![]() ![]() Odyssey tells the story of Zork, a hero that is on a mission to obtain a bomb to destroy the home planet of a race of aliens that are slowly taking over the universe, a journey that takes him through several planets and alien races. The full 40+ minute demo is available freely on YouTube, the main demo itself is around 35 minutes with several subsequent minutes of credits. There’s a lot to take in here, and after reading about the Odyssey demo, it felt unfair to cover the record without watching the original creation from which the music was taken, to have a fuller understanding of the soundtrack. It was at this point that reviewing Odyssey suddenly seemed very important to me, the Amiga was such a key component in gaming, and the clear passion that led to the creation and release of this record was almost vibrating through the vinyl itself – how often does a perfectly-pressed vinyl release from the historic Amiga demoscene appear? This was very cool stuff. As well as all this, there are screenshots that capture moments from the demo scattered throughout. ![]() The enormous sheet reveals the backstory behind the creation of the demo as well as facts and figures regarding the history of Odyssey and Alcatraz, the group themselves. The double-sided poster contained within is MASSIVE and on one side features a giant floppy disc, whilst the reverse tells the tale of Odyssey, the largest ever production released by an Amiga demo group, a sci-fi movie spread across five floppy discs. The bold simplicity of it hammers home that this is pure Amiga, through and through. ![]() The record sleeve is designed as a blue Amiga floppy disk, and completely nails the colour scheme. I’m a total sucker for a good sticker, as my laptop lid and Fender Jaguars will attest! The sticker sheet is wonderful, featuring a series of ‘Workbench loading hands’** replaced by multi-coloured demon hands, and also a WRWTFWW duo set of stickers, these will very much be going on both mine and my son’s guitars. Combined with the cover, it conjures up images of emptiness, loneliness and vastness, a great mood-setting artwork for what is contained in the grooves within. Also included is an exclusive WRWTFWW sticker sheet.Īnd so I’ve kept the cellophane on the record, as that sticker feels somehow part of the whole package, and what a package it is, I don’t think I’ve ever pulled so much gold out of a single-sleeve record!įlipping the record over to see the back, it’s a pixelated space station as viewed from a third-person perspective, that is passing by an asteroid, on a journey to a distant, glowing planet. ![]() This special limited edition vinyl features the complete soundtrack of the demo sourced from the original masters and comes with a 24v x 24-inch double-sided poster with extensive liner notes on one side and a floppy disk print on the other. This is also one of the few records that I’ve kept in the cellophane, as there’s a sticker from the label in the left-hand top corner that states:įirst-ever release of the soundtrack for the sci-fi demoscene wonder, Odyssey by the Alcatraz Amiga group. The blue ‘ODYSSEY’ against the mostly black background calls to mind sweeping space epics, a certain vastness and mood. The cover of Odyssey is an extremely ‘Amiga’ font that is surrounded by floating asteroids in space. I adore my Mega Drive, but when it comes to the system that I believe had the best presence and ability in terms of audio….it’s the Amiga, hands down.Īnd so, when I caught wind that Odyssey was being released by WRWTFWW Records - We Release Whatever The Fuck We Want Records– a bold name!*), I couldn’t help but cover it in an article, and when it arrived the presentation and design completely blew me away, I’m sure that the music that a lot of people from that time would remember would be the crack screens and music from the demoscene, I’m a huge fan of TDK’s (Mark Knight’s) work as it so accurately captures the essence of the time, and that electric violin acts as fireworks to my ears, not to mention the stellar -and continuing! - work of Matt Gray. I’d say I spend more time listening to the music of various Amiga games than actually playing the games themselves because the audio is so evocative and transportive. The singularly impressive sound chip and sheer creativity from artists of the time mean that there’s a really special moment and nostalgia for me when I get lost in the Amiga soundscape. Odyssey will know of my love for the Amiga. Readers of previous records that I’ve mentioned or covered over the years - such as David Whittaker’s Shadow of the Beast or The Bitmap Brothers: ![]()
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