In honour of the massive media masturbation session that is the MTV awards let '5 kick off with a few pop tarts. Biggest of them all has to be Britney Spears, here pursuing her relationship with Madonna. 'Me Against the Music' (Jive)
00 is a totally undervvelming Neptunes' cast off while Holly Valance's ‘State of Mind‘
(London) 000.
is a completely derivative.
saucy. 80$ electro number but it rocks more mightily than any HV track has any right to.
Sikth offer hyper drive guitars. screamed high- pitched vocals and a surprising amount of melody (for speed metal at any rate) on ‘Scent of the
Obscene' (Gut) COO
. Camel Riders‘ 'Twisled’ (Subliminal) CO.
is grinding tech-
house. complete with sultry, dirty vocals. Degrassi. now boast ex-ldlewild chappie Bob Fairfoull among their number. No wonder ‘The
Form EP' (SL) .0.
sounds surprisingly similar
in spirit to Mr F's previous band these days but the grand space opera stylings of the appropriately titled ‘UFO' take them off on their
own unique tangents.
We'll save the best for last with local lad Reachout joining forces with Joseph Malik on 'This Town‘ (Oh Eye) 0... , smooth soul with a deep. dark hip hop heart. Then there's the funky 70s style of Kinobe on ‘Party Animals' (Zomba)
featuring Terry Callier on b-side
“Moonlight and Mescaline'. But Single of the Fortnight has to go to tiny Tim Burgess' ‘Only a
BOy' (PIAS) 0...
just for reminding us of
Summer even though winter has her le hands firmly griping our balls. (Henry Northmore)
MNMnslssiffi
~t
coir." ' ,
chancers. Quite the opposite, in fact. because you soon come to realise that the easygoing chime of 'TrafficaAtlantica' or the gruff throb of Union Rules' are confidently well—written tunes at heart. if a little logged by the lo- finess of it all. Showing definite promise. (David Pollock)
POP SIOBHAN DONAGHY
Revolution in Me lLondon) O
The poor love may have had a hard time as the Pete Best of the Sugababes but her act
of sonic vengeance is. unfortunately, one of the most loathsome records of the year. Too ‘odd' for a teenybop following and too imbeCilic for a serious adult crowd. Revolution in Me Will have even Kym Marsh fans gaping in awe at its sheer tedium.
When Siobhan \.r-/arbles on ‘lodine' about life in Blair's Britain making you feel like a plucked turkey on Christmas Day. you know that the future of pop lies somev-rhere else. There are songs on here that you'll regret haying heard until the day you the (Brian Donaldson)
games@list.co.uk
GAMECUBE VIEWTIFUL JOE (Capcom) £39.99 0....
While other arms of the media cross- pollute. pay homage and downright steal from each other. computer games seem to inhabit their own world. separated from the art. politics. war. morals and culture we all wallov.’ in daily. And while even/thing from newspapers to architecture. opera to — gasp — football strive for at least a modicum of artistic recognition. computer games give not a Jot. Happily. they plough on blindly.
Thankfully. this is not the case with l/iewtifu/ Joe. Yes. it exhibits the same basm: structure as so many of its peers: beat some little baddies to gain power-ups to beat some bigger baddies to gain better poi.'-.ier-ups and on and on. Yes. it suffers from many of the pitfalls of its peers. such as a wildly swinging difficulty level and some mindless repetition. Yes. it isn't perfect. But it does so much else that is right.
Cinema is used as the glue that holds the whole thing together with fanboys TCVOHIHQ in l/ieivtifu/ Joe's constant stream of references as our 8 movie hero tries so hard to rescue his girlfriend. Progression unlocks special powers for Joe that again follow the cinematic theme. Time can be slowed or accelt-zrated (Donnie Darko anyone?l and works sooooo much better than in the woeful Binx. Linking these moves together increases your VFX meter, which in turn allows more moves. However. let the bar empty and it is black and white for you.
It is the thought that has gone into the context and the story that makes Viett/tifiil Joe stand out. It even wanders into philosophy at times. In a
computer game? Shurely shome . . .
A game that is a visual
delight. a manual challenge and a cranial cattle prod? That
really is more like it.
ilain Davidson)
Pc JUDGE DHEDD: DREDD VS DEATH
(Vivendi) £29.99 on
2()()()AD is great. It has been great since 2000AD first sounded futuristic and long may it remain great. And greatest among its characters is Judge Dredd — masked man. clone. the Law. Well. the time has come for you to slip into that famous helmet and sit astride that famous Lana/master bike. Judge Deaf/i has returned to the streets of Mega-City One. again punishing the liVing as it is they who commit crime. It is up to you to send this evil packing. remembering that there is always time to collar some perps along the way. All this is played out in rather splendid FPS style and. though the Cities ceiild have been a lot buSier. really captures the essence of the comic books. The weaponry is fun_ with the Lawgiver and its choice of six ammunition types covering most situations. and the animation of perp and Judge alike is fantastically brutal. If there was decent Al and a little more variation in enemy. Dredd Vs Death would have been a cracker of a title. Not as great as the comic but not an (Elllith'l‘étSSlllClli either. which is more than can be said of the film. (Iain Davidsoni
Video] DVD
video@list.co.uk
in association with www.0vds365com
f.' The km: are run mm (m:
HORROR COMEDY M SICAL
U I THE HAPPINESS OF THE KATAKURIS (15) 110min (Tartan Asia Extreme DVD retail) 0000
The prolific and ever bizarre Miike Takashi is back and this time the enfant terrible of Japanese cinema is making a musical.
Like a dysfunctional cross between the Von Trapps and the Fawltys. the Katakuri family run a small hotel that no-one has ever stayed at. When their first few guests end up (lying. the family decide to protect their dwindling economic interests by
burying them.
Cue bizarre show tunes. zombies and claymation sequences that would make Tony Hart wonder what Morph had been taking. Jaw-droppineg surreal and utterly hilarious. some will find this gratuitously strange. The rest are in for a brain popping treat. (Gordon Eldrett)
HORROR
MARTIN
(18) 95min
(Arrow Films DVD/VHS Retail) 0...
tag
George A Romero’s Martin is a tale of vampyric ambiguity, it is never clear whether the eponymous character (played delicately by John Amplas) is really a Nosferatu or just a seriously disturbed individual. He has no fangs and no supernatural powers, he gains access to his victims via breaking and entering before drugging them and enlisting the help of a razor blade for blood—letting.
Filmed more like an urban drama, the intimacy of the film helps it to belie the extremely limited financial resources which in turn makes the outbursts of graphic violence even more pronounced. Martin’s admissions of his own compunctions as a sickness often seem both tragic and futile.
Like much of Romero’s work, Martin reaches beyond its own genre boundaries to become a commentary on the crumbling American consumer society. Set in Pennsylvania against the rusting backdrop of a city in its economic death throes, Martin’s own sense of isolation is mirrored by the emptiness of those searching for sense in their surroundings. Made in 1977 (released in 1978), possibly the scariest aspect of the film is that it has even more political resonance today.
For many, Romero is the father of modern horror. While too much inbreeding means his descendants have flooded our multiplexes with cross-pollinated tat like Freddy Vs Jason, this re- issue is a perfect opportunity to trace the bloodline back. (Gordon Eldrett)
I Available to buy now. WWW. the-associates.co. uk >
.31) ()(I! 115 No: 2003 THE LIST 1 1 1