PREVIEW CLUBS
Game _for anythlng
Clubland once ran a mile from game culture. That was before Wipeout 2097. Rory Weller experiences the game, the CD — and the tour.
Well. who would have thought it? A game called Wipeour 2097, a CD of the music from the game, an ‘official stimulation‘ for said game and to cap it all, there's a bleedin’ club tour heading for Glasgow. Methinks things might be getting out of hand. Games and clubs used to keep a respectful distance from each other. PUl' Man would munch energy pills
Games and clubs used to keep a respectful distance from each other. Pac Man would munch energy pills on your Atari home console and Blondie would be getting Atomic on the dance floor.
on your Atari home console and Blondie would be getting Atomic on the dance floor. The first recorded movement between the two came with the most frighteningly bad single ever made, the dance mix of the Game Boy Terri's tune. It's all progressed hugely since then. found the power ups and attached the rocket booster discovered in the secret room on level three.
And Wipeou! 2097 is where it‘s at now. Scary
looking anti-gravity pods hurtle round the tracks of the F5000 racing league, located in post-apocalyptic settings, shooting any competitor who dares to challenge you with quake or electro bolts.
In the tradition of Wipeout — the original, released two years ago — the game also comes with a slamming soundtrack to keep your senses alert. Not only have they included classic club tracks like The Prodigy‘s ‘Firestaner‘, but there are songs exclusive to the game. Future Sound Of London. Photek, Fluke and Underworld all make the future environment a harder, faster, more dangerous place to try and survive in. Music and action fit together perfectly.
The teams are Feisar and Qirex, rather than Williams-Renault. and the nutter, kill-or-be-killed driver is more like Keith from The Prodigy than a clean-cut David Coulthard. Cuddly Coulthard may have won a few races, but he‘s never blown away another driver with a thunder bomb. Keith, you’re not so sure about.
The Prodigy: starting the fire
as it first sounds. The tour, involving Back To Basics, Check Point Charlie and Cream, touches down at The Arches in Glasgow during Slam, transforming one entire room into a Wipeour world.
The scenery that blurs past while you play the game will be the background to the environment and large scale Wipeout images will be projected onto walls. Ranks of Playstations will be se p for clubbers to challenge each other and the centre of focus will be two 6m wide race-craft exhaust ports from the game, each with huge monitors for head to head competitions. Chill out room? Not likely.
Should we be worried about this intrusion into Clubland? Maybe, maybe not. While there could be a case for saying multi-million pound computer game corporations shouldn't have a place in clubs, it’s nothing we haven't seen from cigarette or drinks firms before. At least this game has got more to do with music than a gang of uniformed models giving away free fags. (Rory Weller)
So, taking what is essentially a mass ofexcited pixels into a club environment isn't as freaky an idea
The Wipeou! Tour is at Slam. The Arches. Glasgow on Fri 8 Nov.
ms:- T total
A trip north could be the tonic Germany’s Mousse T is looking for after what he says was a deflating experience in London. Speaking during a break in his hectic production schedule, the man of the moment in house and garage talks about how disappointing his UK debut appearance at the city’s Ministry Of Sound was after all the hype he had heard about the club. Luckin though, it hasn’t put him off and he’s looking forward to his dates in Edinburgh and leeds.
In recent months, 30-year-old Mousse has been responsible for a string of excellent remixes,
Mousse T: house master
including reworkings of Quincy Jones, Amira, Ann llesby, lluffneck and Boris lluglosch. For the past decade, he has been making a name for himself in Germany and Europe, originally working on soul, ll & B and reggae tracks before moving onto house music. lie has, by his own admission, been ‘worklng like a dog for the last four years’ and is only now beginning to see the fruits of his labours.
The track that cemented his reputation was undoubtedly lluffneck’s ‘Everybody’ - it redefined the parameters of house music this year with its raw ‘Iive’ feel. Mousse was lucky enough to be offered the track for his Peppermint Jam label and duly licensed it with his own, now classic, remixes. As the Buffneck track grew, so did Mousse, and a
few astute moves later - including releasing the follow-up lluffneck track and Boris Duglosch’s huge ‘lleep Pushin’ On’ - he’s about as an vogue as you get.
Currently he’s stuck in the studio tumlng out more excellent work. llis next projects include a remix of the Fine Young Cannibals’ ‘Johnny’ and a Simply lled track ‘Angel’, which has, believe it or not, been produced by The Fugees. He’s also feeding his original love for black music and working on prolects with Thelma llouston, Bootsy Collins, and llandy Crawford, while collecting material for his own album which, rather than being a straightforward house release, will contain soul ballads and it 8- B cuts. (Jim Byers)
Mousse 1 plays alongside Boris nuglosclr at Astromofel, The Honeycomb, Edinburgh, Fri 1 Nov.
The List l-l4 Nov l996 77