14/06/2022
Back in the 90's, I was in the PC Demoscene as a "tracker" - I wrote music. While in that phase of my life, I contributed to a cult classic video game (ACiD Tetris, rebranded as Super ACiD Block Attack), did a full soundtrack to an Unreal Partial Conversion which wasn't too well received (Crescent Moon Squad II: Apocalypse Threat), and moved on to be a software developer in the 2000's and left music composition behind because I liked making money and it cost a lot to make game music once everyone moved to CD-based music that you had to actually record in a studio.
Turns out, that wasn't my musical legacy. A track I wrote for a music competition during my freshman year of college was heard by a Lithuanian named Lord Caduceus Xul who decided that his Lady Fire really needed to hear it to be wooed, and claimed it as his own - he put it, and other stolen demoscene tracks, on a cassette he released in 1995 called Middle Ages.
It became one of the underground cult favorites of the era that birthed the "Dungeon Synth" genre of music. (Ever been to Dragon Con and heard Midnight Syndicate selling albums in the dealer hall? That's today's Dungeon Synth.) The album is spoken of highly amongst people who are historians of the genre.
A few years ago someone found an original version of the main set of tracks on the album attributed to someone else on an old demoscene website, and then they tracked down the rest of us. (Caduceus was nice enough to not actually change the titles of our songs!) I got an email last year from Dungeons Deep Records asking "is this you?" and sent me an old YouTube link. Sure enough, I'm transported back to my bedroom in the Summer of 1995 just before going off to college where I wrote "Seeds of Desire" - a song I pretty much forgot about - and then I did some searches and found people speaking highly of the album and my work for the past 27 years. Not bad for a song that placed 19th out of roughly 80 entrants in the Rookie Division of Music Contest 3 in 1995.
After trading some stories and providing the album I created but never released in the late 90's which included the stolen song, there is now a reissue of this cult classic, but now with the original artists blessing. Also included are other tracks we all wrote around the same time that have the same feel as the ones originally released.
Middle Ages - Reclaiming The Throne will release this summer on cassette, much like how all original Dungeon Synth was released. (It should also be on Bandcamp for digital download but then you won't get the full insert with my face on it.) Maybe if there's enough interest, we can get it on vinyl...?
"In 1995, a music demo titled Middle Ages was released under the name Caduceus. As part of the fledgling scene which would later be known canonically as "Dungeon Synth," Middle Ages was an underground cult classic, a whisper in the scene known only to those who truly knew. An exquisite venture into a fantastical and dark world, Middle Ages' varied personalities found many homes in Renaissance-inspired music, obscured percussive sounds, and a lengthy, trance-like closer. Caduceus was much later revealed to be the hijacked work of three artists - MATEUS (Ondrej Matejka), Ranger Rick (Benjamin Reed), and Bobby "Blackwolf" Tamburrino - rendering the Caduceus illusion obsolete." -Jon Rosenthal
Yes, we have hunted down and obtained unanimous permission from all three original musicians involved in the notorious Caduceus "Middle Ages" album. An effort nearly two years in the making. Three musicians active in the 90's tracker scene have collided for one truly spectacular release.
Featuring all five original tracks, as well as five new bonus tracks and original art by .
Middle Ages - Reclaiming the Throne will be released on cassette this Summer! Featuring a 4 panel insert with forward and an interview by Jon Rosenthal of Decibel Magazine.
Stay tuned for announcements!
