more Bit.Trip!

My repeated praises of the Bit.Trip series are probably becoming rote at this point. So I'll keep this lecture short. Bit.Trip Runner is out! It's just as visually and musically fantastic as the other three games.

It's also just as hard! Three 15 minute stages have been replaced this time with three sets of twelve three minute sections, which means way more save points. With a simpler profession brings stricter punishment. Your avatar this time is the series mascot, Commander Video. He darts down a path at an uncontrollable pace, and you are responsible for leaping over, sliding under, and kicking through obstacles. Hit a single one of these obstacles, and it's an immediate restart of the section. Of course the big payoff to the toughness makes you feel like a god when you actually finish a stage.

This game is much more relatable for a newbie to the series, but it abandons or drastically changes a few things that i loved about the other games - namely the abstract psychedelic presentation, and the focus on rhythm. You tend not to follow a rhythm in this game but rather create one as you go.

Anyway, here is a taste of the game, both its frustrating toughness, and euphoric fun moments.

In related news, the Bit.Trip Void soundtrack is currently on iTunes. Check that beast out.

PROTIP - Like the previous soundtracks, tracks 2,3,and 4 are the main songs of the game. Most tracks are unnecessary brief interludes. The chiptune artist on this soundtrack is Nullsleep. His songs used in Void are also on the EP Unconditional Acceleration, which is free to download at 8bitpeoples.com.

album of the week: 5.4

Foals

Total Life Forever

Transgressive Records (2010)

why you'll love it: impressive guitar melodies, solid first half

why you'll hate it: lousy attempt at a matured sound, weak second half

What is going on with England? I have been nothing but disappointed by my favorite bands from the area this year. Hot Chip kicked 2010 off with a pretty good album, but one that does not play to their strongest points. It's only gotten worse from there. Gorillaz released an album that is only half good, and fully devoid of Gorillaz spirit.

Now we have come to Foals, who in 2008 surprised many with a post-punk masterpiece called Antidotes. Full of energy and originality, it was also one of the best produced albums I've ever heard. It's pretty clear to me that in Total Life Forever, Foals either has a bad case of writer's block, or have made the critical band mistake of biting off more that they can chew.

The frayed and frenetic guitar playing style is still knocking about in this sophomore release, but it is bogged down with the boring premise of "maturity". Foals wants you to believe what they were up to before was kids stuff. It was too immediately enjoyable. They're grown ups now, and grown ups don't eat candy and party; they work and eat their vegetables! So now in order to get to the meat of a song, you have to sit through 2-3 minutes of monotonous brooding rhythm.

I listen to a little bit of post rock, I'm no expert. But in the few bands that I do prefer (Battles, Do Make Say Think), these bands are great because they do their slow building parts super well. In their songs, the big climb (if i may use a roller-coaster analogy) is just as compelling as the madness that eventually follows. Foals does no such thing here. Yannis Philippakis has traded in his haywire convulsing vocal style for a monotonous drone (because as you know, kids scream, adults sing).

The first few songs of this album are pretty good. The opening track passes through mostly unscaved thanks to its hypnotizing chorus, but is a fair warning of what's to come later. "After Glow", with pretty much nothing going on until the electronic clusterfuck three minutes in, is the only highlight of the second half. The final few tracks don't even bother with big moments, just guitar wankery.

Don't be fooled by the second half of this album! It is not as epic as it pretends to be. "Spanish Sahara" is a prime example. It drags on, until the cymbals crash and they just play louder, repeating itself. Not a good formula. The "epic" market is currently oversaturated, and Foals doesn't come anywhere near rising to the top of this pile. This album seems to have only come up with a bunch of jangly guitar moments and stretched them out to sound intelligent. Bad time management, Foals. Stick to your strengths and find ways to manipulate them, don't just Tom Yorke around for three minutes before you deliver and call that "maturity".

it's here!

Today is Alan Wake release day!! I've been waiting on this psychological horror game (from the creators of Max Payne) for a few years, and as I type it's finally being installed onlto my Xbox HD for minimum loading pleasure!

While I wait for the % bar, I want to plug Bright Falls; the live action teaser miniseries for the game. Historically when you read live-action, and know it's a sort of promotion, the content if bound to be pure garbage. Not this time! I was suprised to find how creepy and compelling these little 5 minute clips were.

Even if you don't plan on checking out Alan Wake, def give this Bright Falls thing a shot. The first episode is on youtube right here. There're really short and there is only six of them. It's good scary stuff.

album of the week: 5.3

Liars

Sisterworld

Mute Records (2010)

why you'll love it - hypnotically atmospheric and creepy. stays with you

why you'll hate it - too depressing, all mood little melody

It's very easy to praise Liars and come off as pretentious. So rather than go on about Sisterworld's abstract social criticism of Los Angeles, and their noisy no-wave influences; I'm just gonna skip the masturbatory word salad and say I love this album because it freaks me out. This isn't the kind of album I'd play in my car and rock my head to. I keep coming back to it for its creepy atmosphere, not so much for any kind of catchiness.

I could look deeper into the lyrics, but I won't because it may spoil the freakshow for me. The lyrics to the opening track, "Scissor", give you just enough info to let your imagination run wild. "I tried to save her, but my hands were freaking out" and "I began to quiver when I saw her blinking eye." Also, the music video does an amazing job of emulating that kind of claustrophobic nightmare you have every once and a while.

The music for the most part follows up their 2007 album. Their previous two albums were too drowned in feedback even for me to stomach. Now that they've been actually writing songs, most of them are keepers. The only duds here are songs that are ones that plod around with no drive, like "Drip".

Make no mistake though, this is pretty much art house rock. Entertainment isn't the goal. Interest is, and more than any other album of theirs, they've got mine. Maybe its been a weak year so far, but Sisterworld is feeling like one of my favorites. Its been out for two months now and I can't seem to turn away from it.

Yes, even worse than Fox News

VS is the worst channel in these United States. It's been cutting to commercial randomly all through game seven of a quarterfinal NHL game all night. I mean right in the middle of gameplay. Announcers interrupted mid-sentence, no score display bumper, everything. They even broke into ads during the entire last 45 seconds of the game!!

Hockey gets no respect anymore.

album of the week: 5.2

Deftones

Diamond Eyes

Reprise (2010)

why you'll love it - powerful music with substance

why you'll hate it - "chugga chugga" metal. Not as experimental as their better albums.

Metalheads don't deserve a band as good as Deftones. It's hard to feel sorry for a band as successful as they are, but their scene and associated bands do not allow people to give them their due credit. They are NOT a Korn, Limp Bizkit, whatever kind of band at all, and you should really give them a fair shot. Not enough people do.

Diamond Eyes has a bit of everything that Deftones do well. It's one of their harder albums, which means a good share of that "chugga chugga" sound. I'm not a big fan of that sort of thing. I much prefer their experimental side (White Pony, Saturday Night Wrist); but beneath that thick metal exterior is an impressive range of influences, some of which you may be surprised to find are gentle.

This big story with this album is the absence of bassist, Chi Cheng (still in a coma from a car accident in 2008), and the originally planned album, Eros. It's still a mystery what this near completed album sounded like, but understandably, it's been benched until the band is emotionally ready for it (though they claim the decision is purely creative). Diamond Eyes was written upon reflection of these events, and makes a point to be optimistic, confident, and beautiful.

It's the contrast that I enjoy so much in this album. The 2004 self titled release attempted this, but fell short. Chino's soft tone shift in the chorus of songs like "Beauty School" and "976-EVIL" are pitch perfect. If you've been following this band for the past ten years, there won't be anything new here, only improved. Their subtle shoegaze and post rock influences shine. This is one of those albums you can get a lot of plays of and notice different things each time. Of all their harder sounding albums, I think this is their best; although Saturday Night Wrist is still the definitive Deftones album.

Make sure to check out the iTunes release of the album for the extra cover songs. An excellent version of "Do You Believe" by The Cardigans. Not so keen on the Japan cover, but "Caress" by Drive Like Jehu is hot stuff. Acknowledging DLJ at all earns you respect points, but recording a boss cover… !

Don't be stupid, listen to the Deftones more. They know their shit.

LOL graffiti

album of the week: 5.1

The Radio Dept.

Clinging To A Scheme

Labrador Records (2010)

why you'll love it: beauty through fuzz, innovative and catchy

why you'll hate it: hard to hear lyrics, very melancholy

There are a lot of threads to explore in detail with this album. Firstly, I've been waiting for its release for over two years. This month in 2008, the first single, "Freddie And The Trojan Horse" was released. It was a great song that marked a point of evolution for an already great band. So how great in the much anticipated full LP? So much, that they didn't even bother including that song in the final track list!

Clinging To A Scheme is ten tracks, just over thirty minutes, zero duds. The closest thing to a weak point is "The Video Dept." which sounds a bit too much like Pet Grief (2006) hangover. All the other tracks mix genres so well, all you can really say is what they aren't. Too fuzzy for trip-hop, too melodic to call noise, too structured to call shoegaze, etc etc etc… They've managed to create something original by using modest doses of familiar insperation.

Almost every song is a highlight. "Domestic Scene" is a perfect intro track. "Heaven's on Fire" is so pop, it's practically an experiment for The Radio Dept. "Never Follow Suit" has incredible atmosphere to it; as if it's an alternate reality version of "Ghost Town" by The Specials. The breakbeat club loops woven into "David"; the strange ping-pong sound effects in "A Token of Gratitude"… the album is full of subtle memorable moments, and constantly maintaing an accessible melody. This is all around perfect album if you like dreamy music.

The only trappings of this album are a couple quirks The Radio Dept. has always had that either you love or you don't. The echoey distorted vocals. The melancholy tone of 95% of the songs. Cryptic lyrics. These things may frustrate certain listeners who demand more straightforwardness in their music, or need everything to sound clean.

To me, this album has lived up to the two year hype. It's a big improvement in versatility, and has proven to be much more interesting than most of what I've anticipated this year (Gorillaz, Hot Chip, capsule). One of the best of 2010 for sure!

behind schedule

Haven't been hitting my deadlines this week. The PS3 arrived last weekend with Super Street Fighter IV. Man, I am not good. I'm having fun checking out the new characters. Almost every character is new to me, since I haven't played a fighting game in about 15 years.

I think the only fighting game I'm good at is Smash Bros, because of the environmental stuff; and even there I think I'm being too kind by saying "good". So yeah, blame any future lack of updates on my eating of fireballs and long walks away from the computer to ease frustration.