8 - The Michigan Daily -Wednesday, March 31, 1999 Dan Bell spins for his last time at Blind Pig's Solar By Jason BrchM Daily Arts Writer Dan Bell's final DJ performance ever will occur tonight exclusively at Solar. Best known for his unique style of tech- no-based electronic music in the mid-r '90s, Dan Bell plans to retire from Ding to focus on music production. He will t also channel energy into his record labels -Accelerate and 7th City - which also distribute several other record labels' across the world. This rare performance serves as a wan- derful opportunity for University students to witness one of techno's greats perform s in the intimate confines of Solar at the' Blind Pig. "I try to play a variety with lots of energy in my DJ sets;' he said. "Not strictly house, techno or tracks, but a com-f 'Roll' proves life is a ball Roll Away Psygnosis Playstation "Roll Away" is perhaps the finest video game ever made where you are a beach ball col- lecting keys on a three dimen- sional puzzle board. Running over wooden boxes that drop out from under you, running into spikes that release your, uh, what- ever they fill you with when you're a beach ball star and skid- ding off icy surfaces distinguish this game from all the other beach toy adventures out there. To be honest, there doesn't seem to be any good reason why you're a beach ball in this game. It may be just as probable as any- thing else that would be rolling and jumping around on a three dimensional stone sculpture, hanging far above a planet with a sun that produces lens flare in the game in order to open up some sort of teleportation point as well as pieces of fruit that when you have enough of them allow you to go to a bonus level, and sure, it's way less complicated than virtu- ally any RPG, but it's pretty left field. "Roll Away" ends up as a weird mix of a racing game and a nor- mal puzzle game. You're running around a course and, like a racing game, you have a limited amount of time to finish the level. But you also have to figure out the equivalent of a maze in three dimensions to get the goodies you need before you leave the level, which is traditionally the grounds of puzzle games. And like any good puzzle game it engages you. Belief is easily suspended, and you end up accepting the fact that you are a beach ball, except when you are a particularly ugly one at that. As long as you're rolling on the course, you do not fall off towards the far off ground. In other words you can roll all the way around an object that is per- pendicular to the ground. That's fine, in and of itself; you need to reverse direction occasionally. But this little quirk lets you fall into the sky. It also inexplicably lets you fall past another part of the course, in spite of the fact that you're in a position where you should be sticking to it. That quirk would be worse than it is if you couldn't look down and see where you're jumping. After a couple games of leaping stupidly into space, you get the hang of it, and then only jump stupidly into space when you're overconfident: "Roll Away" is a good value for your beach ball video game buy- ing dollar and decent for your puzzle game dollar. If someone would develop a game where you're a beach ball at some horri- ble WRIF-sponsored Pine Knob rock show. - Ted Watts 7 W Dan Bell Blind Pig Tonight at 9:30 bination of all of those styles. I also like to drop some classics in the mix" Born in Canada, Bell eventually moved to Detroit in the early '90s to join the city's tech- no movement. He first found global acclaim on Richie Hawtin's record label, Plus 8, at the dawn of the s dour tey n LIg.y Dan Bell stands in the Joe Louis Arena pedestrian tunnel that overlooks the Lodge. decade with his aggressive style of techno music unlike anything being produced at that time in Detroit. He called himself Cybersonik. "Cybersonik started out as a solo pro- ject of mine that was later signed to Plus 8," he said. "When the first single 'Technarchy' dropped it was a huge suc- cess, and Richie Hawtin -who helped to produce the single - became a full-time member." "After the first couple of releases Cybersonik was being tailored for a major label deal in the U.S." he continued. "But after a nationwide tour with Moby and Prodigy, both Richie and I decided that it wasn't a project we were interested in pur- suing." Dan based his operations in Detroit and continued producing music to popular response, now calling himself DBX. "Back when I did hip hop I made a name for myself locally by producing tracks that were very streamlined and electronic sounding" he said. "When I started recording solo again after Cybersonik as DBX, I just continued with my hip hop approach but applied it to house and techno music,"he said. "The result, I guess, was unique for it's time, and it got a lot of other producers' atten- tion." Dan took a break from producing music several years ago in order to focus on his label and its distribution. But unknown to most, he quietly has been planning his return to the world of elec- tronic music. "The last record people probably remember me from is 'Losing Control' which came out in '94" he said. "I had to stop producing for a few years when I ran the distribution, but for the last year I have been quietly producing music again." "At first it was difficult to get thinking like an artist after being involved in the business end of things for so long, but after a while it all started coming back," he said. "The new material is much smoother and deeper than the original raw DBX tracks" "I plan to produce music the rest of my life," he continued. "I don't think it is an exaggeration when I say my labels Accelerate or 7th City will probably still be around in some form in the year 2030 or later. I want to be like Frank Lloyd Wright and be do some of my greatest work at 90 years old." Electronic music enthusiasts can soon expect a new release from Dan Bell called "Warp" to be released on his Accelerate label. Bell will also release a collection of his older material, "Blip - The Early Years" and an exciting new release from John Tejada, "To Lead a Secret Life." "All of the new material should be out in a few months;" he said. In the meantime, students should check out Bell's final DJ performance tonight at Solar. "I really want to have time to pro- mote and push all of these projects that I have been developing for the past year" he said. "I love Ding but it takes such a large part of my time that it makes it dif- ficult to focus on the releases." -I-I Silent Hid Konami Playstation I "Silent Hill" proves there's nothing like a grey, eyeless zombie toddler with a knife and a bad attitude to make for an interesting video game. You're Harry Mason, some guy vacationing with his daughter in the resort town Silent Hill. Strangely, you look like Ash in the Evil Dead movies and not at all like Raymond Burr, and your vacation has become a very good "Resident Evil" type of game. Snow falls but melts on the street that you run through, in search of your daughter Cheryl. It's foggy. And skinless dogs and pterodactyls attack you. That's right, "Silent Hill" has earned its opening screen that says, "There are violent and disturbing images in this game" While your char- acter comes across as a normal guy who doesn't know how to shoot a gun, his bullets still connect a lot of the time and splatter a little blood. It's nowhere near as gory as the "Resident Evil" games, though; things don't fly apart into little bits. But this game is much more atmospheric - when it's light out, a Living dead haunt 'Hill' constant fog surrounds you, limiting visibility. When it's dark out, the fog goes away, but you can see even less as all you have is a little flashlight to use to illuminate the aforementioned evil kids and wildlife before they bite your knees or peck at your eyes. Consequently, the game is pretty disturbing. On the plus side, you have some camera control in the game and can look up a Doberman's snout as it leaps at your chest to tear a piece off for lunch. The sounds of the game reinforce the white noise whenever there is some- thing evil nearby. You don't even scream when you're being killed, but you do huff and puff when you're run- ning. Creepy. The puzzles you need to solve in the game are a bit of a weak point; they're too similar to Resident Evil puz- zles, they're overly campy and they seem out of place in such a sinister game. You also have a bad habit of coming to a full stop if you accidental- ly let up on a controller button. The opening CG movies give glimpses into the story leading up to the game, but it's hazy. Even playing through the game itself, it's unclear pre- cisely what is going on. The story is open to interpretation. What IA happens to Harry's daughter is only implied, and whatever is making the town evil is only fuzzily explained. This could easi- ly be intended, though. "Silent Hill" plays like a fever dream in a lot of ways. The story may be just another way of reinforcing that. Nevertheless, it's fun to stumble around in the dark and get killed by the shambling grotesqueries if for no other reason than that you can turn on the light and not worry about it anymore. Until you go to sleep. --Ted Watts 0 0r ...., NJB I've noticed you for the past four years. If I only had the courage to tell you how I feel. I think I love you! I'll miss you. -NJ )., Stop by or call 764-05 to have your SENIOR WISH published April 15th deadline March 31 the music, when it's A playing, is industrial, in the old "sounds like factory machin- ery" way. But a lot of the time it's just Harry's panicked footsteps and the buzz of your radio, which gives off ./ 't m