• Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition (Square Enix, PS4/Xbox One)

    April 10, 2014 - By 

    The history of the Tomb Raider franchise should serve as a cautionary tale to aspiring videogame developers. When Lara Croft first romped into the media, gamers went mad for her double pistols, Daisy Duke cut-offs and clipped English accent. She struck the right balance between vulnerability and sexuality, thereby causing critics to herald her as either, depending on your opinion, a benchmark for female empowerment or male voyeurism. While some saw her as an anatomically impossible ogle magnet, others were glad to have a female lead in a videogame at all. Yes, there are Samus and Alyx Vance but after that the list…

  • Cloud Nothings – Here and Nowhere Else

    April 10, 2014 - By 

    Prior to 2012’s Attack On Memory, Cloud Nothings were often found buoyant in the same lo-fi slacker waters as Ty Segall, Wavves and a myriad of other Pitchfork darlings. Memory’s somewhat messianic production from Steve Albini explored the four piece’s heavier fundamental aesthetics and lathered it with frontman Dylan Baldi’s pop sensibilities. Following buzz singles ‘Stay Useless’ and ‘Fall In’ we saw Cloud Nothings nail the right-of-way Letterman Show and gain favourable festivals slots in all corners of the tour circuit. By bringing in producer John Congleton (The Dismemberment Plan, Explosions in the Sky) on their fourth LP we see a band who’ve played…

  • Master & Dog – Things You Should Know

    April 8, 2014 - By 

    Opening on a languidly strummed major chord in the vein of Sparklehorse and Low, pronounced gently like a first breath awakening from sleep, the lead track from Things You Should Know by Master & Dog is a brief but exquisitely restrained tale delicately marrying terse admissions of self-doubt with a pervasive ghost of hope. From the off, repose and self-contemplation feels directly conducive to the effect, the opening prologue-like tale very much setting the tone for the quartet’s latest EP. “I’m scared of what you’re capable of,” parts the alt-folk band’s vocalist and guitarist Walter Thee Goon, the release’s rather refreshingly unambiguous…

  • Strider (Capcom, Multiformat)

    April 8, 2014 - By 

    The original Strider, in both its arcade and subsequent home console appearances, was a truly bonkers title, the kind of which only a company like Capcom could make. Their trademark gonzo dialogue and hyperbolic violence were all over this everyday tale of a souped-up ninja battling through a dystopian Soviet Republic. It’s not often that you see those words in the same sentence, nor do you encounter an anthropomorphic millipede end of level boss wielding a hammer and sickle. Such curios were common in Strider, an odd yet brightly coloured side-scroller with inventive character design and a real sense of speed and…

  • patten – Estoile Naiant

    April 7, 2014 - By 

    Once, a long time ago, The Thin Air had reason to find itself upon a small boat, sailing around Australia’s Whitsunday Islands. “Lucky you,” you might think. But it was not so, for – entirely lacking sea legs – immediately upon embarking on the voyage we succumbed to a vicious, day-long bout of seasickness. Entering the fourth or fifth hour of miserable nausea, lying helplessly spread-eagled on our bunk while friends frolicked happily up on deck, we did what any reasonable person would do to remedy the situation: began drinking heavily. Fast forward to that evening, and as we reached…

  • Teebs – E s t a r a

    April 4, 2014 - By 

    A visual artist as well as a musician, Teebs‘ (real name Mtendere Mandowa) work naturally invites comparison between formats (despite the philosophical problems that may entail). In both, Teebs’ noisy atmospheres drip off the page, and rough but delicate multicoloured textures extend in three dimensions. E s t a r a can be considered Teebs’ full length follow-up proper to 2010’s lauded Ardour.  It’s generally familiar territory for the Californian producer, whose use of repeated elements – certain synth sounds and drum beats are recognisably Teebs –  are mirrored by his habitual use of dripping, vibrant colours and flowers in his artwork. The furthest Teebs strays from his…

  • The Last Of Us: Left Behind (Sony, PS3)

    April 2, 2014 - By 

    Can a videogame be emotional? Exciting, yes. Thrilling, most definitely. Addictive… well, as anyone who has spent three hours straight rotating tetriminos into position will attest, that would be putting it mildly. But can a videogame be moving? Can it jerk tears or pluck heartstrings? The answer, of course, is a resounding, hollering from the rooftops “yes”. If you know what it means to either save or “harvest” a Little Sister in the Bioshock series, or have made it to the denouement of The Legend Of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, you should know just how emotive this medium, however artificial, can be. The idea…

  • Animals as Leaders – The Joy of Motion

    March 31, 2014 - By 

    As of 2014, Tosin Abasi is a name that has been ringing in the ears of both musicians and listeners within the metal scene for nearly five years. In that time, the 8-string guitar virtuoso and his band Animals as Leaders have attained an almost universal acclaim from critics, who often cite the consummate guitar skills and complex structures in which they write and perform. Having said that, both of their previous albums have been sullied with a lack of consistency – for all the moments of excellence that they have, their past full-lengths could be described as unreliable and…

  • Future Islands – Singles

    March 25, 2014 - By 

    The hardest working band in electronic pop have moved to 4AD for their fourth album of delicately skewed and melodically-crushing heartbreak. Superficially, Singles carries on the Baltimore trio’s business of creating crafted, if slightly unsettling vignettes of loves lost, unrequited or simply illusory. The likes of ‘Tinman’ (from breakthrough second album In Evening Air) frantically pulsed with a combination of galloping bass and simmering synth washes and –most importantly – the astonishing voice of one Sam Herring. Herring’s half strangled, affected and utterly effecting throaty laments leant those songs a kind of raw, unnerving authenticity that made you believe he…

  • Starred Up

    March 24, 2014 - By 

    Muscular and raw, Starred Up is a film with teeth- both dramatically and literally, as one scene in particular bears out. Director David Mackenzie pulls no punches and produces a film laden with atmosphere that reeks of intimidation, violence and stale prison air. Starred Up is a story of father and son, with Eric (O’Connell) finally reunited with his long absent father, Neville (Mendelsohn). The difference between this and other family dramas is that this one takes place behind bars. From the first shot to the last, the audience never leaves the prison grounds. The film begins with the arrival…