Games Reviews November 2011

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01 P Lopez & Catnapp Get Me Off “The perfect vibe for the start of my mix” 02 Subway Illusion “The cosmic pads in this tune put me in a trance. A favourite of mine”

maya jane coles From Martyn and Axel Boman to brand new mixes and tracks from Maya Jane Coles herself, this month’s brilliant CD is packed with exclusives. “When I DJ the core of my set is usually house- and technobased, but that’s definitely not what I’m all about, as a DJ or as a producer,” she tells us. “I like exploring the more unconventional and musical sides of house and electronica, and I wanted this mix to express that. My taste varies so much; every mix I record has a different vibe.” Make no mistake: she’s special.

03 Tilman Tausendfreund Lost Treasure Of The Juggernaut “Just my kind of vibe. Warm sounds all the way” 04 Session Victim Large Processor “I like this unconventional kind of four-to-the-floor music. It’s not made for the club, it’s just interesting abstract sounds and floaty vibes” 05 Alex Arnout Movements In Soul “Thanks to Mr Arnout for letting me use this exclusive cut!”

06 Luca C & Brigante feat ali love Different Morals (Clockwork remix) “Such a good remix. Stripped back simplicity is the key here”

11 Maya Jane Coles Parallel Worlds “I made this the day before I recorded the mix and decided to slot it in last minute. Part of my next EP on Hypercolour”

07 Axel Boman Sell Your Soul “Axel is one of my favourite producers of the last year or so. This track lives up to the standard”

12 Martyn Masks “Martyn always has such a distinct groove, which is what I love about his productions”

08 Daniel Boon Am Lagerfeuer In Berlin “I’m all about the musicality which is why this track stood out when I first heard it”

13 Huxley Madatme (Huxley Donedidit remix) “Huxley is another one of those producers that can’t seem to do a thing wrong”

09 Kris Wadsworth Crushed “What Kris does best” 10 Vernon Bara & Igor Vicente Don’t Feel No Way “I feel like I’m trekking in the jungle when I hear this track. Might be the bird sounds in the breakdown”

14 Alpines Cocoon (Nocturnal Sunshine remix) “The Alpines are going to be big. When I remixed this I was originally planning to make it more stripped back, but I loved Catherine’s vocals so much I had to keep them as they were”

dancefloor dictionary Pyro-Technics n. The impressive, if careless, act of setting fire to your decks at the end of your set Wire-I-oughta! expr. An expletive often emitted during the embarrassing first moments in a DJ booth when, instead of getting straight into a mix, you spend a

[[1L]] november 2011

good five minutes trying to untangle your headphone cable. Rutter Island sl. A term used to describe a tacky, non-Ibizan European holiday location. “Did you go to Ibiza for the closing parties?” “No, I thought I’d save money and do Kavos. Worst idea

ever. It was a proper Rutter Island, with Black Eyed Peas everywhere” Festival tan exp. To have only one tanned forearm, on account of all the festival wristbands covering the other. Tinny temper n. Someone who gets angered by bad quality speakers

Battlefield 3 Exploding onto consoles for the first time ever, Battlefield 3 turns you into an elite US Marine experiencing chaotic missions in locations including New York, Paris and Tehran. With a real sense of tension and the massive 32player online mode for which the franchise is famed, extra beef comes courtesy of its new Frostbite 2 engine, set to revolutionise firstperson shooters with motion-captured body movements, amazing visuals and awesome, fully destructible environments – ideal when you’ve got tanks, choppers and jets to blow everything sky-high with!

Sonic Generations This is the definitive gaming experience for Sonic fans old and new, and a return to form for the blue spiky one. When a mysterious new power creates ‘time holes’ that pull him and his friends back through time, new Sonic and Classic Sonic join forces to replay vintage levels like Green Hill and the Chemical Plant in Mega Drive-style, side-scrolling 2D and brilliantly reimagined hi-def, 3D modes. Speedier than ever before, this frantic blend of cutting-edge gameplay and time-honoured nostalgia marks 20 years of the world’s favourite hedgehog with a game he really deserves.

phil dudman

pD

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industry news

Release the pressure

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‘Focus dates’ and ‘Impact dates’ are helping the dance industry sell more music – but what are they? Assassins Creed: Revelations This beautifully rendered new edition to the Creed series sees master assassin Ezio Auditore on a perilous Renaissance journey of discovery on the trail of an artefact that could end the Templar and Assassin war forever. This is an expanded, open-world, freerunning stealth thriller killer that features new gameplay such as the ‘hookblade’ (used to zipline across cities and yank enemies in for a combo attack), craftable bombs, stonger narrative appeal and improved multiplayer action, including a long-awaited ‘capture the flag’ mode.

NBA 2K12 Wish you were a little bit taller? Well, this Bball game is as playerfriendly as it is classy. From intensifying crowd response and player customisation (right down to tattoos!), to midgame, real-world NBA score feeds, it has it all. Answers to post- match interviews will determine which college team you get into, an ‘Association’ mode lets you both play and manage your team and the commentary is fluid, realistic and full of banter. The ‘Greatest Players’ mode even allows you to don Jordan’s Jordans as you play each legend’s greatest game in their footsteps. Slammin’.

phil dudman

phil dudman

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www.mixmag.net

words: nick stevenson

yourtrack -bytrackuide to es’ g l ne coture’ a j a y ma th e fu ‘feel mix

n A shift in how dance labels release music has led to an increase in sales. Traditionally, tracks were promoted heavily in the lead-up to their release date – so when they finally became available they would sell loads in their first week, ensuring a high entry position in the singles charts. That’s changing. “Getting a Top 20 single is only relevant for certain sections of the market,” says George Ergatoudis, Head of Music at Radio 1, speaking at the International Music Summit In Ibiza. “Building awareness is key.” These days, technology allows tracks to be downloaded as soon as they’re finished. This means that instead of long lead-times and far-off release dates, dance labels put a track on sale immediately and promote them in the run-up to a ‘focus date’ or ‘impact date’. The added time the track is on sale in the lead-up to this date means fans no longer need to wait weeks to buy it. James Drummond at Southern Fried says sales are benefiting from the shift: www.mixmag.net

“It used to be that you’d hear a track on Tong’s show but when you Googled it or YouTubed it you’d find nothing, and forget about it. Now we like to get the track live to download and promote towards a focus date so people can buy it while it picks up press and radio plays along the way. It means we can release a track early, but then focus our promotion around a key date such as Radio 1 in Ibiza or Miami. Without focus dates we wouldn’t necessarily have got The 2 Bears’ ‘Bear Hug’ playlisted on Radio 1. Impact dates allow us to be more flexible with promoting the music while we continue to sell it.” And its not just dance acts that have changed their release times; after the UK government told major labels that long leads encouraged piracy, giants like Sony and Universal have committed to work towards an ‘On air, on sale’ policy. For Mixmag readers it means you’re more likely to get your hands on tracks you read about without waiting for a distant release date. Nick Stevenson


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