Records
WORLD
FRANCO
The Rough Guide to Franco — Africa's Legendary Guitar Maestro lPGNETi COCO.
Seductively compelling sounds came from the stunning finger-picking of legendaryAfrican guitarist Franco. without exaggeration one of the 20th centuries greatest musicians. Franco sublrinely reAlrrcanised Afro Cuban rumba. hrs creation of mesmerising melodies sung in sweet. flowuig harmony by male v0rces. answered by pleading solos and blasts of Wrry brass. underpinned by shimmering guitars. resulted in the nickname 'sorcerer’. His street- cred lyrics covered everything from politics to football to AIDS. although his main focus was knotty male-female conflict.
Of his 150 albums and over 1000 songs here are twelve to dance into your soul. This is a cathartic music that makes yOur heart simultaneously burst wrth tears and Joy.
(Jan Fairley)
JAZZ
BRIAN KELLOCK TRIO
Live At Henry’s
(Caber Music) 0000
Pianist Brian Kellock and his regular collaborators. bassrst Kenny Ellis and drummer John Rae. are vividly captured in full spate on their home turf in this live disc. The sheer energy and invention of the playing eclipses any reservations over the live sound (good but not ideal). and captures this increasrngly excellent trio in more spontaneous. free- tlowrng mood than in their earlier. more meaSured studio set for the label.
The well-chosen selection of material launches wrth an in— yOur-face version of Phil Bancroft 's ‘T&P in
NYC'. and takes in clasSrc ja/z compositions b, the likes f Di7/y Gillespie. Horace Silver. Lennie lrrstano. Jrrnmy Powles. George Russell and Kenny Wheeler. Strongly recommended. (Kenny Mathiesoni
JAZZ
NILS PETTER MOLVAER Recoloured — The Remix Album (Universal) 0000
One of the premises behind Nils Peter lvtolvaer's excellent Sol/(l Ether disc last year was that a piece of music is never truly finished. but remains open to constant evolution. The pernt is forcefully made in this excellent album of remixes by diverse hands. including Bill Laswell, Joakrrn Lone. Jan Bang, Pascal Gabriel. Funkstorung and Cinematic Orchestra. Molvaer‘s keening trumpet and alternating dense and spacey ensemble textures provide prime rnaterral for the remix treatment. and the new versions both fortify and extend the trumpeter's original concepts. Available on CD. but also as a three—LP set with several additional tracks exclusive to the vrnyl version.
(Kenny Mathieson)
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106 THE LIST 21 Jun—'3 Jul 2001
games@list.co.uk
FORMULA ONE 2001 (SCEE £44.99) 0...
EXTERMINATION f (SCEE £44.99) coo "
Everyone wants .iiir;t"i-.:' 1'12‘. " f i -A 1'
Metal Gear Sol/d. "fr , 2
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i'e—ener'gised the rare" '.
software market and r' " '_' -- 1
proved that :niio‘.’atron is l‘(;l'l‘ i ..f l‘. 7“.” ..".." :.: ‘
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also initiated a sleu'.’ r;f '
copycat titles of ‘.‘.llllljll
Extr-Nrrrrnatron is the
latest. to get trit; (frugal i.:.'. 7'»- Specral Forces. blah.
blah, weird scientific
facility. blah. blah.
survive. find the keys.
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P82 THE BOUNCER (Square £44.99) 00
Many moons ago, when Sony first began to show what the PS2 could do, the one game that had gamers and press alike salivating at their collective mouths was Square’s venture into the world of the beat-em-up. ‘Have you seen it?’ they said, not even needing to mention the game by name. ‘It will revolutionise gaming,’ they continued. ‘It will destroy genres and demand that every sane person on the planet buys 3 P82!’ Never had a game received so much attention, and this was before a single second of gameplay had been experienced.
Cut to present day, over two years since The Bouncer wowed the audiences at trade fairs around the globe. With nary a whisper, this game-to-end-all-games has hit our shelves and, all things being equal, will disappear just as quietly. It is a humungous let-down. Where Square promised fully interactive, and fully breakable, environments filled with flowing, realistic characters performing martial arts the likes of which even God himself has never seen, we get Streets Of Rage.
But first, the story. Some girl is kidnapped and three friendly nightclub security officers must get her back. Cue tons of fantastic FMV, featuring outrageously proportioned characters and sets, interspersed with a few minutes of interactive action. As glorious as the interstitial animations are, it is the gameplay that should keep the player interested. Square’s Final Fantasy series did this effectively, walking a fine line between interactive movie and stimulating game.
The Bouncer, on the other hand, has tripped clumsily over that fine line. The combat sequences are short, unappealing and often confusing. Moves are simple and unchallenging, while the mild role-playing element is redundant. (lain Davidson)
Unappealing, confusing and redundant
notxno' GARROS 2001 (Cryo £29.99) 000
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