TFX (Tactical Fighter eXperiment) Album by Barry Leitch Review

TFX album cover art

Quick Info
Reviewed by:	Mark Goninon
Name:	TFX (Tactical Fighter eXperiment)
Label:	Barry Leitch
Composer(s):	Barry Leitch
Number of Tracks:	27

I had to make sure I mentioned that this is actually an album by Barry Leitch in the title of this review since if I just left it as "TFX (Tactical Fighter eXperiment)" people may think I'm about to review the 1993 combat flight sim developed by British studio Digital Image Design (DID). This, for all intents and purposes, is the soundtrack for that very game (plus a couple of goodies) so if you're a fan of the game's music, you're in the right place. Barry Leitch is a veteran game music composer who has worked on at least 97 games (according to Mobygames) and he's even created music for several Fisher Price toys, so there's a good chance that you've heard his music at some point in your life. He's probably best known for his music in the 80s and 90s, especially 1992's SNES racing game Top Gear which resulted in him landing a gig on scoring Horizon Chase and its sequel (South Americans are really big fans of the game and Leitch's music), although my favourite has to be his work on 1991's Utopia: Creation of a Nation.

My first experience with the original 1993 TFX soundtrack was the DOS CD-ROM version of the game. The game employed Redbook audio meaning besides Track 1 (which was the data track) the rest of the tracks could be played in a normal CD player. Tracks were high quality recordings of the SC-55 (Sound Canvas General MIDI) and while I really loved the soundtrack, Barry was not as enamoured with it as he mentions in this 2022 interview:

"The Sound canvas was just a general midi version, and for some reason, some muppet recorded that version for the CD rom audio files which was really disapointing. So if you get the chance, hunt down the MT32 versions on youtube, It's on my list of things to do, so it'll show up on my bandcamp page at somepoint as well as spotify etc."

Ouch. Barry, it really wasn't that bad! Well, at least to my ears. Oh, and note how he said he would eventually release the MT-32 versions on Bandcamp as well as Spotify? That's exactly what he did and this makes for a good segue into what is actually on this album.

There are 27 tracks on the TFX album all composed by Barry (along with some help on guitar from Joe Lyford for the first track) and it's available on his Bandcamp page as well as Spotify. Bandcamp allows you to download the music in a variety of formats including MP3 V0, MP3 320, FLAC, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, ALAC, WAV and AIFF. Many of these tracks I don't believe I've heard of before since I either didn't get very far in the game or maybe the Redbook audio versions of the tracks have been seared into my memory, so much so they've drowned out everything else. I do remember the main theme, the intermission theme, the multiple mission type tracks and the death track, but not much else. Based on their titles though, this is all music that you hear in the game and they play prior to missions, during missions and after missions. You see, in TFX you play the role of a UN Air Force pilot tasked with completing missions as part of UN Peacekeeping operations. You get to fly three different aircraft including the Eurofighter Typhoon (originally called the Eurofighter 2000), the F-22 Raptor and the F-117A Stealth Fighter.

This is why many of the tracks are named after mission types, battle events and theatres of war. In fact, there are eight tracks with the word "mission" as a suffix and if I'm not mistaken, the music often plays at the beginning of the kind of mission you'll be flying i.e. if you're flying an Close Air Support (CAS) mission, Track 6 aka "Close Air Support Mission" will play. There are also six jingles in the game that are apparently inspired by what was done on games like Wing Commander and Strike Commander, i.e. the music dynamically changes based on what is happening during your battle. While the six jingles included probably work great in the game, they feel a lot like filler (although arguably, the album wouldn't be complete without them either).

A lot of music on this soundtrack is a mixture of snare drums, rock music, synth and orchestra hits. So many orchestra hits. It's the kind of music you'd expect in an early 90s military action game and sometimes draws inspiration from action movies like "Top Gun" as well as space opera like "Star Wars". In terms of the Roland MT-32 versions of these tracks, I'm conflicted: on one hand, I now know that Barry considers this soundtrack as the way it was meant to be heard but on the other, I feel quite nostalgic towards the CD-ROM version that used SC-55 samples since that was what I grew up with. Take for example my favourite track on the CD-ROM version of the soundtrack, Track 8 aka "Anti Armour Mission". I reckon the bass at the beginning of the track in the CD-ROM version is better, it sounds more like an authentic bass guitar. With the MT-32 version it has this weird growling echo effect but thankfully the rest of the track sounds similar to what I remember.

There also seems to be an absence of choral sound effects in the MT-32 versions of the tracks which I miss from Track 9 "Air Superiority Mission" and Track 10 "Maritime Mission". The synth sections of the MT-32 versions though, man do they go hard. Most tracks on this soundtrack tend to sound heroic and adventurous. They also tend to use leitmotifs from the main theme (called "Anarchy") or are outright variations of it, which I discovered while listening to "Yugoslavia" which is now my "new" favourite track since I don't recall ever hearing this one originally. It's full of choice drums, clapping and the sound of a mandolin or tambura, giving it a distinct Balkan vibe, but also manages to inject some warm synths you might find in the background of 80s music by Peter Gabriel or Paul Young.

And speaking of the main theme, it's about time I talked about it. Barry mentioned that the main theme wasn't even originally meant for TFX but for a music competition run by an Amiga demo group aptly named "Anarchy". Unfortunately, he didn't win but he did end up repurposing it for TFX. One of the tracks on this album is the original Amiga version Barry used and I've got to say, it's a pretty sick sounding MOD. There are also two other versions of the theme on this soundtrack including what ended up being the game theme as well as a remade version using live guitar work by Joe Lyford that works as a cooler, higher-fidelity, extended version of the theme. I don't know which one is my favourite as I like them all for different reasons. It's also kind of weird how the juxtaposition of a slow, sombre, bluesy first half with the energetic dance of the second half, not only works, but also makes you feel cool flying jets for the fictional United Nations Air Force. Is that even possible?

8

Barry Leitch doesn't stray too far from his signature style, which only makes it more impressive he's managed to score a soundtrack for a combat flight sim without it sounding like background music to an 8-bit SHMUP. But if anyone was going to be able to pull it off, Barry is the man to do it. If you like heroic and adventurous military action music with liberal use of leitmotifs and theme variations, this is the album for you. If you're interested in purchasing the soundtrack you can purchase it off Barry Leitch's Bandcamp page for $10 USD.