STACK NZ Magazine April 2015 Issue 61

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BLOODBORNE
At the time of writing, we’ve only had our
hands on Bloodborne for five days, and
much of that has been spent with the game.
Yet, we’re almost 30 hours in and the end
is nowhere in sight. If you found – and
subsequently enjoyed – the difficulty level in
FromSoftware’s Souls games, Bloodborne
should be your next purchase. Incredibly
atmospheric, the world in which you play is a
terrifying place where every step is taken in
fear of what will leap from a shadow and try
to kill you. Audio cues are in overdrive – you
will never relax. And forget about using Souls
muscle memory here. There is no sword
and shield, and this is the most significant
change fans of From’s previous work will
find. Here you will have to formulate a new
combat strategy with a hand weapon in your
right paw, and a firearm in your left. The
new regain mechanic places an emphasis on
attack, too, so you have to adapt, and adapt
fast. As expected, Bloodborne is insanely
punishing at times, but this is the appeal;
it offers challenges that the commercial
triple-A brigade have long forgotten about.
Hidetaka Miyazaki is
currently one of the
most exciting and
innovative developers
in the industry; and
after logging practically
a working week with his
current tour de force, it’s
easy to see why.
Kendrick Lamar To Pimp a Butterfly
In 1960, American author Harper Lee released her book To Kill a
Mockingbird (later adapted into a famous film starring Gergory
Peck), which depicted a racially motivated miscarriage of justice in
the southeastern United States. In 2015, in the wake of events in
Ferguson, Missouri, Kendrick Lamar releases To Pimp a Butterfly.
But forget agit-political flag-waving; this album masterfully weaves
the personal with the political, and juxtaposes the richness of black
cultural history against an armoury of contemporary sounds.
A scratch of vinyl opens Wesley’s Theory (produced by Flying
Lotus, and featuring P-Funk legend George Clinton and bass ace
Thundercat), followed by the echoing refrain that “every nigger is a
star,” immediately invoking Sly and the Family Stone and the landmark
There’s a Riot Goin’ On. Lamar’s use of live jazz instrumentation
throughout much of the album (Terrace Martin on sax, acclaimed
pianist Robert Glasper, and Thundercat on bass) not only provides a
languid fluidity and sense of adventure, it also invokes the idea of jazz
as an original, pure, rich expression of black America in the arts, just
like hip hop. For example, on For Free? he pl
with hip hop’s lyrical cliches as a ticked-off w
relays a shopping list of demands before La
with a snipey “This di*k ain’t free”; it sounds
dives into a devastating semi-spoken litany of
It encapsulates much of To Pimp a Butterfly:
addressing sexual politics and consumerism
commentary. Lamar’s rhymes sail head and s
contemporaries, his with his incisive flow an
vocal style flourishing in the cavalcade of styl
where others might struggle. The character i
Walls reflects “I remember you was conflict
your influence/ I was the same/ abusing my
resentment/ resentment that turned into a d
As Butterfly progresses, the line repeats to r
narrator’s state of mind. To hear the culminati
to get this album; a defining statement for 20
36 APRIL 2015 JB Hi-Fi
visit BEST OF REVIEWS
G
NIGHTCRAWLER
Expose the underbelly of Los Angeles and dark
things will crawl out. One of these things is
Louis Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal), a slimy sociopath
and common thief who turns ambulance chasing
into a business. Armed with a camcorder and a
police scanner, Lou lurks around accident and
crime scenes to shoot the grisly footage he
can sell to anchorwoman Nina (Renee Russo)
for her trashy news network. “If it bleeds, it
leads” is the nightcrawler motto, and the more
sensational the footage, the higher its value,
with little regard for the real cost in human lives.
Before long, Lou is interfering with evidence and
overstepping the boundaries of police-line tape
in order to beat his competitors to the money
shots. Writer-director Dan Gilroy’s film is both
a scathing critique and dark satire on gutter
journalism and the greedy media and public who
feed it; a scene in which Russo virtually salivates
over shots of murder victims with ratings in
mind says it all. Gyllenhaal is fantastic as the
opportunistic, scumbag protagonist; a gaunt and
soulless loner with more than a touch of Travis
Bickle-like madness behind his cold goldfish
eyes. His angular, skeletal features lend him the
appearance of an angel of death hovering on the
periphery of newsworthy carnage. Set against
the glittering backdrop of the LA nightscape, this
stylish ‘70s-style exploration of the nocturnal
pursuits of America’s bottom feeders is one of
those arthouse-thriller gems like Prisoners, Cold
in July and Drive that deserved to reach a much
wider audience – and now it can, when the DVD
and Blu-ray arrives in JB Hi-Fi stores on April 9.