Hot-a Sowuss

For most bands a gap of seven years between (non-instrumental) albums would probably be regarded as lazy. With the Beastie Boys, though, it usually seems to be worth the wait; and considering they've released seven strong albums since their 1979 punk début - along with founding member MCA thankfully taming cancer over the last 18 months - it seems fine to cut them a little bit of slack. However as with any extended wait, the anticipation for the release has grown disproportionately – can Hot Sauce Committee Part 2 live up to the expectations placed upon it by anxious fans?

Opening with the single “Make Some Noise”, there's immediate signs that this is a Beastie Boys record. The track is loaded with synthesizers and scratches, setting the tone for a lot of the album, but is thankfully not overly saturated with them. Instead the synths complement the vocals and head-tapping backbeat and it's a positive opener to welcome the Boys back.

Collaborations are relatively rare for the Beastie Boys (reissues and remixes aside) but there are two on HSCP2. The first, featuring Nas, is “Too Many Rappers [new reactionaries version]”. This mix is slightly different to the versions that have appeared on various demos over the last few years, with a more bombastic drumline that wouldn't be out of place in the era of Licensed To Ill. As to be expected from the Beasties and Nas the rapping is tight and though there are flangers and wah-wah effects everywhere the vocals stay strong enough to make this track a decent enough collaboration. 3 MCs and One More MC, if you will.

The second, however - “Don't Play No Game That I Can't Win” with Santigold – is one of the higher peaks of the album and already feels like it could be a huge summer song this year. Santigold and the Boys toast over the chilled snare-and-hi-hat backbeat and reggae horns, and the typically laid-back lilt of the ex-Stiffed singer for the chorus adds up to a beach-friendly, barbecue-scoring feet tapper of a song. It might not quite make you skank but don't be surprised if this emerges as a big crossover hit.

With such a varied back catalogue it's easy to recognise aspects of their previous records in this one; there are several moments, such as “Non-Stop Disco Powerpack” and “Say It”, that could slot right in on Check Your Head while “Long Burn The Fire” is reminiscent of the darker mood from To The 5 Boroughs, albeit crossed with Deltron3030 and the Dr. Who theme tune. More recently, The Mix-Up's instrumental groove influence is clearly felt on “Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament”, another song that showcases the talents of the Beastie Boys when they pick up their instruments.

In that vein, one of the highlights of the album is the Descendents-meets-filthy-synths track “Lee Majors Come Again”. Previously released as a remix versus Daft Punk's “Da Funk”, the album version is a punk-rock song driven by a gloriously simple bassline that suggests that despite what the Beastie Boys have given as such eclectic musicians over the years, they can still do punk-rock as well as anyone and it's a shame we're not treated to it more often.

Hot Sauce Committee Part 2 isn't as littered with samples as you may expect from a Beastie Boys album. There are a few noted ones, such as dropping Bob Dylan and U2 loops here and there (and I'm almost certain there's a sample of the Batman soundtrack from the Nintendo GameBoy game, but that's possibly because that's been stuck in my head since about 1989) but for the most part the album sticks to multi-instrumental sounds and songs; and from steel drums to cowbells to clavinovas galore there should certainly be enough for musos to muse over.

One thing that stands out is the consistently high level of vocals throughout the record. Rap-centric songs such as “Long Burn The Fire” and “Here's A Little Something For Ya” show that each member remains a great MC in their own right, alternately toasting themselves in the time-honoured tradition of rap and delivering couplets with a sense of fun that the Beastie Boys are so renowned for. There are few rappers apart from the King Ad-Rock that could get away with “The proof is in the pudding and the pudding's in my pants/Now watch me rap and watch me dance”, but he does it with aplomb.

Admittedly on first listen the album can seem a tad over-produced – a lot of the songs initially present you with a wall of noise and can seem overwhelming and tracks can blend together in a bit of a sonic mess. However with each subsequent listen the tracks, as heavily-layered as they are (and some are very heavily layered indeed), stand out better. Hot Sauce Committee Part 2 is certainly an album that deserves to be listened to with good speakers – tinny laptop speakers will be about as useful as Michigan J. Frog when faced with the multiple, finely-tuned levels of each song.

It's unlikely to win a great deal of new fans in the way that Hello Nasty did, but lest we forget that was 13 years ago – and this is an album that is littered with new, diverse influences and innovations that most groups wouldn't dare to try. For existing Beastie Boys fans, though, it's good to have them back and the more you listen to the album, the better it becomes – a worthy addition to the already great canon of the group. And thankfully we only have to wait a year for another album; the chronologically-challenged Hot Sauce Committee Part 1 should be out in 2012.

God of Four Year Old Reviews

I was honestly meaning to write something over the last week or so but I became rather distracted.  Not distracted by the nice weather - an annual event in which the British public become fully-fledged Ra worshippers, sacrificing animals and first-borns in a futile attempt to make the sun last for more than a week - nor distracted by getting myself a job, an event that hasn't happened despite my sacrifices of animals and first-borns.

No, this week I have been hugely distracted by the Playstation2 game God Of War 2.

I realise I have my thumb spectacularly on the pulse with this one considering it was released over four years ago, but it was still a nice surprise when LoveFilm pleasantly dropped this through the letterbox last week.  Nice because the game has turned out to be brilliant, but still mainly a surprise because a) I didn't realise it was on my rentals list and b) I've been waiting for them to deliver Fallout New Vegas for about 4 months now.

Still, I can continue waiting for New Vegas whilst games like this arrive.  I had the bonus of not knowing a thing about the game before loading up the dusty PS2 but thankfully the game delves right in, and within a minute of hitting New Game you're battling a newly-anthropomophic Colossus of Rhodes.

That's right, the fucking Colossus of Rhodes is the first opponent in the game.

Not even arsed.

After defeating this bronze behemoth with your handy pair of steak knives on strings you're up and on a quest to change your fate (by "your" I mean Kratos, the perpetually angry and perpetually bald protagonist) and defeat the Gods of Olympia etc and so on. It's a long quest, I shan't lie, but it's ok because seemingly every few minutes you're thrust into yet another legendary battle.  Minutes after fist-fucking Cerebrus to death to regain the golden fleece you're kicked off on by Medusa's less-famous-but-more-ugly sister.  After defeating a Spartan general you're attacked from behind by the fucking Kraken, anachronistic but still huge and a right bloody bastard.  And you're still only about two-thirds though the game.

I don't mean to namedrop like an excitable Classics student but the amount of mythology the game includes is admirable; Perseus, Thesus, Zeus, Titan and friends are all included in one way or another, with the game's overarching storyline fitting nicely alongside the existing Greek mythos.

The level design is deceptively clever - after heading one way for a few hours you're occasionally brought back into an area you visited earlier from a different direction that didn't even seem possible the first time.  There are very few loading screens, due to the well-paced employment of cutscenes and FMV, and as such the game flows from one area into another almost seamlessly.  The sound is suitably bombastic, with huge scores to complement the action.  The voice-acting is gruff and almost-overcooked but fits the game's environment well.

The combat is the real highlight of God of War 2, though.  It's practically non-stop (aside from when solving the game's occasional just-tough-enough puzzles) and whilst it may lend itself to sporadic button-bashing when outnumbered, it's instantly redeemed by the number of powerful moves you can unleash - including several different ways of finishing off each individual enemy type, like a particularly pissed-off hairless Mortal Kombat character.  Major boss battles make use of Quick Time Events, yet these don't detract from fights and complement the almost-mindless hacking and slashing.

Some battles can get overcrowded and it's tempting to panic a tad; thankfully though it's the exhilarating sort of panic like when you drive a car for the first time, rather than the stressed panic when your girlfriend tells you she's late and you're only 19 with a shit retail job and you were supposed to be going to uni in a few months and how are you going to LIVE?!

God of War 2 is easily the most fun I've had with a game for years, with about 20 hours or so of ass-kicking gameplay.  I'm loathe to use the word "epic" but from the setting and story, to the gameplay, to the sheer size of the levels and bosses, it's the best word to accurately sum it up.  The game is like a cross of 300 and a Jason Statham film, except angrier, balder and with bigger fight scenes. And every bit as adrenaline-charged and exciting as that sounds.

I just wish I had a Playstation 3 to play the cocking sequel.

(God of War 2 is available for less than a tenner now too, so no excuse)

Good Song, This #001

I'm tempted to claim Art Brut are a Marmite band that one either loves or hates but I don't think that's particularly fair; it's probably better to describe them as a band you either love or simply feel you don't 'get'.
Though the band's lyrics have always been poignant, hilarious and instantly relatable to most, it's understandable that people may be initially put off by singer Eddie Argos' vocal style - best described as a brash (yet always well-meaning), one-way conversation being loudly aimed in your direction.  However this hasn't stopped the group from amassing an ever-growing fan-base (including several of their peers - We Are Scientists and Frank Black are vocal supporters) and continuing to record great music, and showing that the only thing to 'get' is a band making enjoyable pop music.
May 23rd of this year marks the release their fourth album, Brilliant! Tragic!,  and lead single "Lost Weekend" is online now.  Instantly noticeable is that Argos is now singing along to the band rather than communicating over them - and his breathy style adds to this traditionally self-deprecating tale about (yet another) a lost love.  Though it'd be a shame if Argos was to relinquish his trademark style permanently (and thankfully I doubt that will ever happen), this track showcases a pleasant alternative that works for this particular song.
 "Lost Weekend" seems to hint at a more complete Art Brut - a much tighter sounding group than their previous three studio albums, as each instrument seems to complement the rest rather than vying for your attention as they've occasionally been guilty of in the past.
Though they may never be everyone's cup of tea, the song certainly points towards yet another inherently listenable Art Brut record.

Force is strong in this one etc etc

I know I get far too amused by things relating to Star Wars but this did genuinely make me laugh:

courtesy of Sneaky Zebra

Another Death of Autotune

Technology, here in 2011, really is at a magnificent level.  Every single day people like you and I* traverse both the current limits of outer space (up there) and our own vast oceans (down there).  A seemingly infinite wealth of knowledge awaits those who dare to have a gander, and the almost-daily advances in technology only help this cause.

And of course, most people couldn't give a shit - technological advances that people care about in 2011 seem to range only from iPhone apps to Oyster cards.  Unless the grandfatherly David Attenborough is explaining the luminescent Angler fish or the hunky Prof. Brian Cox is chatting breeze about the birth of stars, the general public's understanding and usage of available technology seems only to stretch to shit YouTube videos and texting in to support idiots on talent contests on ITV.

Now I generally don't have a problem with this (I am of course using remarkably advanced technology to write a blog that no one will actually read), and it would be hugely hypocritical of me to judge how other people use the tools available to them.

HOWEVER.  That was before I saw this:

"Sunday", by Sadie B.  I would give up every Sunday to cancel out the very concept of this video being born

We've all heard Rebecca Black's seminal "Friday" and marvelled at its innocent, if hugely shit, video.  We all had a chuckle as she pondered over the differences between a car's seating options, and sat open-mouthed when that rap started.  It was never going to stand alongside Revolver and Blonde on Blonde in the canon of rock history, and it never tried to.

But this, THIS is a different animal. Setting its stall out early by putting "Rebecca Black Parody" in the title of the video, "Sunday" by Sadie B presents quite the convincing argument for casting aside our current technology and regressing rapidly back to the Stone Age so 'parodies' like this cannot take place.  The main problem is that for a parody it is remarkably, almost impressively, completely not funny.

The crux of the humour seems to be replacing "Friday" with "Sunday" and giving it a religious angle.  And that's pretty much it.  Using two white rappers (an argument can be made they have better flow than Patrice Wilson in the original, to be fair) adds a dose of wacky, pre-watershed humour whilst Sadie B ponders "which service can we make?"  Hopefully one led by Jim Jones, if there's to be a happy ending to this horrible, bastard journey.

My first thought was that I was overreacting to this and a stupid video shouldn't get me angry - but I then realised the anger was in fact sheer frustration that someone - nay, some people, a group of sentient beings that reached a unanimous decision over this - sat down and decided the video would be a good (hilarious, even!) idea.  Then actually went through with it.  Then unleashed it on the rest of the universe, culminating with me viewing it and writing hundreds of words about it.  The joke is almost certainly on me right now, but at least that's still funnier than this car-crash** attempt at comedy. 

The Christian angle makes the awful idea even worse and paints non-evangalist, non-bellend churchgoers in a bad light merely by association.  Namedropping the big JC in your song does not make it a positive Christian message, in my opinion.  Unless the ditty in question is Supergrass' steeped-in-science-fact "Jesus Came From Outta Space"*** -  a song that would certainly do more for the Christian church than Sadie B.

Sadly and inevitably, this has already spread like the fucking T-Virus and at the time of writing over 23,000 people have watched it, due to the ease of recording, editing and hosting technology today. My only hope now is that we see a nuclear winter sooner rather than later, and any evidence of this on YouTube is destroyed before the 2211 version of Brian Cox can explain that society 200 years previous actually spent precious time creating Sadie B's "Sunday (A Rebecca Black Parody)".  Because that would just be embarrassing for us all - they'd think that were were in on this from the beginning.

Now this, on the other hand, is a cover I can get behind

* Better people than you and I.
** Coincidentally one of the few things that would have made this video worth watching.
*** Other songs considered for this sentence to make the same point:  "Jesus Shootin' Heroin" by The Flaming Lips; Cake's "Jesus Wrote A Blank Check"; and the Ramones' "I'm Not Jesus".