Marassa Duo by Marassa Duo - CD
Ever since the release of the movie Drum Line, percussion ensemble music has been all the rage. 50% of Marassa Duo is Papador. Need I say more? YEEAAAAAH!
Month: March 2010
Made From Technetium by Man or Astroman? - CD
The band’s second Touch ‘n’ Go release is one of their best. For the most part, they have abandoned their surf rock roots for a decidedly more indy-rock meets new wave feel. The emphasis here is not so much on twang as it is on getting their guitars to make otherworldly sounds.
L’Ultimo Treno Della Notte by Ennio Morricone - CD
et another cool Italian movie soundtrack from Cinevox! The title track features Demis Roussos of Aphrodite’s Child(!) on vocals. His warbley stylings don’t quite fit here. Fortunately the rest of the album picks up after the cheesy opener. The instrumentation features the actual sounds of trains, a train-like drum machine beat and harmonicas mimicing the sound of train whistles. What’s not to like about that?
Doom 3 on PC
No that isn’t a black square you are looking at above. It’s a screenshot. A screenshot from Doom 3. Forget story and inventive game play, Doom 3 is all about mood lighting. And by “mood lighting” I mean darkness. Lots and lots of darkness… and shooting things.
The original Doom is a classic. I look at it as the pinnacle of the arcade-style shooter. When games were all about insane difficulty and scoring points. In some respects Doom 3 maintains much of the same feel of the original: lots of jump scares and monsters tucked away in places that make little sense in terms of real-world design. They exist only to jump out at you at the very moment you walk by or pick up that weapon upgrade across the room that is so tantalizingly lit. Your only goal is to shoot everything and then collect keys so you can get to the next area and shoot more things.
The graphics are pretty amazing and they seem to have aged quite well. It helps that everything is hidden in shadows. However, the maps all tend to look and play the same. The game does move quickly and offered me enough of a challenge to keep me plowing through to the end despite the lackluster story line. I do like the concept behind Doom quite a bit. The idea of a doorway to Hell occurs quite a few times in Lucio Fulci movies like The Beyond and The Gates of Hell. For that reason alone I was able to ignore the shortcomings of the story and just soak in the sinister atmosphere, and, in the end, that’s really what Doom 3 is all about.
Intravenous Television Continuum by Man... or Astroman? - CD
Another hit-or-miss hodgepodge of redos and covers. Production quality is better than most of the band’s previous releases.
What Remains Inside a Black Hole by Man or Astroman? - CD
I think this record has been remastered since I got this CD. In any event, a business-as-usual release for MorA? I think around this time they dropped the ellipsis from their name too. My favorite track is The Prisoner inspired “Rovers.”
Live Transmissions From Uranus by Man... or Astroman? - CD
MorA? had a tendency to re-release songs over-and-over during their early years. This live album is yet another collection of songs I already own, except that they are live. Man… or Astroman? shows were always great (I think I saw them like six times), but the appeal was usually in the theatrics and, to a lesser extent, the goofy banter. You don’t get the visual theatrics here, but there a little sampling of Coco’s banter.
La Donna Domenica by Ennio Morricone - CD
Another great soundtrack re-release from Cinevox. The pieces start mellow and gradually build in tension without quite reaching the beautiful noise-experimentalism of Morricone’s giallo recordings. This score is very similar to Indagine Su Un Cittadino Al Di Soppra Di Ogni Sopsetto in both style and in the use of multiple variations on a very limited assortment of musical themes. La Donna Domenica, thankfully, is not quite as repetitive as Indagnine.
Project Infinity by Man... or Astroman? - CD
Another good release with slightly better production quality than their previous Estrus recordings.
Jade Empire on PC
It’s been quite a while since I have been able to make myself play another BioWare Game. I really liked the Baldur’s Gate games, but Neverwinter Nights left such an awful taste in my mouth that I have been avoiding their titles ever since. I only decided to give Jade Empire a try after playing Fallout 3 which had revived some of my faith in RPG style games.
Thankfully, Jade Empire steers clear of the swords and sorcery setting and simplifies a lot of the horrible, number-based statistics that Neverwinter used to describe every object in the game. Also, I had heard the combat had a more of a action-fighting game feel than a traditional RPG style combat system (point at an enemy and sit and watch your character battle). Overall, I think Jade Empire was a pretty good game, especially for the $5 price it goes for on Steam.
The combat system is not quite as fun as I hoped it would be. In a difficult fight it really just comes down to spazmatically mashing the attack button like a fool. The story and characters make up for most of the game play deficiencies. The voice acting is good but suffers from stilted playback by the game’s dialog engine. I found myself skipping the audio and reading the subtitles more often than not. Spoiler alert: Also, add this game to the ever-growing list of games that use a friend’s betrayal as the main plot twist!