The Durutti Column
    Sex and Death

    A confusing title this one. The Mac version is a track one disc, but the Windows version uses the CD Plus format. This is because Apple's CD Plus authoring software wasn't ready in time, so rather than hold back, Factory too decided to push ahead.

    Strum your Stratocaster, assume a wild
    stare and revel in the hidden surprises
    awaiting you on Sex and Death
    Like all music CD audio/CD-Rom discs, you need a fairly powerful machine to get the best results. Factory recommends the minimum of 8Mb RAM and 35Mb of hard disk space for the interactive portion ("the virtual sleevenotes"), which runs much smoother from the hard drive.

    This is a nice package, you get ten music tracks, which will play on any audio CD deck, plus a nifty little screen saver, which only uses 128K of RAM, and can also be used to controlled music CDs played your CD-ROM drive. The graphics look good thanks to a combination of Photo CD, and Adobe's PhotoShop and Illustator.

    Using the disc is very simple, the home screen presents you with a track listing and you click on it and then call up further information. This includes a text description plus brief commentary from composer/guitarist Vini Reilly. Most of the screens have hot spots which you can click on to see pictures, video clips or read more text. For me the most interesting snippets were Vini's description of the various drugs he's been prescribed to tackle anxiety and depression, and the on the section fender stratocaster, where you can "strum" the strings and discover what the various controls do.

    There are plenty of hidden surprises on the disc, but you never feel lost thanks to a very effective navigation system, which makes it easy to return to your last spot or go back to the home page.

    Verdict:
    A good example of how CD Plus should be used. The music comes first, but a lot of thought has also gone into the interactive portion, which fans will appreciate.


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    Don't Play Track One
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  • Nyack
    11 Track Player
  • The editors choice
  • The technology