Day: 20 December 2018

January’s Xbox Games With Gold features Celeste and the best Far Cry game ever made

It’s almost 2019, and that means a whole new year of free games for Xbox Live Gold subscribers. With December’s Games With Gold lineup finally winding down, January’s selection have been announced and they are very bloody good indeed. The month’s selections are four games, divided as always into two Xbox One titles and two…

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Film Review: Aquaman (USA, 2018) proves utterly unapologetic in its decision to play everything as riotous

After what has felt to be an endless journey for Jason Momoa‘s portrayal of the King of Atlantis to grace the screens, Aquaman finally arrives in the hopes of both serving the character justice and steering the DC ship back on course after the underwhelming Justice League. Traditionally a blonde-haired/blue-eyed creation that was often the…

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Film Review: Ralph Breaks The Internet (USA, 2018) is more than just memes and viral videos

When 2012’s Wreck-It Ralph was released it conceptually took video game nostalgia and the joy of arcade games and brought that idea to life. This time in Ralph Breaks The Internet (aka Wreck-It Ralph 2) the sequel ups the ante by taking our two main characters from their comfortable video game realm into the much…

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Live Review: Current you hates past you for missing The Beths at The Lansdowne in Sydney last night

As the silly season well and truly begins to hit its straps and everyone starts to wind things up at work (he types as he sits at his work desk procrastinating a grant application due in mere hours), the tour cycles of bands touring across this brown land of ours continues to go at breakneck…

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Track of the Day: The Raconteurs / The Saboteurs “Sunday Driver” (2018)

It’s been a decade between drinks, but The Raconteurs have returned with two new songs and a new album on the way sometime in 2019. The songs were released via 7” to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the groups last album Consolers of the Lonely. The Raconteurs, who are also known as The Saboteurs here…

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Film Review: Bumblebee (USA, 2018) is a joyous and heartfelt sci-fi wonder that succeeds on its own bee’s knees

The Transformers film franchise has been in devastating lows these past years. Although one can expect that from a franchise that is based on a line of toys, any film based on a toy can be a good film like the LEGO films. Aside from the 1986 cult-classic animated film (which featured Orson Welles as…

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Interview: KIM of The Presets (AUS) on his perfect NYE and favourite tunes of 2018

Ahead of their headlining midnight set at NYE in the Park in Sydney, we caught up with KIM of The Presets to talk about his perfect New Years Eve, highlights of 2018 and what he has planned for 2018. We also get a taste of his favourite music of the year… What were you doing…

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Interview: Thandi Phoenix shares her NYE tips, favourite moments and music of 2018

It’s been an incredible year for Thandi Phoenix, who I last sat down with back in March at SXSW in Austin, Texas. Now she’s going to be ringing in the New Year in Sydney alongside The Presets and more, as part of the NYE in the Park lineup. We caught up with her to find…

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The 40 best hip hop and R&B tracks of 2018

2018 has been a very difficult year for ‘best of’ lists where hip hop and R&B is concerned. The often intertwined genres haven’t seen this much quality output for years, constant head-turning and critically acclaimed albums from artists both old and new have made the past 12 months the best in the scene since 2012….

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Interview: Bede Kennedy of Castlecomer (AUS) talks launching in the States, Sydney’s lock out laws and Christmas plans

Sydney-bred band Castlecomer are turning up the heat in the US after their hit “Fire Alarm” landed the #6 spot on Spotify’s Global Viral Chart. The boys have broken their hectic American schedule to return home for the festive season and I was lucky enough to steal half an hour of lead singer Bede Kennedy’s…

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The AU’s 21 Best Films of 2018

It’s been another incredible year of film, with powerful indie projects and incredible blockbusters that saw packed out cinemas align with strong reviews from critics. As voted by the AU review contributors, here are the 21 films we rated above the rest this year… 21. Ocean’s 8 The Met Gala sequence itself is, admittedly, quite…

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Interview: Alex Farrell-Davey of Alae (NZ) takes a stroll down Henry Street for their debut album

Alex Farrell-Davey is waiting for his lunch outside of Prego, an Italian restaurant in Auckland, New Zealand. It’s a 10 minute drive from Henry Street, where he lives with his Alae bandmate Allister Meffan. “[Making the album] was kind of centred around that street for a while,” he admits. The street was so central to…

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Album of the Week: The Paz Band’s Supply & Demand (2018 LP) delivers more energy than a lightning bolt

Take five cups of rock n roll, two spoons full of Buddy Guy influenced electric blues, a sprinkle of 60s style soul, and top it all off with a voice as versatile as a chameleon… and you have something that resembles The Paz Band, a five-piece from Tel Aviv, who have been packing large venues in…

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Album Review: On IIWII (2018 LP), Kirk Knight has rinsed his sound

The knife edge between underground and commercial has never been thinner than now in current music trends – one song, catchy hook, or even just a throwaway lyric is enough to propel an artist to the next height in their career (look at YBN Nahmir, JPEGMAFIA, or many others), but sometimes things aren’t as serendipitous…

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From Runescape to Overwatch: The gaming holiday events you’ve got to get amongst

It’s December! Which means presents, sales, friends, family… aaand End of Year Events across a range of games! It’s always great – developers preparing content to see the year off with their player-base, usually around a winter-Christmas theme, content to be playable and fresh through until the next year… it’s almost a tradition of online games to…

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Tech Review: Nikon’s Coolpix P1000 Shoots for the Moon… But Not Much Else

What’s big, black, weighs almost a kilo and a half, looks like the alien from the Alien movies and still calls itself a “compact” camera? Nikon’s very zoomy bridge offering, the Coolpix P1000. This is definitely not the camera I’d recommend to the next friend who asks me what to take on holidays with them…

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Resort Review: Baba Beach Club in Phuket is a hidden treasure of fun and luxury for music lovers (Thailand)

Heading north from Phuket International Airport, the streets are lined with small fields of trees that turn into the haphazard, yet charming landscape of colourful houses, tin sheds, food stalls and businesses that make up the region. There, amongst the colourful and natural landscape, appears the vividly pink Baba Beach Club sign. Its presence evocative…

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