Saboteur Releases

[1999] #1, #2, #3, #4, #5

[2000] #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14

[2001] #15, #16, #17, #18, #19,

[2002] #20

1999

• saboteur#1.1999: Forget The Past [XM]
  Genre: (Piano) Dance
  350Kb ZIP [ Download ]
  • This was my first release as Saboteur. I was previously known as "Raven", in the former groups "Pt (Prototyyppi)" and "Awr". I only made two good releases with that alias, "Wall Of Thoughts" and "Nothing But A Waste Of Time". Both got 9/10 TiS reviews, and I was invited to the group "Other Sight" much because of "Wall Of Thoughts" (The group has dissolved since, the founder is pursuing a professional solo career). Now, about the song.. It's pianodance. Way too happy. It has one part in the middle that I wish I had never put in, but .. well, this isn't really that much of a great tune. My last two Raven-releases were much better, and so were the following Saboteur-releases. The reviewer had mercy on this song because even though it is pianodance, the reviewer felt that it was above the pianodance average, whatever that means.
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• saboteur#2.1999: The Darkening [XM]
  Genre: Easy Listening
  370Kb ZIP [ Download ]
  • Now here's something that got a very nice response originally. Personally I still think it's ok - even good at times. It has a moody touch with some conga drums, otherwise simple percussion. I like the way it changes throughout the song and during verses.
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• saboteur#3.1999: Chapter Two [XM]
  Genre: Melodic Hiphop Ballad
  355Kb ZIP [ Download ]
  • This track got a 10/10 review, a Song of the Day award and over 1,000 downloads at TiS. I was scared shitless! I thought the song was horrible and moved it into my B-Sides, wrote warnings into the song details at TiS and wished that people wouldn't judge my by this track. But in the end, I suppose people did like it after all. Why else all the fuzz?
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• saboteur#4.1999: The Song Of The Forgotten Love 3 [XM]
  Genre: Pop
  434Kb ZIP [ Download ]
  • One of my weaker releases as Saboteur - maybe it's the background of the track. One of the first tunes I ever created was "The Song Of The Forgotten Love". This is the third remix of that song. And even though this is technically lightyears from the original, the base melody just isn't good enough. It stills sounds like one of my first songs. This was one of the reasons why I later put this song to B-sides at TiS. This is nice, "acoustic" pop (not Michael Jackson-pop), with light drumming, nice ambience and such. But it's too long, and it has a flawed part. The TiS reviewer found the right words: Overall the picture is just too colourless.
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• saboteur#5.1999: Crystals Shattering [XM]
  Genre: Easy Listening / Synthpop
  525Kb ZIP [ Download ]
  • This is used to be one of my best tunes, and it's still one of my favourites from the day. It was my first real blockbuster hit track, and my first song that I think deserved the 10/10 review it received. It was even reviewed twice, which was surprising considering the state of Trax in Space at the time (in retrospect, those were the better days as far as I'm concerned! As you may know, it only got worse...) and got a 9/10 which I was quite proud of. As for the song... It's smooth and soft, yet powerful and expressive. Something I had been aspiring to produce for a while.
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2000

• saboteur#6.2000: Wasteland of Emotions [XM]
  Genre: Synth Ballad / Easy Listening
  529Kb ZIP [ Download ]
  • A cheesy name for a track that got a mixed response in the day. It was regarded as very good by some, the reviewer included, but I certainly didn't get it all right. I had massive performance pressures after Crystals Shattering - I thought that now that I had scored such a success, everyone would expect me to get better and better, but I myself felt like that song was something I could never reach or surpass again. And to this day in 2002, I still feel like Crystals Shattering is something I never quite reached at some level. Nevertheless, many liked this song, but personally I didn't like it. Instead I was happy that I had shown to the world that I'm not as good as they thought after hearing Crystals Shattering, and I felt like I had no more expectations to live up to.
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• saboteur#7.2000: The Meaning Of Life [XM]
  Genre: Dance/House
  382Kb ZIP [ Download ]
  • This was one of my best dance/house efforts at the time, and it carried within a feeling of where my tracking production was going in a technical sense. It varies greatly from dance/house to atmospheric easy listening with lots of melodic instruments. Certainly it had nothing of the melancholy that - by choice - became such a distinct and desirable pattern in my work, but the variance I described above was key. The reviewer agreed that the track stretched just a bit above its peers.
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• saboteur#8.2000: Our Legacy [XM]
  Genre: Ballad / Easy Listening
  563Kb ZIP [ Download ]
  • This was my second hit-song. It wasn't as neat as "Crystals Shattering" as far as production goes, but I guess it just had more emotion. It has two parts, which I both like (even though the reviewer disagreed on that). This track received more compliments than Crystals Shattering ever did.
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• saboteur#9.2000: Reflections [XM]
  Genre: Pop / Easy Listening
  481Kb ZIP [ Download ]
  • Once again stressed by supposedly rising expectations of my ability, I found it hard to finish this track. I felt that the idea was nice, but I just couldn't pull it together all the way.
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• saboteur#10.2000: Fear [XM]
  Genre: Melodic Drum'n'Bass, Ambient / Atmospheric, Easy Listening
  318Kb ZIP [ Download ]
  • This was my first publicly released d'n'b track. It wasn't as much of a hard hitter as it was a moody themepiece. Someone used the word 'chilly' to describe it. I tend to concur. Personally I liked it quite a bit, and the reviewer found the percussion variation and subbass usage particularly noteworthy.
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• saboteur#11.2000: The Heroes Of The World [XM]
  Genre: Synthpop
  542Kb ZIP [ Download ]
  • This was a straightforward pop track with some strongpoints in drumming and lead melody/chords. The occasional listener liked it, and I even got some feedback (which is far less common than you may think!) It's a hopeful and upbeat track, but not a standout from my viewpoint today.
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• saboteur#12.2000: The Voice Of My Soul [XM]
  Genre: Orchestral
  439Kb ZIP [ Download ]
  • This was a special tune to me. It marked the beginning of a "new era of Saboteur". It was after some depression trip that lasted for quite a while. It was a grand project, because it was completely orchestral, which was something quite new to me. I even entered it into the Midsummer Night compo at TiS, but unfortunately the particular compo never finished until TiS went under.
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• saboteur#13.2000: Come Closer [XM]
  Genre: Synthpop, Ambient
  568Kb ZIP [ Download ]
  • This followed the path set by The Meaning Of Life. I failed at giving the track a punch it would have needed but it's still fine for a listen. It goes from a silent start to two different pop/dance phases and then descends to ambience again.
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• saboteur#14.2000: Join Me In My Cry [XM]
  Genre: Synthpop
  568Kb ZIP [ Download ]
  • This was another hit-song, and I thought it was pretty catchy even before it became one. It was different from my previous efforts in that it had a fundamentally simple drumline, which gave me a chance to easily create energetic fills and such. Also, I think the choir-sample in the chorus is essential, and goes beyond being a nice touch. This is saboteur-pop at its very best, an all around fairly balanced song. A slightly modified version of this song plays in the arcade puzzle game Touch Puf.
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2001

• saboteur#15.2001: Gloom [XM]
  Genre: Melodic Hiphop Ballad / Ambient
  568Kb ZIP [ Download ]
  • A moody, melancholy piece with three different parts. First an intro, then a climb which is sort of like a verse. Then the chorus, which is a bit like the intro, and off to a third part which is the final descend. I quite liked it overall.
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• saboteur#16.2001: A Moment In Time [XM]
  Genre: Synth Ballad, Easy Listening
  551Kb ZIP [ Download ]
  • On the production side I was unhappy with this one, but on an emotional level it was more successful. This one even got a piece of mail my way, which only happens so often.
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• saboteur#17.2001: Sad Secrets [MP3]
  Genre: Melodic Hiphop Ballad
  5,3Mb / Static 192 kbps [ Download ]
  • This was my first MPT module after giving up FT2, and hugely unsuccessful at that. I did take advantage of filesize-intensive instruments by Claymore, so I made the release MP3. I entered the Assembly 2001 MP3 compo with this track but, of course, I didn't stand a chance in that crowd.
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• saboteur#18.2001: Unite [XM]
  Genre: Ambient / Fantasy, Ballad / Easy Listening
  554Kb ZIP [ Download ]
  • My by far most successful module ever. I got massive amounts of feedback for this one, and everyone seemed to outright consider it special. And boy, did work go into it, too! I still have a total on about 10 different work-in-progress versions of this one. But I did like it very much myself, and still do. This was to be my last FT2 module. Originally composed in December 2001, released at Assembly 2001 multichannel compo (didn't make it to the screen, though) and later released at full length and quality (forgetting constraints imposed by the ASM compo). It's an emotional ambient ballad that takes after Darkhalo.
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• saboteur#19.2001: It's A Feeling [MP3]
  Genre: Rock / Pop
  5,8Mb / Static 256kbps [ Download ]
  • My second released effort in MPT, which turned out a lot better than the first one. You may consider it a bit cheesy, but it's uplifting and I still do like it. An interesting notion regarding this track was that I even composed some of it in sheet form. There are some quite lengthy technical (and other) comments in the module. I submitted this into Novus' CMC but didn't qualify.
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2002

• saboteur#20.2002: For Each Leaf Falling [MP3]
  Genre: Melancholic Hiphop Ballad
  4,5Mb / Static 160kbps [ Download ]
  • A melancholic hip-hop ballad. The lamentation of the first part is contrasted by a more hopeful ending, with a dramatic change in sound. So why MP3? Well, the module was huge. Many samples from Claymore again. But more importantly, it was post-produced in a curious manner. What I did was make two modules of the song. The other module had all instruments but percussions set on 0 volume. The other had the percussions set to 0 volume. So in essence, the song was divided into two stereo tracks - the drums and the harmony. What I did was add a rather resounding reverb to the drum track in Sound Forge 5, and then mix the two tracks together again. (This way the bass was unaffected by the reverbration). Without this method the drumming of the first part lacked space - it didn't have any room to breathe, so to speak.
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