dB Magazine, Music, Review, Writing

Ninjatune – A Retrospective

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It puzzles me as to why Ninjatune, the self-proclaimed greatest record company in the world, would release a retrospective now. A few years ago it was their 10th Anniversary, and they released Xen Cuts, which was not, as one would expect, a retrospective, but rather a celebration of a decade of music by bringing out new music that flies in the face of the usual record label anniversaries. So why release A Retrospective now?

Not that I’m complaining, as this CD is a true representation of the Ninjatune sound, a sound I’ve loved for over 10 years. It’s the perfect introduction to the label, but it has little interest for those who have bought the other compilations over the years, apart from the fact that most Ninjatune fans must have ALL of their releases, simply because we’re nothing but the nerds they say we are.

Presented with a wonderful hard card cover that has the infamous ninja eyes embedded into it, reminding us that there is still a reason for buying CDs, the double CD contains the most well known ninjatune tracks. DJ Food’s Dark Lady, which was sampled and made famous by Bomb the Bass with their tune Big Powder Dust, begins the first CD, which is full of the more upbeat tracks, such as the excellent anti-nuke sample fest Atomic Moog 2000 by label founders Coldcut, to arguably the best known Ninjatune, err… tune, Mr Scruff’s Get A Move On, which was featured in numerous television commercials, including the Adidas soccer commercial on air here a few years ago. Other stable mates on this side feature a range of beats and pieces of varying funkiness, from Amon Tobin, Bonobo, Kid Koala, Luke Vibert, Wagon Christ, Hexstatic and Funki Porcini.

The second CD is a little less upbeat overall, but does begin with Coldcuts’ only Top 40 chart entry, More Bits and Pieces, the track inspired by their 1987 release Bits and Pieces, which is an awesome mashed beat fest. Following this is DJ Vadim’s Terrorist, with the superb vocalism of Motion Man, written before all this crap with George Jnr, but is sure to raise eyebrows now. This CD also features Sarah Jones and Vadim’s Your Revolution, a tune about empowering women in an age where rappers can talk about bitches and ho’s, but in a narrow minded and nonsensical decision was banned in the US by the FFC for some of the more brazen lines. Fortunately the FFC ruling was overturned by the courts in one of the more intelligent decisions made by that legal system. The Herbaliser are featured twice on this second CD, and some of the more abstract artists such as 9 Lazy 9 and Cinematic Orchestra are also represented, again giving a broad sweep of the sound represented by the tricknological genius that is Ninjatune.

inthemix.com.au, Review, Video Games, Writing

Vietcong – Purple Haze

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The Vietnam War has been the focus of countless movies, but until recently not many video games. Maybe it was the fact that it was still fresh in our memories, maybe it was the fact that the processing power of early PCs couldn’t accurately represent the strategy and locations that needed to be included, or maybe it the fact that the Americans didn’t win the war outright, so how could they make a game where ultimately you were a loser? Whatever reason, with the slew of World War II First Person Shooters, the premise of setting a game in another war seemed quaint, and Illusion and Pterodon were one of the first game companies to take advantage of this setting.

Vietcong: Purple Haze is two games in one – the original game released in 2003 and Fist Alpha, the add-on pack released early this year. In both games, you play as a squad member in a small outfit thrust into the middle of this mad war. Vietcong places us in the position of Sergeant First Class Steve Hawkins, who is transferred to Nui Pek camp, and he and his Special Forces comrades must face the enemy in unfamiliar territory while accomplishing various objectives in the process. These missions involve reconnaissance, extraction, and elimination… the standard FPS fair. Whist there’s a little variety, it all comes a bit too samey after a few missions. The add-on pack puts you in the shoes of another Special Forces officer Warren Douglas, and it’s set a few months before the original game, and whilst a little more difficult, doesn’t add too much more variety to the action.

Speaking of gameplay, although you’ve got teammates, and each member has their own abilities, style, and their own history, they’re fairly 2 dimensional. You can order them around to do things, and you can talk to them, but on the whole the experience is a little dry. They’re invaluable in a firefight though. The hardest part of the game is seeing the enemy. It creates a sense of being there as you have to creep along looking for movement, but sometimes it seems like it’s just damn well cheating. Once you do see the enemy, they are rather easy to kill because they aren’t all that bright. You can easily outflank them, and sometimes even run straight for you!

Although the backdrops of the mountains look great, and the fog and lighting effects are used to create an eerie feeling of being in the jungle, the rest of the graphics are really sub-par and dated. The character models look awful, and objects in the foreground look blocky and badly rendered. The framerate is quite abominable when all the whiz bang effects are turned on, even on high end machines, and the game actually looks better with effects such as grass turned off.

The soundtrack is one saving grace, being full of realistic sounding jungles and swamps, with crickets chirping, frogs croaking, and the sounds of gunfire and helicopters echoing through the valleys. There’s a great number of authentic 60’s and 70’s rock throughout the game, and when in camp you can tune into American Forces Vietnam Network to listen to ‘Double J’ broadcasting to the troops. The voice acting is OK, but be warned – it’s rather mature and of the time. Lots of swearing, and use of the word “gook” in a demeaning way. Sure, it’s keeping in with the time and feel, but is it really necessary?

Online play is another saving grace, if you ignore the visuals of course. It becomes quite intense as you creep through the jungles, trying to capture the flag, or just kill as many people as possible. The maps are pretty big, and you can go some games without seeing an enemy, but again, the problem here is that after a few games, it’s just another First Person Shooter. Sure, there’s a little more stealth involved, a little more tactics and hiding, but it’s been done better in lots of other games.

While Vietcong: Purple Haze is does immerse you in the Vietnam conflict rather well, the other aspects of the game let it down. The questionable AI and sub-par graphics really hamper the enjoyment of the game. It’s a refreshing change from all the sci-fi and WWII shooters, but doesn’t really excell in enough areas to make this a “must buy” purchase.

dB Magazine, Interview, Music, Writing

Kid Koala

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If hiphop and turntablism conjure up images of trendy young kids with too much attitude, performing impossible technical tricks in front of a self-involved crowd of cap wearing wannabes, then get ready to have your world turned upside down by Kid Koala. Having parents from Hong Kong, but being raised in Vancouver and Montreal, Canada, Eric San aka Kid Koala has a diverse cultural background to draw upon, but it is his background in classical music that led him to the wheels of steel. Being one of the most enigmatic producers on a Ninja Tune, a record label that is renown for it’s eclecticism, in conversation he is very down to earth and friendly, jumping around the place, looping upon himself, much like his records, and is also very quick to laugh. After finally getting through, “It’s turning into one of those fibre optic traffic jams”, he laughs, and we chatted about his history and his upcoming tour with RDJ2.

“I’ve actually been to Australia once”, San quips when I ask about his DJ name “but I don’t think that trip had anything to do with it. There was a drink in Canada when I started DJing in the late 80’s, a really sugary beverage called Koala Springs. It had this really big stamp that said ‘Made In Australia’, which is really funny because every Australian I’ve spoken to has never heard of this drink,” and I had to concur that I’d never heard of it either. “It was actually quite a popular beverage especially amongst those who likes really sugary drinks,” he laughs. “So anyway, my mum would buy cases of this stuff from Costgo [the Canadian version of Bi-Lo] and if you were a kid, you know, 25 and under or whatever, you’d always be offered that – it’d be milk, water or Koala Springs. My friends started calling me the “Koala Kid” as a joke, as there were always empty bottles of the stuff around my room”, he laughs again, “and that’s the real story”.

San starting DJing in the early 1980’s, “in my really awkward, pimply period before I discovered discover girls”, he chortles. Inspired by the sounds of New York’s hiphop scene, as well as the sounds of the British cut up artists like Coldcut, he says “at one point you stop spending all your money on firecrackers and candy and spend it on something you decide to get into. Some kids get into comic books and I got into records,” he says.

“I think it was the classic music stuff I was doing. It was like an elastic band being pulled back,” he says referring to the stress of his training. “Because it was such a strict music experience for me as a kid, just being told ‘you have to play this 500 year old piece exactly the same way it’s been played for the last 500 years – any deviation will lose you points with the adjudicators'”, he laughs. “It wasn’t a very joyful musical experience for me, so when I first heard scratching the first thing I got from it was that it was so free from these rules. And the people doing it were maybe 10 – 15 years younger as opposed to 500, it was more within my grasp. I was like “oh there’s these DJs and they’re doing their thing and they’re really good at expressing themselves and they’re not like buried somewhere” and again he breaks into infectious laughter.

“Don’t get me wrong,” he begins, with a hint of seriousness in his voice, “I think at the time I was just too young to understand how you play a classical piece and actually put your own feel into it. For me it was just a rope memory exercise, and now obviously I’ve grown to like and understand all kinds of music. But when I got into turntablism there was a central idea that all the DJs, whatever they were doing, they were trying to do something new. And I think that was the most impressive thing to me. Technically I didn’t know what they were doing”, he confesses. “I didn’t know how they were making the sound, I just knew that every time I got a new hiphop record the producer or DJ behind it was trying to do something new. You never knew what you were going to hear when you dropped that needle, and I really liked that, and I think that’s something I keep to heart when I go to play or go into the studio. In my mind, if there were any rules to scratching, it would be to do something fresh,” he states.

One of the tunes that San is most famous for is Drunk Trumpet, a fantastic scratch fest involving a trumpet being played over a 12 note blues loop. It’s distinctive sound drew me to Kid Koala, and I still haven’t heard anything like it. “I think for me when I started scratching it was very percussive,” San begins, but the falters as he tries to describe the process behind the tune. “How can I say this? I’m a big Louis Armstrong fan, and I know I’m doing him a disservice by comparing the two,” he laughs. “For the first few years I would say [my scratching] was very percussion orientated and very much into making the WEIRDEST noises ever. Stuff that would stand out and make you go “What is that noise?” And I still like doing that, making the freakiest noises ever,” he giggles, “but I think that from playing with bands and playing with other musicians that it’s equally as interesting to try to blend in a certain context. ie: you’re scratching, but you’re scratching on a ballad, so how can you do that? For me starting to do that with Drunk Trumpet – trumpet through a melody scratching – you’ve got a 12 bar blues song, is there a way to play and actually run within that by scratching? Trying to figure out how can you do something that can only be done on a turntable, but doesn’t totally overtake the rest of the song.”

San is stoked to be on the Ninja Tune label. “I can’t really imagine being anywhere else”, he states matter of factly. “Coldcut were one of the first tracks I heard with scratching, and Bits and Pieces was very inspirational to me, and still has a big influence on the things I do, so philosophically there’s that kinship. They’ve very patient and they let you explore whatever music avenue you want to and give you time to fall on your ass and take a break if you need to,” he laughs.

Being based in Canada, but flying to London every few weeks to do a Ninja Tune performance means San has racked up a lot of frequent flyer points. “Let me put it this way – we’re very excited to be coming to Australia for the first time. I’ve been touring across oceans since 1996 and still haven’t made it to Australia,” he sighs with a smile in his voice. He’s also looking forward to touring with RJD2. “We’ve never worked together before… it should be fun!” he exclaims excitedly. “I’m a big fan of his work and I’m really excited to see him play. I know he has a show that he does, and a have the show that I have and we’ll do them on tour, but who knows what we will do with the remaining time… we’ll probably open it up”

dB Magazine, Interview, Music, Writing

Dave Clarke

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When I found out I was to interview Dave Clarke about his latest album The Devils Advocate and his imminent tour of Australia, I was a little nervous. I had heard he was a horror to interview, but now I think it’s because he’s a complex individual and most of the music press is like the press in general – it finds complexity discomforting and unwieldy. The thoughts and the knowledge Clarke relates are more suited to academic texts than a short interview designed to fill up advertising space. I found him to be quite personable, if a little brisk, but it was rather early in the morning in the UK, and most people are grumpy in the mornings. Initially I thought the Devils Advocate was a reference to the mash of styles over the album. Clarke assures me my presumption was wrong. “It’s more to do with my personality”, he states. “I like to make people think a different way and play devils advocate.” Through the course of the conversation I began to get a sense of what he meant.

Other people I’ve interviewed who have burned by record companies in the manner Clarke has been come across as jaded, and I was curious to know if Clarke was the same. “I was already jaded. I came to planet earth a jaded person,” he jokes. “I wasn’t the only one who was screwed by them, there was Felix the House Cat, Thomas Schumaker, Timo Maas and others. But you deal with it and you move on and hopefully you put it behind you as best you can.” However, from bad things come good, and Clarke’s first single after this episode was an “internet-only” download. “That worked out really well,” he says. “I was just a little nervous to see if people were still interested (in me), and I just wanted to do something fun with it.” The single went on to be so popular a run of about 12,000 was released on vinyl. “But,” says Clarke, playing devils advocate, “this was a long time ago. Now you’ve got to take Moore’s Law into account – computer power doubles every 18 months, and this was 6 computer generations back. People’s download speeds are much faster now. It was at the very inception of pay-per-track, but if it was released now who knows… Maybe we wouldn’t have to come out on vinyl,” he muses. “But I still think it would because DJs would want to play it (on record). Then again, there are some DJs now who use digital files in lieu of vinyl, so maybe it wouldn’t have sold so many copies.”

On the topic of downloading, Clarke has some very definite views. “I think it sort of was inevitable. I think it shows that record companies weren’t thinking when A) they were charging so much for CDs when it was a relatively old technology when it appeared and B) when they didn’t realise they could actually sell them online, it had to take a couple of teenagers to prove it. I think it’s a shame because I like the tangible evidence (of music), but then again saying that I’ve just bought a terabyte of hard drive space to store all my CDs on and then download them into my iPod; and use it as an archive. I don’t know,” he pauses, “you can’t always hark for the old days all the time but I think it’s a shame people don’t go into record shops as much and you know, have that ‘hi-fidelity’ moments that we all hope for,” he says, referring to the book by Nick Hornby and movie by Stephen Frears.

Although he’s a technology freak, reportedly owning a light switch that cost over £500, he’s always been rather traditional about making music. “I haven’t ever used any plugins for anything whatsoever,” he says surprisingly. “A while ago I tried to heavily invest in cutting edge equipment and it never did what it was supposed to, so I decided from that point on I’d use it for sequencing and to go hardware on everything else. That’s pretty much what I’ve done up until now.” In doing a remix for DJ Hell, Clarke is branching out a little. “I’ve just ordered a computer as a stand-alone software sampler so I can run that in conjunction with my system, see how a software sampler runs compared to a hardware sample and if I get on with that I’ll move across. But when it comes to VST instruments, I’ve never been a big fan of synthesising. I like to synthesise samples, but I can’t really be bothered with attack, delay, sustain and release because it just bores me to tears.”

His latest album has collaboration with Def Jux’s Mr Lif in a tune that can only be described as hiphop, which is odd for someone known as a techno DJ and producer, although he began his career playing hiphop. “I was thinking about wanting to do hiphop, and I didn’t want to go down the usual route of using someone who’s famous in a big commercial way,” Clarke says. “Someone suggested Lif, and I went to see him live and I liked what he had to say, I liked his presence, attitude and lyrics. After a lot of talking we got together in the studio a few months later and found it very easy to work with one another.” Similarly the collaboration with Chicks on Speed was an enjoyable experience. “I recalled them from years ago in Munich, just hanging out and getting drunk with them, and there again we worked well together and it was a lot of fun.”

With such a diverse range of genres on the album, I wondered if this now reflected in Clark’s DJ sets. “I can split myself down the line (between DJ and Producer). When I DJ I specifically play techno, and electro is some other stuff thrown in, but when it comes to making music I’m a lot more wider… I have to be; I couldn’t survive just making one style of music, I just couldn’t do it”, he sighs.

As the current tour is a DJ set, I wanted to know how Clark would work his new material into it. “I don’t really concentrate on any of my own stuff when I DJ, I’m actually kind of embarrassed by playing my own music,” he confesses “I’ll actually play one or two of my own tunes in a set, but generally I get a great kick out of other people’s music. I always feel a responsibility as a DJ not just to promote your own music,” he says “I don’t know if that’s just me being silly, because a lot of other people do it, but it just doesn’t feel right. To go and play 6 or 7 of your own tracks and raise your hands in the air when you’re playing off vinyl or CD just doesn’t look or feel right, I dunno, it just leaves a bad taste.” I mention how PWEI’s Clint Mansell once said in an interview that listening to his own music felt a bit like masturbation. “Maybe I just like to masturbate in private,” Clarke retorts with a smile.

Review, Video Games, Writing, XboxWorld

NHL Rivals 2004

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I’m the first to admit I don’t have a sporting bone in my body. Sure, I did PE at school, and I never excelled at anything mainly because I have two left feet and throw like a girl. Truth be known I’d rather have been reading or playing video games.

Having said this, I love sports games. I love sports games precisely because I’m not great at sports. There’s a twisted sense of triumphant justice knowing that even if you are the worlds most uncoordinated fool on the field, you can take your team to the top in a video game. One of my favourite games to play is (Ice) Hockey, mainly because it’s quite an enigma to me, being from Australia where the concept of ice-skating is a novelty, not a major pass time nor sport.

But a game has to be easy to pick up and play, and that is where NHL Rivals shines. Someone with little or no knowledge of the world of Hockey can pick this game up and play. Part of this could be that Microsoft has adopted the controls standard to other Hockey games, which are also quite common to sports games in general. When in control of the puck, the left joystick moves the player, shoot is the X and pass is the A button respectively. B does a deke (aka fake) move, and Y flips the puck into the air. When not in control of the puck, A switches player, B does a body check (a tackle), X does a stick check (a tackle using the stick) and Y does a dive or a block. In either mode the right trigger is a speed boost whilst the left is pivot. In a nice touch, the right Joystick is used to pass the puck in the direction chosen when in control of the puck.

Another nice addition to this game is the use of Roles. Various players have a little symbol next to their name, and this designates whether they are Enforcers, Agitators, Snipers or Balanced players. Each role has a different special move for when in control and not in control of the puck that’s accessed by holding the B button. Enforcers are the “big men” of the league, and preform the “Bump and Go” move which knocks opponents out the way whilst keeping control of the puck, on the “Can Opener” which pounds the opposition player. The Agitator are those who get in the face of the other team, with moves such as the “Protect the Puck” when in control, and “Face Wash” which lands their glove into the face of the opponent player. Snipers shoot for goals, and do a “Spin Around” move that disorientates the keeper, and “Stick Clip” which is used to whack the shots out of the opposing team out the way. Balanced players are simply all-rounders and use the move “protect the puck”.

The way face-offs are represented is quite novel. In hockey, whenever there’s a stop in play there’s a face-off, a chance for your team to gain possession. In other games, timing has represented this, but NHL Rivals presents a rock, paper, scissors type play where you press the X, B or A button to win the puck. The move the other player is often represented, so you can sometimes out-guess them. Whilst this adds an element of luck rather than skill, it seems totally fair compared to other games.

Another addition to the gameplay is the all-important fighting. Fighting is an integral part of hockey, and the old adage “I went to a fight the other night and a hockey game broke out” is beautifully represented in this game. Although the fighting engine is not exactly up to par with “Rocky” – it’s just two guys standing punching each other and reminiscent of old boxing games – it is rather fun. There’s not much to it, just hit the face buttons and use the triggers to block and stick to weave.

Along with these basic player controls, you have the D-pad that is used for On-the-Fly coaching. This allows you to alter the teams’ aggression, set up team plays, and allows the changing your lines. The AI can also control these coaching moves and it does a decent job at it, but it’s nice to have that extra degree of control at your fingertips. For the total control freak, Team Plays can be managed by through pausing the game, and selecting Team Options. This allows better control over the action, such as setting a 2 on 2 penalty kill. This lifts the action into simulation just a little, but not too much to make the game over complicated.

Although it seems like a lot to remember, it really flows together nicely. You’ll find yourself utilising most of the features second-naturedly, and become quite involved in the game quite easily. However, one disappointment in the game is the AI of your teammates is rather haphazard. When not in control they seem fine, checking opposition players and generally protecting the puck and goal. However, when in control and on a break, they tend to be a little less aggressive on the puck. I’ve had a player pass to an AI with an open shot at goal, and instead of simply shooting he’s held onto the puck until I’ve taken control of him, thus losing the advantage. If the AI is one-on-one with the keeper, it seems natural that it should take a shot. Having said that, the AI of the keepers, both of the player team and the opposing team, is excellent, and even with a team that far outmatches another scoring is difficult but not impossible.

The game modes are the standard fare; Open Ice allows you to practice against a goalie of another team. Single game and Instant Rivalry play once off games, the difference being Instant Rivalry pits two rival teams together and ensures an explosive game. There are also Season, Play Off and Tournament modes, where you can trade players and play through a year of hockey with one or more teams. Whilst the trading and making teams and players is OK, it’s not too in depth and may make the hardcore hockey fans a little disappointed, but it is fine for the average player who just wants to play a game of hockey. The addition of Live! makes this game truly come alive, and in the few games I’ve played I’ve had no lag and the gameplay is exactly the same as the single player experience. As far as sports titles go, I would say this is one of the best I’ve had the pleasure of playing online, and it is certainly the better of the hockey games available. The use of XSN with seasons and tournaments gives it a greater edge over the other titles in creating a community of players.

Graphically this game looks fantastic. Player’s reflections can be seen in the ice and in the windows surrounding the stadiums, which are themselves beautifully rendered. Some of the angles in replays look like you’ve just switched to a game on TV they’re that realistic, although replays from within the net are a little pointless as you rarely see the 80mile-an-hour shots. The close ups on the players during fights are a little less than impressive, but it’s not that distracting. Crowd noise and music during the game recreates the ambience of a real match, and the commentary is very good, being humorous and rarely becoming repetitive.

Custom playlists can be played over the menu sections of the game, which replaces the hard rock score, but you’re seldom in the menus for more than a few minutes, so it’s really a much of a muchness. It would be nice if snippets of your playlist played during the game though, but again, this is no major gripe.

Conclusion:
Whilst this is Microsoft’s first venture onto the ice, it does quite a respectable job at recreating the action, speed and excitement of the game of hockey. It’s hard not to compare it to the other two NHL games, both of which have a few years of development over NHL Rivals, but for a first effort Microsoft have done themselves proud. It’s not a sim style game, and doesn’t have as much depth as the other Hockey offerings, but if you want to jump right in and play, especially online, then this is for you.

Pros
+ Great graphics, especially the players reflections in the ice
+ Xbox Live games are just like playing the computer.
+ Fairly intuitive with a reasonable level of difficulty and skill.
+ You can initiate and participate in fights

Cons
– Player animations sometimes a little off during fights.
– Team AI is lacking in some respects.
– Not great for those fully into Simulation type games

84/100

Interview, inthemix.com.au, Music, Writing

The Freestylers – Matt Cantor

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The Freestylers’ Matt Cantor is chatting to me over a dodgy connection munching on some toast, so it’s very hard to hear him in some parts of the conversation. Which is a real pity because the Freestylers are amongst my favourite producers, and have been for about 8 years. Unashamedly responsible for some of the biggest “big beat” records around, they’ve progressed with the scene and have arrived with Raw As Fuck. The first single “Get A Life” hit the No. 1 spot in the English dance music charts with very little promotion. “Obviously we’re really happy with getting number one in the charts,” says Matt, munching on some toast. “That’s with absolutely no promotion; it’s just people going out and buying the records. It’s nice to know that people still know the name and want our stuff. It’s the first thing we’ve had out under the name Freestylers for a few good years.”

The Freestylers disappeared for a while after the collapse of their record label Freskanova. “For a while there it was really great, just a bunch of friends together and we all used to A&R it”, Matt explains. “We’d been recording for the people who ran it for a long time. But I guess it just ran it’s course and they lost a lot of money and went bankrupt and ceased to exist.” This explains the absence of the band, and also the rise of a little group called Raw As Fuck. “Just to keep the music out there we decided to put some underground breakbeat out under the name Raw As Fuck. And another year down the line we thought the dust would have settled, and we could go buck to out former name. In a stroke of genius we decided to call our next album Raw As Fuck”, Matt laughs.

The Freestylers are just about to embark on a whistlestop tour of the Eastern seaboard, which upsets this reporter greatly because I’m not located on it! “This time it’s just me and Aston,” Matt relates. “It’s a real whistlestop tour, we’re just coming to play our new material. We haven’t been down there for about a year and a half, we’re just in and out of there in a week, doing these four big parties.” But there’s hope yet, as Matt says there’s definitely talk of getting the whole band down for the big festivals next summer. “The band hasn’t actually toured Australia yet, and we’re very keen to get the whole band experience down there.”

“It’s funny because I don’t actually tour with the band anymore,” Matt explains. “It was just getting exhausting, and me and Aston found we were doing the same job on stage anyway. Ashton enjoys the pressures of the road, whereas I enjoy being in the studio and DJing and stuff.” He goes on to explain that he saw the band at Fabric, and says he was very impressed. “We’ve down size the band… we used to go out with break dancers and stuff,” he pauses. “I suppose you could it an attempt to be more ‘serious’. The sound has got a little heavier; the music we’re making is a little more heavy. The band no longer has Navigator and Tenor Fly; we’ve got a MC called Surreal who’s got his own style, you know. We’ve got Valerie M doing the vocal tracks still, and bass, and drums, and Ashton on his stack of samplers. It’s a much tighter but much bigger sound.”

I asked if the the Freestylers still play the old stuff, either their own or that of the other bigbeat players. “The thing is it was really fun back in the day, there were some really fun records. But if you start thinking music was better back then than it is now, it’s probably time to give up”, he states matter of factly. “We’re really excited with the what’s happening now… that’s the great thing about the breaks scene, things are always changing. We’re branching out away from the progressive stuff, and doing the more raw sounding music, big basslines and more drum and bass influence. The great thing about the nature of breaks is that it’s always changing and evolving.”

“Raw As Fuck is looking to come out in early June,” Matt says excitedly. “Push Up, the next single is going to be out in May. We’ve pulled all the Raw As Fuck tunes together and those tracks still sound fresh. A lot of people didn’t hear them, as they came out as an underground thing, and now people are going to get to hear them with a whole heap of new stuff.”

Review, Video Games, Writing, XboxWorld

Knights of the Temple: Infernal Crusade

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Knights of the Temple put you in the role of Paul, a noble Templar Knight who discovers his best friend dying in the woods. His friend has some kind of plague, and mentions some crazy talk about “holy man is… devil”. This leads Paul off on his own crusade to fight the wicked Bishop and rescue the beautiful Adelle, a woman who’s holy powers are going to be used against all humanity as the Bishop seeks to unite his monastery and hell.

The first thing that struck me is the graphics and artwork. They are very nicely designed. They may not be as ground breaking as Halo for example, but they’re very well executed, giving a strong sense of time and place. You get sucked into the world of the infernal crusade. Cut scenes are done in both an enhanced version of the game engine, as well as presented in an epic style fantasy painted stills. They reminded me of the illustrated Dragon Lance book I loved when I was younger.

Another thing to strike me was the camera. It’s not in third or first person as I suspected on first hearing about this game, but rather fixed in what is commonly called the “fourth wall”. This is an old performance device, and describes where the three walls of the set of a play on a stage are seen, and you are looking into the scene through the forth wall. This has best been done in the Resident Evil series of games, but not something I’ve seen too much of on the Xbox. It gives a very cinematic feel to the whole experience, and is a refreshing change from the usual third or first person view. It is a little disconcerting at first, as it can obscure your view, but I suspect that’s precisely what it’s meant to do, giving a claustrophobic feel to the insides of the monastery and other locations you battle through.

It can sometimes be a frustrating experience, getting in the way of the action, especially as Paul goes through doors, as unseen enemies can attack him. However, at the same time can also enhance the action. For example, I was fighting a guard, and kept getting pushed past the camera change location, and it felt like dramatic cuts in an action film, feeling as though I was immersed in an old Robin Hood film. Also, it forces you to be rather cautious when running through doors, and I found that walking slowly by holding the joystick gently, and then holding block whilst the camera changed, was often the wisest move.

The fighting system is quite easy to get a hang of – there is block (blue button), attack (green button) and heavy attack (red button), and these can be strung together into simple combos. As the game progresses you learn new combos such as the dual swing combo and windmill combo. These are performed by stringing together the attack and heavy attack buttons. Some of the moves look awesome; especially when you knock someone down and jam the sword through their skull, then use your foot to remove it.

Furthermore there are special attacks, which are granted to you throughout the course of the game, which are performed by holding the left trigger and pressing one of the 4 face buttons. These are very powerful attacks, and can break through enemy blocks and shields.
Paul also finds better weapons as he moves through the various levels of the game. He has a choice of 4 – the mace, the axe, the sword and the bow – and these are selected by the D pad.

Using the Bow moves into a first person perspective, but it really is only useful against enemy archers, as the levels rarely give you an opportunity to shoot at someone off in the distance due to their cramped nature. The other weapons are all useful against enemies, but not none more so than the other, which is a pity. There are also prayers that Paul learns from Adelle’s astral self, and holding the right trigger and pressing the face buttons can access these. There’s healing, attack boost, quake and fireball prayers, and the effects look pretty cool. However, you do have a limited amount of pray power available, and it’s best to use them wisely.

However the whole game fighting mechanics can be reduced to the enemy attacks while you block, then when its move has completed you use a special move and then combo, and then block again, until they’re dispatched. In fact, I found one combo / block arrangement that allowed me to beat nearly every enemy in the game at an early level, and made the fighting dynamic seem not so dynamic. However, having said that, the game is still lots of fun… mindless fun, but fun nonetheless. There’s also a few puzzle type things, mainly “get this, put that there”, and a few rotate the stones to match the pattern to unlock the door type things… pretty easy things to figure out.

Sound wise the game features the standard steel on steel sounds one would expect. The howling of the insane monks and the growls of the demons are all pretty standard fare, and Paul grunts and groans as he his hit, and says a few throw away lines when he finds keys and puzzles. The score is much better, being medieval in nature that changes per the location. For example, when you get to Jerusalem the score gets a decidedly more Middle Eastern bent to it, and enhances to the great sense of time and place captured by the graphics.

The Xbox Live! functionality of the game comes in the form of downloadable survival maps, and survival scoreboards. The survival game pits Paul against an endless stream of enemies, and this is timed. The longer you survive, and gain the greatest number of kills, the better your ranking on the scoreboard. It’s a fun little exercise, and a nice addition to the main game, but other than that there’s no multiplayer.

Conclusion:
Knights of the Temple is a fun game, but it does have limited appeal. If the idea of hacking and slashing your way through a variety of well designed locations from the Middle Ages takes your fancy, then the game is for you. However, hardcore gamers will feel a little let down by the simplistic battle system that does get rather repetitive rather quickly, and sometimes the frustrating camera detracts from the overall experience of the game. The Live! scoreboard will add a little extra to those with a competitive nature, but doesn’t enhance the game all that much.

Pros:
+ Immersive locations
+ Fun battle system that’s easy to master
+ Great soundtrack
+ Cool looking moves

Cons
– Camera can become very annoying
– Gameplay can seem rather repetitive, especially once you find the killer combo.
– the Bow is all but useless.

78/100

dB Magazine, Interview, Music, Writing

Concord Dawn

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In the past five years, Concord Dawn, comprising the duo of Matt Harvey and Evan Short, have become one of New Zealand’s highest profile and most respected dance acts. Slamming head first into the drum n bass scene with their impressive, hard-as-nails anthem Morning Light, the pair has not only infiltrated the UK-centric scene, the album has gone platinum in their home country, and any respectable drum and bass DJ has at least one of their tunes in their box. Even after an awful experience whilst last in Adelaide, Matt Harvey, is a very friendly, chatty guy. He found time to chat to us about not only that experience, but also a lot of things beside. Other DJs have had similar things happen to them in the past, and have left Adelaide bitter and regretful, but Harvey doesn’t share that sentiment at all, and is in fact looking forward to coming back.

But first, a little history. “Evan and I have known each other since we were 11 years old,” Harvey begins, in a think New Zealand accent. “We went to the same intermediate school, and we were in a band, and I think we were in the same music class, and we played rock and roll songs at school assemblies and that,” he laughs. “Then we went to different high schools, lost contact for a while. There used to be a thing with the North Shore (the big suburban area of Auckland) where all the kids from the schools would go and do a big choir, orchestra, that kind of thing. My school would host Jazz bands, and I was in the top Jazz combo and Evan was playing guitar. He was looking to kick out the drummer in his band, saw me playing jazz on the drums, and said “you’re still playing the drums… you’re pretty good these days, but are you into the heavier stuff?” I was into that as well, and started playing with him again.”

“Our high school band won the Auckland Rock Quest, the big high school battle of the bands, and we came second in the nationals, and were doing alright for ourselves and thought we ‘we’re the shit’” he laughs. “We used to play at community halls, people’s parties and underage events, that kind of thing, and that rolled along for a while. But then that band split up, and we didn’t see each other for a couple of years.” But with New Zealand being such a small place, fate brought them back together at audio engineering school. “We both had bits and pieces of equipment – synths, samplers, and effects units, and both had something the other one wanted. So then we linked up, put our equipment in the same room, and we both dug each other’s tunes”, he adds.

Harvey was introduced to Drum and Bass in about 1997. “I was at an outdoor all trance party, and a mate of mine who was playing,” he reminisces. “We’d made friends a few months before, he did some of my tattoos and we played the Starwars card game together,” he laughs nervously. “I had been listening to trance all night and was kind of bored of it, and he came on and played drum and bass and I was wasted and it was wicked and that was it, I was head over heals! His name is Aaron and he’s one of the first dnb DJs in New Zealand. He was playing hardcore and rave music when it first crossed over and got called ‘drum and bass’”.

With the release of their magnificent album, ‘Uprising’, Concord Dawn are set to become one of the most talked about acts this year. Their unique fusion of sound includes Slayer samples, as well as guests Tiki from Salmonella Dub and Skribe. Having spoken to Freq Nasty (Darin McFadyen) late last year, who also hails from New Zealand, I asked if they shared the view that radio plays an important part on the scene over the Tasman. “Yeah,” begins Harvey, “Student radio in NZ is really strong, they play a very broad range of music during the day, and a whole lot of specialist shows at night. We grew up listening to that, because commercial radio is quite cack (that’s kiwi for shit). But both of us come from diverse backgrounds,” he adds. “Evan used to play in heavy, HEAVY metal bands, and I used to play more EMO rock, more poppier sort of things, and also jazzy hiphop crossover sort of thing.”

Harvey also thinks the nature of New Zealand’s live scene is an important factor. “If you’re living in London you can go out Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday… every night you can go out to a drum and bass club,” he explains. “But if you want to have a drink here, you’re force to go out to hear something different. And just with the small circle, you know? I’ve known people for nearly 10 years, a lot of guys playing in the big hip hop bands over here, guys who play dub, guys who play in rock bands, guys that are now house or techno DJs. So if you want to catch up with your mates for a quiet drink you tend to go out and get exposed to a different kind of music to what your main focus is.”

This diversity in music leads to originality, and is precisely Freq Nasty’s sentiment. “It means you write more original music”, Harvey says. “If you spend all your time listening to drum and bass you can still write really good drum and bass, but you’re never going to write anything that’s quite innovative. All the tunes that we’ve done that have gone on to become quite big have usually contained something different. We’ve done stuff that’s contained a rock guitar, done stuff with Evan singing that’s trancey but still quite hard… something that dips it finger in another genre and has a little bit of that influence. Just to make waves (in the scene) you need to be doing something different,” he finishes.

Then the conversation turned to their recent experience in Adelaide. “That’s the second time we haven’t been paid for a gig out of about 400 gigs,” he says evenly. “I’m not completely happy about it, though it’s bound to happen. That’s one thing about DJing; you never get paid more if the party does really well… we’ll maybe very occasionally, once or twice… but if a party loses money people try not to pay you, or pay you less. That’s not how it’s meant to work,” he states. “If you work at a gas station and you have a slow day they’re not like “hey mate, we’re not going to pay you today”. We work quite hard at what we do, and it’s a bummer but these things happen.”

But Harvey is philosophical about it. “It’s kinda what you get… If we played for a regular drum and bass promoter then basically their reputation is all they’ve got. If we played for a long time dnb promoter, we’re safe because if he didn’t pay us, we’ve got enough friends in the drum and bass scene, you know, it wouldn’t be cool for him [and his reputation]. But for someone outside of drum and bass, it doesn’t really matter to them, and they can get away with it. I don’t think it’s really anybody’s fault, he’s the fall guy, but these things happen. We’re going to be back in April, so it’s all good.”

Maybe the philosophical side comes from Starwars. Harvey is a Starwars nut. Concord Dawn is the planet upon which the suddenly orphaned Jango Fett was rescued by the Mandalorian warrior Jaster Mereel as a child. (Thanks to our illustrious editor Andrew Street for that info). Harvey, as he mentioned, played the Starwars card trading game, has read the comics, and has quite a few Starwars themed tattoos as well. Or maybe it’s the fruitful looking future, which includes another album and then relocation.

“Since writing tunes together things have been happening. First tune we wrote together got played on the radio down here and by the time we had done 3 or 4 tunes we had been offered a record deal in NZ and then started getting sets and that and it’s all been good from there… we can’t really whinge! But we are planning on relocating, but not to London because London’s HORRIBLE!” he stresses. “We’re moving to Austria next year. We’re going to knock out another album, well, not knock out, you know, finely craft and hone a beautiful album”, he says laughingly, “and then probably tour that, then head over. So we’re looking at heading to Vienna and Austria in about June next year.”

Austria seems as unlikely a place for dnb superstars as New Zealand, but Harvey explained his reasons. “It’s a lot less expensive a city to live in than London, just things like rent and food and beer and that; and it’s really central to both West and Eastern Europe. We’re both taking our girlfriends, so it means we can take trains instead of flying and it means we can take them around. It allows us to spend 3 or 4 days in places, take our laptops and just soak up the atmosphere. We’re probably going to keep it quite mellow, do a gig a week. It’ll probably only be for a year or something, and then move back here to New Zealand,” he adds.

“Basically anything we do apart from NZ is a bonus. We’ve got enough gigs and sell enough records here; we could live off (and have been doing so for years) and save lots of money staying right here. Basically us going overseas is us being greedy really,” he chuckles, “well, not greedy, just trying to make things bigger and better. It’s not exactly a holiday, just a chance to go seeing different things and eat some weird sausages and drink some different beers. I think if we lived in London for a year or so we’d eventually get not so much worn down, but we’d be in the same boat as a lot of other people writing drum and bass.”

 

dB Magazine, Interview, Music, Writing

Resin Dogs

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Resin Dogs seem to be one of Australia’s most well loved live acts. Hailing from sunny Brisbane, they seem to bring the party vibe to wherever they visit, whether it’s a small club like the now defunct Minke bar here in Adelaide, to playing to thousands at Livid and Big Day Out. We caught up with Katch, the DJ of the crew, to talk about what they’ve been doing recently and about their coming tour.

He mentions it’s very hot in Queensland, and also says, nonchalantly, that he’s been “doing a lot of office shit – the record label and that. It’s very interesting; running the record label is an interesting and intriguing part of being in a band. I’m just learning the ropes of all that, dealing with getting stuff out and deadlines. You gotta know what’s going on with your business or else your fucked,” he laughs.

Speaking of the record label, they’ve been rather quiet of late, with no new signings but a few “potentials”. But don’t let that fool you into thinking it’s a bad sign… quite the contrary, with acts like Katalyst and Downsyde supporting some of the bigger hiphop events around Australia. “I think Katalyst and Downsyde getting huge exposure is great, more of it!” Katch enthuses, “for that style of music as well as the acts.” I mention that I’ve heard the Resin Dogs on our ‘different’ Triple M. “I didn’t even know Triple M played our stuff. Wow, this is great!” he exclaims. Wondering if this extra radio play will impact on the group, Katch is, as I expect, unfussed. “Just means more people are going to hear it,” he says, probably with a wry smile.

On problem with becoming commercial is being pigeonholed and labelled. Katch is rather philosophical about this. “If it helps sell “that thing” to “that person”, you know what I mean, it’s just a description thing. If it helps sell it to the audience to help them get an understanding [of what we’re about] I guess its OK. To me it’s all beats, uptempo, downtempo, whatever. We are a “party” band,” he adds, referring to the classification of the Resin Dogs being ‘party hiphop’, “we like people to have fun, but if we want to tell people about the reign of terror and stuff like that we can bring that along as well. But labels are labels these days – there’s so many brands of t-shirts but it still just a t-shirt. This might sound wanky,” he laughs, “but even if you’ve made one person change, at least you’ve made a change. I’ve had people come up and say “you’ve started me getting into DJing” and stuff. And I feel sorry for them, because now they’re going to spend all their money on records,” he chuckles again.

Talk moves away from the “business side” into the makeup of the band for this tour. I had heard that the band rarely practices, and was rather astonished that they could sound so good together live. “Sometimes there’s no rehearsals,” Katch agrees. “When we brought Abstract Rude out we had a couple of rehearsals, to get him used to our songs, so he knew what he was doing and wouldn’t be walking into it blind and put on the spot. If there’s time we’ll do it, but most of the people we tour with have a fair idea of the songs.” The line up is quite variable, featuring different session players and different guests, ensuring a different experience each time. “We try and keep the main core of the band of course,” Katch says, “but we bring guest acts out who we’ve worked with, or like to work with, friends of ours from interstate and what not.”

Collaboration seems to be a big part of the Resin Dogs vibe, and they’ve collaborated with DJ Ransom, Ben Ely from Regurgitator, Abstract Rude, Lazy Grey from Brothers Stoney, Mad Doctor X, Kenny Dope, Barry Ashworth of the Dub Pistols and more recently The Pharcyde, Jungle Brothers and the wonderful vocal talents of the UK’s Spikey Tee, who’s on tour with them. “We’ve collaborated through the record company ringing up saying ‘we’ve got a bunch of people who you may be interested in working with’”, Katch explains. “Our first record was produced by Robert Reed from Trouble Funk because the record company said “you sound like these guys, maybe you should contact this dude” The Pharcyde were hooked up that way too… We’ve even simply looked at peoples records, found phone numbers on records and got in touch through that. It’s amazing”, he says, “you find records and they have numbers are for the actual artist, because they’re underground or whatever, and it’s quite a buzz!”

Talking about Spikey Tee brings up my favourite topic, sampling. We talk about the impending trade agreement with the USA and what impact that may have on Australia’s recording industry, especially those groups that use samples. “It’s what you do with samples,” Katch says. “People take huge chunks and are oblivious to the whole thing, and there’s those who take it and chop it up and make it their own. If you contact the right people and get proper usage it’s all fine. Sometimes the whole art of sampling is ‘can they find it’ in the first place, a game of deception.” I wondered if the difficulty in clearing samples was the reason why there are two versions of Adore You, one with the original singer Queen Adreena, the other with the aforementioned Spikey T. “It was partly because yeah, fuck, this is going to be a big nightmare clearing this, so it’s like a cover version. But mainly it was the fact that he could sing the part. He had these solo records out on Grand Central, and his vocals just spun me out. When he came out, I think it was 2002, I introduced myself, and we’ve kept in touch since. When he came out to do the Livid festival last year, they hung out with us for a few weeks at the Studio, and one day I just asked him ‘do you want to sing this, coz I reckon a male version of Adore You could be good’. So we got it done.”

As time was quickly running out, although it felt like we could have chatted all night, things turned to the impending gig. Katch is definitely looking forward to coming to Adelaide. “I’ve had some wicked nights at there,” he says wickedly, speaking of times fondly remembered at Minke. “Small and intimate is good, but sometimes it gets too hot,” he says. “The Big Day Out and that you know, are just massive. Good crowds and a massive audience to appeal to, but they both have their merits. If I had to I’d play in front of one person, or one hundred thousand it doesn’t really matter, I’d still play my best,” he adds.

Review, Video Games, Writing, XboxWorld

Xbox Music Mixer

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Xbox Music Mixer is a strange combination of media player and karaoke machine, and while it’s main purpose seems to be karaoke with it’s included microphone, the terrible amount of songs available make it simply seem more of an attempt to provide Xbox users with a media player. Even in this respect it is rather lacking, as there are some features that should have been included but are completely overlooked.

The karaoke function has a total of 15 songs from all kinds of artists including the B-52’s, Madonna and the Village People, and a few typical party songs like For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow and Auld Lang Syne. The microphone, which has a cartridge that links to the controller with a standard 1 ¼ inch audio plug feels very light and plastic, mainly because it is, but it works well enough. If you really wanted to you could use a more professional microphone, and you can even hook up the Xbox Live! headset for duets.

Whilst the 15 songs are barely adequate, Live! functionality comes into play for downloading new visualisations and Xbox Karaoke packs. The packs cost about A$13 and are charged to the credit card you signed up with. Alternatively you can go to websites such as xboxkaraoke.com and pay for individual songs. You download these and use the PC to xbox transfer tool found on the Xbox.com website. There’s an advert when you start the included karaoke songs to visit chartbusterkaraoke.com and this implies you may be able to play normal karaoke discs as well, but I never got to try this out. There’s also a range of about 40 songs that you can use for the Music player side of the software, but they’re really quite average, and you won’t know the words to them.

However, you can put your own music CDs in and the Xbox to sing along to, utilising the inbuilt audio compression to tear out the vocals and sing along without lyrics. Whilst this is adequate, it’s no better than what can be done with computer programs such as Soundforge, and it’s not so good for more modern music that no longer uses the middle range to record vocals, and tends to deaden the overall sound. Obviously the words will not come up, but the Xbox will display album, artist and track information if it is hard encoded onto the disk. Now, here’s where the Music Mixer misses the boat – why not use the Live! service to look up track and title information? Given Microsoft’s Media Player 9 series for PC does this, surely the Xbox could.

The Music Player suffers the same problem as the karaoke in that it doesn’t look up the CD information. This is fine for some CDs that include the information, but keying in title and artist information via the xbox controller is a royal pain in the rear. The saving grace here is that if you have a PC that connects to your xbox, you can transfer files from your computer hard drive. On the PC you can name the tracks and artist using whichever ripping tool you use, and then transport the files using the aforementioned transfer tool available at Xbox.com. The downside to this is you need to have a PC running Windows XP, but I found the actual transfer to be rather painless. Even the router that screws up some Live! games for me didn’t have a problem recognising the Xbox and transferring the data across. However, the Xbox re-encodes the data, most likely to a WMA format, so for some MP3s downloaded off the internet there is a loss of quality in some cases.

The visualisations are as good as you’ll find with any PC media player, and include the usual strobing circles and fractals and even a 3D “rave” with different dancers. Many of these are interactive, and you can play around with the controller to get different effects. You can transfer photos from your PC using the transfer tool, and they can be shown as a slide show to music as well. An advanced music player comes in the form of “Rave” mode, where you can apply audiovisual effects in real time to CDs and audio already on the Xbox. Whilst fun for a while, as you can apply whacked out filters and scratches and so on to music, as well as becoming a virtual VJ, the fact that you can’t upload your own sound effects, scratches or video severely limits the fun you can have. Furthermore, the fact that you can’t transfer video at all is a serious oversight, as how cool would it be to watch all those game trailers and stuff like Red Vs Blue on a television via the Xbox!

Conclusion:
The Xbox Music Mixer seriously misses a great opportunity to turn the Xbox from a games console into a multi-media entertainment device. The ability to transfer music files from PC to Xbox easily is it’s only real saving grace, and is really worth the purchase if you have a large MP3 collection and dig listening to custom soundtracks, or if you listen to songs via your home audio-visual set up. It’s great to fire this up and whack it on for background music at a party. However, the lack of being able to transfer video, the inability of it to find title, artist and track information, and the lack of karaoke songs included on the disc sour it almost to lemon status.

Pros
+ Can transfer songs from your PC to Xbox easily
+ great for putting on in the background for parties
+ Karaoke is also great for parties
+ some really cool visualisations, with the ability to include your own pictures.

Cons
– only 15 Karioke songs included
– the other included songs for music player and rave mode are really average
– Can’t transfer videos for either visualisations or just simply watching
– doesn’t utilise Live! to look up artist, title and track information
– Need Windows XP to transfer files

Score: 60/100

Gigs & Mixes from the 2020s. Writing from the 2000s.