Fuse Issue 20

Freeware games / Machine Head / The Horseman / Pretty Neat Records

Fuse.

Features.Short Fuse.

Editorial

Fuse.

Friday March 5 2010

Charitable musical acts

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If you turn to page four of Fuse you will find one of our more interesting features to date. One of our music editors, Jeremy Peel, talks to a new record label with a particularly good-natured ethos. Pretty Neat Records, is an independent electronic label that gives all its profits to the mental health charity Mind; an admirable yet risky business ideal, especially in today’s music industry and the specialism of the label’s output.

Yet I think it’s a win win situation for those that buy the records. By purchasing a Pretty Neat release, the listener indirectly donates to charity and gets exclusive tracks by new and emerging talent from the dance and electro scenes.

Now compare this to the Helping Haiti single; an entirely unnecessary charity single for a cause that really didn’t need the attention.

Charity singles are important for raising awareness as well as money for causes that the developed world has overlooked. Half the world’s media descended on Port-au-Prince to cover the earthquake and several ways of donating to help Haiti were set up. You had to be heartless or ignorant not to give.

Then there is the actual product you get from parting with your money; an incredible flat song, devoid of emotion that’s had its original meaning twisted and warped to suit a purpose. And even then it’s not enough.

Perhaps I am unique in this feeling and I am in fact an inferior human to everyone else, but I don’t think I have the capacity to empathise with Haitians right now. I have not gone through that level of trauma and I can’t begin to comprehend it. So for Simon Cowell and his pawns of pop to sing ‘Everybody Hurts’ seems desperately inappropriate.

A thought did occur to me when Cowell first announced he planned to make the single: would every catastrophe result in a charity song? Now Cowell finds himself in just that predicament.

Seven hundred and ninety-five people died in the recent earthquake in Chile, a small fraction compared to Haiti, but a tragic event nonetheless.

By not releasing another single or redirecting some of the money from the Helping Haiti single to the Chilean aid appeal, Cowell is effectively saying that there is a level of human suffering that must be reach before he and his artists will act; a death toll must be surpassed before it is worthy of his attention.

So here’s to Pretty Neat Records website, a label that has surely found a better way for music and philanthropy to interact.

Lady GaGa pastes herself in Marmite A-side No GaGa Why I hate the tramp I’ll begin with a reminder that the noughties has been unanimously recognised as the worst decade for music since charts began. And the nightmare continues as the most prominently sang lyric in the streets is currently: “Ra, ra, a-a-aah / Ro-mah, Ro-ma-maah.”

But I suppose beneath the phantom phalluses, giant Kermit the Frog costumes and making love to inflatable whales, Lady GaGa must bear some genuine appeal outside of the trashy media… surely?

Known for her outfits before her music Now don’t get me wrong, some of the greatest artists in history have had some crazy wardrobe adventures: David Bowie, The Beatles, even (go on, hiss…) U2.

Bowie, however, had already encapsulated the world with Space Oddity before he decided to become an alien drag-queen.

It doesn’t take a genius to cotton on that Lady GagReflex’s rise to Fame has been driven solely by her wacky outfits and the fact she’s probably got a penis. She was known for her outfits before her music, simple as that.

Then again, if I rode an ironing board through Leicester Square with a flamethrower strapped to my crotch, I could probably make headlines too.

She isn’t great with words either. My favourite example is: “I have a big donkey dick!”

Who said sophisticated wit was dead?

Apparently though, the poor little thing is “struggling to cope” with the fame and attention she’s receiving.

Bless her little cotton socks.

But here’s an idea: maybe if the daft bitch stops dressing like a mannequin prostitute whenever she goes to ASDA, the tabloids will find new fodder. But that would mean less attention… God forbid.

I’d love to say that, despite all this, her music is actually worthwhile, but come on… Whilst electrodance bollocks has become

as abundant, and about as interesting, as fresh air, it’s hard to be inspired by generic synthetic sex music anymore; unless you’re a sexually frustrated 15 yearold who hasn’t worked out how to stream naughty videos yet.

Your average houseplant could tell you that her two big hits, ‘Bad Romance’ and ‘Poker Face’ are practically the same song. But that’s what happens when you record your material during an afternoon on Garage Band with Flo-Rida, a man whose creative peak came from ripping off a 1980s transvestite.

The woman tries too hard to be ‘out there’ and in her childish desperation for attention she‘s become a walking cliché of tabloid indignation. It was never about the music - a good job, as she‘d be fucked if it was.

And I don’t care what anyone says, ‘Poker Face’ is a shit song and always will be.

If she had any faith in her music, she wouldn’t need to hide behind this baffling persona of a horny mental patient. Had she a hint of human personality or likeability, she wouldn’t need to dress up as a vacuum cleaner to gain fans.

H a n d

on heart, if she writes the next ‘Heroes’ tomorrow, I’ll put my hands up and take all this back. Of course, she won’t.

It’s clear that neither her, nor her label give a toss about whatever shite she’s writing. As long as she remains a paradigm of the faceless sex-culture we’ve happily settled into, Lady GaGa will be number one.

Tom Fletcher

B-side Gaga for GaGa Why I love the lady Love her or hate her, Lady GaGa gave the stale noughties pop scene a shot in the arm, akin to the way one Britney Spears revived the end of a nu-metalsaturated flagging nineties.

She’s a much-needed antidote to the fauxbohemian histrionics of Florence Welch, and Pixie Lott; the songstress seemingly conceived purely for the purpose of flogging mobile phones. Thank god for GaGa’s quality,

polished output and her knowing way with a lyrical conceit; mainstream music became just a little bit smarter and a hell of a lot more fun than the Radio One playlist suggested it could be.

So why is so much of her coverage concerned with having a pop? She’s obviously compelling enough to get you to think about her. Not satisfied with ignoring her if they dislike (perhaps difficult. given her tabloid ubiquity), the woman seems to provoke gushes of bile that seem totally irrelevant to her chosen guise as a pop star and performer. And really, would a male performer invoke the same amount of wrath? There’s some inherent misogyny going on here; see my colleague’s use of ‘daft bitch’.

Why complain about her clothes?

Popular culture has always been peppered with moments of memorable and outlandish outifts; Wham!’s ‘Choose Life’ t-shirts; Madonna’s conical bra phase; Kylie’s gold hotpants. Heck, Geri Halliwell’s Union Jack dress even adorns the cover of The Illustrated History of Britain; like it or not, these fashion memories are an indelible part of our collective experience and psyche.

Surely none of us are naïve enough not to see that the clothes of any prominent figure are carefully chosen to

Art: Kate Mitchell

complement their public persona.

So what if GaGa popped out adorned with Muppets?

The outfit was intended to make a point about animal cruelty - how vacuous of her! She, like Shakira, uses her fame to rally others to do good without patronising them; see her efforts for Haiti, and for HIV sufferers.

And at least we have a female star who doesn’t feel like she has to represent Nuts-sexy to be on top.

Her often flesh-revealing aesthetic is theatrical and striking, not to titillate. That Q cover shoot with her tits out? She looks vulnerable but defiant; more ‘up yours’ than ‘up mine’.

And then, look at any GaGa-related article on the internet and you’ll find the common complaint that the woman is an enigma; nobody knows anything about her personal life, so how can we ‘believe’ in her music?

If this isn’t symptomatic of the weird and slightly unsettling thirst for knowing every detail about famous folk, then what else is it?

Lady GaGa is a character, a performance; who needs to know her toilet habits, her cereal of choice? Isn’t there more magic in the mystique and the myth? Nobody knows about Beyonce’s private life, and accepts her reticence in that regard. I fail to see why she should dignify malicious rumours with a response; deadpan dumb replies are perhaps the best way.

All you need is to hear her songs, or see her perform, or just acknowledge that someone who is a multiinstrumentalist and was a successful songwriter and club performer before she sought international recognition has done a bloody good job of achieving her goals.

Who, amongst the cries of ‘illegal downloading is killing music’, has managed to get three singles to sell three million legal downloads each and has also amassed 10 million legal album sales.

Who doesn’t mime, is just as beguiling when playing acoustically as when accompanied by the full, spectacular shebang, and actually bothers to give her paying punters a show to remember.

In a Cowell-dominated, post-reality TV world, GaGa shows exactly what can be achieved with good oldfashioned talent, hard work and dedication. The woman is in complete control of her public perception and creative output; deride her, but don’t dismiss her. Give me GaGa’s theatrics over Oasis’ tired panto any day.

Helen Lawson

Features.Short Fuse.

From Glasgow to Mumbai by train InHindsight Trainspotting Director: Danny Boyle Trainspotting is one of those rare cases where the film is actually better than the source novel. Even if you’ve not actually seen the film, its cult following can probably not be avoided.

Often remarked as director Danny Boyle’s finest film, and as a major success for British filmmaking, does the film still stand up 14 years later?

Following Renton (Ewan McGregor) and his group of heroin-fuelled ‘friends’, the film bursts with energy, sick humour and a blend of surreal against bleak realism. Danny Boyle owes the successes of The Beach, Sunshine, and especially Slumdog Millionaire, to Trainspotting, which propelled his career to pretty high levels. His debut, Shallow Grave, was a wonderfully dark film but it wasn’t enough to get his or McGregor’s talents fully recognised; Trainspotting did the job though.

Is Trainspotting still Boyle’s best film or has he topped it with Slumdog, his most recent success?

Slumdog Millionaire is a visually beautiful film; impossible to tear your eyes away from. It represents life

as painful and harsh but ultimately improved by love, honour and people who are truly good. Danny Boyle directs it with care that deserves the admiration it has received. But it’s not a patch on Trainspotting.

Shot in the much gloomier Scotland, it’s the inverse of Slumdog, filled to the brim with ‘misery piled upon misery’, occasionally masked over with the brief refuge of drugs. Though Slumdog is undeniably a strong film, it lacks the grit that makes Trainspotting so brilliant. A teenage boy winning the lottery is pure wish-fulfilment; Trainspotting is real life to the extreme. Upon a rewatch, it becomes apparent that whilst Slumdog is a well

directed and excellent film, Boyle has not captured what makes Trainspotting so brilliant: the roughness around the edges.

Though the subject matter is never going to be fun, it’s a pure joy to watch. From the first frame, we’re thrust into Renton’s world, which is never really ‘happy’, but always exhilarating. The film veers from scene to scene and one can practically feel Boyle’s enthusiasm for the project. Whilst he may be a more experienced director now, his passion is what makes the direction so good. Boyle’s keenness for surrealism, executed on scene when Renton submerges into a coffin during an overdose, adds a brilliant touch to the film.

Boyle has gone on to make great films, but his direction has never reached this level since. Whilst the film has been criticised for making drug-use glamorous, it’s tinged with the reality of what these characters are: drug addicts and criminals.

Unlike Jamal, Renton is not your typical leading man; he sleeps with an underage school girl; he steals from his parents; and in the film’s final act, commits perhaps his biggest sin.

However, McGregor’s performance allows Renton to be sympathised with despite his actions. Even with questionable morals and intentions, Renton is a character who you want to see avoid his wayward

group of friends.

Ewan McGregor’s performance is good, but it’s debatable whether he’s ever done better since, but Jonny Lee Miller has never really surpassed his performance as the charming, but uncaring, ‘Sickboy’. And though he’s done just as good work since, Robert Caryle’s psychotic Begbie alone is worth watching the film for.

Trainspotting is undoubtedly overhyped in some circles but it’s undeniable that it’s a wellmade, entertaining film that deserves to remain popular.

The film still holds up as a great movie, but it does perhaps come across as dated.

What saves it is the performances, which never falter, and the direction, which remains consistent.

It’s not a film for everyone; the gloominess and depression can feel too intense and overbearing, and it doesn’t offer any easy answers: does Renton actually become a better person?

Some people may not be able to handle this, and would prefer there films to offer the escapism they require but Trainspotting offers something more morally ambiguous and does so with style and talent. It deserves to remain one of the most popular British films ever made.

Fuse is... looking forward to the release of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Normally, a bestselling trilogy of books would get the Hollywood treatment, but while LA pontificates over turning the Millennium Trilogy into a franchise, its country of origin, Sweden, has turned The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo into a fantastic, dark crime thriller, according to our secret insider Swedish source.

Fuse awaits... more news on the release date of LCD Soundsystem’s new record, which has caused James Murphy quite a lot of headache if his tweets are anything to go by. Apparently it’s all done and dusted on Murphy’s end but the March release date still seems ambitious as it has yet to be mastered. However, if LCD Soundsystem’s previous output is anything to go by, it will be worth the wait.

Fuse despises…

Ellie Goulding.

Unless the entire music industry has suffered amnesia and can’t remember anything that was released in the last decade, then there is no reason why she has already won the BBC Sound of 2010 poll and the Critics Choice award at the Brits based on her innovative, new and interesting sound.

Frankly, an album of whale music by that murderous orca Tilikum would fulfil that criteria better than Goulding’s debut Lights.

Fuse recommend… stumbling across great albums on your iPod that you haven’t listen to in ages. One of the editors at Forge Press was scrolling through the albums on this own iPod and decided to give 2004’s Bubblegum by Mark Lanegan Band a relisten having not heard it in years. Low and behold, it is still magnificent.

Nightline, with profits from ticket sales being donated to the charities.

The Shrimps, who are also headlining the festival, have funded the festival themselves, booking all the acts, venues and accommodation, using money that they raised from their performances throughout the year and from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

For budding comedians The Shrimps will be running workshops during the Sunday of the festival and there will be an open mic on the Friday and the Saturday.

Festival producer Pennells said: “There are a lot of brilliant student comedians out there and the festival is a fantastic platform for them to boost their reputation in the student comedy network.”

Tickets are on sale from the box office and are priced at £10 for a weekend ticket, giving access to all the events or £6 for day tickets.

Matt Burgess

Fuse is... very grateful that the gig season is picking up again after a woefully empty calendar over the festive period. Traditionally, early spring is when bands get out on the road to promote new releases. But we don’t care if they have ulterior motives, we just glad to have some decent gigs to go to again.

Fuse don’t… want to see BBC 6 Music get the axe. A music station devoted to leftfield music with knowledgeable and passionate presenters is a very rare thing that faces being the victim of BBC cuts. Where are its avid supporters going to migrate to? Back to Radio 1 where Nick Grimshaw and Zane Lowe supposedly fly the flag for alternative music or to a commercial “indie” station which actually plays

Fuse suggests… that if you want a career in media then you should get along to one of the events promoting student media happening across campus all next week. Speakers from ITV, Scottish Sun, Workshop Guardian, Capital FM and Heart Radio will be kicking off discussions at the Student Media Day held at the Union tomorrow.

DJ Mary Anne Hobbs will also be talking about the music industry at Coffee Revolution on Tuesday, March 9. Basic sessions in print journalism, TV and radio will take place next week, giving students the chance to learn skills such as video editing, podcasting and filming. Entry to the Mary Anne Hobbs question session is free but places are limited. Student Media Day tickets are £2 and can be bought at the Box Office.

Fuse.

Sheffield Student Comedy Festival returns to the University, for its second year, during March and has received support from top comedian Eddie Izzard.

Izzard, who attended the University of Sheffield said: “A lot of great creative people have come out of Sheffield and it is the city where my comedy started its journey.” He added: “I would like to wish good luck to the Sheffield Student Comedy Festival.”

The festival, organised by the University’s improvisational comedy group The Shrimps, is running from Friday, March 12 to Sunday, March 14 at four venues across the Students’ Union. There will be a variety of different types of acts on show during the festival with performances

successful debut year last year, where 20 acts came from across the country to perform in Sheffield and raised £2,500 for local charity Sheffield Mind. This year money is being raised for two charities, South Yorkshire Eating Disorders Association (SYEDA) and the University of Sheffield’s

The Fuse team’s thoughts

Friday March 5 2010

Sheffield Student Comedy Festival

of sketch, improvisational, musical and traditional stand-up comedy.

Festival organisers hope it will put Sheffield on the map for student comedy as it is the only festival of its kind in the country. Festival Producer, Danny Pennells, said: “When people think of student comedy we want people to think of Sheffield and the Sheffield Student Comedy Festival.”

Stage manager of The Shrimps, Rhe Underwood, said: “We have some great shows, from some fantastic acts, including Wittank and Bristol Revunions,” who she describes as five-star acts. The Sheffield heat of the Chortle Student Comedy Awards will also be held at the festival.

Now in its second year the festival will be aiming to improve upon its

U2 and The Enemy? I dread to think.

Lauren Astbury

Shrimps curated festival returns Preview

Fuse Musings

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Feature.Pretty Neat Records 0010111101001001001101001011110111100100100110111010010010011 0010111 010010111101110010011010010111101111000100 1010010 110100101111011101101001010010111101110110 0010111101001001001 1001001001101010111101111011010 1010010111101111001 0100100110100101111011110110100 001011110100100100110 1001001101001011110111011010 100101111011110010010 0100100110100101111011110110 1001001001101001011110110110001011110100100100110100101111

Neat

and

Tidy

A tiny record label has been born in Brighton that breaks all the normal rules. Jeremy Peel finds out more.

H

ow exactly does one go about running a record label with no profit?

It’s a question that must have been playing on the minds of execs at EMI, Columbia et al for some time now, but one that Aaron Kemp and a team of about “six or seven” friends in Brighton seem to have pretty much sorted.

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Pretty Neat Records started as the pipedream of Kemp’s friend at The University of Leeds who, armed with a decent name, a logo design and a bucket load of great electronic music courtesy of his mates, intended to start up the label as soon as his final assessments were out of the way; however, his untimely death last year due to mental health problems prevented the idea from making it past the drawing board.

Now working as a barman on Brighton seafront, Kemp decided to take up the mantle: “I thought that if I did a digital label I could start this up again, I could get it going in memory of him. And then my girlfriend pointed out that Mind is the UK’s largest mental health charity, and that they help so many people – why not give all the proceeds to them and ask all the artists to donate a track to the cause? I took that idea and started from there.”

Whilst Pretty Neat Records are yet to make their first release, Kemp claims that the release schedule for their first six months is all but mapped out, and their site displays a long list of artists ready to contribute to the cause.

“We had a kind of mission statement, to help young, unsigned talent as well as work alongside established artists, to get their talent heard and

down is that they need to make money in a time where there’s not a lot of money to be made, and that’s why they’re shutting up. We’re not relying on the money, and as much or as little as we make for the charity, we’re doing it for that and not to pay ourselves. No one gets paid from the label, including myself, but we’re all still motivated so we don’t give up on it.”

Furthermore, he maintains that the only real limiting factor in setting up a label in the digital age is determination.

“I wouldn’t say it’s easy to do but it’s very doable, if you’ve got the right mindset and the right outfit to do it. 10 years ago I wouldn’t have been able to do it; I’d have to have talked to manufacturing people and distributors.

“I know enough, but I know that that would be far too much for me to sort through on my own. I think in the next couple of years we’ll see more small labels like mine and more of the big indie labels are going to drop down a bit.”

‘Big indie labels need to make money when there’s not much money to be made.’

Kemp claims that running a label for charity actually makes overcoming some of the usual financial hurdles a lot easier.

Pretty Neat have one generic contract for all of their artists, guaranteeing that their tracks remain exclusive to the label for a year and that all profits will go to Mind.

When the year is up the artists have the right to shop around their music to other, more profitable outlets, but Kemp thinks that all of their currently scheduled releases will remain exclusive to the label for the foreseeable future.

“None of them will be wanting

to release [their music] again, they’ve said, ‘You guys can have it.’”

Although the label hasn’t been established with the intention of representing Brighton artists – “we’re based in Brighton because I live here”, states Kemp – it has already formed links with local producers through its association with Access to Music Brighton, a music college that its founder attended.

Turn Kemp onto the subject of Brighton’s unrecognised contingent of underground producers and his enthusiasm is palpable; he points to a 15-year-old Skream as a prime example of what the fruits of his labours could be.

“There’s so much electronic music that has been mastered in the UK. When Skream came out, people went nuts for him and now he’s pioneered a new genre – you don’t really see that much and I think that’s because nowadays young people don’t really know where to go or what to do.”

Pretty Neat Records appears to have a strong future ahead of it, but as Kemp acknowledges, success can bring its own issues: “If this starts picking up and going well, I’d like to put more time into it, which would involve me having to make money from it.

“I’m not sure how I would work that, because I don’t want to start off officially saying no one’s profiting from this, to then say, ‘Well, actually I’ve got to make a living to make it better’.

“It’s difficult to explain to people that in doing that we’d make more money for Mind because I’d push it more.”

This, of course, is all speculation; in the meantime, there are plans for a monthly night and plenty of scheduled releases to be followed up on.

Philanthropy doesn’t happen all by itself, you know.

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Friday March 5 2010

‘Most people are happy to be onboard with a really good cause.’

also at the same time help a really good cause. I think most people can understand that and are happy to be onboard with it. A lot of people have dealt with mental illness in the past with family or friends; it’s the same with most good causes, somewhere along the line people can relate to it.”

Thus far the established artists are represented by electro hip-hop DJ Kidkanevil – cornered after a set at Kemp’s seafront bar – and minimal techno producer Franco Bianco, who got involved via a reply to a group email.

Their tracks, Kemp explains, will be released as four track compilations “bi-monthly or every quarter of the year”, alongside four or five track EPs released by unsigned producers at more regular intervals, which all sounds fairly daunting for a part-time project.

“I work full time, I’m an assistant manager. Now I’ve got lots of friends helping me out, which is brilliant, but a lot of it happens off my own back in my spare time, so I was always worried that I’d just drop it, and not really take it anywhere.

“Even though we haven’t even put our first release out yet, I know we’re going to be alright for a bit because I’m motivated to do it and I’ve got people working with me.”

This is all well and good, but it seems to us like starting up a label without profit right now risks overstepping the line between bravery and foolishness; at a time when independent labels left and right are closing their doors, how can an enterprise like Pretty Neat Records take off successfully and, crucially, manage to stay airborne through the coming months?

When I put the question to Kemp however, he answers with a disarming quiet confidence.

“The problem with a lot of the indie labels that are going

Aaron Kemp’s Pretty Neat artists to look out for:Sol & Sample “With some success from releases on Shufflemood, Boeing and Multivitamins there is a chance you will have heard a Sol & Sample track already - if not, 2010 will be the year that you do. With minimal techno becoming more and more popular, these guys are sure to be on the front line of new sounds.”

Altimeter “Dupstepper Altimeter is one of those artists you know should already be an established name, so it was a real coup getting him to release some of his music on Pretty Neat.”

Leumas “For those who thought drum ‘n’ bass is dead, you’re wrong! Leumas produces some lovely warm d ‘n’ b with plenty of catchy jazzy samples.”

Warsawa “Now and again an electronica producer emerges and takes you back. Warsawa is one of these producers who - unlike most of the previous masters of this genre - isn’t German but is very much influenced by that sound.”

Organic Matter “Mix influences of techno, french house, ambient electronica and broken beat and you get Organic Matter. This producer’s sound ranges from banging dance floor electro tracks to more chilled-out poppy numbers.”

Techno duo Sol & Sample

Feature.The Horseman.

Video Nasty Peter Walsh speaks to director Steven Kastrissios about the challenges in shooting his first feature debut and hitting a gory niche.

I

start with a bang so that any festival programmers and distributors were hooked within the first five minutes.”

The ‘hook’ of violence is twofold, as Christian employs a toolbox of seemingly inane household objects to help extract the confessions he wants, and to get the leads he so desperately needs.

Some fish hooks here, some suggestive angles there, and an agonising tugging of fish wire had the male audience members at London’s Frightfest horror film festival screaming along in howls of agony.

As god-awful as that may sound, the film holds it’s strength through the delicate power of suggestion, a force seemingly forgotten in a world of ‘show-everything’ cinema. “It doesn’t matter how perfect your make up is, if your actors aren’t up to it then it’s not going to be convincing”.

A hard hitting revenge thriller to match any example of the genre

The film buzzes with the vigour and passion of a first time director putting everything he has into a compact 96 minutes.

There are bits where the film is a little rough around the edges, not just in terms of the violence, but also in it’s pacing, it’s struggle to find a clear and direct narrative.

‘We spent the whole time laughing our arses off’ While the camera artfully shies away from showing any explicit gore, the brawling and fighting at the end of the film almost refuses to give up. Yet the camera work, the acting, and overall impact of the film confirms the vision of a filmmaker who knows exactly what he wants.

The few shaky moments are more than made up for by some absolutely superb shots, more often than not just showing a broken father crumbling behind a stony face.

This film won’t be for the mainstream, and it might even be a push for the Friday night multiplex going horror fan.

The violence is on occasion unrelenting, but not in the over the top way that Saw is. There is no catharsis, no satisfaction, no release. Just taught human drama and some agonising suggestion.

It will frustrate some viewers, and might even anger a few more, but is that always a bad thing?

Kastrissios doesn’t think so: “you’re not making a good revenge, blood and guts movie if you’re not pissing off a few people.”

Fuse.

The film hinges on the central performance of Peter Marshall as the father Christian, and the veteran of the Brisbane stage was still new to proper film work with this being his first major role.

Marshall more than rises to the occasion, filling the character of the down-at-heel father with a bristling frustration and struggling to find any

resolution in the aftermath of his daughter’s death.

Gruelling as the violence is to the viewer, the leading man brought a lighter touch to the shoot: “Peter’s just this big kid, very happy, very friendly, so we pretty much just spent the whole time laughing our arses off.”

Puppy-eyed and ‘normal’ as Peter Marshall is, he brings to life a role which is anything but your typical ‘hard man’. There are no snappy one liners, no flourishes of balletic violence, no easy get outs for him or the viewer.

These are all the hallmarks of the revenge thriller, and The Horseman holds a place in this subgenre of horror films which focuses the terror very much in the real world.

Kastrissios cites Shane Meadows Midlands-based revenge tragedy Dead Man’s Shoes as a seminal influence in making The Horseman: “I really enjoyed the film, and was struck by how simple it was. I’ve always wanted to do a revenge film, and a few weeks later this idea just popped into my head.

“I was so taken by this one line description of The Horseman that I’d put down that I fleshed out the outline and characters for two weeks, spent a month writing a first draught. From that I went on to shoot the short film and then after that a few more polishes of the script and then on to shoot the feature.”

Kastrissios was 23 when he started draughting The Horseman, and now almost five years later the film is finding UK-wide DVD release, following a successful limited run nationwide for Hallowe’en last year.

Going from first draught to film school short, Kastrissios was able to sell the film to gather the funds he needed to turn it into a proper feature length film.

Friday March 5 2010

t’s poor form to have to ask a director his age, but The Horseman is a unique film, and the man behind it, Steven Kastrissios, is still a bit of an enigma.

“I’m 27” he says, embarrassing no one but the humble interviewer.

The question almost begs re-asking out of disbelief at the scale of what he’s achieved, but I doubt Steven is in any doubt about the matter. He is 27.

Few ever achieve the almost impossible trio of being the writer, director and producer of their own film. Steven has already managed this with his first feature, and delivered a hard-hitting revenge thriller to match any example of the genre you care to mention.

The dark retributor at the heart of this Australian film is the broken middleaged father Christian, who learns that his almost estranged daughter was drugged, raped in front of a camera, and then left for dead at the side of the road.

A downtrodden pest controller by day, the failed dad goes on a rampage to exact bloody revenge on the bastards that had anything to do with his daughter’s death.

A desperate and some might say futile exercise in trying to find answers where there are none.

The Horseman doesn’t hang around in getting to the crunch, as just two minutes in, the opening titles barely over, and a particularly seedy individual has already had his nose cracked open with a crowbar.

Kastrissios is all too aware of the need to leave an impression: “I knew we were going to have to write on a budget, but I also knew that we weren’t going to have any big actors in it.

“As such, the film had to

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Interview.Machine Head.

Industrial

Three years into the tour of a lifetime, guitarist Phil Demmel about depr

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Fuse.

Friday March 5 2010

hil Demmel has been through a lot. Not only is he a rock star who has been without vacation for 15 years, he has also suffered from depression since his father died a couple of years ago and he has held a grudge against his ex-wife for so long that it has physically affected his heart.

He has had false twitter accounts put up in his name, spreading lies over the Internet.

And he has a serious condition that makes him pass out without warning, sometimes on stage in front of thousands.

Still, Phil is one of the loveliest people you could ever meet. The Machine Head guitarist sits next to me in a cold concrete staircase in Leeds, telling me how you need to forgive and let your anger go, even when the people you love cheat on you and leave you in ruins.

You can’t change the way people behave, but you can control the energy you give a situation.

Let’s rewind the tape for a bit.

30 minutes earlier I arrive at the Leeds O2 Academy backstage area for The Black Procession, Machine Head’s latest cycle of their three year long tour on the back of 2007’s Grammy nominated The Blackening. With them on tour are Hatebreed, Bleeding Through and Man Must Die.

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‘This is the most sober we’ve been on tour - we’ve got a treadmill.’

The initially confused-looking guitarist greets me with a firm handshake and leads me through the maze that is the concert venue, holding up doors like a true gentleman, before finding a place that somewhat shields us from the sounds of Man Must Die’s brutal sound check.

Tell us about the Black Procession Tour.

“The tour’s going really good. We’ve gone through Europe and Scandinavia and we have been in the UK for a week or so. The shows are awesome over here so I’m glad we saved them for last,” he says, starting off politely.

“This is the first time on this cycle that we’re doing it all on our own terms with our own production and stuff. We haven’t done that over here before so we wanted to get out here and play a full two hours, or an hour and fortyfive anyway”, he says and laughs his first of

many contagious laughs.

You’ve managed to catch the coldest winter in a long time.

“Yeah it’s pretty cold but I don’t mind the cold weather. I like to visit the snow but I wouldn’t like to live in it,” says the man who claims he used to go snowboarding 30 times a year before joining the band.

‘I’m really hating Twitter right now, on a number of levels.’

A sporty guy in other words. As it turns out, the whole Black Procession tour is. Whilst Hatebreed do yoga and Bleeding Through’s Brandan Schieppati plans a fitness video, the headliners have brought a treadmill along and are swopping booze for juice.

“Well, this is the most sober we’ve been on tour. Robb [Flynn, lead vocals and guitar] and I haven’t really been drinking, Adam [Duce, bass] doesn’t drink, Dave [McClain, drums] has kept it down. I mean, we’ve got a treadmill with us, we’ve got a juicer with us. Fresh fruit, vegetables and nuts is on the rider. Not so much the booze.”

And the healthiness doesn’t stop there.

“Adam and I are doing this paleo diet. It’s like a cave man diet which means no breads, no grains, just all nuts, fruit, and meat. Plants and animals, that’s it. Robb’s really picky with what he eats; he’s really organic and knowledgeable. And after the gig somebody will always go down and get the juicer going, throwing the ginger and the carrots in and then everybody’s all stoked for their juice and it’s like, ‘Man, we’ve come a long way for sure!’”, he laughs.

Despite it being a very exciting mix of bands touring around Europe together, Phil tells us he has no juicy stories to share. Excuse the pun.

“It’s been pretty uneventful so far. It’s been mostly about catching up on our TV shows and watching True Blood and Lost, you know,” he says and bursts out laughing.

“No real crazy stories. We had a couple of nights off in London, we saw Les Miserables and then we went out and raged afterwards.

We went and saw Fear Factory one night, we had one drink a night but that’s about it.

Nothing too crazy.”

And at first I don’t believe him. Having kept up to date with the most recent Machine Head

online updates I had seen a tweet indicating that Robb had a very wet night in a certain European city.

“Vienna? Nah, maybe for him but not for me, I went to bed pretty early in Vienna. And I’ll pretend that you just didn’t say Twitter.”

It turns out I have hit a sore point. And Phil has his reasons for it.

“I’m really hating Twitter right now, on a number of levels. Somebody put up a fake Twitter page for me, so it’s a kind of touchy subject for me.”

“I just got back from the doctor, I have herpes. Thanks groupie,” he quotes a tweet, giving me a serious look.

“Not very cool.”

Where do you stand on downloading and streaming and, well, the future of the music industry I guess?

“It’s just about following the technology, man. I mean I can’t say that, ‘Oh, it sucks and blah blah blah’, because I used to do it when I was a kid. I was syncing up my dubbing station with my cassettes, I was doing the same thing.

It’s always been a part of what’s going on, it’s just that it’s so easy now and it’s just a flick of a button. I mean you don’t even have to know somebody who has the record, you just go online! So it’s just the nature of the beast.”

He hesitates before answering about whether he buys CDs or not.

“Sometimes, yeah. But I’m on the road a lot so its easier for me to just go to iTunes and grab it or take my buddy’s and rip it, you know,” he laughs, pausing again to think about his words.

“I do that. And everybody in my band does that. And everybody I know does that, so if anybody’s going to stand up there and be like ‘Oh, dudududu,” he says comically, mimicking

Evolution

, Isabella Qvist talks to Machine Head r ession, forgiveness and the future. a preacher with a serious frown.

“It’s like, ‘You’re doing the same goddamn thing so shut up!’”

True. So, is touring necessary in a different way now that people don’t buy CDs? “I think it’s absolutely necessary, yeah, especially for a band like us. I mean we have to tour; that’s how people know us; that’s how we have maintained our popularity.

We’re a great live band and that’s what it comes down to. You can play all you want but if you’re not good then people aren’t going to come back. So that’s why we’ve been touring for almost three years on this record.”

Are you getting a bit tired of touring?

“I’m really ready to be home, yeah. I’ve got a three and a half year old little boy I haven’t seen for a long time you know. I need to be home.”

It must be really hard to have relationships when you’re on tour.

“Yeah, well relationships are really easy, I just don’t have them,” he laughs.

Having thought about it, I decide now is time to take the bull by its horns and ask what every Machine Head fan with YouTube access has been wondering about.

I understand that you have a heart problem and you’ve had problems with fainting; would you mind telling us a little bit about it?

How do you mend a broken heart - how do you forgive someone who has cheated on you?

“As soon as we get home in April then we’ll sit down and we’ll get into our little jam and that’s where we rock out. We just have a couple of things now so nothing really solidified. We won’t start until then.”

“Well, I was married for seven years and I was with her for twelve.”

He takes his time as he answers.

“And you know, she basically ruined me,” he says and laughs bitterly.

“It’s taken me a long time and she’s the reason why I’ve taken this long because I’ve held this against her for all that time and I can’t help the way that she is. They call it a grievance, you know, I have an unenforceable grievance with her. I can’t make her be [anything] other than she is, so you just have to… It’s like a cop stuck on the side of the road and he’s got a broken down car and all these people are speeding by, and he can’t write these tickets, and it’s something I can’t write a ticket for. And so that’s just something you have to let go.

“The only thing you can control is how you feel about it and the energy that you give to that situation. So by holding a grudge against that person, it’s not helping your situation in any way. You should focus on your own healing instead of focusing on blaming that

Congratulations.

“Thanks. [We don’t mind losing the award] to Slayer, that’s OK you know,” he says and grins, genuinely now.

‘When my ex-wife cheated on me, she basically ruined me.’

What has been the biggest moment so far in Machine Head’s career?

“Oh, there’s been so many benchmarks that we have achieved with this thing. Our best-selling first week with The Blackening, and then we won Record of the Year, there’s been so many things!”

Is Machine Head going to begin working on a new album anytime soon?

Will it continue along the lines of the epic long songs of The Blackening?

“No. I think that we’ve done the epicness already. We’ve done the long epic tunes and I think that we’ll probably still keep the heaviness and maybe a little bit of the progressive arrangements that have been on the past couple of Machine Head records but I don’t know, man. We didn’t know what The Blackening was going to be like until we got in there and we’ll just have to see what kind of mood we’re in and what comes out of it.

I’m not going to put any limits on it.”

Once outside I realise I have finally found the solution to a life-size puzzle. You need to laugh, you need to forgive and you need to let go. Live. Something which I have no trouble doing to the sounds of Man Must Die, Bleeding Through, Hatebreed and a brilliant Machine Head later that night.

Fuse.

Phil pulls a face; he is anything but happy to talk about his famous mid-performance fainting episodes. The last one happened on tour last summer with his favourite band, Metallica, and now the previously so confident rock star struggles with his words.

“I have a condition, it’s called cardiogenic syncope. There’s a valve on your heart that communicates with your brain and the brain tells it how much blood to flow and if I’m – ,” he interrupts himself and thinks before he

person. So that’s it.”

That’s it. We continue onto a lighter subject.

In 2007 The Blackening was nominated for a Grammy Award. And recently it was named ‘Album of the Decade’ by Metal Hammer.

Friday March 5 2010

‘I’ve been through a lot to clear myself of the stressful things in my life.’

continues.

“I’ve gone through…”

He sighs and starts again.

“My father died a couple of years ago, and that kind of triggered this huge depression for me and so if I’m in a real depressed state, then I’m really susceptible to that and so in the last couple of years I’ve suffered a really bad series of episodes of that and sometimes they happen on stage. It hasn’t happened since last July. At Sonisphere with Metallica,” he says and rolls his eyes, clearly embarrassed.

“And if you go on YouTube you can see ‘em all.”

He laughs uncomfortably.

“I’ve been through a lot to clear myself of the stressful things in my life and I’ve really been going through this forgiveness phase.

Letting shit go and just realising that there is nothing I can do about that and moving on. As I’ve proceeded with that I’ve improved health-wise. So I’m not going to be recovering and I’m not looking back.”

Phil keeps his eyes fixated on the floor for most of the time he is talking, but as he finishes that last sentence he looks up at me with his big, honest eyes and I feel he is just the right person to ask my next question.

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Feature.Freeware Fun.

Tired of choosing between eating and something new play? James Wragg and Mike Bentley are here to help yo boredom in tight times without spending a penny

Spelunky

Taking elements from roguelikes and platformers alike, Spelunky is a fiendishly difficult side-scrolling game.

Whilst it would take only about half an hour to complete in

Passage

Fuse.

Friday March 5 2010

Passage is a very simplistic game; pixel-art graphics only

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occupy a thin, horizontal strip of your screen. You gain points for moving forward, and from opening chests.

As the game world stretches on, the road ahead becomes less visible, whilst remnants of areas past clog behind you in pixellated residue. As time passes, your hair starts to grey, your walk turns into a shuffle; and eventually you die.

There is no scoreboard,

no sense of completion; it all just fades back to the title screen, leaving you with a poignant sense of your own mortality.

Passage is a pessimistic microcosm of life, both sad and beautiful, conveyed through pixel-art and a looped MIDI tune. http://tinyurl.com/3aagvf James Wragg

Just like the film industry, it’s rare to see experimental or ‘arty’ games breaking into the mainstream; most of them are developed by one or two people and released for little or no profit. A lot of freeware titles are recognised by organisations such as the International Games Festival (think Cannes Film Festival for games), and can be emotional or educational experiences, despite being low-budget.

Storyteller

Storyteller depicts three moments in time for three fantasy characters. In the first, your arrangement of the characters decides who resides in the local castle, and who does not. In the second scene, those who were banished to poverty have become wizards; the castle-dwellers have been forced to take up arms.

You decide how the battle unfolds. The final scene is the outcome; who lived?

Who died? What happened to the land?

With bare-bones graphics, it’s surprising how much emotion this small game

can convey; though once you’ve exhausted its possible outcomes it can seem more like a mathematical formulae than an actual story. Though this is, perhaps, the trouble with interactive storytelling in general – can a choose-yourown-adventure book ever be a substitute for true poetry? http://tinyurl.com/l4fgp8

a single playthrough, there are no checkpoints in any of Spelunky’s 16 randomly generated levels, and you only get one life. This means actually completing

Spelunky requires the player to master all of the gameplay mechanics, and hone their platforming skills to a fine art. Thankfully, the game makes this a joy rather than a chore, and replaying Spelunky’s levels and learning their quirks can be insanely addictive. By taking gameplay back-to-basics and harshly yet fairly punishing the player, Spelunky is a backlash against modern games which utilise quicksaves and checkpoints to allow the player to advance through attrition rather than skill.

You play as an Indiana Jones-style adventurer descending into an ancient tomb, and while bats and spiders are your initial foes, you’ll eventually face yetis, mummies and more as you search for rare treasure.

Loot can be sold at stores for useful equipment, and eventually, even traded for shortcuts to the games four

The White Chamber

Originally conceived as a university project, The White

main areas (thes being the only mortal player has beating the gam bombs, hurling rescuing damsels are just many of which make the g play, and both the pleasing pixel ae its endearing lo contribute to t excellent present Spelunky is, intentionally, a a more punishin gameplay, though and swift learnin forces upon new definitely be off some. Sticking however, not on brilliantly crafted but remind you ho and punishment c a game’s play tarnish it. http://tinyurl.c

Ja

Chamber is a point-and-click horror adventure game set on a defiled space station.

Though the game plays the clichéd amnesia card, uncovering your character’s past and working your way through the twists and enigmas of the plot is fairly engrossing, even if the overall story isn’t that original. The presentation is excellent for a low budget game, and it succeeds in conveying a brilliant sense of atmosphere and some genuinely creepy moments despite its use

of sty The p yet most game walkth few w a little rest o going, White fun, a conclu for too http

Pau in W

Paul Moos created using the Studio en

EnviroBear 2000

James Wragg

EnviroBear 2000 is without

a s a W a o n c c i t W o a g

IVAN

ew to you fight y!

IVAN was designed from the ground up to be notoriously difficult, and most playthroughs will end with your violent death.

The joy, however, is in the

ese shortcuts y hope any as of actually me). Lobbing ropes and ls in distress f the actions game a joy to he dungeon’s esthetic and low-fi music the game’s ntation. s, very return to ing style of gh the steep ng curve this w players will ff-putting for with it will, nly reveal a d platformer ow challenge can enhance yability, not

process. Unlike most RPGs, IVAN adds a huge amount of complexity to combat, with a twist of dark humour.

You can wield anything you find as a weapon, from a flaming meteoric bronze bastard sword to a rotten banana, but weight, the weapon’s material and your own statistics determine how effective any choice will be.

In addition, limbs can be severed; food and corpses eaten; starvation can take hold, leading to vomiting; gods can be prayed to, often

Dwarf Fortress

ames Wragg

tylised anime artwork. puzzles are challenging, logical enough for players to beat the e without needing a through. There are a ways to die which seem e unfair considering the of the game is fairly easy g, but on the whole The e Chamber is accessible, and reaches a satisfying lusion before it drags on oo long. tp://tinyurl.com/ou6dwr

On the surface, Dwarf Fortress is about managing a community of dwarves, and helping them build an underground fortress. But deep down it’s more than that. When you load up Dwarf Fortress for the first time, it forges a world. It carves valleys, raises mountains and pours oceans; it simulates

James Wragg and charming adventure game that certainly doesn’t overstay its welcome. To be precise, it’s around five to ten minutes long, with only a handful of challenges. The area where the game really stands out, though, is the art style. Paul Moose and all of the objects he will encounter are pencil-drawn paper cutouts, and the backgrounds are usually little more than cardboard and crayon.

Sounds risky, but it’s pulled off exceptionally well. The rest of the developer’s work is worth a look, too. http://tinyurl.com/yzkjz5c

James Wragg

can be found at tinyurl.com/ yhdnm8p, and an impressive isometric visualiser at tinyurl. com/yf27x5m).

Ultimately, though you may find Dwarf Fortress too complex to master. This doesn’t mean you can’t be involved, however, as there’s a plethora of Dwarf Fortress diaries and chronicles which have been produced by the game’s thriving online community.

Try reading SomethingAwful.com’s Boatmurdered tale (found at tinyurl.com/c533zr, contains profanity), or Roburky’s diary on Rock Paper Shotgun (tinyurl.com/kjm26d). These stories convey the enormity of narratives which can result from a mixture of Dwarf Fortress and a healthy imagination. http://tinyurl.com/j2b6d James Wragg

Sometimes commercial games can be released as a free download by their publisher after a certain amount of time, though they’re not always freely redistributable (which means it might only be legal to download the game from a specific source).

Games such as Grand Theft Auto, F.E.A.R.’s multiplayer component and the early Command and Conquer games are all absolutely free online.

A list of commercial games re-released as freeware can be found at http://tinyurl.com/mppuae.

Achievement Unlocked

Mike Bentley

while ploughing through bushes and ponds to collect food to fatten yourself up with before winter arrives.

Hitting trees and boulders can fill your car with junk, often jamming the controls; making the game even trickier. If you’ve ever wondered about the driving ability of bears then this is the game for you. http://tinyurl.com/deyynt

to become attached to the characters as your fortress expands and the dangers they face, from the domestic to the literally monstrous, begin to mount up. They become three dimensional; unquestionably real.

Which, unfortunately, is more than can be said about the game’s graphics.

A typical Dwarf Fortress screenshot displays a mess of text and ASCII symbols, and struggling with the game’s overwhelmingly complex control scheme can become harder than the game itself.

It’s almost essential to read some tutorials before starting (a great beginners’ guide can be found at tinyurl. com/bj6swz, and the useful Dwarf Fortress Wiki is at df.magmawiki.com), and there are many graphic sets which can be downloaded to make the game easier on the eye (a decent collection

Achievement Unlocked is a short, satirical platformer made in Flash and published on armorgames.com. An entertaining enough exercise on the face of it, but the game outright lampoons an unnecessary staple of

modern gaming culture, ‘achievements’, seen on the PS3 as ‘trophies’, through making the completion of the arbitrary tasks associated with their acquisition the focal point. When you get five to ten achievements as a direct result of starting the game, it’s sure to put a smile on your face. Though, there are a few that you simply won’t get without checking the answers list (and netting the vital ‘Cheater’ achievement). http://tinyurl.com/5daj4c Mike Bentley

Fuse.

a doubt the single best simulation of a bear driving a car you will ever play.

Wrestling with the controls is as hard as throttling the neck of an abstract ideal with no arms and a half eaten coconut. That is to say, it’s clumsy as hell, as one would imagine a bear would find the experience of driving.

With only one paw you must operate the steering wheel, acceleration, brake and gearbox all independently,

200 years of shifting environmental factors and fledgling civilisations; it makes history. You can scroll through the 20,000 odd historical figures the game has made; dragons, warriors, and kings, and witness how they interacted. And this is all generated by your computer - an entirely unique web of

stories and tales, rivalling any Tolkien epic, which forms the setting for you game.

The story of your fortress will be but a small mark on this vast reserve of procedurally generated history.

The insane intricacy of the simulation presented in Dwarf Fortress is what makes the game so immersive . While the bare game mechanics seem simple enough – you assign professions, sculpt rooms, obtain food – there’s a huge amount of depth to every action. Dwarves have loves, hopes, fears; they have ribcages and organs which can be broken or wounded; they have friendships, relationships and more. If a dwarf sees his best friend cut down in combat, he’ll despair. If he has to bury said friend’s decapitated remains, he could vomit in disgust, even become depressed and violent. It’s impossible not

Friday March 5 2010

ose in Space World, by thecatamites e Adventure Game ngine, is a witty

Jmes Wragg

The term ‘roguelike’ is derived from the 1980 game Rogue, which was the first game to popularise dungeon crawling. ‘Roguelike’ is used to describe games which often use randomly generated levels, permanent death, keyboard movement and simple graphics.

As such, the roguelike is a popular genre among freeware game developers, though there are some mainstream examples of roguelikes, such as the Diablo series.

.com/j2b6d

ul Moose Space World

offering ludicrous rewards; walls, doors and rock can be blown away; and so much more.

The intricacy of the game mechanics is lent further depth by the replayability of the randomly generated dungeons.

The only downside is that the overlypunishing gameplay and the frustratingly limiting storyline make actually completing the game a near-impossibility. http://tinyurl.com/yek8djj

9

Reviews.Music.

Liars aren’t always bad Album Liars Sisterworld

Genre defying American outfit Liars return to form with their fifth full length album.

Normally when an album is overflowing with effects it is not a good sign. Not the case in this instance.

Sisterworld is by and large a masterful demonstration of how to deploy an extensive knowledge of the capabilities of effects pedals, without descending into the realm of selfindulgent dross.

There is the odd moment of indiscipline (the incessant note-bending on ‘No Barrier Fun’ is pretty irritating), but these occasions are rare.

Shy Child have matured and produced a refreshing album. convey a sense of passion in an exciting way.

If you’re a fan of Shy Child and were hoping for Shy Child another album full of tracks Liquid Love like the fantastic ‘Summer’ or the cowbell ridden ‘Drop The Phone’ you might find yourself surprised but far from disappointed.

Upcoming single A highly polished and oddly beautiful audible ‘Disconnected’ and its experience, Shy Child’s accompanying weird music latest release, Liquid Love, video perfectly conveys sees keytar and drums duo Shy Child’s slightly altered Pete Cafarella and Nate style.

Complete with uplifting, Smith push themselves joyous rhythms and further than before.

It claws its way into every simplistic yet effective nook and cranny of your drumming Liquid Love is consciousness setting up still exciting enough to camp and refusing to leave stand out from the crowd. like some kind of musically It may be a new direction for the New York duo but gifted squatter.

What makes Liquid Love it’s one that’s certainly paid such an addictive album off.

Through a combination is the obvious progression from previous release Noise of distancing themselves Won’t Stop with tracks being from the nu-rave fad 2006/2007 that noticeably more laidback of and mellow but not to the undoubtedly had some point where things become influence over Noise Won’t Stop and by stripping things dull or monotonous.

There’s the perfect back to basics, Shy Child blend of idyllic ’80s plinky- have managed to create plonky riffs and gritty synth an album which feels baselines all layered over both refreshingly familiar sumptuous fragile high- and ultimately far more pitched harmonies which, accessible. despite their gentle nature, Ross Haymes still manage to forcefully

Fuse.

Friday March 5 2010

Album

10

The beginning of opening track ‘Scissor’ showcases an appreciation of clean sounding harmonies, which appear briefly and sporadically, to an unsettling and haunting effect.

The quieter moments would be nothing without the overriding energy, aggressiveness and sometimes outright ferocity which underscores this record.

The sound lurches schizophrenically and exhilaratingly between moments of delicate eeriness and an apocalyptic sounding rave, which revels in its own tumult.

Lyrically, it’s dark, intelligently so, with a sizeable dash of sardonic humour. The title Sisterworld foreshadows an extended exploration of social outsiders.

These are the lyrics of a band who do not accept society’s norms, treating

notions of commercialism, for their own sake, with indifference and sometimes derision.

‘Overachievers’ takes a hefty sideswipe at the way well off Los Angeles professionals blunder through their middle class lives without ever stopping to wonder what it’s all for.

This critique is not to be confused with selfrighteousness, in no small part due to numerous moments of inspired eccentricity.

The inclusion of a biodiesel car which “Sounded like a walrus with ulcers”, springs to mind by way of example.

Sisterworld is a very coherent, intense and at times a challenging musical experience. For the full effect listen to this alone, without distraction, preferably in the dark and be amazed.

Alex Burgess

Album The Butterfly Explosion LostTrails

Shoegaze, a genre that’s been getting a bit of a revival as of late, seems to be exponentially acquiring new acts and Ireland’s The Butterfly Explosion are no exception.

Now, don’t take this statement as a reason to just chuck them into a crate with ‘shoegaze revival’ scribbled on the outside.

They are much more than that.

Lost Trails, their debut album, mixes instrumental passages with the odd vocal moment.

It’s not unlike the soundtrack for an unseen film.

From ‘Closer’, the opening track, you get the general idea that shoegaze is making a slow, noisy comeback into the airwaves, with a wall of sound approach that manages to be saturating, but that allows for calm and

haunting moments.

Not all is noise and whispered voices. ‘Sophia’ goes to show that this type of music has a beating heart with a beautiful sound structure and the reassuring lyric refrain of “I’m here”.

Another sentimental moment comes with ‘A Nearer Sky’, with its mixture of acoustic instrumentation and layered reverberated music, never letting go of ambience.

Be warned, because of the nature of the genre, the sound can be saturating, even grating, from time to time, so some elements might feel drowned in the mix.

All but two songs are above the five-minute mark so if you want your songs short and snappy, this is not what you are looking for.

There’s never a moment when they hide their influences and the defining moment of the whole album is ‘Automatic’, a seven minute instrumental mammoth where everything melds together to create the very essence of The Butterfly Explosion.

Samuel Valdes Lopez

Album Lou Rhodes One GoodThing

Charting the progression of Lou Rhodes’ life over the past two years, One Good Thing has been described as her most “brutally raw record to date.”

This is not wrong.

Recorded in a series of live sessions over a period of two weeks, with no additions but an acoustic guitar and some light strings, the stripped back sound allows

for the quality of Rhodes’ voice and the meanings behind her lyrics to take to the fore.

As a result, her third release has an element of purity rarely seen in the majority of modern albums Lyrically, Rhodes is talented; the sheer variety of emotion to be found in her words is astounding.

‘Janey’, a song about the sudden and unexpected death of Rhodes’ sister, is understandably fraught with grief.

Meanwhile, the opening track, for which the album is named, has a poetically optimistic quality: “yesterday a man defied them / standing in light / bringing dreams of new tomorrows / closer in sight”.

Unfortunately, it is the lyrics that carry this album.

In purely musical terms it is possible for the 11 track record to blur into one.

Without careful attention to every

lyric, it is easy to forget which track you are listening to at all.

There is very little melodic distinction between each song, and whilst Rhodes’ clear, ever so slightly breathy voice is beautiful and her lyrics equally so, the record itself can ultimately become somewhat tedious.

Only ‘Magic Day’ stands out, it’s delicately plucked notes offering some distinction in a sea of similarity.

Taken individually, each track on One Good Thing is a masterful example of how purity of sound and raw emotion can produce truly stunning music without too much production.

However, as a collective, the listener may find themselves longing for a record that offers them a touch more variety.

Georgina Beardmore

Reviews.Music.

Hushed reverence rules

Live Xiu Xiu + Blood Oranges + Urgent Talk The Harley 24/02/2010 Sheffield’s Urgent Talk bring together many disparate elements; big, sometimes syncopated electronic beats, haunting bass lines, effects-laden violin, synthesisers and emotional boy-girl vocals. It all makes for a lot of interesting noise, but one that could perhaps do with a little refinement.

Blood Oranges beef up the C86 indie-pop sound with a healthy dose of distortion on their pedals.

We’re left with a collection of songs heavy on handclaps and cute keyboard

Live New Young Pony Club Bungalows & Bears 25/02/2010

New Young Pony Club are not the same band that once wrote “songs about desserts,” as lead singer Tahita Bulmer calls ‘Ice Cream’. They play it half-way through the set, but there’s less focus on electro-pop, and they sound reminiscent of Gwen Stefani’s early solo efforts.

When Bulmer shouts, “You’ve got the instinct / Tell me what’s the answer”, on opener ‘Chaos’, we’re dealing with a darker edge to their pop-rock, and the crowd is blown away.

She apologises for being “self-indulgent” and playing mostly new songs, but they’re so good we don’t care.

some samples misfire on ‘Dear God, I Hate Myself’ (the title track from Xiu Xiu’s new LP) there is no need for idle chatter between songs.

The pair simply get on with their preparations in silence, allowing the music to speak for itself.

Songs often begin to fall into manic experimentation but Stewart always manages to pull them back from the brink before they break down entirely.

All this pent up experimentation has to be released, however, and at one point Stewart becomes half cat, half crab; meowing into the microphone as his hands turn into percussive pincers.

Some of the audience appear confused, but their calls for an encore (unanswered, of course) suggest that they have not been deterred.

Jamie Holgate

As a band, they’re on top form; collective vocals from the three girls creating angelic high notes in ‘Lost a Girl’, hypnotising even the miserable sods on the balcony area, who generally refuse to do anything but take photos.

Closer ‘The Bomb’ has instructions for the crowd: “Dancing you’re tearing it up you know”, and everyone obeys. New Young Pony Club don’t just go out with a bang; it’s an explosion.

around The Soft Pack has yet to reach these shores.

Four men in sweaters wander onto the stage. The singer holds the microphone in one hand, the other remains nonchalantly in his pocket. Is this it?

An appropriate response, as it soon strikes me that if The Strokes had written their debut in LA, it might have sounded a little like this. The sun-drenched guitars are distinctly West Coast, but this isn’t surf rock; Matt Lankin’s lyrics are if anything a clearer articulation of the same Californian disillusionment as sung by Nathan Williams of Wavves.

Songs from their new self-titled LP are rattled off alongside highlights from its predecessor The Muslims (after their apparently ‘too controversial’ former band name). Lankin’s couldn’tcare-less delivery on fan favourite ‘Extinction’ suggests that whoever the defiant lyrics (“I don’t want anything from you / This is extinction for you”) are directed at, he has certainly walked away with the upper hand. And tonight, so do his band.

Coral Williamson

Live The Soft Pack Plug 18/02/2010 An odd crowd has not-quite filled Plug’s sterile second room; surprisingly, the city’s hipsters are not out in force.

Perhaps the internet buzz

Jamie Holgate

Live

New Young Pony Club return.

Photo: Sam Bennett

Bo Ningen are an absolute sight to behold as well as a sound to be heard; four worryingly skinny Japanese guys with dead straight chest-length hair, who specialise in making some of the most frustratingly hard to pin down music you’ve ever heard. One minute all galloping bombast, the next lurching bass and frail trippy ambience, and then total

Faultless Errors. freakout; wailing guitars, booming bass and shrieked vocals.

Bassist / vocalist Taigen leads the spectacle.

A man possessed, he thrashes himself about with apparently boundless energy, clambering on top of his amplifier, often holding his hands aloft when they aren’t required otherwise, his fingers twitching seemingly of their own accord.

Invasion are unfortunate to have such a ridiculously tough act to follow. They are after all one of the most interesting metal prospects the UK has produced recently; they have no bassist; two thirds of the band are female; and they rely on an effect heavy, fuzzy guitar sound that harkens back to the genre’s roots, rather than the crunchy, down-tuned distortion that is most commonly favoured today.

They show that they are capable of bringing a degree of theatricality to even the smallest of shows; frontwoman Chan cutting the figure of a dark priestess in her psychedelic robe, with her hood up, her feet bare and her tambourine shaking.

Drummer Zel, with the aid

Photo: Glenn Bloxham-Mundy of a quick squirt of lighter fluid, sets fire to her cymbals halfway through the set and they end, in ‘typical’ rock and roll fashion, with guitarist Marek nonchalantly tossing his axe into the air, letting it drop to the floor and crack in two.

For the few that braved the cold, this Sunday night held a treat.

Kyle Rice

Live Errors + Django Django The Harley 28/02/2010

Before this gig, my pathetic internet connection only musters up the strength to stream Django Django’s ‘Storm’. It’s an impressive burst of ’60s psychedelic rock that leaves my ears eager to hear more. I am unprepared, then, for a set that sees the London band experiment with different styles on every song.

Remember when Marty McFly introduces rock ‘n’ roll to his parents’ classmates in Back To The Future? If he

had arrived with synthesiser under his arm and Django Django had been his band, then you might just be halfway towards a tedious explanation of their sound.

The last time so many scrapers and wood blocks were seen in one room was at primary school, in the hands of the kids too slow to grab a drum or xylophone. Django Django are those kids, after fifteen years spent perfecting their trade. They even pull off an acceptable use of maracas.

If that isn’t enough to suggest this is a band worth checking out, then what is?

Promoting their new Come Down With Me LP, Errors play an instrumental set that encompasses a range of electronic styles, from Sega Mega Drive-synth hooks on ‘Salut France’ to crunchy Warp Records-bass lines on ‘Jolomo’.

At times, it’s as if Washed Out or Toro Y Moi has been rudely awoken from their ‘chillwave’ daze and forced to spend a long winter in Glasgow, where the band have a studio nicknamed ‘the freezer’.

At others, the post rock influence of Mogwai, whose Rock Action label releases Errors’ records, is clear.

Songs meander, flowing from section to section; long build-ups to sweeping choruses. The band favour organic guitar and drum sounds too, rather than relying on their sampled counterparts.

Undoubtedly, the highlight of the night is ‘Mr Milk’ from the wonderfully titled How Clean Is Your Acid House? EP, which sees the band distil all the above elements into four minutes of perfection. In the gents afterwards, they are “the best band in world, mate”. Drunken hyperbole, perhaps, but a sign that Errors are winning over fans at every gig.

Fuse.

Invasion + Bo Ningen Bungalows & Bears 28/02/2010

Photo: Paula Goodale

Frantic stylus-tapping on a Nintendo DS - thumbs up.

Friday March 5 2010

lines without being overtly twee.

A curtain is then drawn across the stage which, given Xiu Xiu’s everchanging line-up, leaves the growing crowd guessing as to what form the band will take tonight. The opening song consists only of frontman Jamie Stewart’s broken voice ringing out, accompanied by sparse guitar work. A packed Harley is, save a couple of ingrates, stunned into silent respect.

The sound develops songby-song; the second sees the addition of programmed beats which, after a flourish of additional percussion from Angela Seo, leap into double-time.

At these times, Stewart’s voice becomes more desperate and his lyrics seem to become even more heartfelt. Apart from a frustrated “fuck!” when

Jamie Holgate

11

Reviews.Media.

Media on the ice

Fuse team can universally agree on, but the brilliance of Pixar’s latest animated film is unquestioned.

The story of life, love, and opportunities missed, Up is quite possibly the most touching film you can see in the cinema right now.

Report

Sunday March 14 Sherlock Holmes (dir. Guy Ritchie, 2009)

Winter Varsity VI Now in its sixth year, this year’s Winter Varsity competition saw the two Sheffield universities battle for the first five points of the 2010 Varsity competition.

The result was disappointing and for the first time ever the University failed to beat Hallam at Winter Varsity. But the result apart, the competition was the first occasion that the four branches of Forge Media came together and produced groundbreaking live coverage of the events.

The media coverage comprised of Forge Radio and ForgeToday.com, who produced live streaming coverage over the weekend.

Flick to the sports pages of this issue and you will find in-depth reports from the two-days of Winter Varsity to complement the live commentary supplied

by Forge Radio and the highlights package recorded

by Forge TV. The web side of the media coverage was headed by Alexandra Rucki, editor of ForgeToday.com, who spoke of the importance the website plays within Forge Media: “The advantage of

Film Unit Listings All films are shown at 7:30pm in the Students’ Union Auditorium. Tickets cost £2.20 and are available from the box office and Union shop.

Get in touch with Film Unit: film.unit@sheffield.ac.uk

the website means that the radio, TV and press coverage of the event can be accumulated together.”

Andrew Marsh, Forge Radio’s head of sport, and Forge Press sport editor Matt Duncan hosted the showpiece ice hockey commentary.

Marsh said: “It was a great spectacle at the arena and the live coverage gave Uni fans who couldn’t make it to give their support from home.

“It bodes well for even bigger events in the future.”

The upcoming Varsity will be the biggest in the

competitions history.

Sheffield students can expect to see all the Varsity coverage packaged in a commemorative 16page special publication inside your copy of Forge Press just hours after the competition’s climax.

Forge Radio and ForgeToday.com will once again be streaming live coverage of the events as they happen, and look out for a highlights package from Forge TV. The Varsity finals day will take place at Hillsborough Stadium. The 40,000-seater venue is home to Sheffield

Wednesday and has hosted numerous important sporting fixtures.

This will no doubt provide an exciting challenge to Forge Media, who will build on the successful Winter Varsity coverage and produce the most comprehensive coverage of a Union event in the country and a reason why yet again the Union has been recognised as the best for the student experience.

To watch highlights of the weekend’s action and to hear the Winter Varsity podcast go to www. forgetoday.com.

Friday March 5 Paranormal Activity (dir.

Oren Peli, 2007) Not one for those of a nervous disposition this film revolves around the things which go bump in the night, and many more terrifying things beside.

Shot for a budget of tuppence ha’penny, first time director Peli borrows heavily from the Blair Witch school of filmmaking. Less is more when it comes to effective frights.

Saturday March 6 Up (dir. Peter Docter, 2009) There’s not many things the

Friday 5 March 2010

Forge Radio schedule

Wednesday March 14 Fish Tank (dir. Andrea Arnold, 2009) Gritty, bleak, hard-hitting?

Andrea Arnold is clearly as bored of such British film clichés as the rest of us. Fish Tank is stunning, engrossing, forceful and any other antonyms of genteel you wish to conjure up. OK, maybe a little bleak, but did I mention brilliant?

Listen online at www.forgeradio.com, in the Union or at The Edge

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thurs

Fri

Sat

Sun

8 - 9am The Monday Breakfast Show

8 - 9am The Tuesday Breakfast Show

8 - 9am The Wednesday Breakfast Show

8 - 9am The Thursday Breakfast Show

8 - 9am The Friday Breakfast Show

9 - 10.30am Heal Your Hangover

12.15 - 1.30pm 3 Girls Multiple Laughs

9 - 10.30am The Amy and Polly Show

9 - 10.30am Bizarre

9 - 10.30am Georgie and Charlie Gatecrash

9 - 10.30am Dale Wetter

9 - 10.30am The James and Tom Show

10.30am - 12pm Happy Monday Show

10.30am - 12pm What a Wonderful World

12 - 1.30pm The Noble Morton Sessions 1.30 - 3pm Gus and Sam’s Hour of Power (and 30 minutes) 3 - 4.30pm Harry Horton

Fuse.

4.30 - 5pm The News Session 5 - 6.30pm Eve 6.30 - 8pm Monday Like This 8 - 9.30pm Sports Desk 9.30 - 11pm Morgi Music

12

High camp, investigatory action of the late Victorian period from the world’s most famous detective.

Robert Downey Jr is Holmes, Jude Law is Dr Watson. A dastardly plot is afoot, and there’s only one man in the whole of London Town who can solve the mystery. Light hearted with a cracking sense of humour.

11pm - 1am Gutter Radio

10.30am - 12pm Unplugged

10.30am - 12pm The Matt and Sam Show

12 - 1.30pm The Pid and Imo World

12 - 1.30pm 100 RPM

1.30 - 3pm A Little Bit of What You Fancy

1.30 - 3pm Hannah Summersfield

12 - 1.30pm Something for the Week

3 - 4.30pm Film Unit Round Table 4.30 - 5pm Cricklewood 5 - 6.30pm Jed and Jen

3 - 4.30pm Fuse 4.30 - 5pm Blue Like an Orange 5 - 6.30pm PG Tips

6.30 - 8pm Forge Loves

6.30 - 8pm The Chris Conway Show

8 - 9.30pm Trance-4-Nation

8 - 9.30pm Chris’s Chillout Session

9.30 - 11pm Beats and Pieces 11pm - 1am Tom Bowles

9.30 - 11pm Dubstep Forward 2-Step Backward 11pm - 1am Ready Steady Crunk

10.30am - 12pm That Friday Show 12 - 1.30pm The Mandy Show

1.30 - 3pm Ed and Guy

1.30 - 3pm Ready for the Weekend

3 - 4.30pm Walk Talk

3 - 4.30pm Taut Ladies

4.30 - 5pm The News Debate Show

4.30 - 5pm Your Sport

5 - 6.30pm Don’t Upset The Rhythm 6.30 - 8pm Brewing Up Trouble 8 - 9.30pm Kristi Genovese 9.30 - 11pm Off The Beaten Track 11pm - 1am Musical Meanderings

10:30 - 12.00am The Punchline 12 - 1.30pm The Saturday Meltdown

5 - 6.30pm Schubert Lemon

3 - 4.30pm Owen in Rock

6.30 - 8pm 1337

4.30pm-5pm Mike and Ed’s IntraMural Round-up

8 - 10pm Liam White

5 - 6.30pm The Globetrotter 6.30 - 8pm Soon I Will Be Invincible

6.30 - 8pm Straight Outta Crookesmoor

8 - 9.30pm The Shrimps present...

9.30 - 11pm The Soundclash 11pm - 1am Bedrock

3 - 5pm SRA Chart Show

1.30 - 3pm The Cultural Implosion

5 - 6.30pm The Melting Pot

8 - 9.30pm The ‘Lovely’ Show

1.30 - 3pm Sunday Snews

9.30 - 11pm Keyboard Cats 11pm - 1am Under The Bed

Reviews.Screen.

Quirkiness gets redefined

Film Micmacs Out Now

Are zebras white with black stripes or black with white stripes? How many people does it take to wear down a step? Both are certainly puzzling quandaries.

Jean-Pierre Jeunet has always had a penchant for the wonderfully bizarre, and his latest film Micmacs, which marks his return after a five year break, is no exception.

Following an accidental brush with death involving a stray bullet being lodged in his forehead, sweetnatured protagonist Bazil (Dany Boon) sets out to rebuild his life and more importantly, to get revenge on two villainously corrupt French arms companies.

For it was they who not only manufactured his own godforsaken bullet, but were responsible for the death of his father many years before.

Bazil embarks on his hilarious, bitter sweet journey in order to ensure that those made rich

Film The Crazies Out Now

the victims into enraged lunatics as they slowly turn detached and ‘crazy’ before they end up killing those around them.

Because the virus is slow acting the film has the added bonus of playing with the idea of whether people are infected or not, creating an unrelenting feeling of unease and paranoia between the characters, which translates effectively to the audience.

As the film progresses and more people become infected, the revelation is made that the virus was actually engineered by the government for biological warfare.

It is an interesting idea as it creates further complication within the film, but it does push to the extreme the trope of the trigger happy military

as they try and contain the situation by killing anybody they see.

This again plays on popular paranoia which adds to the tension of the film. The heavy handed nature of the military means that our four struggling survivors are made even more confused as they try to escape the town with both the military and the infected being their mortal enemies.

This is a fast paced film that is never dull, yet at times it seemed like the film could have been improved by being a little slower, as on occasion it fails to deliver all the frights and intrigue it had the potential to, as it felt like too much was being thrown at you all at once.

Regardless of this, Breck Eisner’s ability to constantly provide genuine shocks, a

well balanced mixture of gore and tension, as well as cleverly placed comedy moments, make this a film that is really worth watching. Sit back and let this film unnerve you, which it will gladly and repeatedly do so without much mercy.

Catherine Redfern

Film Father of My Children Out Now The subtle elements allow more attention towards the skilfully acted drama and the emotion captured in the grieving families faces.

‘I’m all alone. Silence all around me’, states the teenage daughter (Alice de Lencquesaing, Louis’s true to life daughter) through her tears, as her grief and loneliness shroud her surroundings.

However, nearly two hours of this style just drudge sluggishly on. The slow movement of the film mirrors the slow struggle to begin a new life absent from a loved one. We seem to be forced to feel the way along with them; slowly. It shows that grief is not something which can be resolved; it continues forever.

The film needs patience with a capital P as an absolute necessity, and we are rewarded for this by the powerful acting. Yet it is questionable whether the dedication is worth it.

Sarah Holland

Fuse.

Father of my Children is an incredibly slow burning film about financial struggle, suicidal despair and picking up the pieces after a great loss.

As the Winner of the Jury Special Prize in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, the focus on money and the trouble it causes is fitting in the context of a global recession, but isn’t exactly refreshing.

Inspired by the life of film producer Humbert Balsan, the film follows Gregorié (Louis-Do de Lencquesaing), a suave family man with a great passion for art house film.

With a job he loves and a country retreat to reside in with his beautiful wife (Chiara Caselli) and three devoted daughters, his life appears as one to be envied. He has the cool air of a confident businessman

as he chain smokes with his mobile glued to his ear.

Yet this is only the tip of the iceberg, and the leaps he takes to reveal underground talent result in the company sinking under the financial strain.

He is overwhelmed by repressed despair as his beloved creation crumbles before him and he can only watch helplessly; his sense of failure drives him to suicide halfway through the story.

It’s an interesting choice of time in the film for his death, as we can then view various perspectives to the tragedy and the different methods of mourning.

The film is so starkly realistic it feels as if the characters are sketched from life itself. The distinct lack of music throughout the film serves the minimalist cinematography and gives a hidden camera effect; a window into the mundane rather than to a cinematic film.

Friday March 5 2010

The Crazies is a solid reimagining of the 1973 original as the director, Breck eisner, finally succeeds in clearing the remake hurdle where many directors have stumbled before.

The plot of the film is simple to begin with as it is soon pieced together by the town’s sheriff and well cast hero (Timothy Olyphant); some kind of virus has contaminated the small town’s water supply and has infected the population.

The virus eventually turns

Bazil (Dany Boon, centre) and his troupe of curious misfits attempt to save the day in their own eccentric way. through the sale of deadly Each of the characters’ ball flight. All in all, a typical Micmacs is quintessentially weapons are served with unusual skills come group of Parisians.

French. The twinkly piano a hot, steaming mug of in useful in different, Audrey Tautou is absent music and beautiful shots delicious comeuppance. ingenious ways. Among this time, but the raven- of illuminated Paris are Along the way, our Bazil’s companions are a haired Marie-Julie Baup, charmingly reminiscent of hero befriends a group of contortionist who enjoys in the role of Calculette Amélie, the picture which underground misfits and hiding in the refrigerator, bears more than a passing brought Jeunet worldwide eccentrics, the kind of a human calculator and resemblance to la belle fame. people who often populate the holder of the 1977 Français, so all is not lost.

The range of unique Jeunet’s beautifully surreal Guinness World Record As is typical of all characters are wellstories. for longest human cannon Jeunet’s previous outings, developed, colourful and

expressive. However, the film’s fleeting romantic plotline appears to have been something of an afterthought.

Stuck on somewhat haphazardly at the end, it does not really seem to add much to the story, unlike the climactic love scenes which make Amélie so memorable. Micmacs certainly has enough going on without needing to have two of the characters ‘finding each other.’

Boon is both spirited and adorable as Bazil, not to mention a fantastic dancer.

Jeunet is all for visual comedy as well as cutting satire, and there is no shortage of the trademark surrealist descents into dreams and imagination which make his work so stylish.

Given the subject matter, it is also no surprise that Micmacs contains a certain quota of elaborate explosions and suitably thrilling car chases, although thankfully none of these drag on for too long.

After the darkness and sadness of his Second World War film A Very Long Engagement, Jeunet is returning to what he knows very well - the art of dazzling, intelligent comedy.

LIzzie Palmer

13

Reviews.Games.

Not so stellar Defense

PC Colony Defense PC

If you are not walking to a retailer to purchase a PC game, then the likelihood is that you are going to buy it off Steam, however there are always alternatives.

GamersGate.com is a digital distribution website for Mac and PC games. It has a smaller catalogue of

games compared to Steam and obviously there are no Valve products present. It does however have some interesting mechanics; on the website your money is converted into ‘blue coins’ which can also be earned through activities such as submitting user reviews.

Innovations such as this are always great, but the main advantage of signing up to such a website is simply having the ability to shop around. this is always beneficial to finding the best price for a game and much like Steam, GamersGate have their own sales that might be worth checking

GamersGate: No annoying shop assisants here.

Handheld

Echoshift is an interesting one. The sequel to the critically lauded puzzler Echochrome on the PS3 and PSP thankfully avoided opting to deliver more of the same gameplay. In favour of a new mechanic, certainly hinting at healthier prospects for the franchise.

Whereas Echochrome concentrated on guiding an unsettlingly animate mannequin to its goal by playing with perspective and rotating the environment, Echoshift is more focused on utilising a control of the flow of time to guide said dummy past the tribulations it will encounter.

You guide your avatar through a series of puzzles, each culminating in him reaching a door to the outside. Each mannequin you employ has a set

Fuse.

Friday March 5 2010

Echoshift PSP

lifespan in which you will need to hammer buttons and position them correctly - only to be swiftly rewound and replayed, with the next puppet simultaneously coming under the player’s control.

The end effect is not unlike squaring off against a ghostly ‘high score’ car in racing games. The coordination between the player’s past and current actions forms the bulk of the strategy, and some interesting tactics can certainly be worked out.

There are enough gameplay devices to keep things fresh as well, with new obstacles and workarounds introduced as you progress.

A substantial amount of levels are included, and with the budget price tag definitely represent value for money.

The game is stylistically quite simple, with singlecolour backgrounds and switches and the player character represented by a blank canvas of a man. The music is equally understated, but ultimately gets the job done and

14

Who said all modern games are brown and grey?

out.

GamersGate is also great as a platform for smaller game designers to sell their work globally. For example, Colony Defense, a tower defense game with a slight difference; rather than using the traditional top-down and largely 2D view, this game has you defending spherical planets, so in order to keep on top of all the action you must spin the camera around the 3D battlefield.

This seems somewhat striking at first, mainly due to the dizzying speeds you need to whip the camera around in order to defend successfully. This excitement is quickly dulled however upon seeing that the enemies are on an incredibly strict and visible set path, which makes you realise that this new perspective is only making you move the camera a little differently; other than that it’s a pretty standard tower defense game.

Once you realise this, first impressions are poor; the control scheme seems somewhat bizarre, it often although a lot of the same tunes are re-used, the generally breezy nature of the game means that the tracks take a while to begin to grate – and the moment they do, a new one is introduced.

Nevertheless, the ‘shadow player’ mechanic is nothing revolutionary in itself, featuring in immensely popular platformer Braid only recently. The game achieves all it set out to do, but could have afforded to set its sights a little higher. The low retail price represents good enough value, but as a game in its own right, Echoshift does succeed in being a neat little timewaster – but that’s about all.

Mike Bentley

Retro S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl PC

Colony Defense: As the world burns Al Gore has the last laugh. feels like you are meant used to the controls it feels desktop for a quick casual, to play the game with a great to get into a focused and pretty addictive, game controller due to the mouse state, spinning yourself every now and then, but if not really being used on the around a planet and keeping you are looking for a game field of battle itself, a feature tabs on everything that to really get your teeth into, that would have really sped moves; this multitasking this isn’t it. up gameplay. experience is enhanced Let us just say that this There is not a lot of by the soft trance music game wouldn’t get many innovation here but it is a played throughout. Getting numbers if it went speed solid tower defense game, into such an impressive flow dating, but maybe if you as you progress you unlock does feel satisfying, however met it as a friend of a friend, more units and abilities this satisfaction is unlikely spent some quality time however it never quite feels to last in the long term; for together, you may just end like there is enough depth. under eight pounds it might up dating casually.

Saying this once you get be worth having it sit on your Daniel Rowbotham A wounded, amnesiac loner is found near death from the wreckage of a military truck.

With only a tattoo on his arm (giving him the nickname of “Marked One”), a series of horrific hazy flashbacks and an order to “Kill Strelok”, he is against all the odds in a terrifying wasteland surrounding the zone of alienation near Chernobyl’s nuclear plant.

So begins S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, one of the most atmospheric FPS to come out in the last few last years. Combining elements of Roadside Picnic (a book by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky) and Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky’s film), Ukranian developers GSC Game World made this game an enjoyable (and exceedingly creepy) experience.

Although the main quest is a constant presence (via conversations and quests), the game goes for the sandbox style, where side-quests not only get you rewards, but some specific ones mean you may get a better ending for the game.

Barring the odd bug (which have been patched), the randomly generated quests make it more of a living world, where man and abomination are equal monsters.

The game’s graphics engine allows it to be wonderfully cinematic, and when paired with the minimalistic, haunting ambient music, the game is quite immersive. The physics is mostly realistic, with armour degrading over time, weapons being

affected by gravity and the curvature of Earth, realistic weather and players constantly being reminded of the frailty of human life, as even when fully armoured, a few bullets can end the game.

Indeed, Strategy and FPS hardly get along, but this is one of the few FPS that subtly reminds that your players is not a tank, that finesse and subtlety are better alternatives than running around guns a blazing. This paradigm is kept in both sequels (Clear Sky and Call of Prypiat), with extra features like factions added to enhance the experience.

It’s the

challenging nature of the game (limited ammo, random encounters, radiation fields) that make it so gripping. Paired with that a story that might feel derivative, but which unravels its complexity slowly, and you have a game where all seven possible endings, although some mystifying, feel like a satisfying journey to the horrors of a man-made hell.

Samuel Valdes Lopez

Reviews.Arts.

Watershed performance Theatre

Comedy Blog

An Enemy of the People The Crucible

The Shrimps from ForgeToday.com

An Enemy of the People is set in a small Norwegian coastal town.

Having recently come out of a recession, the town is enjoying a lease of life and prosperity through the booming tourist trade centring on its renowned public spa and baths.

However, all is not as transparent as it seems. Dr Tomas Stockman, brother to the town mayor, has just received the laboratory results from his secret inquest into the salubrity of the spa’s waters, and discovers to his horror that it is contaminated, and poses a mortal peril to anyone in contact with it. In the events that follow Dr Stockman is forced to risk everything from his social standing to his own wellbeing and that of his family to expose the truth, and restore the public integrity of the community.

The struggle pits him against his own brother, the cynical and tyrannical mayor who intimidates the doctor’s supporters and turns him into a scapegoat.

‘The individual,’ he says, ‘has to submit to society, to authority.’

Dr Tomas Stockman (Anthony Sher) finds himself pitted against friends and family.

The antagonism between call it a comedy or simply a the simple Scandinavian the two brothers is splendidly play.’ wood house of Doctor captured by Anthony Sher However we might classify Stockman clearly recalls (Dr Tomas Stockman) it, it is an enlightening and that ‘town of storming, and John Shrapnel (Peter archetypically brilliant work, soughing, seething waters’, Stockman). Sher plays the to which the Crucible’s and serves up an effective part with vigour, capturing production has done great visual metaphor for the the audience with every justice. Daniel Evans, the contaminated water at the move and utterance. The newly appointed Artistic centre of the play. performance as a whole Director of the Crucible, Acoustic metaphor is also was choreographed and has clearly thrown all his present in the highly effective poised with a precision energies into the work, interlude compositions, and agility that points to even travelling with Sher their enchanting sounds Director Daniel Evan’s great and designer Ben Stones to affecting a lithe fluidity experience as a thespian.

Ibsen’s hometown of Skien throughout the challenging Together, Sher and in southern Norway. five-act structure of the Shrapnel both convey, with This dedication to the play, and providing a space ironic humour, that one of the craft has certainly reaped to reflect upon its serious greatest sources of laughter its rewards. The viewer themes. in life is unhappiness. understands the finesse Ibsen himself said ‘I am still of the production before it Iris Provias a little uncertain whether to even begins. The sight of

Gallery Robert Mapplethorpe Graves Gallery

Kristi Genovese

Bedroom Farce Drama Studio

“You can tell a lot about a person from the bedroom they sleep in,” says Delia, an old woman who is getting ready to go out with her husband Ernest on their anniversary night. They go every year to the same place and the only glimmer of change from their routine is eating sardine sandwiches in bed.

Although sounding ridiculous, so it is that The Bedroom Farce confronts the silent killer of many a happy couple: routine.

Written by Alan Ayckbourn and presented by SuTCo, the play is set over one eventful night in the seventies, and sees the lives (and bedrooms) of four couples, from the stereotypical “very in love” young couple to the “it beats being alone” old couple that know each other’s quirks.

The younger couple, Malcolm and Kate, are having a house-warming party and invite all their friends, including Jan and Nick, a middle of the road couple who don’t seem to

be getting along that well any more. Compounding the situation is Nick’s injured back, so he skips the party and Jan goes along. All seems fine until Trevor (an argument against humans being an intelligent species) and Susannah (who sets the women’s liberation movement back by 30 years), the only couple whose bedroom is never seen, arrive to the party, separately.

SuTCo’s production was quite complete (a nice touch was the decoration in the rooms to convey the emotions of each couple) and you couldn’t fault anyone involved for any sense of uneasiness you might get. They are mostly playing for laughs (specially Richard Horwitz as the tired old man Ernest) and pull the whole spirit of Ayckbourn’s script.

From this point onwards, the humour is contrasted with tense situations that although exaggerated for comedic effort, are not too distant from real life. Quite a few nervous laughs arose from the audience, which did include a few elderly couples who seemed to see something from their lives reflected on stage.

As any farce goes, the plot continues to spiral towards a happy conclusion. Or so it seems.

The final scene seems to

quite premonitory. We’ve seen the souls of four different couples, reflected on the various states of order and chaos in their bedrooms. All three stages of stagnation have shown their faces and although the storm is gone and the skies are blue, the feeling of dread in the supposedly happy ending leaves the comedy side of this farce sitting on the bleachers, while a bittersweet note ends the play.

Samuel Valdes Lopez

Fuse.

Patti Smith (1979).

These two interests sparked his later boundary-pushing images of homosexual sadomasochism shown in the next room.

As soon as you have him down as an artist inspired by punk and sex, his later work shows a different side. Inspired by Greek and Roman sculptures, his work incorporates element of classical and renaissance art. His image of the female body builder Lisa Lyon shows this through the study of a muscular body that still retains its femininity.

The fact that Mapplethorpe was drawn to

Theatre

Emily Cresswell

Friday March 5 2010

On first appearance this exhibition at the Graves Gallery appears clean cut and ingenuous, but it doesn’t take long for the real Robert Mapplethorpe to come to life.

Armed with a graphics art degree, the born and bred New Yorker began taking Polaroid’s of his friends who were artists and socialites, but it soon became clear that controversy would be a product of his liberal creativity.

This exhibition shows his most iconic work of ex-lover Patti Smith, right up to his last few pieces that began to define his portrayal of beauty.

A handful of his work shows his fascination of the punk rock scene with images of leather, studs and cigarettes. He captures this rock image in one particular photograph, showing the back of a leather jacket adorned with anarchic words of protest. Another photograph shows sculptor Louise Bourgeois holding a penis shaped model in a suggestive manner.

ambiguities is immediately obvious. Stylistically, this can be seen in his choice of colour contrasts, but initially it was his Catholic upbringing which influenced to study the opposite of innocence.

His most daring and personal photograph is of John McKendry, which was taken just one day before his death. Robert cropped the picture to put attention on an electrical cord, showing that his death was near.

He portrayed his own acceptance of death 13 years later. Wearing black clothes against a black background, his head appears to be floating. He also looks straight into the lens, as if he is staring at death directly in the face.

Every piece of work is a crisp black and white portrait but his ability to pinpoint an individual’s personality adds a flourish of imaginative colour. This exhibition is the perfect collection to show his different styles in one room.

He knew how to make a portrait tell a thousand words through style and subject, and although he may not be with us today, his iconic and original photography stays with us.

I’ll admit, a little ashamedly, that I paid the Shrimps very little attention during the last two years, only really discovering them when they merged with the Last Laugh.

However, I’ve found myself looking forward more and more to each show.

The atmosphere heated up instantly as the audience did their utmost to live up to the sense of innate chaos that defines Shrimps shows, with cries of “Chlamydia” and “irrational badgers” spewing forth within the first five minutes. The style of humour is simple yet ruthlessly effective. Their reputation of contrived randomness belies a format that is at once human and intimate as well as curiously abstract.

Highlights included a ridiculously caricatured Sean Connery impersonation, a drawnout attempt to mime the phrase “riding on a wave of Skittles”, and gratuitous use of ‘lolphysics’. Because, y’know, everything floats on Uranus.

Freeze frames, however natural they may seem whilst moving, rarely fail to be hilarious and easily pervertable; and one-liners

that would be bizarre out of context make perfect sense.

At the same time, the comedy is clever: when one cocky member of the audience requested that they make scenes based around the word “gizmo”, only to have the prompt torn apart by a volley of cheeky wordplay and abstract rethinking.

The Shrimps not only avoid the pitfalls but turn them into tools for their own benefit. They are unpredictable without being random, spontaneous without being repetitive, silly without being stupid, and they are able to take a fall on stage and use it to add to the humour, rather than coming across as a failure. Their adaptable stage personas and rapports allow them to jump into characters instantly, which not only makes the idea of a honeymoon on Uranus totally believable, it makes Danny and Pete look like a ridiculously adorable couple.

The show ended with an announcement that the Shrimps are organising their second Student Comedy Festival, in aid of the South Yorkshire Eating Disorder Association and Nightline.

These people know how to treat you right, folks.

Read more from this post on the Arts Blog at Forgetoday.com.

Susie Jones as Susannah.

15

Fuse.listings Friday March 5 - Thursday March 18 2010

email: listings@forgetoday.com

Fri 5

Sat 6

Sun 7

Mon 8

Tue 9

Wed 10

Thur 11

Exit Through the Gift Shop @ Showroom; 9pm; £4.60

Meet the Co-Curator @ Millenium Galleries; 2pm; free entry Co-curator of the Art Sheffield 2010 – Life: A User’s Manual, Frederique Bergholtz, will be giving an introductory tour to the city-wide exhibition, which starts today.

Historical Tour of Sheffield General Cemetary; 2pm; free Not a goth social, but a chance to explore the forgotten and beautifully decrepit cemetery in the heart of Sheffield. Bring a camera, meet at the gatehouse off Ecclesall Rd.

Hip-Hop 101: History of Hip-Hop through Dance @ Showroom; 7:30pm; £6

Killa Kella @ Plug; 7pm; £8 adv The beatboxer of choice for Pharrell, Prince and Justin Timberlake, Killa merrily skips from beating to singing with an ease to put most crossfaders to shame.

Teapots Live @ The Raynor Lounge; 7pm; £2 adv A showcase of all things juggled, spun and otherwise circusy, put on by the Union’s own Flying Teapots. Hosted by the cheerful yet cynical Not So Tall Paul.

1234 + Director Q&A @ Showroom; 8pm; £4.60

Handmade Market @ Workstation/ Showroom; 10am -4pm; free

The Last Laugh Relaunch @ Foundry; 7pm; £5.50 Vitriolic Nick Doody, observational John Warburton, and Canadian Tony Law bring the funny back to its regular slot in the Union programme.

The ever elusive father of the British street art movement makes his break into the world of moving pictures.

Banksy’s debut is part personal portrait, part observational documentary, partly insane and fresh from rave reviews at Sundance.

Subvert @ Red House; 10pm Exciting bass-driven electronic music of the electro/techno/garage kind, and all in aid of Haitian disaster relief.

Planet Zogg @ Plug; 10:30pm; £5 Going mader than a March hare with PSILOPSYB and LIQUID ROSS, Sheffield’s home of trance will be providing the noises for the once a month allnighter.

Curtis Eller @ Lantern Theatre; 8pm; £7

A market for Sheffield’s burgeoning arts, crafts and homemade thingsof-beauty scene. Find a one of kind gift for someone special, and meet the mind behind said gift at the same time. Open until 4pm.

A lecture of the not so boring kind on the history of hip-hop dance, from the artistic direction of New York’s Decadance Theatre.

Classic clips, discussion, and some massive beats no doubt.

Emilie Autumn @ Lyceum; 7pm; £12.50 Take a pinch of steampunk, take a pinch of Vaudeville and wrap it all up in violin strings and you start to come close Emilie Autumn’s antics. Courtney Love’s left hand anarchoviolinist is here on solo duty.

Survival of the Dead + Night of the Living Dead @ Showroom; 8pm; £8

Alice in Wonderland @ Odeon; 8pm; £6.80

Vagina Monologues @ Corporation; 7pm; £1 The feminist play for the Sex in the City generation, here put on by the Union’s Women’s Committee to mark International Women’s Day. All funds raised to charity, men welcome.

A double bill of zombie classics, one old and one new, from the godfather of gore George A. Romero. The original Night of defined the genre we know today, and Survival pushes it to new depths. Not to be missed.

A new British film about a struggling band, stuck in dead-end jobs, with a demo to tout. A one off screening which aims to bring the best of new British films to the fore, director Giles Borg will be on hand to answer all your questions.

Two Door Cinema Club + Citadels @ O2 Academy; 7pm; £7 adv Nothing to do with actual moving images, the Northern Irish trio are beating a path across the nation, with a BBC Sounds of 2010 nomination in the bag.

‘What’s the big fuss’ you ask? Buy a ticket and find out.

Miike Snow + Ali Love @ Plug; 7:30pm; £8 The duo behind the mysterious horned rabbit comes to Plug to drop some electric beats of the Scandinavian kind.

The best kind if you ask me.

The yodelling banjo player from New York hits the intimate Lantern Theatre. With musical influences listed as Buster Keaton, Elvis Presley and Abe Lincoln you can rest assured that Curtis will deliver a memorable evening.

Audiobullys @ O2 Academy; 7pm; £12.50 adv The West London duo who smashed into the world with Shot You Down, are here to promote new album Sunday Night Fever.

Shame it’s on a Monday.

Director Tim Burton of Scissorhands and Big Fish fame has turned his hand to Lewis Carrol’s classic tale, roping in Jonny Depp to put the manic in the Mad Hatter.

A 3D visual feast not to be missed.

Charley Boorman @ City Hall; 7:30pm; £18.50 Ewan McGregor’s best mate, motorcyclist and inveterate traveller comes to Sheffield to recount tales from his latest adventure.

Fri 12

Sat 13

Sun 14

Mon 15

Tue 16

Wed 17

Thur 18

SoCo Sounds @ Fusion & Foundry; 11pm; £6 Tuesday Club resident DJ’s Krafty Kuts, Freq Nasty, Filthy Dukes and Paper Tiger bring their heavy beats a bit later into the week.

Frightened Rabbit @ Leadmill, 7pm; £10 adv The Scottish indie rockers bring their lastest wall of noise to full effect at the Leadmill. A weird clash of acoustic and electric, which skips along with a happy digital hum.

Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip @ Foundry; 7:30pm; £12.50 adv

Bad Lieutenant @ Leadmill; 7:30pm; £17.50 adv First he made his name as guitarist for Joy Division, then he made a splash as the front man of New Order. You may not recognise the name Bernard Sumner, but with a track record like that you have to give his new solo project Bad Lieutenant some love.

Wuthering Heights @ Lyceum; 7:45pm; £18.50 - 30 adv

Jazz Yorkshire Showcase @ The Lescar; 9pm; £3 While jazz may seem like a bit of a walled garden, the Sheffield scene takes care of its own by giving mentor and financial support for the up and coming generation. The Lescar plays host to an evening from the cream of said crop, a bargain for the price of a pint.

Four Tet + Nathan Fake + Rocketnumbernine @ Plug; 7:30pm; £12

Girls by Lord Bunn @ The Old Sweet Shop; free entry

Kate Bush was far from the first person to put music to Emily Brontë’s novel, the Lyceum plays host to Schönberg’s powerful ballet. The tempestuous romance of the original shines through in the Northern Ballet’s powerful adaptation.

Sound Threshold & Jaspar Joseph-Lest @ Site Gallery ; 4pm; Free if booked adv The latest in a series of talks on all things contemporary in the world of art, Sound Threshold will be discussing their unique clash of site, sound and text.

After a hundred and one diversions and sideprojects, good old Kieron Hebden has finally got around to a new album, which is just a lovely slice of sublime.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo @ Showroom; 8:10pm; £4.60

This Swedish literary crime smash has found its way onto the big screen, and is actually better than the book!

Sex, violence and some good detective work uncover a rather a nasty conspiracy. First in a trilogy, well worth sticking with.

Like a Fool by John Brokenshire @ Cupola Gallery; Free British artist Brokenshire brings his unique view of the world, by way of oils on canvas, to the Cupola Gallery in Hillsborough.

Haegue Yang @ S1 Artspace; Free Fresh from a summer at the Venice Biennale contemporary art festival, Korean artist Yang brings her evocative, sometimes eerie installations to Sheffield’s Artspace.

Electric fans, blinds, and dripping water are her paints. Well worth seeing.

Spiers and Boden @ Fusion; 7pm; £8 adv

The finest duo in the estimation of a many a folk fan, Spiers and Boden mix their own songs with traditional tunes with impressive effect.

Performance poetry from the Pip meets the electronic blips and beeps from the Sac. Few manage the marriage of meaningful lyrics with robust beats, but this brilliant British duo deliver the goods.

ShAFF @ Showroom; all day; £4.60 The last day to catch one of a selection of talks and films on all things climbing, biking, and generally adrenaline driven at the Sheffield Adventure Film Festival.

Jimmy Carr @ City Hall; 8pm; £22.50 adv It costs anything but a small sum to see Carr turn his rapier wit to decapitating whatever he trains his sights on, but that’s because he’s actually worth it. Laughs per minute, very high.

Close collaborator of local street art legend Mr Phlegm, Lord Bunn presents a selection of illustrations at his first solo show.

Ulysses @ Showroom; 8:20pm; £3.50 Not just for the literature students who should have read it, this classic adaptation is a doddle compared to the book.

Shorter but no less ambitious.

The Lovely Bones @ Showroom; 8:30pm; £3.50 Having done massive apes, and that whole Elves and Orcs thing, Peter Jackson’s turned his hand at telling a human story, as seen from the afterlife.

Give It A Go: Bollywood Dance @ University House; 6:30pm; £3 Seen Slumdog Millionaire, but only liked it for the dancing bit at the end? Fancy giving it a go? Then this is for you.

Turin Brakes @ City Hall; 7:30pm; £16.50

Mercury nominated duo roll into town with acoustic guitars and folky vibes at the ready.

Robert Mapplethorp: Curator’s Talk @ Graves Art Gallery; 1:45pm; free Get the inside skinny on the selection process behind the awesome collection of Mapplethorp portaits on show.

Automatic @ O2 Academy; 7pm; £9 adv The four man crew from Cowbridge, Wales, swagger into Sheffield with their new album Tear the Signs Down. The Academy management kindly ask that patrons refrain from doing this during the gig.

Ronan Keating @ City Hall; 7:30pm; £30 Adored by many, loathed by an equal measure, Keating mastered the art of being Irish and balancing the love/hate relationship long before Jedward were out of primary school. Actual singing ability also a bonus.