Skratch: The Ultimate DJ
Here’s a quick preview of DJ Hero’s lastest competition, Skratch: The Ultimate DJ, with code being produced by Toronto’s very own Bedlam Games. Skratch is backed by Nu-Mark Technologies, and Mix Master Mike.
Psychic Toys
This blows my mind, and is a proof that we are really living in the 21st century envisioned by our 80s cyberpunk brethren. Two rival toy companies are releasing brainwave powered ‘toys’ which seem more like byproducts from the US military’s Project MK Ultra. I can’t wait to see if my telekinetic powers are where I think they are at.
Psychics and Transhumanists Unite!
DJ Hero Full Review
Activision is trying really hard to expand their audience and it looks like DJ Hero will be a game changer f the video gaming scene. A ton of artists like DJ Shadow, Daft Punk, Eminem, The Scratch Perverts and J-Hova were involved in making the game, and some of the above and more like DJ Jazzy Jeff and Grand Master Flash are unlockable.
The button system is simple enough. Three coloured ones on the turntable, outer buttons are used for hitting beats, or scratching, while the middle one is also used to drop samples from a list of six different styles, like Rave, or Flavor Flav (Yeah Boyiiii!) who has two sets even. The cross-fader comes in to heavy use on more advanced settings where you are required to make ‘stream’changes, or suffer a loss of points. Also, you can’t forget about the effects dial which is used to choose samples and apply filter effects when the timing is right. The classic Guitar Hero ‘Star Power’ has been replaced with the club culture friendly ‘Euphoria’ button.
Basement Jaxx
You know Basement Jaxx have reached critical mass when you hear drunk homeless people taunting each other with lyrics to ‘Where’s Your Head At?’ The DJ/Production duo showed up at Century Room on a Tuesday night to throw down a deep and dirty three hour house set. Clad in multi-coloured arty t-shirts, they sped through various periods of their 15 year long career, putting some special emphasis on the classic ‘Horns of Jericho’ desert progressive which gave us chills down our sweaty backs, bringing back hazy Comfort Zone Sundays memories.
Competition was stiff for a midweek night given that Boys Noize was playing down the street and many of us were still in a post Halloween daze, but that didn’t matter to anyone. Personal space was not an option, but crowd-surfing was. As was sandwich dancing, heavy snogging and sweaty, shirtless, man love.
Tim Buxom took the lead for most of the set, jumping on the mic periodically to stun the crowd with his ‘I’m-an-evil-demon-from-the-House-dimension-and-I’m-going-to-FUCK-with you-tonight’ voice using the effects filter.
It was great to see them in town, but it also made me envious of the Europeans and Koreans on the other side of the pond who got a taste of their full band with celebrity supporting vocalists stadium tour deemed ‘too expensive’ to tour North America.
Mad props and special thanks to the UGR (UnderGround Republic) Crew who co-hosted the event with Embrace Events.
The Dodos @ Lee's Palace, 17/10/2009
The Dodo’s played to a full house last Thursday at Lee’s palace. If success is determined by ticket sales, then The Dodos are far from extinction.
The Dodo’s are well known for their dynamic and innovative syncopation. Logan Kroeber played on a drum kit without a bass drum, hitting mostly on the rims of the drums, and with a tambourine taped to his shoe. Also present on tour was Keaton Snyder on the vibes (vibraphone) using the sophisticated jazz-man four-mallet style, which doubled as an electro-acoustic sounding board. At times as he strummed the front side of device emitting an eerie violin-like sound. Frontman, Meric Long, playing a plain old boring acoustic guitar didn’t seem to feel left out as he had a few tricks up his sleeve, like pedals which he manipulated on hands and knees during certain songs.
Musically, the set could be described as volatile indie pop with folk/blue-grass influences with most of the hits from ‘Visiter’ being played and some from the less popular, ‘Time To Die’ thrown in for good measure. That being said, The Dodo’s still bared their beaks claws in the last 15 minutes in a cacophonous, post-rock/noise rendition of ‘Joe’s Waltz’ that could even put No Age to shame. It was a truly cathartic moment which left Meric with a broken guitar string dangling from the neck like a dynamite fuse waiting to be lit.
The epic finale performance made up in droves for the incredibly lame lights off, glow stick driven number halfway through. Glowsticks strapped to instruments might work for fratboys in middle America, but, no, sorry, not in Toronto, I don’t think so.
If you haven’t come across The Dodos yet, I’d like to suggest the following songs from the Visiter album.
DJ Hero
Music/rhythm video games are often of the sink or swim variety. Does anyone remember Nintendo Wii’s Nintendo Music game? Exactly. It’s easy to come up with a seemingly cool concept but with very little repeat gameplay.
Hopefully DJ Hero will break that mold.
See below for footage from XBOX ’09 Preview event held in Toronto. We were forbidden from taking video footage; Activision approved videos are on their way.
Balloon To The Moon ?
This vid starts off slow but picks up around the 2 mn mark where it really takes off, pun intended.
Prof. Layton and the Diabolical Box – DS Review
It’s no surprise that puzzle games like the Professor Layton series are hugely successful in Japan, a country where prepping for elite universities starts at age two. Japanese folks have been taking to Prof. Layton on his quest for more Picarats, like their guilty hunger for Beluga whale meat.
Game play of Prof. Layton and The Diabolical Box is similar to Prof. Layton and the Curious Village. Obviously, the prof is back, and so is his plucky assist Luke Triton. Following elegant anime movie sequences, you are lead through a puzzling quest to discover the re-claim the Elysian box, a piece of magical machinery, sort of like the puzzle box from the Hellraiser series, only not quite as demonic. (Having not finished the game yet, I can’t tell you if it has the power to summon the grim Cenobites, with spikey Pin-Head in tow, but I will update you all when I get there. However, given the PG nature of the game, this seems doubtful….)
The bulk of the first half takes place on the Molentary Express. A posh, turn-of-the-century steam-engine, filled with quizzical guests who want nothing but to challenge you with logic problems, riddles, puzzles and more. A cool addition to this second release are the mini-games you pick up along the way like the hamster maze or the broken camera puzzle. The further you progress, the more involved the games become.
Puzzle-fiends rejoice! Those with low spatial IQ (like myself), give a low, mongoloid cheer. I’m not going to lie, I wouldn’t have gotten very far without the Walkthrough I discovered online. The unlockable puzzle clues are not always all that helpful; if you aren’t too familiar with the kind of language that the Prof. Layton series uses, you might be equally vexed. However, it isn’t the end of the world, one can always skip the puzzles that have you stumped and try them later.
On the other hand, if you played through The Curious Village, and are looking for more, this is the perfect game for you. Many of the characters from the first game are back, or at least have cameos. Replay value is also fairly high. Once solved, the puzzles can be played later. Don’t believe me, here’s a quote from Nintendo exec, Cammie Dunaway:
“Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box draws players in with its compelling storyline and animation, but that’s just the beginning,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “The captivating and challenging riddles keep players saying ‘I need to try just one more puzzle.’
Also, If you live in the US, you are in for a treat because the Prof may be coming to your town! Gamers in Minneapolis, Miami, Boston and Seattle have been recruited to join the hunt for the puzzling master. Clues of his whereabouts are posted on the game’s site, here.
Sidenote: While the third Prof Layton game has been available for months in Japan, Professor Layton: The First Movie, is already now production. It will be produced by Japanese studio TOHO and will get an entirely new story drafted by Level 5 president Akihiro Hino. Hino is the brains behind all the previous Layton games as well as directing the forthcoming Dragon Quest IX. The game’s voice actors will reprise their roles for the feature animated films. See some previews below.
Emo Post – Warning! This Post Contains Spoilers and Personal Information!
Melodrama sways away as summers end gives fall to all.
Tonight I finished reading Irvine Welsh’s arguably masterful tour-de-force, Bedroom Secrets of The Master Chefs. A tragic story, as are most of Welsh’s, about the slick talking young man, Danny Skinner who, upon the eve of his redemption and epiphany, is blown to bits by a run away oil tanker conducted by his nemesis, and nerdly half-brother, Brian Kibby. The novel is an ugly examination of alcoholism, escapism and fraternal rivalry, combined with some elements of magical realism, voodoo trickery, and heavy doses of Dorian Gray. As always, Welsh’s novels end terribly anticlimactically, leaving you in shock, wonder and if you have some soul, a melancholy flavoured catharsis.
Good thing I’m halfway through the Jesse Eisenberg (cough, Michael Cera clone, cough) flick Adventureland, which is turning into quite the melodrama fest its self, as a different young man comes of age in an entirely different manner all together. Albeit in a far more timid, and sappier, manner. Borrowing heavily from the plot of A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, socially inept english lit major, James, falls for the troubled, been around the block, poor-little-rich-girl, Em. Sparks fly, self-esteem prevents intimacy and a new-found confidence pushes Steve towards further exploits with his co-workers at the theme park where he is working for the summer. Has Em been slighted? Most likely. Will she retaliate with girlish and manipulative trickery? I can only imagine. Will there be a happy ending? Probably, but most likely it will be as bitter sweet as these last days of summer trickle away, and my advertising based career-unemployment looms further. (POST – EDITING NOTE UPDATE: wow….glad that’s out of my system).
Another issue I wanted to raise was this whole Jesse Eisenberg Vs. Michael Cera phenomenon. Do we love Cera, or do we love the idea of the awkward, and paradoxically happy-go-lucky, underdog? Is he a self-embodiment of all that is Gen-Y? The boyish looks, the optimistic outlook on life, and the way he heroically rises to lifes challenges despite being consistently under-equipped?
Maybe that’s stretching it. It’s very weird though, or maybe not. If you examine their acting careers, you’ll see that they both earned their first roles in 1999, and they both have contributed music to indie flick soundtracks (Juno vs. The Squid and the Whale). On screen, they carry themselves in a similar neurotic fashion and share similar physical attributes. I wonder if they hate each other, or if they hate the system that has made them this way. Their only real difference is that one is Jewish, and the other Italian…or wait…maybe that makes perfect sense.
I know that I’m breaking some pretty big style elements, going all emo with this post and wondering if it is even worth publishing. Well FU Bitch, I’m having it my way tonight.
TIFF Mystery Guest
Accidents may happen, but timing is still everything.
