This infofile was composed mainly as a personal essay to exorcise nostalgic 
ghosts (premature shades of the Mistigris May Music Madness spree of 2015, 
where I not only share written recollections of my teenage soundtrack, but 
also re-release the music) shared publicly on everything2.com (my post-
artscene creative focus for a few years) nearly 12 years ago down to the week,
Mon May 05 2003.  Though there is much empty speculation and scholarship 
within that is dubious, its bones are good and as an outside overview on its 
subject, it will likely never be surpassed.  So without further ado, I 
present: the past, reflecting upon the still further distant past.  And soon 
this re-release (and yea, this updated infofile) will become part of someone's 
memories as well.  But I'm digressing even before I begin...

"Euphonics" can be considered from the Greek euphony, meaning "beautiful 
sound." (Disagree with my armchair etymology? To my critics I respond only: 
You Phony!) I don't know how appropriately that translation is retained with 
its early-'90s phonetic restyling, but there was certainly something beautiful 
about what they were doing with sounds.

       ______/\     A New Electric Dimension!    /\  /\
      / ______/                                  \ \/ /
     / /           /\___       __ ______ /\     __\  /
    / /___ /\   /\ \___ \ /\  / // __  //  \   / //  \
   / ____// /  / /____/ // /_/ // / / // /\ \ / // /\ \
  / /    / /  / // ____// __  // / / // / / // // /  \ \
 / /____/ /__/ // /    / / / // /_/ // / / // // /    \ \
/_______\_____// /    / / /_//_____// / /_//_// /      \ \
               \/     \/            \/        \/        \/
-----------------------------------------------------------

About a year ago [Ed. -- 2002] I inadvertently offended a foxy lady DJ at an 
event she'd been kind enough to invite me to when I shared with her my 
roommate's view on drum 'n bass: to wit, that it sounds like an archaic, 
outmoded conception of what someone in '89 thought the music of the future 
would sound like... outmoded not only because we are not that future, but 
because -- as with the pairing of Wendy Carlos' classical-Moog soundtrack to A 
Clockwork Orange -- that future will never come to pass.

But who listens to d'n'b? For me, the anarchic outsider techno stylings of 
EuphoniX will forever be that falsely prophetic clairaudience, sounds 
clambering back up the ages widdershins to my pubescent crossroads of 
potentiality from an anticipated millennial shift that was a bit more William 
Gibson and a bit less Irvine Welsh.

The details are not well known. Despite an historical passing acquaintance 
with some of its onetime members, my primary research sources are comments 
crammed into sample name fields - a medium marginally less useful in its 
comprehensibility than liner note in-jokes and yearbook picture captions. The 
story begins and finishes (well, goes on still) [and still, still!] with one 
Jovian Francey, at various times aka Luminance, dust, Sentience, Yohimbe and 
Math Genius. By age 15, in 1991, he had begun releasing to the general online 
public 4-channel ProTracker .MODules - original compositions and remixes - 
created on his Amiga, a vital multimedia stepping-stone platform carrying 
through the irrepressibly devious and creative traditions of the earlier C64 
scene on to the nascent PC demoscene.

Somewhere along the line, presumably thanks to contact information contained 
among the song releases, he found himself part of a close community of local 
and international new music enthusiasts whose activities' hub seemed to be the 
Wizard On-Line BBS run by Roger and Sarah Earl - coincidentally itself well-
connected with the good folks at Wimsy, area code 604's first real taste of 
non-academic InterNet access. Over the course of the fateful year 1992 Jovian 
began associating the word "EuphoniX" with his releases - and whether intended 
as description, aesthetic aspiration, to denote affiliation or to suggest 
"release" by some nebulous sole-proprietor non-physical record company, by the 
end of 1992 two more Amiga-tracking locals were also to be found namechecking 
each other and namedropping EuphoniX membership(1) in their releases: Op of 
Tekna Darren Grant, aka /3eaver and later fingers, and Tomasz Szymanski, aka 
Marauder and now going just under his first name.

If Jovian's early tunes could be considered a baseline midpoint of musicality, 
Darren's style pulled strongly towards more consummately crafted conventional, 
melody/harmony interplay; the partnership with Tomasz (which long outlasted 
the viability of the "EuphoniX" entity) instead plumbed the then-underexplored 
possibilities of gradual rhythmic complexity in loop-based composition. By 
1993, The Year It All Came Together, this tripartite continuum had been all 
shot to shit and back by the introduction of the D'Artagnan to these musical 
Musketeers, Jason Johannson aka JaZz, whose geeky chaotic Atari Teenage 
Riotous technique can't be adequately summed up in words - suffice it to say 
that when I stormed down into the basement computer room in an occasional 
adolescent foul mood it was invariably his songs I would blast up through the 
floorboards cranked up to 11, not only because they - like my hormone-fogged 
life - seemed unpredictable and making no sense, but because here at last was 
something that was guaranteed to irritate my parents no matter how open-minded 
a face they put on. Jason must have had a sound in mind and worked towards it, 
because what he produced can't be easily considered derivative of anything 
that's come before beyond a wild, intense Fauvist techno sensibility.

Influencing and directly collaborating with each other, these years were 
tremendously fruitful for the musicians, seeming in a sense to tap into a 
legacy as inheritors of the Nettwerk-nurtured Vancouver electronic music 
zeitgeist that produced Skinny Puppy, Front Line Assembly, Delerium, Download, 
Perfume Tree and Tinmen (the latter with whom they formed close ties - remixes 
were and to this day continue to be profligate among the ensembles' onetime 
crews). But something about the sample-heavy (but vocal-free) synthesis 
("dense, fast and a little naive") of inspiration they drew from industrial, 
new wave, techno and burgeoning rave(2) styles engendered a community unto 
their own of early and longtime adherents, fans, imitators and disciples, 
including locals:

* Adrienne Prat (aka Voi the Analogue Cat): onetime SysOp of Transient Lunacy 
and formerly musico-romantically entangled with Jovian, she now produces and 
releases electronic Mineral Music under the abbreviated moniker Adri (at 
mineralmusic.com);

* David Riley: originator of EuphoniX's tradition of smoov ascii art logos - 
though his enthusiastic Amiga style isn't represented here, all ascii in this 
node from the keyboard of Jovian himself - and also seemingly the sole 
solitary uploader of every existent [in 2003] remaining EuphoniX .MOD on 
neglected and forgotten FTP sites worldwide), seemingly the only man online 
besides myself to remember that these musicians ever existed;

* Shawn Thomas (aka Lofwyr): a man whose own compositions at times (Elvis is 
Dead, 5th Dimension) suggested that he'd been indeed drinking deep of the same 
draught ... and at other times (Brain Blues) suggested that he'd fatally 
spiked his punch with goofball juice;

* and the often-greeted David Toews (of Trideja, what EuphoniX might well have 
been had they been based on Atari hardware rather than Amiga).

[Period .MODs by Voi and Lofwyr have been included in this collection in the 
"bonus" subdirectory.] 

Retroactively boasting (somewhat bogus-ly) of having been "one of the first 
exclusively computer-based (in terms of sound generation and distribution) 
music groups", the ensemble not only enjoyed an international fan base among 
stubborn Amiga-clingers (what they like, they like A LOT) courtesy of the 
inclusion of their music on an AmiNet CD distribution, but like any demo or 
ansi art group they also enjoyed a small network of BBS distribution sites, at 
its greatest extent including:
Corrosion BBS         : (604) 324-9168   (14.4)
Depeche Node BBS      : (604) 874-2986   (14.4)
Cyber Dome BBS        : (604) 534-7387   (14.4)
Tekna BBS             : (604) 857-8871   (2400MNP5)
Transient Lunacy      : (604) 261-2797   (2400)
Wizard On-Line 2400   : (604) 322-3232
               2400   : (604) 322-3266
               v.32bis: (604) 322-3972

(and despite my greatest ankle-biting efforts conspicuously not The Screaming 
Tomato. A pretty unnecessary disclaimer follows: don't bother calling the 
above phone numbers since despite the bizarre longevity of 604's dialup BBS 
community all of these nonetheless are long since defunct and their numbers 
since recycled and reassigned - please keeping in mind this all was by now 
[TWO] decade[s] ago 8)

The bounty of 1993 lay rotting in the fields as EuphoniX made a very uneasy 
transition in the mid-'90s from stride-finding tracking group - contemporary 
to the perihelia of the likes of u4ia, Dr. Awesome, Maelcum and Future Crew - 
to abortive compilation-appearing demotape-distributing studio band to lean, 
mean live PA musicians. [In September of 1993, still over a year prior to 
Mistigris' first release], EuphoniX performs at Vancouver's legendary 
Commodore Ballroom as part of the release party for the Synaesthesia 
compilation of Vancouver techno they appear on, followed by an appearance on 
MuchWest [TV]. Tempers flared to punctuate these growing pains (halting to re-
tune drum samples in the studio while the meter's running is fine after you've 
got the record contract), the technology that brought them together stripped 
away as revolutionary electronic music tools grew more available and 
affordable... and by the end of it two of the members had parted ways from the 
new core of Jovian and Tomasz - re-branded first as Urban Shade then Drop 
Modulation, performing sets with the TeamLounge crew and eventually releasing 
a criminally-underpromoted album, Elementary. For the time being, Jovian and 
Tomasz seem to have split ways - Mr. Francey now [as of 2003] producing 
"dubtech" material under the name Dyscotopia[, and later, a solo release  -- 
apparently lost forever -- entitled "PLUR My Ass"]

The years seem to have been happy enough to wear the marks EuphoniX made to 
dust, illegibility and obscurity, as a result of which their songs are 
somewhat tricky to find. But the holes they punched in my musical 
sensibilities are still weeping serum, if no longer bleeding, and as far as I 
can tell my hard drive is the single largest remaining repository of this 
material anywhere in the world. [THIS CLEARLY IS UNSUSTAINABLE IN THE LONG 
TERM, AND SO I SHARE IT ALL WITH THE WORLD ONCE MORE.  EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW 
AGAIN!]  I'm reluctant, after all this, to do so for fear of revelation that 
the reason EuphoniX was the soundtrack to my growing up was more to do with my 
growing up and less to do with any quality intrinsic to its soundtrack, that 
what I've chosen to interpret as a refreshing and glorious eschewing of 
clichs might more be more straightforwardly understood as dissonance, and 
that anyone post-Rebirth might not appreciate that any occasionally-uninspired 
loops they may have employed in their mixes they had to laboriously arrange 
and deliberately, manually paste in time and again! But without letting you 
hear the sounds of this past-future that was never to be, all these writings 
would be nothing more than directionless, introverted and incomprehensible 
nostalgic meanderings.

The standard .MOD-playing disclaimer follows: while WinAmp [2014: try VLC] 
will play some acceptable interpreted abstraction of the music information to 
some medium degree of precision and accuracy, it is highly recommended 
listeners make some effort to play the tunes through Impulse Tracker [or 
SchismTracker] or ModPlug, assuming they can't find an Amiga in working order 
and fire up ProTracker 8)

Streams of more recent offerings from Jovian and Tom (and a healthy slice of 
their subdued sense of humor) [could] be found through respective websites 
dedicated to their projects and CBC 3's New Music Canada initiative (also dig 
on the links there to Fidgital and Adri):

[but the only one that appears to be working in 2015 is]
Drop Modulation - http://members.tripod.com/drop_modulation/

And now for a fond look back...
  _______                                    ___  ___
 /|    ___ ___ _____ ___ ___  ___  __  ___ ___\ \/ /
| |____| | | | | |\ \| | | | /| |\ | |\| | | | \  /     _O_
| |    | | | | | |/_/| |-| || | | || | | | | | /  \ - dus|.
 \|_____\|_|_| |_|   |_| |_| \|_|/ |_| |_| |_|/_/\_\

DISCOGRAPHY:

Pre-EuphoniX, '91 to mid '92: (release dates largely unknown but sequence 
"known" due to a sequential up-to-that-point release listing in Altitude. 
Unfortunately that listing directly contradicts some embedded release dates, 
making for some confusion.)

??.07.92 - Journey, by Jovian. Date given is its release date; sample message 
           claims it was composed in 01.91; "This was my first module. Not too 
           exciting, is it?"
??.??.?? - Pribbles.lha, by Jovian. Song name unknown, all we have to go on 
           here is the filename.  (location unknown, presumed extinct.)
??.??.?? - Radio-Ex.mod, by Jovian. No known copies, but judging from the 
           filename we can speculate that this finds itself remixed at least 
           twice later on.
??.??.?? - Final Exam, by Jovian. No internal mention anywhere yet of EuphoniX.
21.06.92 - Extatic Acid, by Jovian.
??.??.?? - Parkmix.mod, by Jovian.  [Apologies for the bass-ackward filename 
           convention, Commodore zealots; I understand that native Amigastyle 
           would have these presented as mod.Parkmix, but in the contemporary 
           era I am expecting file access on PCs and invert the filename and 
           extension to fit.]  (location unknown, presumed extinct.)
??.??.?? - FTL.mod, by Jovian.  (location unknown, presumed extinct.)
??.09.92 - Decay, by Jovian.  "An okay tune, I suppose."  Composed seven 
           months prior to release.
??.??.?? - DReality.mod, by Jovian.  (location unknown, presumed extinct.)

Proto-Euphonic miasma - coagulating in '92:

14.02.92 - Altitude, by Jovian with credit extended to Karen Cheung. Self-
           filed under Detroit ambience or Transce ("a synthesis of the words 
           'Dance', 'Trance' and 'Transcend'"). First recorded appearance of 
           the name "EuphoniX"; Jovian, Darren and Tom listed as members in 
           embedded text file. Nothing is ever heard from Karen again.  (2015: 
           Jovian clarifies -- "An interesting fact is that Karen Cheung was 
           non-existent, at least as far as that mod goes. She was a girl at 
           Churchill I had a brief discussion about music with and a mild
           crush on. I wasn't aware of any female trackers at the time so
           thought breaking the gender barrier would be cool and encourage 
           other women to get involved. Neither me nor my girly alter ego were 
           aware that transce (sic) was actually a thing.")
??.03.92 - ModulectriX, by Tomasz. File under energetic dance. Makes mention 
           of the EuphoniX name, unlike the next several releases, suggesting 
           a certain revisionism in Altitude or lackadaisically self-promoting
           attitude among members until '93.
??.07.92 - 1 by 1, by Jovian, credited to Luminance of Triclone with no 
           mention of EuphoniX, having been sat on for 10 months prior to 
           release. Dedicated to the Legacy Lords.
11.07.92 - Trip On This, by Jovian as Luminance, again with no mention of 
           EuphoniX.
29.12.92 - Domin8R, by Jovian, taking 9 days to re-remix a version of Modan 
           and Maelcum of KLF's (3) remix of the tune by Human Resource. Still 
           no mention of EuphoniX.
??.??.92 - Clockwork Dreams, by Darren. Still mum on affiliation.
??.??.?? - Akira Rave - Apocalyptic NeoTokyo Mix, by Tomasz. No mention of 
           EuphoniX, and clearly pre-dating Akira Rave II -- I could make up a 
           date, but where's the fun in that? Of all EuphoniX songs it should 
           be noted this and its remix can be reasonably predicted to persist 
           in circulation the longest, thanks to continuing and ongoing fandom
           of the manga and its anime adaptation.
19.02.93 - Gemini part I, by Jason, greeting his future collaborators but not 
           yet naming their group.

EuphoniX the .MOD group, '93 to '94 and on:

16.01.93 - Narcosis, by Tomasz. File under ambient techno.
??.02.93 - Akira Rave II - the "Pray for a Sequel" remix, by Tomasz. File 
           under hardcore.
??.02.93 - Naked After Dark, by Jason. File under kinda trashy, mostly mellow.
           EuphoniX named, if not credited.
21.02.93 - Mystic Valour, by Darren. File under medieval new age.
28.02.93 - Stroll Thru New York, by Darren. File under humourous new age theme 
           music.
??.04.93 - Incognite, by Darren - on a bit of a spree. File under new age.
03.04.93 - Radio Exorcist II - Heretic mix, by Jovian. File under house 
           ambient.
26.05.93 - Welcome to the Future - Brazil mix, by Jovian, remixing Eskimos in
           Egypt. File under hardcore.
??.05.93 - Pandemic Predator, by Tomasz. File under violent hardcore.
03.06.93 - Synesthesia, by Tomasz. File under very experimental techno.
06.06.93 - What is Love?, by Tomasz. File under deep core techno.
09.06.93 - Digital Distress, by Jason in his first appearance as EuphoniX 
           member. File under hardcore techno.
07.08.93 - NUMB-r14, collaborated between Jason, Jovian and Tomasz. File under 
           solemn ambience.
26.08.93 - Temporal Modulus, by Tomasz. File under acid house, or as his 
           sample message would have it - "CRAZY acid tEchno from thE wEst 
           coast!"
23.09.93 - Thursday Night in the City, by Jovian. File under fast hard cyber. 
           In the sample messages he points out that the date of this release 
           was, in fact, a Thursday.
15.10.93 - Inherit the Stars, by Jason. File under experimental industrial 
           ambient techno, and find that the description only barely scratches 
           the surface.
10.11.93 - Runaway, by Tomasz. File under hardcore cyber.
08.12.93 - Pandemix Predator - extended revenge mix, remix by Tom and Jovian 
           of Tom's earlier Pandemic Predator. File under extended hardcore
           experimental.
??.??.93 - Visitors, by Jason, sampling the Lawnmower Man and Vampire Hunter D 
           a decade before it might be taken to be fashionable. File under 
           dark hardcore breakbeat.
08.01.94 - Dionysia, by Tomasz. File under deep house.
15.02.94 - Entropy, by Jovian. File under chaotic techno industrial.
26.04.94 - Night of the Living Hoovers, by Jason, in an attempt to "reclaim"
           the overused and oft-abused Belgian hoover. File under experimental 
           acid.
29.07.94 - Oracle I (or its full name: Oracle within sun rising... (elements 
           of sky)), by Tomasz. File under minimal ambience.
26.08.94 - Future Chakra, by Jovian. File under murky experimental hardcore.
17.09.94 - otesnpyneneidells, by Darren - and the last (and IMHO best) we hear 
           out of him. File under smooth moody techno.
03.10.94 - Hoi Polloi, by Tomasz. File under care-free bouncey beat.
05.10.94 - Modulus 2, by Tomasz, remixing his earlier Temporal Modulus theme. 
           File under hardcore acid techno or, if you prefer further detail, 
           Tom notes "mixed with a little Force Mass Motion and a little
           classic Sven Vath."
25.10.94 - Dormez-Vous?, by Jovian. File under tribal industrial ambient 
           techno.
??.??.94 - Coming of Wisdom - A Lapse of Momentum, by Jason. File under 
           hardcore techno house.
03.03.95 - Modulus 3 - African Shadow Mix, by Tomasz further remixing Temporal
           Modulus. File under fast tribal acid. This track was one of two 
           EuphoniX tunes representing them on the 604 Music Disk presented at
           NAiD '96.
03.03.95 - Vinyl 1 - Girl called Party mix, by Tomasz. File under sweet & 
           chippy, lotsa beats.
14.10.95 - Rave95 - EuphoniX mix, by Tomasz, improbably remixing local Admiral 
           Skuttlebutt of Digitallusions.
??.??.95 - Night of the Living Hoovers - better late than chia remix, - by 
           Sidewinder of Jason's earlier tune. File under experimental acid, 
           not being by an actual member this is not considered an official 
           release.  [It is, however, wicked awesome.]
??.??.95 - All That Serenity, by Jovian.  Written for Mistigris, but also sat 
           on for Quite Some Time to represent EuphoniX in 1996's "604 Music
           Disk".
??.??.?? - Jungle_Modulus.MED, presumably by Tom, presumably the 4th mix of 
           Temporal Modulus, presumably (given the advanced file format) 
           released sometime in the late '90s. (This advanced file format is 
           actually so rarified I can't figure out how to crack it open so as 
           to access its sweet nutmeat!)

Euphonics in 3-D! '96-'97:

A cassette demo, entitled -8-, had been plugged a few times as containing "45 
minutes of sonic mayhem and mysticism" and including "6 enhanced remixes of 
some of our favorite module releases as well as an exclusive remix of a track 
on our (hopefully) upcoming CD." Despite the most egregious excesses of my 
slavish fanboy devotion I could find no evidence of such a tape or the CD.

[Jovian, 2014: "I'm pretty sure 8 was a thing. I remember the case's art had 
the euphonix logo skewed to look like an 8."  Tomasz: "Yeah, 8 was a thing."]

In our New Media Productions project the 604 Music Disk, brought to the 1996 
installment of the NAiD demoparty to represent the area code in all its sonic 
glories, the EuphoniX group bio talks up an album (the aforementioned CD?), A 
Little Night Music, held up by a record label and hence being distributed by 
the composers also on audiocassette through mail-order: "a full-length album 
spanning 72 minutes and 11 songs. ... While we like to think ourselves unique, 
the 11 songs touch on aspects of techno, trance, ambient, trip-hop, house, and 
even electro."  [During the reunion informing the Mistigris 20th anniversary 
reunion artpack creation, Zinc of Radiance fame delivers Cthulu a copy of this 
album -- literally dub #2 of a limited-release run of 100.  Suddenly the 
possibility of a re-master is back on the table, but not in time for this 
collection today.  Keep your ears open, true believers!]

Still another cassette demo was compiled and released under the name Now More 
Than Ever, featuring No Added Fat, Crustacean, a beefed-up mix of Radio 
Exorcist and breakthrough college radio chart-topper Let's Get Out of These 
Monkey Suits, placing in the 17th position on CiTR's weekly most-played 
singles list the week of September 5, 1997 - below Miranda July's 10 Million 
Hours a Mile and Neko Case's The Virginian, but ahead of Millencolin's For 
Monkeys and the Planet Smashers' Attack of the Planet Smashers. (Included, 
y'know, to lend a flavour of the musical context into which these tunes were 
set free 8)

With one exception(4) the release of this tape seemed to mark a clean split of 
Jovian and Tom, moving towards live music performance, from Darren and Jason, 
who seemed content to compose in relative isolation abstracted from the 
physical and realtime response of their audience. Was the split a matter of 
rockstar egos? Perhaps a realisation that only live performance was where one 
could also manage to make a living making the music one loved? Whatever was 
ultimately the case, nothing further was released under the "EuphoniX"
imprint.

 _____ _  _ _____ __  _  ____ __  _ __ _  _
 //_  // // //_// //_// // // //|// // ||//
//__ |/_// //    // // //_// // |/ // //|| - Since 1992

Footnotes, really?  Is there even a precedent for that in infofiles?  What is 
this, hypertext?  That's it, I'm leaving!

(1) N-FORCE-E, AxXaun Flight and AlchemiX appeared to be other, similar labels 
or affiliations (about which I know less than nothing) breathlessly flung 
around by the same parties in those heady times, but rarely making more than 
one or two appearances each. The EuphoniX name persisted.

(2) Though their early work doesn't share much of an audible tie to rave 
musics of the time, awareness and exposure manifests in expressions of 
solidarity in their sample name messages - from "Rave 4 Peace", "Peace and 
XTC" and Temporal Modulus' missive entirely (with the ExcEption of onE lEttEr) 
in lower case gradually maturing to more relatively profound dogmatic 
hyperbole such as "E equals MIND * CREATIVITY to the POWER of INFINITY" to, 
eventually, performing at the smaller parties North American raves had by then 
turned into.

(3) This is of course the notorious tracking group KLF - Krunchy Like Frogs, 
not the Kopyright Liberating Ancients of Mumu.

(4) 04.25.97 - Promise.mmd3, by Jason. File under flowy, spacey, dark and 
crazy. Comments included in the song notes have the feel of a message found in 
a bottle, thrown into the tides by the castaway sole survivor of a shipwreck. 
"As you can tell, there really hasn't been any new material from us for quite 
some time. Well this might be because as far as I can tell, I'm the only one 
left writing mods. 'Tis a shame but not surprising... EuphoniX has split into 
basically 2 entities over the years. EuphoniX the Mod making group and 
Euphonics the studio band if you will. Quite frankly I haven't a clue as to 
where I fit in with Euphonics anymore."SAUCE00Infofile                           Cthulu              Mistigris           20150509a   O                               