Randomer November Mix

Totally digging Randomer right now. Always seem to miss his live sets when we're out and about, although he did serious damage at the Logistics launch down at East Village back in September.

http://www.thefatclub.com/music/Randomer-November09mix.mp3

Zombie Disco Squad - The Dance
Joe - Claptrap
Untold - Just For You (Roska Remix)
Randomer & Jonny5 - Too Many Times
Martyn - Mega Drive Generation
Untold - I Can’t Stop This Feeling (Pangaea Remix)
Untold - Palamino
Drop The Lime - Set Me Free (Lil Silva Remix)
Lil Silva - Different
Randomer - Bleep Loop
NB Funky - Frequency
Randomer - Scapegoat
Toasty - Full Clip
Randomer - Soft Focus
Instra:mental - No Future
Randomer - Junk
Danny Breaks - Outro
Randomer - Easter Island
Enei - Z-Grab
Randomer - Down in the Woods
Randomer - Down to the Club
Randomer - Synth Geek
Randomer - Trogs
Randomer - Synth Geek
Dan Harbarnam - Zoom Back Camera
Danny Breaks - The Big Bossa
Commix, Nutone & Logistics - Soundbyte
Randomer - Puzzled
>>Hunchbak - Peace Wip
Randomer & REDS - Modem Jazz
Hunchbak - Peace Wip
Decimal - Circle Of Nine
Sabre - God Fearing
Randomer - Appetite
Martsman - Halow
Randomer - Rough Sex

Boosh!

Reload: Tribes Vengeance

Tribes Vengeance (2004): I never really played Tribes back in the day, and until T:V, my only real experience with the franchise was Starsiege from way back in 1999. I first picked it up for about four quid or something in 2005 after reading some generally positive reviews and having a go at the demo (whilst playing catch up for the previous four years of PC games that I'd missed out on from not upgrading).

At the time, it was actually pretty stunning. Flying round the huge maps by jet pack and skiing down almost vertical slopes at 5000 mph was fantastic fun, even though the weapons were either bit shit or completely redundant. The Unreal 2 engine made everything look lovely and shiny, and the space-opera storyline was actually rather compelling as well, despite being painfully cheesy at times.

It was only when I started exploring the online and multiplayer options that it began to become clear how pissed off most of the Tribes community seemed to be with T:V, the game's developer Irrational and its publisher VU Games. After its launch in 2004, T:V failed to sell for a number of reasons and support for the game was quickly abandoned by VU. Existing Tribes players seemed to think that T:V moved too far away from the original games and stuck with them, rather than moving on to Vengeance. Also, 2004 was not a good year for rebooting PC franchises, with UT2k4 and Half-Life 2 occupying most gamers' free time. I can't help but feel that it was also the beginning of a transition from mainstream online gaming away from PCs and towards XBox Live. If Vengeance had been launched a year later on the 360, perhaps it'd have fared a bit better. In any case, by 2004 there really wasn't room for what was essentially a new online FPS franchise.

The failure of Tribes Vengeance is a pretty sad story overall, and whilst the multiplayer may not have made the grade considering the game was essentially a multiplayer game, the single player campaign is still worth a play through if you haven't tried it before (despite the fact that its really only there to provide training for the multiplayer). The Unreal 2 engine is certainly showing its age, although I still prefer its post-processing to the over-blown plasticiness of the Unreal 3 engine.

As previously mentioned, the T:V storyline is pretty good and Irrational certainly managed to do an impressive job of telling it from various different points of view, switching between the past and present.I doubt there's anyone playing it online these days, but as a single player game, Tribes Vengeance is definitely worth giving a spin if you haven't tried it before, and still worth a replay if you have.

After Action Report: Wang! 10th Birthday

My friends are probably sick of my constant whinging about missing out on the birth of rave back in the late 80s. The era before the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 seems to have taken on a near-legendary status in many people’s minds, myself included. Survivors from that period whine that the parties these days just ain't what they used to be.


Wang 10th birthday down in Ewer Street Car Park; basically a load of archways somewhere in South London. There were puddles everywhere, the toilets were shit and it was freezing cold. It was a perfect raving environment. From the industrial strength piles of speakers and the 90s-esque TV wall rig to the empty cans of Lech littering to the floor, the setup just couldn’t have been better. The only real problem was the extreme shortage of set lists, which meant that we had no clue as to who was on where and when. Wasn’t really that much of a problem, because we managed to catch Plaid and Squarepusher, but would have been nice to put some names to other faces/sets.

On the subject of Squarepusher; shit the bed that guy can play the bass! His performance at Wang last NYE was incredible, and he was one of the highlights of Bestival this year, but fucking hell! We spent almost his entire set up the front, gawping in slack-jawed wonder. Absolutely mind blowing.

It seems to me that the reason that the Wang crew are able to put on such consistently good nights is because they are all about having a good time, rather than making fat stacks of cash. At least that’s certainly the impression their nights give. I get the feeling that perhaps I’m going to the wrong kind of parties when I wake up the next day feeling ripped off. Whilst we’ll never get back to the proper raving of the early 90s, at least there are parties like Wang to give us all a taste of what once was. More please!

B-Complex - Different Kind of Masochist Mix

Lovely mix from B-Complex. Check out his tracks on MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/bcomplexdnb) or YouTube. He's one of my favourite producers right now.

http://www.dogsonacid.com/showthread.php?threadid=622669

01. B-Complex ft. Acrisma - Fragmenty
02. Verbal - Exorcist
03. Apex - By The Way
04. B-Complex ft. Bad Girl - Alone With The Sky
05. Unknown Error - Midnight Special
06. Naibu - Generic Generations
07. Medmen&Poets vs Soulgrifter ft. Ill-esha - Save Me
08. State of Mind - Sun King (Chris Su Remix)
09. London Electricity - Just One Second
10. Brooklyn - Someone (Naibu Remix)
11. Duo Infernale - Lost In The World
12. Danny Byrd ft. Brooke Brothers - Gold Rush
13. B-Complex - Reflections
14. Jiant vs FatBoy Slim - Skanky
15. Tyler Straub - Easy Does It
16. Young Ax - January
17. B-Complex - Sober Yet Overdosed
18. B-Complex - It`s A Funny World
19. B-Complex - Beautiful Lies
20. Unknown Error - Yearning
21. Ill.Complex - Broken Windows
22. Duo Infernale - Dreamherb
23. Simon V - Supernatural
24. B-Complex - Girl With Flower
25. Seba - Blaze and Fade Out
26. B-Complex - Little Oranges
27. B-Complex - Questions
28. Rido - Hard As Life
29. Morebeat - Colours
30. Noisia - Crank
31. B-Complex - Passage
32. B-Complex - Ocean Deep
33. B-Complex - Raindrops
34. LM1 - Reneissance
35. B-Complex - Three Dots

Always nice to see Sun King in there. Only thing the mix is missing is fifteen minutes of Beautfiul Lies à la his September Hospitality@Matter set :)

A Modern Warfare 2 Post!

Blah blah blah Modern Warfare 2.

Blah blah blah :(

After Action Report: Hospitality At Matter

I bloody love Hospital Records. I love all the Hospital producers and I really love Hospitality. I've been to every one of the Matter Hospitalities bar the first and so far I've always had a really good time, and last Friday was no exception.



Turned up late to the Dome on Friday having been to see the Cinematic Orchestra over at the Camden Roundhouse, so unfortunately we missed Beardyman (apparently he was awesome) and Matrix. It wasn't all fail though, because we also managed to miss Fabio. Result!

We arrived just as London Elektricity was getting going, followed by High Contrast, who both smashed it as usual. We retreated to THE CAAAGE for a bit more space during HC's set and hung around the edges for Danny Byrd. I dunno if the number of tickets sold has been increased or something, but Matter definitely felt more rammed than usual. No room on the dancefloor for dancing and lots of shoving and pointy elbows instead. Perhaps I'm just getting old. Stuck my head in briefly to Room 2, but whoever was dubstepping it up in there almost sent me to sleep. Wish I'd caught D-Bridge's set though!

By the time Cyantific came on, we'd managed to smash our way to the front. This definitely proved worthwhile, because it's only when you get on to the dancefloor that you really feel the sub bass shreading your knees and whatnot. Ed Rush was on last to finish off the night, but everyone was really starting to lag a bit and we ended up calling it a night around half five, which was a bit of a shame.

I still quite like Matter as a venue, despite the fact it's always a bloody mission to get home from. However, I think I'll be taking a break from the Matter Hospitalities for a while. Although the beer prices have always been a rip off, £4.50 is just too fucking much for a bottle of Stella, and the crowd there seems to be pretty angry most of the time. Perhaps these two problems are related? My other problem with Matter is that I always feel really disconnected from the DJs/music. Room 2 doesn't have this problem as much, and nor do the Ram nights where the DJs are set up in the cage thingy rather than up on the stage. Perhaps it's all just a bit too big? Kinda makes me miss The End.

Hopefully taking a break from Matter will allow me to return there feeling refreshed and start to enjoy myself a bit more. Despite all my whining, Hospitality really is a great night and last Friday was throughly splendid and worthwhile. Wish there were more London-based Hospital nights though!

After Action Report: Wah Wah 45s 10th Birthday (Scala)

Bit last minute this one, with the squad being drawn to the Scala by the promise of Danny Byrd, Bonobo, Beardyman (unfortunately a no-show on the night) and Format but none of us really knowing what to expect. Never been to a Wah Wah 45s night before, but I certainly dig the Scala as a venue and the mixed lineup promised a fairly wide range of genres and performances, so we thought we'd give it a go as a change from the usual all DnB diet.


Bonobo: Impressive main room DJ set from Simon Green. Could have perhaps done with hearing a few more of his own tracks in there, but it was jolly good all the same. Must check this guy live ASAP.

DJ Format: Everyone else had pissed off to the Scala's dank, dungeonesque smoking pit for the start of Format's set, so I kicked my way to the front. Format dealt a really good hip hop mix, but it really left me wanting more. Another guy to check out live.

The Apples: Surprise discovery of the night. None of us had heard of these guys before. Best described as a some sort of jazz/funk unit, their performance was really upbeat, although it might have just been that the £4.20(!) beers were finally taking effect. Their rework of Rage's "Killing In The Name", really got the crowd bouncing (although even Killing on a Stylophone will have that effect).



Danny Byrd: As expected, Danny Byrd ran a smashing DnB set, which finished off the night nicely. Everything was running late by this point, and it seemed that most of the crowd had gone home to bed, but it was definitely their loss. Only downside was that it felt that he was playing it a bit safe when compared to his last Matter set, but hopefully he'll smash it up next Friday at Hospitality.

Overall, a jolly good night. The Room Two dubstep made a nice change of pace when we dipped in there once or twice (I think we might have caught some of Loefah) and the only real negatives for the night were the ridiculous booze prices and First Capital Connect not having enough fucking drivers to take us home.