Thursday, April 30, 2015

Peter Gabriel - Shock The Monkey (1982)



Shock the Monkey

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Shock the Monkey"
Single by Peter Gabriel
from the album Peter Gabriel
B-side"Soft Dog"
ReleasedSeptember 1982
Format7"12" single
Recorded1981–1982
GenreNew wave
Length3:57 (7" single edit)
5:23 (Full-length version)
LabelGeffen
Producer(s)David Lord, Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel singles chronology
"Biko"
(1980)
"Shock the Monkey"
(1982)
"Walk Through the Fire"
(1984)
"Shock the Monkey" is a 1982 song by Peter Gabriel. It was released as a single and peaked at number 29 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 1 on the Billboard Top Tracks chart.[1] The song was Gabriel's first Top 40 hit in the US. In the UK, the song charted at number 58. It was included on Gabriel's fourth self-titled album, issued in the U.S. as Security. The song has a "relentlessly repeated hook" that "sounded nothing like anything else on the radio at the time".[2]

Music video[edit]

The track is also known for its popular and somewhat disturbing music video featuring Gabriel (in white face paint) and a frightened-looking capuchin monkey. The music video features Gabriel in two guises; one as a businessman-type in a dark suit, and the other as a mysterious persona in a white suit with white face paint. The video occurs as a back-and-forth between two rooms, each vaguely resembling an office. A movie projector plays zoo footage of a gibbon (technically a lesser ape not a monkey) in both rooms. As the video proceeds, events in the 'normal' (black suit) office become increasingly irregular and disturbing, with Gabriel displaying increasing pressure, anger, and fear, and with objects in the room in increasing disarray. The office footage is increasingly interspersed with black-and-white footage of Gabriel fleeing from something unknown in a wilderness, and a disoriented Gabriel in different settings including central London and what looks to be a hospital. At the end of the video, the dark-suited Gabriel appears to have merged with the face-painted Gabriel, and to have accepted whatever he was fleeing or resisting previously. In the final shot, the two Gabriel's faces are superimposed over that of the gibbon.

Interpretation[edit]

Due to its title and the content of the video, the song is frequently assumed to be either an animal rights song or a reference to the famous experiments by Stanley Milgram described in his bookObedience to Authority.[3] It is neither, although another Gabriel song, "We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)", from his 1986 album So, does deal directly with Milgram. Gabriel himself has described "Shock the Monkey" as "a love song" that examines how jealousy can release one's basic instincts; the monkey is not a literal monkey, but a metaphor for one's feelings of jealousy.[4]

Saturday, April 25, 2015

Flood (Bullfrog 1990)

Flood (video game)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Flood
Flood
Cover art for Flood
Developer(s)Bullfrog Productions
Publisher(s)Electronic Arts
Platform(s)AmigaAtari ST
Release date(s)1990
Genre(s)Platform
Mode(s)Single player
Flood is a 1990 platform game developed by Bullfrog Productions. It was published for the Amiga and Atari ST by Electronic Arts. The objective is to collect all the litter and find the exit to the level. The game was not a huge commercial success and contained rather experimental styles of gameplay for its time, as well as a quirky sense of humour.

Background[edit]

The player controls a character named 'Quiffy', who is the last of his race of small green creatures. He lives underground in a series of sewers and tunnels. His mission is to reach the surface by navigating all the sewers, whilst they are slowly flooding. Quiffy can walk on walls and ceilings.

Gameplay[edit]

Quiffy must collect all of the various pieces of litter on the level and then find the exit to complete each level. In general the litter is not particularly hidden, it is just distributed around the level. Quiffy can climb on most walls and ceilings, and swim through water. He has energy which depletes upon touching dangerous objects, but can also die instantly when touching any of the few lethal objects. Although he can swim and has the appearance of an amphibious life-form, he can only breathe above water and will start to drown if he runs out of air.
In each level, you are followed by the ghost of your Aunt Matilda. She copies your movements exactly and starts off about 15 seconds behind you. However, she is very slightly faster than you and will eventually catch up with you. Touching the ghost will hurt Quiffy.
Most of the levels have taps in them, which pour water in to the level. The modelling of the water was quite advanced for a home computer game of its time; the water will flow to the lowest point that it can and when multiple taps are pouring water in one place, it will fill up proportionally fast. A lot of levels feature taps in all areas so the entire level will eventually flood, leaving Quiffy with no available source of air. This aspect is how the game derives its title.

Weapons[edit]

Quiffy starts each level with no weapon, and can pick up any of five available weapons. He can only hold one of these at any time and if he picks up another one, it will swap for the current one.
  • Boomerang: This spins in a curve back towards the player.
  • Dynamite: This sits for a second and then explodes with a large force. It is easy to injure yourself with this weapon.
  • Flamethrower: A horizontal wall of fire shoots out, and extends to unlimited range, and remains until the player lets go of the fire button. This is the most powerful weapon. However at random times a rubber chicken will appear instead of the weapon.
  • Grenades: A grenade drops and explodes with a smaller force than the dynamite. It is similarly possible to injure yourself with this weapon.
  • Shuriken: A throwing star shoots out diagonally and bounces off walls for a while. This weapon is extremely good at spreading damage over a wide area.

Enemies[edit]

There are various enemies on each level, some of which have special properties. In general the enemies move around in a specific pattern, and when killed will throw a heart up which will return health to Quiffy.
  • One enemy resembles a teddy bear, but has a large mouth with a set of teeth in its stomach. It can eat the litter so Quiffy doesn't have to pick it up. They will kill Quiffy with a single touch, though. They are called "Psycho Teddy"
  • One enemy looks like a walking squid and will create litter wherever it walks. This makes it slightly harder for the player. They are called "Bulbous-headed Vongs"
  • The enemies had curious names such as 'Plonkin Donkin'.
  • "Aunt Matilda" is the name of the ghost that follows you around

Obstacles and traps[edit]

  • Lasers: These appear like a beam of light stretching between two metal gaskets. The light extends from each side to the middle and retracts again at periodic intervals. Unlike a real laser, the light moves very slowly, and Quiffy can walk on top of the beam or stick to the underside. If the extending light hits Quiffy, it will hurt him a small amount and then start to retract.
  • Missile launchers: These fire out a barrage of dangerous missiles.
  • Lava: This is fatal to Quiffy. The lava does not react to the flood water in any way.
  • Warps: These look like exits or other doors, and move you between another similar door elsewhere in the level.
  • Land mines: These explode like a grenade and throw up a heart as well as catapulting Quiffy up in the air.
  • Switches: You can change parts of the levels with switches, and sometimes the changes can be quite drastic, such as suddenly creating a large group of enemies out of nowhere, or restructuring large parts of the level.
  • Crystal: There is also a small crystal which will kill Quiffy instantly, it only appears in two levels of the game.

Items[edit]

  • Balloons: If Quiffy touches the balloon dispenser, he will get a set of three balloons and float upwards towards the top of the level. He will only fall if the balloons are popped, either by being hit by an enemy or by touching a wall.
  • Parachute: This is similar to the balloons, only working downwards instead of upwards.
  • Plunger: This stops all taps on the level for a short amount of time.
  • Drip: This speeds up all taps on the level, making it roughly the opposite of the plunger item.
  • Cocktail: This fills up Quiffy's health to maximum.
  • Pint of Guinness: This gives Quiffy an extra life.
  • Space hopper: Quiffy can ride this and bounce around the play area, able to reach much greater heights than with regular jumping.

Trivia[edit]

  • The ending cutscene featured Quiffy being run over by a car after reaching the surface.
  • The flame thrower weapon randomly changes into a rubber chicken at infrequent intervals, with Quiffy responding with a surprised look. The player has to press fire again to use the flame thrower.
  • The levels are accessed using four letter passwords, which were all real words. Although passwords for most of the levels exist, the game infrequently gave them out. The final level has the password 'MEEK' which may be a reference to the meek inheriting the Earth.
  • Almost all the levels feature a secret bonus area which you can only access by getting Quiffy in to a specific, exact position. When he is in that position, he will instantly appear in the bonus area. Getting him out of the bonus area is similarly done by positioning Quiffy but usually easier because the exits are placed in logical or obvious ways. Finding these areas is notoriously difficult as there are no clues and many possibilities, and they are only likely to be found by chance.

Friday, April 24, 2015

Piero Piccioni - Colpo Rovente (1969)


Frank was removed from an investigation that led on MacBrown, owner of a pharmaceutical company, but suspected of drug trafficking and illegal experiments on teenagers. When MacBrown is killed in a crowd and daughter Monica offers a strong cuts for the capture of the murderer of his father, Frank was called to investigate the murder. The clues lead him to seek Fanny Talon and Acapulco to ascertain the motive of 'murder. Meanwhile, the deaths continue.
"Colpo rovente" - Con Carmelo Bene - Regia di Piero Zuffi (Italy, 1969). Collaborazione alla sceneggiatura di Ennio Flaiano.
Con Carmelo Bene, Michael Reardon, Barbara Bouchet, Isa Miranda.
Musiche di Piero Piccioni.

OOZE - You Belong To The City (30% mix)



Don - Soul Dracula (Thai Beat A-Go-Go Vol 3)


Various ‎– Thai Beat A Go-Go - Volume 3

Label:
Subliminal Sounds ‎– SUB-074-LP
Format:
Vinyl, LP, Compilation 
Country:
Released:
Genre:
Style:

Tracklist

A1Petch Pintong*Soul Lum Piern
A2Jiraphand Ong-Ard*Siamese Boxing
A3Chailai* & Sawanee*Oye Jeb (Hurt)
A4Boobpa Saichol*Seng Rabird (So Weary)
A5Brothers, The (12)Jai Ying (Woman's Heart)
A6Benjamas* & Sawanee*Rak Mai Chai Len (Love's Not A Game)
A7Traces*Je T'Aime
B1Oriental Funk*Come Together
B2Don*Soul Dracula
B3Panatda*Let's Go!
B4Panatda*Flash Disco
B5Chantana*Changwah Disco
B6Law & The Sandy, TheParadise In Bangkok

Companies etc

Credits

Notes

Gatefold Sleeve

Groovy Sounds of the Land of Smile!

℗ & © 2010 Subliminal Sounds