Monthly Archives: December 2006

24Seven, Interview, Music, Writing

DJ Marky

Leave a comment

DJ Marky is one of Brazil’s best exports since nuts and waxes. He was discovered after fellow Brazilian Patife called the UK promoters of the Movement shows to see if he could use the name in Brazil. V- Recordings head honcho Bryan Gee flew to Brazil with Edo Van Duyn to see a scene they weren’t really aware of, and caught Marky playing at the now legendary Love Club. “Incredible, for here was a DJ who hardly spoke any English, lived 5,000 miles from the drum and bass Mecca [of London] and still managed to inject more energy, enthusiasm, originality and creativity into mixing drum and bass than anyone we’d seen before,” said Edo in a recent interview.

Marky gained his music knowledge in the way many DJs do – through family and working in a record store. “There was a really cool radio station that I used to listen to when I was a kid, that used to play old funk and proper hip hop tunes,” he says, “but mostly I got my musical influence from my Dad and his vinyl collection.” The vinyl bug must of rubbed off, as Marky worked in the Up Dance record store, which was vital in determining his tastes. “When you are working in the record store you have a lot of tunes from different genre that work for you. Maybe a techno track or a house track, something like that. But I remember when the first set of Jungle records came in and I was hooked!”

It’s clear from talking to Marky that he loves Brazil. Although at first his meteoric rise did cause some little problems. “At first, I won’t lie, it was hard,” he says of learning English. “I hadn’t had to speak it all the time like this before so I had to learn and learn fast, but having management there to support me and help me out was great and it helped me get to terms with it much quicker.” He also likes the fact that although he rose quickly, he’s still grounded in Brazil. “Yeah I got quite big in UK and Europe but I spend most of my time in Brazil so I can escape, and that time is golden to me.”

First time Marky played in Adelaide, he blew people away. His energy, his skills, and his scratching – a skill not too often seen at dnb shows – all shattered preconcieved notions of how dnb is played. However, on his last visit, on the back of a long festival tour, his performance wasn’t so spectacular, as there was only a little bit of scratching. But Marky realises that expectation and anticipation has it’s toll. “It is hard because everyone expects you to play the best set you have ever played, and honestly I try and do that every time I play,” he stresses. He also says the lack of scratching was simply an equipment thing. “Most DnB raves now will use an Allen & Heath mixer because a lot of people use it and it has effects but they are very hard to scratch on. It can lead to disappointment which is why I have got some new tricks in my sleeve to make sure everyone remembers this tour!”

Marky’s production is just as well respected as his DJing. He makes tracks with XRS, and I was wondering how it works. “We shared the work when we were producing together. I used to bring a lot of the samples to the studio and XRS would be really good at laying it out then we would both build the tune together. It was a really good partnership,” he says. More recently, he’s been colaborating with Bungle who he reckons is “gonna be massive next year! He is young but so talented it is unreal! Also,” he adds “I have done a few new tracks with Makoto and Total Science. In the future it might be nice to collaborate with someone like NuTone or Logistics for something a lttle bit different.” Those should get the dnb juices flowing!

Finally, whenever Marky is asked which is his favourite place to DJ, he immediately answers Australia. “The people are mad for it!” He exclaims. “Whenever I play in Australia I get a wicked reception and they just love the music. That is what I like when I visit somewhere is seeing people who are purely music lovers. Yeah it helps that there is a DJ there that they know, but really, they just want a good night out and want to listen to quality tunes. My kind of people!”

Review, Video Games, Writing, XboxWorld

Pro Evolution Soccer 6

Leave a comment

Ok, I’ll fess up – Until Pro Evolution Soccer 6 I hadn’t really played any of Konami’s soccer games. Sure, I had seen them in action, and had a kick around with a mate, but never really explored it at any great length. FIFA was my soccer game of choice, mainly because it was pretty, had players and locations I could identify, and was easy to pick up and play. But FIFA has its faults and I was always left unsatisfied, hoping that the next game would improve on the fact that the game always seemed like a poor simulation of the Beautiful Game.

Case in point – Apart from FIFA 2006 (for original Xbox) I’ve pretty much sold or traded my past copies of FIFA because I can’t see myself playing them beyond a few months. But there must be something about the number 6, as I won’t be trading my copy of Pro Evolution Soccer 6 any time soon, well at least until PES 7 comes out. Because when I play this game, I feel as I am really playing a game of soccer. It’s like every gripe I’ve ever had about any soccer game has been addressed and fixed. There are still some flaws though, which is of course to be expected, but call me a convert.

What strikes me most about this game is how it seems like a real soccer game. My major annoyance with other soccer games is you can punt the ball forward, but there never seems anyone to be in place. Even with complex team and individual placement organisation appearing in the very latest games, I always felt my team wasn’t up to the task of getting in position when plays were made. I used to think it could be because I tend to pick lower ranked teams (go Villa!), but even when picking Brazil or Arsenal team AI seemed to be lacking.

In PES, players actually take runs to get into position, they run on the ball, and the game never seems to lag behind the play of the ball. I can’t pinpoint for sure if it’s the fact that passes to teammates are tighter, or if their on field positioning is better, or even if the controls are more precise, but I’ve found myself much more able to do exactly what I want my team to do. I never felt I was wrestling with the player as if they were determined to do their own thing, like bolt down the pitch, even though the ball was behind him.

Players seem to respond quickly and more realistically to what’s happening around them. FIFA introduced the trick stick, but players in PES 6 automatically turn the ball away from an opposing player, or tap in through their legs to another teammate, and it’s all so smooth and natural, it’s beautiful. It’s the fact that it all seems so easy and seamless that makes it a truly better game. And, unlike so often in other soccer games, I never felt a mistake was anything but my fault… well, most of the time. If I shot the ball and it went wide, it was generally because I wasn’t in a good position, or was being pressured by the opposition so lost my cool, or held the button too long to shoot the ball. Frees and Cards given felt like the result of me tackling from behind, or slide tackling when an opponent was off the ball, not some arbitrary decision on the game’s behalf. If the opposition got through my defence, it was because of a mistake I made somewhere, either in having my defence too far forward, or by not concentrating on the play.

The main thrust of the PES 6 is the long and involved Master league, in which you select a team and work your way up through the various league divisions. This is quite in depth, and the ability to refine your team’s playing ability is quite daunting. From being able to choose not only formations, but variations within formations – so you might have a 4-4-3 formation but choose to drop the main striker back a little to provide more midfield support – to being able to determine individual runs, to determining forms of attack and defence, the serious soccer gamer can tweak to their hearts delight. And this does have an impact on how the game is played. A change in formation can be the difference between a win and a draw.

Because EA owns the rights to most of the teams with an exclusive deal with FIFA, many team and player names have to be substituted for others, which is a shame. Long time PES players may be used to this, but for someone new to the series it can be a little off-putting. However, given that PES has a lot more leagues and teams than FIFA 07’s pitiful line up, fans should be a lot more happier and be able to find their team here. There are 4 licensed leagues; Eredivisie, Spain La Liga, France Ligue 1 and Italy Serie A, plus 11 licensed international teams, including Australia, plus a further 15 licensed teams including Arsenal, Celtic and Juventus. One interesting omission is the ability to change team and player names. In the past everything was editable, so even though Aston Villa is called West Midlands Village, you used to be able to edit the team names, player names, and the kits to a much better approximation of the real team. This is absent from the Xbox360 version for some unfathomable reason.

PES 6 looks great too. Sure, it’s not truly next-gen as the game engine is the same one used in the past, but the player models look great, and their likeness is even better than FIFA, which to me is pretty strange given EA’s advanced technology in this area. The animations are smooth and quite varied, and the stadiums feel exciting. Having a ref on field jumping away from the ball as well as lines men who follow the play and signal with flags adds even more authenticity. Unfortunately I found other areas of presentation to be less than ideal. The icons are confusing and small, menus require far too many button presses, and the whole feel is positively archaic compared to other soccer games.

Audio wise the game is good, with the usual crowd cheers and players calling for the ball, but the commentary of Peter Brackley and Sir Trevor Brooking can be a little repetitive, and they lack the enthusiasm of other soccer game commentators. It is funny how they use fake player names though. The music on the menus sounds like something you’d hear in an old soccer review show from the 90s – it’s kind of European techno-ish, but it too sounds outdated.

Online the game plays OK. The set up and connection is fine, but the game suffers from terrible lag, especially when playing people from other countries. The rules and penalties for pausing and disconnecting are a welcome addition, although as in many online games there are a few people who use exploits and ruin the fun for everyone. And if you disconnect because of the bad lag, you get a negative mark against your name, but if it’s unplayable then that seems a little unfair too.

Conclusion:
PES 6 is one of the finest soccer games I have played. Everything when playing a match feels fantastic. Scoring goals takes hard work, and when you do you feel as though you really have earned it. You feel in total control over what happens, and although sometimes luck plays a part, it feels more like the luck you find in a real life soccer match, rather than a fault or glitch of the game. The presentation lets the game down however, and lack of ability to edit team names and kits is a feature sorely missed.

Pros:
Excellent simulation of the beautiful game
Long and deep Master League
Scoring goals takes work and patient, but the pay off feels great
Excellent range of teams and leagues to choose from compared to other xbox360 soccer games

Cons
Steep learning curve could put off players of other sports games.
Poor presentation in menus
Lack of team editing a real shame, given the lack of real life teams available
Very laggy when playing online.

88/100

dB Magazine, Event, Review

Enchanted Forest @ Adelaide Showgrounds on Sat 9 Dec

Leave a comment

Enchanted Forest brings the Adelaide Rave community out in force. Even though it was a stinking hot day, over 5,000 souls braved the harsh summer sun to head to the Royal Adelaide Showgrounds for the first Enchanted held during the day. I got there and met some friends at the Goodwood pub, and even that early it was clear people were in a party mood.

After a short line up, a line up to get a wristband, then another to get a wristband to drink, I was confronted with two stages immediately together. This normally would concern me, but even with very little people near the stage (they were all in the shade or at the bar) there was little sound bleed, a testament to the professionalism of sound engineers in this day and age. In fact, the whole set up impressed me greatly, and I have to admit it was the best use of the showgrounds for a rave yet.

After grabbing a drink and catching up with everyone, it was time to get into the music. John B was the first act I wanted to see, and he didn’t disappoint. Dressed in his 1980s short shorts, “I’ve been Stalking You on MySpace” shirt, big hair and make up, he certainly put on a show. The music was unusual, with dnb mixed with 80s stuff, but it was lots of fun. The crowd cleared noticeably for CJ Boland live, mainly because of the change in tempo, but I loved hearing the old school techno played live off his PC.

Killa Kella was the standout of the day for me. MC Trip ripped rhymes about Steve Irwin and Michael Jackson, whilst Killa Kella did his best beatboxing with the sun right in his Pommy face. Credit to him – I could barely raise enough energy to talk in that heat, and he tore it up! Goldie started on the second main stage, and I listened to him for a few minutes and liked what I heard, but it was a little too lively for me in that heat.

Funkoars played on the main stage during this time, and one of the MCs forgot his lines during one of the tracks, allowing the others to totally rip on him. It was funny how they kept dropping F and C bombs, then freaking out because Peter Coomb was after them. “He’s gonna think ‘who are these disgusting cunts'” was one of the shout outs. The crowd thickened considerably as anticipation for Peter Coomb grew, and he was welcomed by a hearty cheer when he stepped out. It was hilarious seeing thousands of grown people singing along to his kids songs, and clearly Peter, his band and the crowd were thoroughly enjoying themselves.

During this time I went walking about, catching up with friends. I also managed to catch John Doe play some awesome breaks, and then got to catch MPK back to back with Patch with MC Grif and Pase on the mics. I’ve got to hand it to our locals – they were a rocking it as well as any international I saw. I tried to get into Kid Kenobi and MC Sureshock, but their set was much like when I saw him in October at Parklife, which was disappointing, and I tend to find their brand of breaks to be a little lacklustre.

Another highlight at this time, besides the cool change sweeping through, was the Danger Zone area. Based on the Mojo West night of the same name, DJ Quazza span some classic 80s and 90s rock and dance anthems, much to the laughs and joys of the crowd. Quazza was resplendent in 80’s afro wig, Def Leopard T-shirt and bandana. He was joined on stage by Pratty, also in wig, rocking out the tennis guitar and giving shout outs on the Mic. Funny stuff indeed!

I really did try to give Kevin Energy a listen, but just found it dull and repetitive. I must have been the only one though, because the crowd was massive and everyone was jumping and cheering. But the crowd got even bigger for El Hornet of Pendulum, who whilst a little disappointing to me – I wanted more new tunes – rocked the crowd and turned in a very fine performance. It was a great end to a fabulous day, and I hope Enchanted at the showgrounds becomes an Adelaide tradition like the Shutzenfest and skyshow.