my compositions. That's for two reasons - #1 they can be absolutely visually gorgeous and inspirational to any artists; and #2 because some of the tunes are about a friend of mine whose nickname - to me at least - is Sunset.... This tune derives from the first of the two sources. This was possibly the most effortless original I've created. Virtually nothing had to be redone, there were no wrong turns along the way - it all worked beautifully, first time. A slab of pure pop music reminiscing about sunset in summer, when the process seems to take forever and everything is relaxed, casual, and lazy. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the song is that it avoided all the standard instrument combinations that I normally used and almost all of the compositional tricks that were part of my standard repetoir of the time. Pure inspiration, from beginning to end. Unfortunately this sounds absolutely horrible on the Soundblaster Live... I really will have to do a remix!! 22 East Meets West (Ripples On The Water) (4:32) 60K The last piece completed in 1999 was an attempt to fuse elements of eastern music with modern western pop. The inspiration was a media report on the continued influance on western business of Asian management philosophies (especially Japanese) - at the very same time as those philosophies are failing in the lands of their origin. It was supposed to pose the question - in teaching us the right lessons, have they been learning the wrong ones? Or are the events independant of each other, and modern businesses twigs floating on a pond, disturbed only where the ripples intersect? Although the tune failed to meet these ambitous targets, it was good enough as a piece to survive almost as long as "Tears Falling In The Rain" on my favorites list.