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Here we have the sixth in Imprint's excellent Essential Film Noir box sets. The Blu-ray box set features four films dating from between the mid to late 1950’s. As with the other sets in the series, we get a nice selection of different takes on the noir genre. We go from a police drama-focused thriller. Onto a circus performing drama, escaped madman thriller, and noir blend. We have a mix of noir, romantic drama, and island/ holiday set adventure. And finally, a Bahamas-based melodrama and noir mix,
10 Jun 2026
Jasper Sharp interview
In the year 1971, Nikkatsu, the oldest/ at one point, the biggest film production company in Japan. Did something quite daring/ some would say crazy- they completely switched over their production to softcore adult films, which would become known as Roman Porno. Between 1971 and 1988, the company produced around 850 of these titles. The thing that made these films stand out from general softcore films is the often creative & inventive choices made- yes, the films primal focus is sleaze, but great examples of the genre are so much more than that. In the last year or so, there has been a spate of reissues of films in the genre from labels such as 88 Films, Third Window Films, and Klubb Super 8. One of the key figures/contributors behind these releases is Jasper Sharp- one of the world's experts on the genre, and the wider Pink genre it’s connected to. Jasper kindly agreed to give us an email interview discussing his history with the genre, his contributions to releases, and the new/updated edition of his book Behind The Pink Curtain: The Complete History of Japanese Sex Cinema on Fab Press.
4 Jun 2026
The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz is a mid-1950s Mexican-set psycho drama/ pitch black comedy from key cinematic surrealist Luis Buñuel. It regards a well-to-do pottery, his psychotic tendencies, and whether or not he’s a murderer. The film blends skewed/ mocking drama with moments of woozy macabreness, uneasy surrealism, and almost giddy derangement. Here from Second Run is a new Blu-Ray- featuring a 4k scan, a selection of video essays, and a few other things.
Crafting ritualistic rebirth and psychological transformation through drones, analog synths, and varied ambient textures, Nam-Khar's latest has the artist leading the listener through alchemical transformations of sound through a Jungian lens. What sounds like a lot of paper is easily understood by the body when Antimon begins to play. The seven parts present a meditative ambient that allows the listener ample opportunity for introspection, the music serving as a boatman through the stygian rivers of the mind.
Ivan Reash/Hana Haruna — Split
9 Jun 2026Wilting GOd & Rumonoise — Split
9 Jun 2026Whore's Breath — Untitled050426
9 Jun 2026Only Human — Planned Obsolescence
8 Jun 2026Armin Junge — Son of Banzai! More Cult Movie Posters from Japan (Book)
6 Jun 2026Accident Fantôme — Objets enchâssés dans des anneaux planétaires( Objects Embedded in a Planetary Ring )
5 Jun 2026Luigi Nono/Roberto Fabbriciani — Luigi Nono Volume 2: Works with Flute
5 Jun 2026David First — Revolutions
5 Jun 2026
King Futile Interview
King Futile is the new project from Scotland-based Lea Cummings( Kylie Minoise, Official Music Team, etc), and it’s a big departure from his normal noise or retro sample & electronica sound. It's lo-fi acoustic music, with an outsider feel, and often quite tongue-in-cheek/ sharply sarcastic tone to the lyrics. So far, the project has put out three albums- Casual Misery, How To Have Fun, and Zen As Fuck. I tracked down Lea for an email interview.
Cliff Twemlow On Severin
One of last year’s real big surprises in the world of Blu-ray box sets was Bloody Legend: The Complete Twemlow Collection, as it was a wholly entertaining, fascinating, and at times heart-warming set. The Severin released boxset brought together the work of one of the UK’s unlikeliest movie moguls- Cliff Twemlow, a Mancunian bouncer/ body builder, who went on to write/star in/produce a series of low-budget/ largely SOV films in the early 80s to early 90s- these moved between action, thriller, sci-fi, and horror. His most notable/notorious film was 1983’s G.B.H., which landed on the video nasty list, though he was connected to other ten feature films, many of which got their first real full/proper release on the boxset. Opening up the set was the excellent 2023 documentary Mancunian Man: The Legendary Life of Cliff Twemlow, which really pulls you into the set. I caught up with Severn’s David Gregory and Jake West, director of Mancunian Man, to discuss the boxset and all things cliff.
The Fall
MES( Mark E Smith- The Falls main creator) possessed the ability to cram phrases into impossible spaces - “I’m hunting and I’m trying to find” delivered as “hut’na tryna find”; the eight-syllable “mere pseud mag editor’s father” hastily squeezed into a manipulation of time and space, heralded by the prior line “twice each at least”, the latter naturally repeated thrice.
Crude ‘n’ Hope-corroding Walled Noise
Back in 2024, I got my first taste of Absurd Reality, and I was so impressed by how crude and nasty its take on walled noise was. Behind the project is South Carolina-based Krys Marshall, who also runs the Filthy Sounds Recording label. He’s since gone on to form No Fun HNW, which pushes the levels of nasty crudeness even more. Krys kindly agreed to an email interview.
