Helter Skelter (Herutâ sukerutâ) is an early 2010 Japanese film that has decidedly Jing & Jang quality.  It blends lush, grand, and multi-coloured visuals with cruelty, manipulation, and deprivation. The film focuses on a top fashion star/ actress, at the height of fame, and her steady decline/ unfurling. The film sits somewhere between pitch-black satire, drama, and psychological thriller, with touches of body horror, crime investigation, and glitzy arthouse. Here from 88 Films is a Blu-ray release of the film, taking in an HD scan, a new commentary track, and a few other extras.

Wicked Games is a Blu-ray box set bringing together three films helmed by Paris-born actor-turned-director Robert Hossein. The films date from between the late 50's and early 60's- moving from a prison drama/ escape thriller/noir. Onto mystery-centred noir, with a femme fatale focus, and ahead of its time, moody western. Each picture receives a 2k scan, a commentary track from highly respected genre commentator Tim Lucas, and a selection of other extras- be they new or old.

Franco Nero and Martin Balsam headline the curiously titled Confessions of a Police Captain, an Italian crime drama which earned acclaim on release in 1971. Now, 55 years on, a new 2K restoration from Radiance brings Damiano Damiani's compelling, thought-provoking thriller into high definition. 

Italian trio Owls Over Oaks hit Argonauta with their virtually self-titled debut, O.O.O. Composed of members of the Turin metal scene (Enisum, Amethista, Nihili Locus, and Nerocapra), Owls seek to bring about an immersive, 'extreme drone doom' experience to the masses. 

Creepy Images is an all-colour-cult horror magazine that began life in 2009. As you'd imagine, its early issues are now long out-of-print, so to make these collector's items available again, here is a book reissuing issues 4 to 6. As well as providing the original text in English (as with the original releases), they have included a German translation for the first time too.

Here’s a terminally raw, grimly worn, at points searing ‘n’ drilling wall noise split. It brings together Frances Pit Of Despair and Illinois Woods Mattress- each party offers up around half an hour wall. The first is fairly fixed, while the second is mostly fixed, though later on, we do get some rewarding deviation.

Color Noise Wall brings together three around ten-minute walls from this Czech project. As its title suggests, there is textual variety between each track.

Equal parts ethnographic research and percussive exploration, Simon Berz‘s Tectonic is proof of an enduring intelligence within sound and its contexts and histories as marshalled by an accomplished musician and researcher.

Parallel Disalignment sits somewhere between more polished/pristine harsh noise and dartingly seared electro-acoustics. It’s the second release from this project, which is the solo venture of Malaysian electronic artist, Y’ng-Yin Siew (Reverse Image).

The Battlefield Is Everywhere is a very difficult album to pigeonhole, as it not only often switches between sonically ambient, noisy, and dense. It also liberally blends 'n' blurs genres such as synth drone, prog/ post-rock, shoegaze, noise, and dense/droned-out singer-songwriter fare.

Here we have the first release in quite some time from this Scottish droning  & baying guitar-based project. Quakes is a CDR release- featuring seven tracks over its two-disc run. There is a decent shift in both tone and feel from track-to-track.

Now here’s an extremely sleazy, bad taste, and wholly unwholesome take on 1970’s sexploitation comedy form.  The film regards three escaped criminally insane sex addicts heading to a girls' school during a vacation, where only a handful of students- played by large-breasted actresses- are left. The film is highly misogynistic, homophobic, and racist- with the rape/ nasty sleaze often present with playful comic music. It’s a picture that is truly wrong on every level, with the viewer's jaw dropping further and further as the whole thing unfolds.  Here from VCI Entertainment’s The Psychotronica Collection is a dual DVD & Blu Ray release of the film, including an archive commentary track, and a few trailers/ shorts

Play Dead (2025) is an Argentine survival horror slasher from director Carlos Goitia (Nightmare Radio: The Night Stalker and The 100 Candles Game: The Last Possession). Written by Gonzalo Mellid and Camilo Zaffora, it stars Paula Brasca (What the Waters Left Behind and Focus) alongside a largely unknown cast including Damian Castillo, Catalina Motto, and Marta Quarleri. The film premiered at the 47th Moscow International Film Festival and follows a woman who wakes up in a basement surrounded by corpses and must play dead to survive a masked killer's ritualistic game.

Coven of the Black Cube is a 2024 film that blends threads of witchcraft curses, queer romance, metalhead drama, and horror. It’s a SOV affair, very much paying tribute to the 1990’s- with moments of glitching to psychedelic static, a genre-shifting soundtrack which moves between eerie ambience, different varieties of heavy metal, indie rock/ pop, and uneasy pagan folk. Here, Blood Sick Promotions is a region-free Blu-ray of the film, taking in a commentary track and behind-the-scenes footage.

Cape Cod Cthulhu is somewhat of a bizarro mix of slasher & dread-filled cosmic horror, with light & lo-fi CGI  touches of weather-focused disaster,  giant monster action, and postmodern satire. This film is helmed by Mark Polonia, one of the most prolific figures in US low-budget horror/ sci-fi. This was his seventh and final film of 2025. Here from SRS Cinema is a Blu-ray release of the picture, taking in as always, with a  Polonia release, a most interesting & informative commentary.

Walls Towards Nothingness offers up six twenty-minute blocks of walled noise from this Mexico City project. All six tracks are fairly dense, unrelenting, and brutal examples of the genre, fitting the release's title.

All The Pretty Little Kittens is thirteen minute Ep that blends choppy & rugged wall noise with rising & glowing guitar ambience/ mellow shoegaze. It’s a collaboration between Olsztyn, Poland’s Olion and Liverpool’s Silver Dove, 

Anti-France Vaincra ↙↙↙ is a nearly hour-long slab of doomily purring 'n' churning walled noise from this French project. The track has a decidedly dense and suffocating presence- with a fixed and unforgiving focus.

Collaboration can open doors and channels to composition, allowing one to view their pieces in a new light and reveal new approaches to music creation. Autistici has released the third in a three-part collaboration series with Familiarity Unfolded (following Familiarity Folded and Familiarity Enfolded), working with five other artists over six engaging electronic tracks. With the artists both co-writing and remixing each other's work, each collab brings the pair closer together, each track being an expression of this artistic camaraderie. 

Cutter’s Way (aka Cutter and Bone) is a 1981 neo-noir thriller, directed by Ivan Passer (Intimate Lighting, Haunted Summer and Crime and Passion). The film stars Jeff Bridges (The Big Lebowski, Starman and Crazy Heart), John Heard (Cat People, Big and After Hours), Lisa Eichhorn (The Vanishing, The Europeans and About Time), Ann Dusenberry (Jaws 2, Lies and The Men’s Club) and Stephen Elliott (Death Wish, Beverley Hills Cop and Arthur).

Appearing four years before Teen Wolf, there was another eighties teenager-focused Lycanthrope comedy on the block, Full Moon High. It took a more slapstick, often plain silly route to its humour, as well as generally satirising teen films of the fifties, with liberal stabs at American politics.  Here from Eureka is the Blu-ray release of the film, featuring both new and commentary tracks, with a new interview and essay.

The Stuntman is a decidedly distinctive and original early 80’s film, which blends elements of dark comedy, film-making satire, psychological thriller, drama and action film. It regards a on-the-run fugitive, who literally stumbles onto the set of a film, a seasoned director who may/ may not be mad. The movie is a wonderfully tonal shifting affair, which is constantly batting back and forth between the real ‘n’ unreal and serious drama ‘n’ comedy, making for a head-spinning, unpredictable yet entertaining ride.  Here from Radiance Films TX sublabel is a dual Blu Ray & UHD release of the film- featuring a 4k scan, new and archive commentary tracks/ extras.

Wayne Wang, best known for films such as Chan Is Missing, Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart, and The Joy Luck Club, revisits one of his most unusual projects with Life Is Cheap, But Toilet Paper Is Expensive. Originally released in 1989 and later revised into the version presented here, the film was co-directed and co-written by Spencer Nakasako, who also stars in the central role.

Hotel is a 2001 comedy/horror/thriller from acclaimed Academy Award-nominated director Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas, Stormy Monday and Timecode). The film has an excellent ensemble cast including Max Beesley (The Gentleman, Hijack and The Outsider), Saffron Burrows (Troy, Mozart in the Jungle and The Bank Job), Rhys Ifans (The Boat That Rocked, Notting Hill and The Amazing Spiderman), Salma Hayek (Desperado, Frida and Dogma),  Lucy Liu (Charlie’s Angels, Kill Bill Vol.1 and Chicago), Burt Reynolds (Smokey and the Bandit, Cannonball Run and Boogie Nights), Julian Sands (Naked Lunch, Warlock and Argento’s Phantom of the Opera) and David Schwimmer (Friends, band of Brothers and Six Days, Seven Nights) and John Malkovich (Being John Malkovich, Red and In the Line of Fire). 

With his new album Esoterik, veteran Dutch dark electronic producer Bong-Ra (real name Jason Köhnen) carries on the sound of his previous album, Black Noise, which was a throwback to Godflesh-esque late 80's and early 90's industrial metal sounds, pre-computer electronic compositions with drum machines,  sludgy, minimalist guitar riffs, and vocals which to me recall Front Line Assembly or Clock DVA.  This was a time when music felt perhaps more open-ended and exciting than in today's streaming-optimised world, and Godflesh's doomy, minimal approach was unusual even in the days from which it originated, so it is interesting to hear it explored more fully. Black Noise was one of my favourite albums, and this style transition for Bong-Ra could not feel more natural.

Here’s a CD box set bringing together the first four albums from Hersham, Surrey's Sham 69. They started off as a street punk/ Oi! band, before shifting into a more produced/ polished classic British rock sound- the albums here very much highlight this shift.

Continuity, Fragility, Resonance is a 2020-2021 piece for octet: string and saxophone quartets from  Swiss composer Jürg Frey. It’s a fifty-one-minute work, which compellingly moves itself through brooding pomp, moody saw ‘n’ simmer, and bitter-sweet rises/ hovers. 

Paino collects together three solo piano works by Slovak composer Adrián Demoè- all played with wonderful clarity and depth by  Czech pianist Miroslav Beinhauer.

Now here’s an extremely haunting, at times downright eerie trip into modern classical dark ambience, which really seems to seep deep into both your marrow and psyche. Solo I / Solo IV is just shy of fifty minute work, bringing together two flute/ low string solos and their playback.

Listening Time is longform piece focused on subtly ebbing & shifting drone currents. The forty-five-minute work moves between pressing swells, delicate microtonal transfers, and moments of felt simmer.

Cities Burn As We Dream Of A Return is a lament, something we get from listening as opposed to knowing anything about the author here. When we do know, the backdrop of senseless war and a city in flames is none other than Beirut, the former home of Ryan Haïdar, who has since relocated to Paris under the threat of said attacks.

Sorority House Massacre is a mid-80’s slasher. The film blends uneasy flashbacks/ dreams/ premonitions with camp-to-plain bad acting. As it progresses, the bloody, largely knife-bound kills increase, as does the fairly taut & suspenseful nighttime stalkings. It’s a picture that certainly plays up its slasher tropes and is far from original, but if, like me, you enjoy the genre’s predictability & it’s campness, you’ll be entertained by what’s on offer here. From 88 Films, as part of their Slasher Classic series, is a new release of the picture. It comes as a dual Blu-Ray and UHD release, taking in a new 4k scan, an extended UK cut of the film, three commentary tracks, and a good selection of new and archive extras.

Strongroom is a splendidly taut ‘n’ tense 1960’s UK thriller. It is based largely in a bank's strongroom- where two people are stuck inside, with the air rapidly depleting. The film wonderfully notches up the tension- keeping you on the edge of the seat, right until the end. Here from BFI taking a 2k scan, two new commentary tracks, and a good selection of archive extras- including another feature from the same director/ cast & crew.

Like a rift into a terror dimension come to life, Nibiru's Hypóstasis uses whatever means necessary to bring forth their dark, vile, industrial ritual. Their bleak and terrifying soundscapes will darken the brightest days with the six pieces on Hypóstasis securing their place in the blackened pantheon of extreme, ritual industrial. Oftentimes part of the ritual, and other times playing witness through scrying glass caked in distortion and reverb, the listener is taken on a journey through horror, pain, fear, and despair, but in the darkest and most wonderful ways.

Dark Dreams finds über-fan Nick Cato doing a deep dive into his favourite film of all time-  the grim and sleazy 1981 slasher Nightmare( aka Nightmare In A Damage Brian). The just under A4-sized full colour book is released by the UK’s Headpress.

Placebo (პლაცებო) is a two-track album from  Mtskheta, Georgia‘s Owners Of Knowledge, who create a distinctive blend of walled noise, dense ambience, and field recordings. 

From Turkey’s The Crude, here’s a just over twenty-minute example of walled noise focused on furry felines. The ‘wall’ is a rumble ‘n’ roll-based affair, which does offer up quite a comfortable and calming vibe.

Director Heidi Greensmith crafts a short and polished thriller from Nuala Ellwood’s 2017 dark psychological novel. But it’s a story that could have done with more than a meagre 82 minutes to hit home its themes of trauma and the sins of the past.

Steven Halpern is a Grammy-nominated American New Age musician. He released his first solo album in 1976 and has built an impressive catalogue of titles since then. He started his music career in New York, playing trumpet and guitar before moving to California during the late 60s, where he developed the idea that he would like to create music purely for the purpose of relaxation. He possesses the long-held belief that music can heal and classifies himself as a suburban sonic shaman. On the back cover of Music for Microdosing, his music is compared to “a tuning fork for the mind, body and soul” that will heighten the listener’s “receptivity to insights, inner guidance and creativity.”

Wan Pipel comes wrapped in a slipcase, with no booklet and a few extras on the disc; in that regard, it’s not any kind of deluxe edition, but the extras are interesting enough. The film, shot in Suriname, was released in 1976, and was the first Surinamese film after the country achieved independence from the Netherlands; in that regard, it’s historically important, and the themes of nationalism and patriotism, and the relationship between the two countries, are loudly present in Wan Pipel (One People).

Live Wires is a split bringing together two of the most consistent. compelling and creative  American walled noise projects. There’s Cincinnati, Ohio’s Whore’s Breath, and Portland, Oregon’s Hana Haruna. Each party serves up around twenty three minute track, and each is distinctive.

Tendrils is a recently released slab of extremely grim and rapidly grinding walled noise from this UK-based project. 

Night Of The Rats is a zero-budget 2025 film that blends when-creatures-attack action with foaming-at-the-mouth zombie stalking. The picture has a tiny cast, only a few locations, and acting that moves between competent enough, to dull eyes/bumbling reading lines, and badly hamming it up. Though there’s a stab at foreboding to tense atmospherics, with rat attacks that move between passable( for low budget fare)  to the plain laughable. Here from Wild Eye Releasing is a DVD release of the film.

The Ugly Stepsister is a darkly satirical, at times bloody/gut-wrenching, retelling of the Cinderella fairy tale. The 2025 Norwegian film is a costume drama that is beautifully dressed with eye-catching set pieces and grand locations, though as it progresses, it dips into body horror and mutilation. The film has gained a lot of praise since its release, including an Oscar nomination- so fittingly, those masters of ultimate cinematic editions, Second Sight, have stepped in to release the film. 

Here we have a boxset celebrating the three cinematic collaborations between renowned Hungarian director István Szabó and actor Klaus Maria Brandauer. The three films date from between1981 & 1988,  and each are powerful/ at times moving European period drama, full of great cinematic craft, moodiness, and wonderful acting. The set appears on Second Run, with each film receiving a lovely 4k scan, a selection of short films, and a few extras.

From the early 1980’s, Fade To Black is an original crossbreed between slasher and character study, with light touches of satire and comedy woven in. It regards a shy and geeky film-obsessed twenty-something, who suddenly snaps, going on a killing spree, dressed as various characters from Hollywoods past. From 88 Films, as part of their Slasher Classic Collection series, is a dual UHD & Blu-ray release of the film, taking in the 4K scan, two new commentary tracks, a selection of new extras, and a few archive bits.

You are sitting in a room. It is not clear who is there with you, or what they brought with them today (the present case concerns the year 2006), but there you are. You know this because all of the sounds have been spatialized, to the point where they appear to emerge out of the black night of silence that engulfs them. Things are tapped on, rattled, agitated, and otherwise excited, much like the microphones (we imagine) that originally bore witness to this room and the corresponding sonic events. In fact, it is not so much you but said listening devices that are in this room, much in the way the film camera replaced the eyes of a detective in classic noir. It could be a soundtrack to some horror piece dedicated to blindness, but then the fact of things appearing closer and farther away would make little sense if it were. 

Westworld is one of the quintessential and influential sci-fi/ action films of the 1970’s. It regards the rich folks' holiday resort of the title, where the participants can go back to the wild west- kill, fight, and carry out all manner of debauchery without any worry/ harm, as the place is manned by androids.  Unfortunately for two Chicago businessmen buddies- played by Richard Benjamin and James Brolin- things go somewhat awry ( to put it very mildly).  The film cleverly blurs and blends elements of sci-fi, action thriller, western parody, and satire.  Here from Arrow Video- both in the UK and Stateside is a new release of the film. It’s available as either a Blu- Ray or UHD- taking in a crisp & clean 4k scan, a new commentary track & interviews- as well as a great selection of new and archive extras.

Prolific and well-respected electronic/experimental artist, Carlos Giffoni, swings back into the public eye with his latest, Pendulum. Featuring a number of duets with other well-known artists the world over, this latest work runs the gamut of sound, style, tone, and texture. Hard to put one's finger on, but even harder to ignore, Pendulum is a fantastic collaboration and celebration of the world, sound, and imagination.

The Pike is a pulp horror/when-creatures-attack novel set in Lake Windemere, regarding a giant blood thirsty fish. First appearing in 1982, it was the first novel written by Cliff Twemlow, a key figure in micro-budgeted/ often SOV  action/horror/sci-fi cinema of the UK, which last year was celebrated by the excellent InterVision/ Severin Blu Ray Boxset Bloody Legend: The Complete Twemlow Collection- which brought together a doc about the great man, eleven of his features and much more. Here from Severin/ Encyclopocalypse Publications is a reprint of the book.

HÉR is a sort of cinematic folk or experimental post-punk project, which takes influence from traditional Viking music.  Despite being released on Season of Mist, their debut Monochrome is not metal of any kind, but rather a soundtracky landscape of tribal drums, chants, plodding bass guitar and circular string figures.

Jiří Barta is a Czech stop-motion animator from Prague, famous for his only other feature-length film, Toys in the Attic (2009). He is well known for using wood as a medium to create his animations. This new Blu-ray set from Deaf Crocodile features much of his work. On the first disc we have 1986's The Pied Piper, a 53 minute film that is based on the classic fairytale about the Pied Piper of Hamlyn who cleansed a village of rats and then returned for the townsfolks children when the villagers weren’t forthcoming with his payment, while disc two features seven shorts, Riddles for A Candy, Disc Jockey, The Project, The Vanished World of Gloves, The Ballad of the Green Wood, The Last Booty and The Club of the Laid Off. 

Caro Nihil Momenti Est is a thirty-minute slab of crude and morally corrupted walled noise from this rather mysterious US-based project, which recently surfaced like a bloated corpse in water on the scene.

Ohrensuppe presents the listener with two slabs of densely searing and audio nerve-slicing walled noise. Each 'wall' runs around the thirty-minute mark, and each is equally dense and crudely gnarly.

Now here’s a suitably barren ‘n’ battering slice of walled noise from Wisconsin’s Vacant Align. The single thirty-minute ‘wall’ brings together steadily moving yet gloomy post-industrial texturing, with buffing and baying tone for a bleakly atmospheric, yet seared ride.

Enter The CATHEDRAL sees the very welcome return of Spain’s  Damien De Coene(Charles Razeur, Verwelk, Renoffski), who has been absent from the world of walled noise for a few years. This digital release features a single ‘wall’ created by that classic of wall noise tools- a DOD effects pedal.

Here’s a wall-noise split between Quebec-based Pasta Club and Poland’s Olion. Both tracks roll in at around the fifteen-minute mark, with each having a fairly thick, though different takes on this most extreme form of sound.

From the late  1990’s, Violent New Breed, I think, stands as one of the ambitious  SOV Horror films I’ve ever seen. It has several interwoven storylines, a large cast, and some impressive effects ‘n’ gore. The film weaves together the following plot lines: two cops investigating a new street drug which causes demonic birth, a group of marauding demons in human form, the revealing of a young antichrist, and a few other subplots. It’s certainly impressive, if at points slightly muddled/ confused SOV Horror film- that will most certainly want to be seen by fans of the genre.

Ozone: The Attack of the Redneck Mutants is a mid-'80s slice of obscure regional horror- focusing on a small Texas town beset by nuclear zombies. It’s a very low-budget affair, with gloppy/ melty gore effects, rather hapless/ hopeless heroes, a sense of off-key humour, and a fair bit of very clear padding. Here from Visual Vengeance, resurrectors of long-forgotten VHS fare, is a Blu-ray release of the film.   Taking in several commentary tracks, a fair few other extras, and for this first edition O-Card with alternate art by The Dude,12-page Mini Comic Book, Ozone Mutant Puke Bag, and Muther Video Logo Sticker

Brazilian death duo Fossilization return with Advent of Wounds, their eagerly anticipated follow-up to 2023's Leprous Daylight. Setting the stage with a new drummer on board, the pair (now trio) fire off seven frenetic tracks chock to the brim with brutal blasts, riotous riffs, and gross gutturalizations. While nearly three years felt like an eternity to wait between releases, once the first note explodes from the speakers, time disappears, and one is dropped right back into the doom-laden, death-defined world of Fossilization.

Chwasty Polskie ( in English, Polish Weeds) is the debut album from this Warsaw three-piece. It’s a five-track affair that oftens a atmospheric, often building/developing sound that weaves together elements of electronica, post rock, post industrial/ ambient soundscapes and moody improv - for an engaging and at times rewardingly unpredictable ride

Here’s the next sonic chapter in the Zonal Disturbances series, which sees longtime Euro mood setter/ ambient-scaper offer up long-form pieces created via guitar and effects pedals.  And this time around, there’s a nice variation in tone and mood between the four tracks featured.

Modular Fields is the fifth feature-length from this British three-piece. It features four around fifteen-minute tracks, which each move through varied and esoteric themed electronica and ambient sonic journeys. Bringing to mind the likes of Tangerine Dream, Coil, as well as slightly more abstract fare/ freeform electro-fare.

Many years in the making, the original recordings for Stephen O‘Malley‘s latest solo work, Spheres Collapser, date from December 2021. Even more remarkable than the latency of this two–part composition‘s release, is the instrument that serves as both source material and structural guidepost for O‘Malley‘s minimalist pieces, Les grandes Orgues de Lausanne: a singular, Frankenstein of a pipe organ that amalgamates designs from the three previous centuries. This majestic behemoth sits like a reliquary in the Église Saint-François in Switzerland, its sound both taut and terrifying. The two compositions, “Phase I & II Organ” respectively, each fill out the side of a standard LP and represent two very different takes on the instrument, realised with organist extraordinaire, Kali Malone and sound artist Frederikke Hoffmeier (aka Puce Mary).