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Qazi’s Disposable 2018 – highlights from the year

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I’ll be honest: I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from the past twelve months in terms of new entertainment releases. Let’s not forget that 2017 delivered the sequel to my favourite JRPG with Persona 5, gave me a new Nier game, brought me new material from The Upbeats, Major Lazer and Shobaleader One… heck, we even got a decent Sonic game in Mania. With all of this in mind I kind of expected the shortlist titled “Qazi’s Disposable 2018” to provide evidence of a “filler” year – one with plenty of content to enjoy but nothing on the same scale as 2017’s output. This is why I was so pleasantly surprised with the things that I’ve been enjoying in 2018.

Qazi’s Disposable 2018 – music

Qazi's Disposable 2018
If the Qazi’s Disposable 2018 shortlist was in physical form it would be full of hasty scribbles and Tipp-Ex as new things regularly edged into old lists, and nowhere was this more apparent than when I was checking out new music. There are a few albums I simply couldn’t cover on this site because I was spending too much time listening to things and not enough time talking about them, but notables outside of the website include The Pack EP by the Upbeats/Truth, Deep News by Halogenix, Collapse EP by Aphex Twin and where’s the drop? by deadmau5. Whether you like layered melodies, big beats or atmospheric wobbles, there was a lot to enjoy – however, I think the best thing I ended up reviewing was No Tourists. It marked a maturing of The Prodigy and showed that they were willing to embrace their older electronic roots when Fat of the Land came so close to discarding them. Elsewhere, The Pack EP was probably the best thing that missed a review: four compact but punchy experiences that all have their own identity and are all worth listening to.

Qazi’s Disposable 2018 – gaming

Qazi's Disposable 2018
As mentioned in my intro, I didn’t think there would be a whole lot of noteworthy titles in the gaming segment when shortlisting names for Qazi’s Disposable 2018. I couldn’t be more wrong. Dragonball FighterZ started the year with a bang, boasting some of the prettiest visuals of any game I played this year and maintaining an enjoyable balance of accessibility and depth. Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition finally finished the game’s transformation from a rushed-out mess to a fully-formed fighter. PSVR continued to remind people that the right combination of game and hardware can create an experience as intoxicating as Tetris Effect or the Wipeout Omega Collection update. Oh, and Celeste propelled itself from “that thing I bought with spare PSN change” to the top of my game of the year list because the difficulty is pitched so well and it’s wrapped up in some great presentation. (In hindsight, however, I think it runs the risk of beating you over the head with its theming… and although the writing gets praised for acknowledging a minority, there are a lot of smaller narrative elements that speak to other audiences. I’d argue that the broader themes of crushing self-doubt and glimmers of self-belief – things that everyone can relate to – are every bit as valid as the examination of anxiety and the exploration of mental health.)

Qazi’s Disposable 2018 – miscellany

Qazi's Disposable 2018
As for other stuff? I ended up catching up with a slowly building backlog of Blu-Rays, returned to some old favourites via Amazon Prime and the like… and I sadly had no time to watch Die Hard on Christmas Eve (however, during the holiday I somehow ended up randomly discovering old episodes of Batman: The Animated Series on Amazon Prime, which was as entertaining as it sounds.) A special mention to Rampage – the Dwayne Johnson film based on the Midway arcade game – I ended up renting this digitally before it came out on Blu-Ray, and it’s the perfect celebration of Hollywood excess and dumb videogame setups.

Tips for 2019

Qazi's Disposable 2018
So what have we got to look forward to? The third season of The Grand Tour will be released, so hopefully that will maintain the stronger format of the second series… In music, Major Lazer will release the Essentials collection in physical form (and – despite there being no indication of it – I’ll personally be crossing my fingers for The Prodigy to announce “No Tourists: The Remixes” or something similar…) With regards to gaming, Sekiro will be released and everyone will pigeonhole it into pigeonholes instead of praising the game for its own ideas, we’ll finally find out what Babylon’s Fall is about (because they’ll reveal more information and it won’t just vanish into obscurity, right? Right?) Oh and maybe I’ll follow up my Persona 1 rambling with a look at P2: Innocent Sin. Don’t hold me to that though.

Thanks to anyone who’s taken the time to read our content during 2018 – leave a comment if you’d like to let us know what your highlights of 2018 were, or if there’s anything you’re looking forward to next year.

The Prodigy: No Tourists review

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Thinking about The Prodigy‘s last couple of albums prior to No Tourists makes me think of an identity crisis. A few years ago one group of fans would welcome the shouty, punk vibe of Omen and Wall of Death, whilst another bunch of followers would lament the apparent death of The Prodigy’s roots, as it stepped further and further away from the techno-rave aesthetic that defined the Experience album and certain parts of Music for a Jilted Generation. Some might argue that the evolution began with hit single Firestarter and continued from there; the same people who would pin the “blame” on poor Keith Flint headbanging and shouting in an abandoned London Underground tunnel. Personally I’m a fan of each of these “eras”, but this also meant that I wasn’t a dissenting voice – it meant that I was probably part of the problem. Maybe that’s why I feel some relief in knowing that No Tourists has taken steps to work on that identity crisis and maybe even embrace it.

No Tourists – a history lesson

No Tourists
Listening to the ten tracks of No Tourists is like embarking on a journey through Prodigy history; Light Up The Sky has vicious sounds, big beats and simple, shouty lyrics (not to mention some minor effects that sound straight out of Breathe and Their Law) – it carries the same punch as something like Nasty from The Day Is My Enemy. Elsewhere, We Live Forever sounds like a lost track from the Experience album; you’re listening to the chatty vocal sample and half-expecting it to tell you it’ll “take your brain to another dimension”. Later on, Champions of London and Boom Boom Tap have the kind of hurried tempos that you’d normally hear on a drum ‘n’ bass record, bringing to mind the similar urgency of Roadblox. Of course, there’s always the chance that Disposable Media is being swept up in the thrill of the new here, and maybe certain tracks will lose their shine over time (I personally found that Need Some1 and Fight Fire With Fire were kind of weak to begin with), but right now it feels like No Tourists has a little something for everyone. My personal favourite at the moment is Resonate; it combines distorted vocals and heavy beats with classic synth sounds – and somehow it all works together gloriously.

No Tourists – no “buts”

No Tourists
As I listened and collected my thoughts on No Tourists I was surprised at the overall quality and variety of the album, and I was wondering if there would ever be a “however” moment in this article. My only minor issue I found with the album – and it probably won’t be an issue for some fans – was that there’s an aggressive, loud, merciless vibe throughout the whole thing… and there’s little room to take a breather. As much as I love this, I also enjoy the chilled intros and slow build-ups of tracks such as Climbatize and Weather Experience, and I was waiting for a similar moment when listening to No Tourists. There are definitely some slower tracks on the album, but nothing with the same vibe carried by those older tracks. Even so, the consistent quality and variety in each of these relentless tracks is more than enough to satisfy me; when tracks were being revealed before the album’s release I felt like I had a new favourite every other week – now I’ve listened to the rest of the album and have yet more favourites to think about. No Tourists sees The Prodigy doing what they do best, whilst also respecting the evolution of the Prodigy sound throughout the group’s history. That in itself is enough of a reason to pick this up.

No Tourists is out now – buy it on iTunes or stream it on Spotify

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