20 December 2005
Silent but Deadly - the PS3 Strikes Back?
Between CES and E3 I think a lot of things are going to sort themselves out. How, exactly, that ends up happening isn't something I'm going to predict. My take on it is that if your goal is to play games the PS2 has a whole lot of life left in it, the DS finally got a real library this fall/winter, the PSP seems to be picking up on the game front and the Gamecube and XBox have boatlods of great games available cheap. The woes of the early adopter have been well-documented since the SNES days, the only real difference is that the amounts of money have increased and the amount of time before the library really gets cranking has become longer.
That said, there's a chance that the 360 might end up "caught in the middle" so to speak with the Revolution being cheaper and the PS3 being more powerful. All I know is that Microsoft needs to start daily beatings at Bungie until Halo 3 comes out if they really want their head start to count. DOA4 might help in Japan a bit but they're climbing uphill.
That said, there's a chance that the 360 might end up "caught in the middle" so to speak with the Revolution being cheaper and the PS3 being more powerful. All I know is that Microsoft needs to start daily beatings at Bungie until Halo 3 comes out if they really want their head start to count. DOA4 might help in Japan a bit but they're climbing uphill.
19 December 2005
Trip Report: The Future Primitive Sound Session 10th Anniversary
This was last night at Mighty in SF and was the best one I've been to in probably 2 years. Because FPS has been trying to gain steam as a label we've been subjected to a lot of Azeem and Daly Situations which is not a good thing of you've ever heard them. This one was all DJs [with some other stuff I'll mention later].
The lineup:
DJ Willow "The Gaslamp Killer" - this guy was kind of weird, he can scratch like a motherfucker but it took him a long time to get set up on each one and it seemed like he was trying to show off his psychedelic rock collection. He was also really into his bugged-out dancing and effects box.
Arts in Motion - A string quartet who plays with hip-hop instrumentals [usually from a laptop]. They were involved in DJ Radar's "Scratch Concerto" project and played between and during acts. Far more interesting than I was expecting.
Romanowski - He didn't play his album cuts! Seriously, I've probably seen him 5 times in the last 3 years and this was the first time he didn't. Good set, a lot of dancehall/dub.
Faust & Shortee - Best set of the night IMO, I've seen them a bunch of times and they have this habit of stealing the show from the headliners. Super-tight, nearly flawless and mega-energy like always. They are typically higher tempo than most turntablism sets, too bad it was getting too crowded to dance.
At this point the club became so crowded is was basically impossible to move. Once Radar and Z-Trip came on people started crowding towards the stage and it was generally stupid. Z-Trip seems to have almost made the crossover thing happen so there was a lot of douchey yuppies and hipster cokeheads.
Radar and Z-Trip - It's hard to form a full opinion of this set without mentioning the crowd. Seriously 95% of the people were standing still with drinks in their hands. Anyway, they started out doing sort of a cover of the infamous "volume 2" mixtape, but then went off on their own. Right at the beginning of the set Radar did the illest 1-deck beat-juggle I've ever seen in my life for like a minute and most of the people there didn't seem to notice. The set was refreshingly light on Z-Trip's classic rock collection but was still a great mix of hip-hop, rock, dub/dancehall and other weird shit. At this point it was last call and since they hadn't played "magic carpet ride" or anything from z-trip's album the lamers started leaving. Then Arts in Motion came out again and they did a bit from the "Turntable Concerto", it was pretty abstract and if I didn't already know he was scratching in key with the music I would have been pretty lost too. Then they started mixing in drum beats and stuff and it got a lot more entertaining. Then Z-Trip did a lot of his typical routine with Steve Miller, Steppenwolf, etc. I love the 2-DJ setup so much because if they're on there's never a slow point in the routine. Right at the end they did the "Mad Mountain King" routine made famous in the movie "Scratch" except they brought out the violins again and had them play the song live which was awesome. Plus at that point most of the fratboys had gone home.
Then things got really good, all the DJs who performed and a couple extras showed up and freestyle tag-teamed the decks for about an hour. It was sloppier than the previous sets but it made up for it with crazy skills all over the place. Overall it's not the best FPS I've been to but it was the best one since I saw Kid Koala back in 2004. I'd give the music a 9/10 and the club a 5/10 [waaay too crowded, didn't have the will call list and made everyone stand in the cold for half an hour]
The lineup:
DJ Willow "The Gaslamp Killer" - this guy was kind of weird, he can scratch like a motherfucker but it took him a long time to get set up on each one and it seemed like he was trying to show off his psychedelic rock collection. He was also really into his bugged-out dancing and effects box.
Arts in Motion - A string quartet who plays with hip-hop instrumentals [usually from a laptop]. They were involved in DJ Radar's "Scratch Concerto" project and played between and during acts. Far more interesting than I was expecting.
Romanowski - He didn't play his album cuts! Seriously, I've probably seen him 5 times in the last 3 years and this was the first time he didn't. Good set, a lot of dancehall/dub.
Faust & Shortee - Best set of the night IMO, I've seen them a bunch of times and they have this habit of stealing the show from the headliners. Super-tight, nearly flawless and mega-energy like always. They are typically higher tempo than most turntablism sets, too bad it was getting too crowded to dance.
At this point the club became so crowded is was basically impossible to move. Once Radar and Z-Trip came on people started crowding towards the stage and it was generally stupid. Z-Trip seems to have almost made the crossover thing happen so there was a lot of douchey yuppies and hipster cokeheads.
Radar and Z-Trip - It's hard to form a full opinion of this set without mentioning the crowd. Seriously 95% of the people were standing still with drinks in their hands. Anyway, they started out doing sort of a cover of the infamous "volume 2" mixtape, but then went off on their own. Right at the beginning of the set Radar did the illest 1-deck beat-juggle I've ever seen in my life for like a minute and most of the people there didn't seem to notice. The set was refreshingly light on Z-Trip's classic rock collection but was still a great mix of hip-hop, rock, dub/dancehall and other weird shit. At this point it was last call and since they hadn't played "magic carpet ride" or anything from z-trip's album the lamers started leaving. Then Arts in Motion came out again and they did a bit from the "Turntable Concerto", it was pretty abstract and if I didn't already know he was scratching in key with the music I would have been pretty lost too. Then they started mixing in drum beats and stuff and it got a lot more entertaining. Then Z-Trip did a lot of his typical routine with Steve Miller, Steppenwolf, etc. I love the 2-DJ setup so much because if they're on there's never a slow point in the routine. Right at the end they did the "Mad Mountain King" routine made famous in the movie "Scratch" except they brought out the violins again and had them play the song live which was awesome. Plus at that point most of the fratboys had gone home.
Then things got really good, all the DJs who performed and a couple extras showed up and freestyle tag-teamed the decks for about an hour. It was sloppier than the previous sets but it made up for it with crazy skills all over the place. Overall it's not the best FPS I've been to but it was the best one since I saw Kid Koala back in 2004. I'd give the music a 9/10 and the club a 5/10 [waaay too crowded, didn't have the will call list and made everyone stand in the cold for half an hour]
