The News Review:
- Let your geek flag fly: a review of Eye of Judgment
- A Spanish Sound Sharpened With a Metal Edge
- nokia presents its new mobility enhancements portfolio
- Kaisers Muse Korn for Coke Fest
- Happy Days For Music Servers
- Martin Atkins’ China Dub Soundsystem
Let your geek flag fly: a review of Eye of Judgment
Ars Technica – Oct 23, 2007
nly then do I realize I just blew all my mana and he's been banking his for an equally impressive attack. He lays his card down and our eyes turn to the screen to see what carnage his attacks will cause. Heavy metal music is playing is the background. This is Eye of Judgment. Let me show you itEye of Judgment is a little bit Magic: The Gathering and a little bit of the chess game from Star Wars.
A Spanish Sound Sharpened With a Metal Edge
Washington Post – Oct 23, 2007
correction strong {color:#CC0000;text-transform:uppercase;}A Spanish Sound Sharpened With a Metal EdgeTuesday ctober 23 2007; C04Rodrigo y Gabriela played a lot of Metallica at their 9:30 club show Sunday. “rion” a cover that’s included in their self-titled debut album was performed in its entirety while snippets of fist-pumping hits such as “Enter Sandman” and “For Whom the Bell Tolls” popped up — to great audience whoops — during original numbers. But the Mexican duo’s music is more likely to make you salsa than bang your head. Rodrigo Sanchez’s and Gabriela Quintero’s instruments of choice are acoustic guitars and though they’re usually thrown into the "world" category their sound is overwhelmingly Spanish. At once muscular and delicate percussive and pretty the pair’s furiously paced compositions may superficially recall flamenco but you’ll also hear power chords thrash riffs and jazz flavors in tracks such as "Satori" or the live favorite "Diablo Rojo. " Between Quintero’s guttural timekeeping on the body of her guitar — a process which she revealed employs only her fingers not her knuckles — and Sanchez’s piercing flourishes anyone expecting a mariachi act quickly had that thought blown out their ears. As fresh as the music is however a little goes a long way and at nearly two hours the show lagged a bit… At once muscular and delicate percussive and pretty the pair’s furiously paced compositions may superficially recall flamenco but you’ll also hear power chords thrash riffs and jazz flavors in tracks such as "Satori" or the live favorite "Diablo Rojo. " Between Quintero’s guttural timekeeping on the body of her guitar — a process which she revealed employs only her fingers not her knuckles — and Sanchez’s piercing flourishes anyone expecting a mariachi act quickly had that thought blown out their ears. As fresh as the music is however a little goes a long way and at nearly two hours the show lagged a bit. But overall the pair were pros in terms of keeping the audience engaged. ne of the night’s best moments was a cover of “Wish You Were Here” that inspired a perfect moving singalong. And with close-up oddly angled cameras projecting dark-contrast images of their highly physical fingerpicking behind them the performance was as theatrical to watch as it was to listen to.
nokia presents its new mobility enhancements portfolio
Al-Bawaba – Oct 23, 2007
ther Bluetooth models also announced at the launch were the BH-701. The multi-compatible headset is a lightweight model with an iconic stainless steel design with a ring ear loop designed for an enjoyable audio experience and handsfree functionality in a range of different environments. The BH-702 headset is a sophisticated take on the Bluetooth headsets with a high quality metal look and chic attitude. It has a slender design with 6 hours of talk time and up to 160 hours of standby time. Nokia’s BH-503 headset has superb sound quality and intuitive control keys with excellent hi-fi audio quality with over the ear headphones stereo audio streaming and player control over Bluetooth as well as built-in embedded high quality DSP for audio coding and decoding which allows the user to listen to music without missing any calls. The BH-602 headset has a long operating time and allows talk for up to 11 hours with a standby time up to 300 hours. The headset also has a fast charging option as well as a good audio thanks to the latest digital signal processing technology for noise reduction and echo cancellation… Nokia’s BH-503 headset has superb sound quality and intuitive control keys with excellent hi-fi audio quality with over the ear headphones stereo audio streaming and player control over Bluetooth as well as built-in embedded high quality DSP for audio coding and decoding which allows the user to listen to music without missing any calls. The BH-602 headset has a long operating time and allows talk for up to 11 hours with a standby time up to 300 hours. The headset also has a fast charging option as well as a good audio thanks to the latest digital signal processing technology for noise reduction and echo cancellation. Nokia’s BH-604 is a Bluetooth stereo headset which has over the ear cup headphones for listening to music and for using a mobile phone. The headset also incorporates music control functionalities including play pause and stop forward next track rewind and previous track in addition to hi-fi stereo audio quality. The timeless high-quality BH-803 is light and small in size with stainless steel details and excellent voice quality. Set in the headset are blue green and red Led’s for status indication and a multifunction button including answer end power on off redial voice dial and audio transfer including touch sensitive volume control.
Kaisers Muse Korn for Coke Fest
iafrica.com – Oct 23, 2007
In 2007 with a line-up including Evanescene Hoobastank and no-show Guns N Roses the festival was renamed My Coke Fest. So who are the bands coming next year? Korn Jonathan Davis James “Munky” Shaffer Fieldy and David Silveria have sold in excess of 25 million albums worldwide and four of their albums debuted in the top three of the Billboard Top 200. Seen as pioneers of the ’90s nu-metal movement popularised by Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park the group recently released their self-titled eighth album. Muse meanwhile are known for their extreme live performances having been named ‘Best Live Act’ at the Brit Awards for the last two years. The British three-piece Matthew Bellamy Chris Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard produce a unique blend of alternative rock classical music electronica heavy metal Spanish guitars and progressive rock. The band played the headline spot at Glastonbury the legendary annual UK festival and its headline concerts at Wembley Stadium earlier this year became two of the biggest-hyped concerts of 2007 with the first show selling out in 45 minutes six months before the gig. Muse’s latest album ‘Black Holes and Revelations’ released last year became its second UK album chart number one… Seen as pioneers of the ’90s nu-metal movement popularised by Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park the group recently released their self-titled eighth album. Muse meanwhile are known for their extreme live performances having been named ‘Best Live Act’ at the Brit Awards for the last two years. The British three-piece Matthew Bellamy Chris Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard produce a unique blend of alternative rock classical music electronica heavy metal Spanish guitars and progressive rock. The band played the headline spot at Glastonbury the legendary annual UK festival and its headline concerts at Wembley Stadium earlier this year became two of the biggest-hyped concerts of 2007 with the first show selling out in 45 minutes six months before the gig. Muse’s latest album ‘Black Holes and Revelations’ released last year became its second UK album chart number one. Chris Cornell the voice behind Soundgarden Audioslave and Temple of the Dog is best known for ‘Black Hole Sun’ off Soundgarden’s their three million selling album ‘Superunknown’ which also earned the band two Grammy Awards. Following the split of the grunge pioneers he embarked on a brief solo career yielding the album ‘Euphoria Morning’ before returning to the safety of numbers.
Happy Days For Music Servers
Twice – Oct 23, 2007
The Nostalgic digital jukebox QJB110 is the stand-alone jukebox-style version of the Q110 component-style networked music-server system both offered by Qsonix. Starting at a suggested $12000 the QJB110 is promoted as the industry’s only networked multizone nostalgia-styled jukebox allowing for music streaming from its internal HDD to four zones. Made from solid walnut and die-cast metal the jukebox plays back HDD-stored music through its 360-watt amp built-in stereo speakers and subwoofer. The touchscreen-controlled jukebox also can be connected to a multiroom-audio system to deliver music to up to four independent zones. It integrates with existing home-control systems from companies such as AMX and Crestron. A built-in CD drive lets users rip CDs for HDD storage in WMA lossless format with 2:1 compression at 192kbps and 320kbps data rates. It also downloads WMA lossless music directly from the MusicGiants store.
Martin Atkins’ China Dub Soundsystem
PopMatters – Oct 23, 2007
People come into the group contribute their personalities to its sound then go back to whatever they were doing elsewhere. Atkins’ collaborators on Made in China are Chinese rather than American but the music on this synergistic album sounds like an extension of Pigface. It has a denseness characteristic of US industrial music of the kind popularised by Reznor an oppressive snarling tsunami of noise exhilarating in its brutality like a good dark horror movie. In effect the supergroup has simply changed continents and absorbed a few dozen new members. Atkins found them when he travelled to Beijing in late 2006. The Chinese musicians play the erhu a two-stringed fiddle that looks like an elongated lollypop and the pipa lute which is shaped like a huge pale tear. Some of them sing or rap in Chinese —probably Mandarin although the notes don’t make it clear—and others blow the hulusi a wind instrument with a round gourd body… It’s heavier more unrelentingly ferocious with less obvious popular appeal. “Chian” incorporates folk chanting that sounds as if it was inspired by Tibetan Buddhism—it was the Tibetans who popularised Buddhism in Mongolia—and a whinnying shamanistic yodel that arcs upwards into a scream. In theory the idea of Mongolian Shaman-metal might sound like a peculiar novelty. In practice I think it’s thrilling. Then at the end of the album a group called Rococo do something that is in context startling when they sound briefly as if they’ve been listening to gospel. If Look Directly is a reliable guide then underground bands in Beijing do not make a high priority out of getting their African-American groove on. Sasha Frere-Jones is free to write a polemic telling us all that the Chinese are insufficiently black.