Mini album review round up [lurks]

Maybe we'll get a bit more success with an album round-up than the movie roundup with folks being just plain wrong about the Matrix Reloaded ;) Same format, recentish or even recently discovered albums. I've probably got something of a monster list, here goes.

Radiohead - Hail to the Thief: We'd obviously heard it months ago thanks to the leaks. Nevertheless, I think it's a good return to form for Radiohead. It has imminently likable tracks from the outset (unlike Kid A) and the usual collection of growers. There There is probably my favorite song at the moment. Excellent, this would be in my top ten albums of 2003.

Stereophonics - You Gotta Go There To Come Back: I think the combination of being a tight group musically as well as pleasant gruff Rod Stewart-alike vocals makes these guys instantly likeable. There's also some really nice hooks and themes and it's a masterful recording to boot. Another in my top ten.

Evanescence - Origin: This actually from 2000 but I discovered this due to some airplay which the current 'Fallen' album is getting. It's basically a rock band with a stunning and powerful female vocalist. It's quite cheesy, big anthem 80s-like rock themes. It's the ultimate yank action film sound track basically. Yet for all that, I've got a serious soft spot for the rare female headed rock band so I find myself really likely this album despite myself.

Evanescence - Fallen: I think a track from this is on the Daredevil soundtrack, no surprise because their entire output sounds like a hollywood sound track. This is a bit more poppy, a bit more cheesy in places so normally I'd hate it but the female vocalist puts in even better performances than Origin so I like it anyway. Bah.

Skin - Fleshwounds: Skunk Anansie splitting up was a fucking tragedy in my view. I consider all their albums absolutely brilliant so when I finally got hold of Skin's solo album I was hoping for more of the same. Unfortunately it isn't, it's not exactly mellow and it has some superb vocals but there isn't the rock and there isn't quite the passion of Skunk. Once I got past that though, there are some really good songs here and she has improved in technique. It still feels like the lame, tame brother of Skunk though. :(

Electric Six - Fire: Not much expectation for this album really, both of the hits from it were novelty songs 'Danger Danger' and the infamous 'Gay bar' song. They were undoubtedly catchy and everything is kind of noisy and unrestrained in a way you don't hear much from middle of the road acts like this. It's a keeper.

ZZ Top - Mescalero: Texan blues rock with out of place electro pop beats and of course more facial hair than a mosque in western Afghanistan. It can't really lose can it? Well yes, yes it can. It's all be done before, it's doing nothing new other than a bit more audio layering and post production. The boys are undoubtedly talented but they seem happy to go after their perceived audience rather than go new places. It's crap, quite frankly.

Metallica - St Anger: I quite liked Metallic when they went through their soft metal anthem faze. It was musical and melodic enough to appeal to me in general. This album is a proper rock album and yes, rock, not metal. Although it does have that ridiculous overtemp percussion on occasion just to try prove it's a metal album. They still can't hide the fact that they can sing and they can play guitar and that is what we call Rock and Roll and that is why this album isn't a write-off and is worth a listen. Just ignore the lyrics trying desperately to appeal to angry juveniles.

Mini film review roundup [lurks]

Been awhile since we've done one of these. There seems to be a load of movies about of fairly unknown calibre so maybe we can help eachother avoid wasting our time on turkeys.

KT4 Ultra-FISR.. my my my.. [brit]

Ah, death to computers! may a pox be upon them!
So my main gaming rig (which is termed as such for old times sake) blew up on Friday; quite literally blew up - smoke was pouring out of the case, and the motherboard looked in places like pork crackling.
As you'll all be aware, this is not the sort of event that makes you want to jump for joy. It's expensive, and it's time consuming. It's doubly annoying because it means fighting tourists and drunkards in and around Tottenham Court Road.
Anyway. I've replaced the mobo with KT4 Ultra-FISR (£119.00) and finally switched to 333Mhz/512MB SDRAM (stop laughing at the back! - £69.99) - and upgraded the processor with a spare (seriously) Athlon 2200 XP (£0.00) I had knocking around.
Check out the spec. For the price I've given you above, you get *all* that; anything marked down as optional is thrown in - and it fucking loves it. I've now got more USB (2.0 at that) ports than god; and goddamned Bluetooth. Yeah, I'll never use the latter, but that ain't the point.
And the audio is amazing. Seriously. I've chosen for the first time ever, to stick with the onboard audio rather than disable it in the BIOS and rely on my trusty SBLive! - and I am seriously impressed.
Plus it's got an inbuilt gigabit LAN port..
Chaps, this motherboard rocks hard. My rig now screams along. Raven Shield, BattleField 1942, UnrealTournament.. all running at 1024*768 with everything turned on or to 'max' - jesus wept, I can shoot accurately now!
Now of course, I've discovered another technological nemesis; my Netgear Wireless Access Point (so allowing the flatmate to use my lappy) has decided to no longer communicate with anyone or anything... the quest continues...

Bittorrent on speed [lurks]

This bloke made a documentary about modern day gamers. He's a movie student and as is typical of the youth of today, he can't even pronounce the language properly but it's a tad interesting. You can get it at www.gametab.com The interesting thing there is that this movie is being distributed by Bittorrent at least two different sites, so it seems that webmasters are picking up on the usefulness of it

The marvellous thing is that public Bittorrents end up with loads of seeders so you get superb speed out of them. Pukka eh?

Electricdeath Limited? [am]

Oi - thought occurs here; we, between us, must buy a boat-load of toyz on an ongoing basis - liderally tens of thousands of squids. Is there any way in which we can pool our purchasing power to i) negotiate better rates and potentially even get ourselves non-VATable? Just a thought like. Answers on an anteater please.

Slim's Domestic Situation [muz]

Our fearless clan leader submits:
"I am not wupped."
In support of this assertion, he offers gems like: "My missus was a good hostess and made breakfast for me mates, therefore I'm not wupped."
Discuss.

Vroom! [spiny]

While the others are off playing PS for a couple of weeks, I've cracked open a can of petrol-head wh00p-ass in the shape of TOCA Race Driver.
This is quite simply the best PC racer I've played in ages. The AI is top notch, it's got a non-linear progression that dosen't force you to win every race & pretty well acted & directed cut scenes. The handling is great, even on a gamepad (which is how I'm playing it in third person view. Or should that be third car view? ;))
Oh and by the way, it's drop dead gorgeous in the visual dept. Nice particle effects, reflections, even a motion blur effect to give a real sense of speed. These Alfa 0wnage shots were taken 1280x1024 full detail with ansio filtering. In game frame rates are between 45 & 60.
It's got me staying up too late on work nites & tuts from the missus about my track time. It must be good :)