From the late 2000s, Maskhead is a film that blends hulking monster-man horror, modelling/ casting satire, and gruelling extreme torture/ gore. It mixes these elements in an often haphazard, tonally unbalancing, and at times confusing manner. Here from Unearthed Films- those seekers of all things cinematically extreme- is a recent Blu Ray release of the film, which is loaded with extras, both new & old.

Pete Davidson is a prominent media figure these days, famed as much for his celebrity romances and offscreen antics as he is for his comedic performances. But unfortunately, this serves to undermine a stand-up style that, while it does explore the usual frat boy gags, is coupled with a fierce honesty and searing vulnerability in no small part due to the death of his fireman father on September 11. Starting out as one of the youngest ever of the SNL crew, Davidson initially veered into film with a bit part in Judd Apatow’s 2015 Trainwreck before moving into blockbusters, including Guardians of the Galaxy 3 and The Suicide Squad. He’s no stranger to horror either, recently taking a key role in the (relatively low-budget) 2022 film Bodies Bodies Bodies, and now the lead in James DeMonaco’s, The Home. 

Director-cinematographer Jonathan Zaurin weaves two sides of a violent crime to explore trauma and grief in his compelling 2024 revenge thriller, Derelict.

Originally released on limited cassette in 2021, Spain's DAYOFWRATH brought forth blackened industrial with their highly lauded And The World Will Perish In Flames. Cyclic Law picks up the mantle from Cloister Recordings with their loving CD release of this sought after, out of print tape. While still as secretive today as at the time of the original release, DAYOFWRATH show why they're not only one of Spain's strongest group of industrial madmen, but also the world's. Choosing dark industrial rhythms over scathing noise, the ritualistic qualities ensure that the listener will fall under the band's spell, becoming part of the eschatological mayhem the short but effective album delivers.

Hydrostatic Kill Pressure is created around manipulated water recordings. The nearly twenty-minute walled noise track is focused on a rewarding/ at point detailed mix of drilling, droning, and juddering texturing.

Memories Of Space is a single forty-six-minute example of the walled noise form, which is all about layers of slowly shifting rumble 'n' churn. As its title suggests, it very much brings to mind the slow/steady flow of a spaceship, with the subtle undertones of dark unease suggesting either something steadily growing in the darkness, or something malevolent awaiting at the end of their journey.

Bloody Legend is a nine-Blu-ray/ single CD box set from the fab folks at InterVision/ Severin. It celebrates/brings 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 with another ten feature films, many of which have never seen a full/proper release until now. Along with the films, we get thirteen plus hours of extras, plus a CD worth of Cliff’s music, as he was also a songwriter, oh and a pulp horror novelist too.

As someone who grew up watching the original Creepshow on repeat, seeing Creepshow 2 return in glorious 4K nearly forty years later feels like a twisted little gift. When Arrow Video announced this release, I wondered, would the remaster preserve the campy magic or strip away the grainy charm that made it so good in the first place? Within minutes, I was relieved. That same eerie atmosphere is intact, only sharper, cleaner, and even more fun to revisit.

As with most of its Nordic neighbours, the music of Iceland stands uniquely alone - not just in its creativity but in its distinct tone and sound. Home to Björk, Sigur Rós, the late great Jóhann Jóhannsson and latterly, John Grant, there is something deep in the nation’s musical DNA that sees its artists (homegrown or otherwise) embrace the epic. Maybe it’s living in such a geographically spectacular country. Being in a place where there’s an innate feeling of experiencing the past, present and future all at once. It’s certainly this sensibility that infiltrates the music of collective múm – a band of independent Icelandic performers - who, after a hiatus of 12 years, re-entered the studio to revisit their blend of songwriting and electronic experimentation for History of Silence, their seventh album in thirty-odd years

You could be forgiven if you've never heard of the cult, mostly cassette-focused Japanese underground label, DD. Well, in the way that nearly everything ends up on YT, it is basically a lock that all rare and once-obscure releases will be re-released. Not everything that once was is worth being born again, but this is certainly not the case with Disk Musik: A DD. Records Compilation, an amazing time capsule that will engender envy in post-Pro Tools populations, or, in the case of this reviewer, a deep, aching nostalgia for the genuinely weird. Over thirteen tracks, listeners are treated to a wide swath of what the label formerly released, from noisy abstract textures to idiosyncratic pop hits.

Coventry-based 80s electronic duo The Sea of Wires were huge fans of the German Kosmische scene that arose in the 1970s through bands like Amon Duul, Can, Cluster and Tangerine Dream. Chris Jones and Tony Murphy crafted their own equivalent to those records with a variety of analogue equipment that produced exciting experimental electronica with a working-class Midlands twist to it. 

Through And Through stands as one of the more bleakly distinctive and often tonally unbalancing films based on a true crime. The early '70s Polish film blends unpredictable editing, up-close & personal drama, arty & disorienting visuals, and jarring blends of music & sound. Here from Radiance Films, both in the UK & stateside, is a recent Blu-ray release of the film. Taking in a 2k scan, a new interview, and a collection of the director's short films.

Ride A Wild Stud is a haphazardly made roughie western from the late 60s. It’s a fairly loosely plotted affair, where much of the time, it’s unclear who is who, aside from a few key characters. Though there’s an effectively unpleasant & crumby-looking lead bad guy, and a fair bit of uncomfortable sleaze present. Here from Dark Force Entertainment is a bare bones Blu-ray release of the film.

Here’s a CD release bringing together three compositions from Italian modern classical composer Osvaldo Coluccino.  All of the pieces mix electronics with acoustic instruments- for an often volatile, darting, and at times moodily uneasy ride.

Zone Grise brings together three pieces by French modern classical composer/pianist Didier Rotella, whose work shifts between the jagged/darting & the ambient. Two blend electronics with formal instrumentation, and one is for a string quartet.

Released in the year 1968, Succubus, aka Necronomicón, was one of the first drives into the more dreamily kinky and hallucinogenic side of Jess Franco's filmography. It told of an S&M-focused nightclub performer who loses her grip on reality. The picture is often seen as one of the Eurocult auteur's most notable/ respected films. So, with that in mind, here we have the latest edition of PSP’s Publishing Midnight Movie Monograph series, which finds highly respected cult film commentator Tim Lucas doing a deep dive into the film and all that surrounds it.

From 2023, Perpetrator is a heady, though often confusing, mix of female coming-of-age drama, fantasy, and serial killer thriller with an overt focus on blood. Here from Arrow Video, both in the UK and stateside, is a Blu-ray release of the film, taking in both new and archive extras.

Out Of The Clouds is a drama played out over a twenty-four-hour period in London Airport, which changed its name to Heathrow in 1966. The mid-50s British film is both a charming and rather fascinating affair, as it weaves together several( largely) engaging character stories and gives us a look at the early days of UK jet travel. Here from Powerhouse, only in the US, is a Blu-ray release of the film, taking in two cuts of the picture, and a selection of new & archive extras.

Austrian improv trio, Phenomenal World, release their debut through Rock Is Hell on LP this month, having hit the downloadable scene a couple of weeks back. Consisting of Michael Fischer (vox, reeds), Didi Kern (drums), and Philipp Quehenberger (keyboard), the group presents an engaging, noisy slab of funky experimental music that is as easy to get into as it is to bob one's head along with the beat. Recorded just shy of two years ago, Same is an energetic work that highlights three musicians in sync with their visions and talents.

Here we have a wall noise split- bringing together work from projects from Bangkok and Cincinnati, Ohio. Each serves up around thirty minutes ‘wall’- with each sounding fairly different.

Sketches 1-17 is a two-disc set bringing together pared-down guitar compositions. The material moves between drifting ambience, slowed-down blues/ jazz motifs, and generally atmospheric/ felt guitar scaping. It’s an album very much to sink into and drift off with.

Successive Actions takes in sixteen tracks built around recordings of motorised devices, sourced from obsolete consumer technology. Track lengths vary between one and eleven minutes, with the recordings moving between textural studies, erratic blending of several different elements, and all-out/ intense sound crafting.

Loop And Again is a CD album themed around magnetic fields. It blends recordings of said fields, drone texturing, sudden pitch rising detail, and general field recordings.  The three tracks featured are eventful, moody, at times atmospherically jarring- with a sound that dips in electro ambience, pressing drone texturing, and even droned out avant jazz.

Giuseppe Ielasi & Riccardo Dillon Wanke are two avant-garde guitarists with a Morton Feldman-esque idea of minimalist composition. For the purposes of this recording, titled With Time, We Learned to Ask Less, Wanke plays the electric piano. Here they can be heard playing disconnected, delicate melodic fragments in a reverberant space, with a few seconds of silence between each, hinting at chord-like structures before dissolving them again into a soporific emptiness. You might call it a free jazz-informed instrumental ambient recording.

Sitting in the subgenre of folk horror, 2023's The Seeding is a barren, intense film that puts its protagonist through the wringer. Here on the Arrow Video Player is a VOD release of the film.

The Naked Witch, aka The Witchmaker, is a cult 1969 exploitation horror movie written, produced and directed by William O Brown (Brown only made one other movie, the beach comedy One Way Wahine). The movie stars Anthony Eisley (Wasp Woman, Frankie and Johnny and Hawaiian Eyes), Thordis Brandt (Funny Girl, In Like Flint and The Green Hornet), Alvy Moore (Green Acres, A Boy and His Dog and Intruder) and Shelby Grant (The Pleasure Seekers, Fantastic Voyage and Our Man Flint).

Here’s a pro-printed and duplicated CD in a digipak case, complete with a large booklet, featuring around 40 minutes of vocal pieces from Ruth Wilhelmine Meyer. The tracks are constructed from layers of vocal performances, and the booklet and label spiel take great pains to loudly point out that the works are free of processing, an odd claim to my mind, but we’ll get to that later.

Joe Meek-A Curious Mind is a three-CD box set that looks at the more quirky, playful and experimental side of 1960s English pop producer Joe Meek. Over the collection, we get a total of seventy-six tracks, which highlight his wacky, but often ahead of his time sonic talents, which darted in & out of different genres/ themes.

Seth Thorn is a violinist and coder – not necessarily two things that traditionally jibe – though today is certainly not traditional, by any stretch of the imagination. Thorn is a live improviser, and his first album, a curious doubling of terms, parades all of his talents, of which there are many. Things begin rather peacefully, the violin taking centre stage, but quickly the larger field in which it appears becomes populated by the machinic, in Thorn's terms. Similar experiments follow, including a church organ ringing out on "taking to heart", though the lo-fi tape flutter reminds us we are definitely not in the pews. The track concludes by submerging all of this under synthetic oceans, drowning any vestiges of the organic beneath its waves.

Trouble Every Day is a slowly unfurling, glum and troubling mystery drama- edged with moments of both shocking sexualized violence and body horror. The early 2000s centres around a newlywed American couple, Shane (Vincent Gallo) and Jean (Tricia Vessey), on their honeymoon to Paris, and how obsession/ perversion taints their time in the city of love. Here from Eureka, as either a UHD or Blu-ray, is a new reissue of the film, taking in a 4k scan, and a selection of new & archive extras

Divine Love is a late 2010 Brazilian film that blends martial drama with dystopian sci-fi with a lowercase D. It regards a female bureaucrat who revels in bringing back those from the ledge of divorce, and with her florist husband, is part of a cult that believes in pure love ‘n’ god- via dance parties, ritualistic group bonding, and pink-lit orgies. It’s certainly a thought-provoking, if slightly vapid film, that’s well-scoped/realised, often edged with neon colourings. Here from Second Run is a recent Blu-ray release of the film, taking in a 4K scan, and an interview with the writer/ director

Anyone who has been into death metal at all during the past forty years has no doubt had an encounter with Deceased, one of the longest-running death metal bands around. King Fowley has seen it all in his time at the helm of the band, steering them through the shredding chaos of the early days and tape trading clear through to today's infinitely connected world of websites, streaming, blogs, vlogs, podcasts, and myriad other sources of information. While the world has changed immensely in the past five decades, King and company have always stayed true to themselves and to their metallic aims, even if it meant changing stylistically, and because of this truth, we're presented with the wonderful and diverse 2CD set, March of the Cadavers - 40 Years of Death Metal From the Grave.

Here’s a self-titled release that focuses on dense, dissonant, at times maniacally playful improv/ non-music.  The CD release takes in six tracks, which shy away from formal structure and shape to create a sort of blunt jam/ haphazard improv vibe.

Talent Should Be Rewarded is the latest release from Sebastian Tomb ( aka Berlin’s Joris Martin Sabinius)- one of the most creative projects to appear from the euro wall noise scene in some time. This new digital-only EP sees the project pushing the genre envelope even more- with elements of sampled/ manipulated field records, synth tones, etc added into the mixing pot- to create a release that is still in the walled noise/ textured noise genre, but is always keen to experimentation/ expand the form.

Odieux serves up two eighteen-minute slices of hope-numbing & seriously nihilistic HNW from this Bordeaux-based project. With each wall being as sonically searing & audibly roasting as the each other.

From the early 1990’s The Cat is a wacky ‘n’ pulpy blend of mystery, sci-fi-edged action, and horror. It brings together a dog-fighting-cat from out of space, a Blob/Thing-like alien that takes over folks, and a curious/smug novelist.  The joint Hong Kong/Japanese-produced film is certainly one hell of a ride, with well-set-up/choreographed action scenes, blended with Hong Kong wackiness. Here from 88 Films is a Blu-ray release of the picture, featuring a new 2k scan of the film,  the alternative Japanese version, a commentary track, and an interview with the film's writer.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: the Finnish experimental music scene is like no other. In fact, the word experimental is almost moribund here because music produced by this most Easterly of Nordic countries is seldom what anyone would call mainstream. Whether its metal or electronic, Finnish musicians have a habit of touching the outer reaches of creativity and yet make it feel oh so natural. And electronic musician Timo Kaukolampi is no exception. Both a voracious collaborator and an acclaimed solo artist, Kaukolampi vehemently creates with no evident boundaries. In fact, his sole aim as both musician and producer is to destroy everything he makes – and then recreate it again. Based in Helsinki, he has spent the last few years concentrating on his solo career with the 2023 release of Inside the Sphere and now his latest Synestopia Variations 1-4. 

In 1989, Chilean filmmaker, Alejandro Jodorowsky created one of his finest surreal masterpieces, a film called Santa Sangre. It follows the life of a young boy, Fenix (played by Jodorowsky’s son Axel), who is growing up within the confines of a Mexican circus with his father, Orgo the knife thrower and his mother, Concha a religious fanatic. Orgo is also in an extra-marital relationship with the tattooed lady, whom Concha is jealous of. All of this combines to produce one of the most wonderful, surreal horror movies. However, alongside Jodorowsky’s unique stylistic touches and weird brand of storytelling, one of the key factors in making Santa Sangre such a success is the musical score from English composer/ musician, Simon Boswell. Boswell has more than 90 soundtracks to his name, including work for Dario Argento, Clive Barker, Richard Stanley and Danny Boyle. Santa Sangre remains one of his most celebrated works.

Here’s a split that gives us two sides of the wall noise coin. From  Bar, Montenegro’s Edo Žuđelović,  we get constantly piling-on & hiss-bound ANW. And from California’s Koobaatoo Asparagus, we get thick bass bound ‘n’ bone grinding HNW. Each track runs at around the twenty-minute mark.

Longing Landscapes takes in three modern ensemble works written by Swiss composer and clarinettist Jürg Frey. Each is played with great patience, wonderful subtlety, and often emotional depth by the Prague Quite Music Collective.

Here’s a C34 digital download featuring two slices of structurally uncertain and moody walled noise from Thin Mountain, one of the many projects of American noisemaker Sean E. Matzus (Black Leather Jesus & Last Rape).

Isolating something as ubiquitous as sound  – how sounds first emerge and press their acoustic phenomena upon us – is damn near impossible. Why? Well, how do you stop listening, or pay attention to an act that is almost entirely passive? BJ Nilsen's latest field recording coup, True than Nature, operates on the premise that such encounters – where the nature of sonic emergence is first felt and perceived – can be coaxed if handled correctly. What makes this achievement all the more remarkable is the fact that True than Nature manages all of this while still projecting a mood, and it is a creepy one, to be sure. The eerie feel of the album is perhaps intended as a means to disrupt our normal modes of listening, to keep us from resorting to passive modes of being.

Aguirre, the Wrath of God was the fifth film from German writer/ director Werner Herzog. The early 1970s film blended the genres of adventure, psychological drama,  and arthouse period drama in an inventive/ impactful manner. The 16th-century set film is captured in a on-the-cuff documentary manner- it regards a Spanish expedition over the mountains of Peru and down the Amazon river in search of the fictitious city of gold. The picture features a career-defining lead performance from an unpredictable German actor, Klaus Kinski, as the ruthless and unbalanced leader of the expedition. Here from the BFI is a new reissue of this classic film, as either a UHD or Blu-ray disc, taking in a new 4k scan, and a selection of new/ archive extras, including another feature-length film, and a selection of shorts from Herzog.

Writer-director Brando Topp's feature debut, That Alien, Sound, starring Mia Danelle, Will Tranfo, and Amy Hill, is a sci-fi dramedy that follows Micah, a girl who claims to have been taken over by an alien sound wave transmitted through a radio Broadcast, leaving her boyfriend and her family struggling to understand what has happened to her.

Celebrating twenty years of creeping ambient, Slomo's 2005 release, The Creep, is not only getting a much-needed reissue, but is hitting vinyl for the very first time. The brainchild of Chris McGrail and Howard Marsden, the pairing was initially called their cyclopean slab "The Ballad of Jhonn & Sleazy," in honor of the very recent passing of Coil's Jhonn Balance. Presented here on two sides, The Creep is one long, droning, dark piece that quickly made a name for itself and Slomo, selling out quickly before a larger CD release the following year in 2006. "Recorded live with minimal overdubs & zero eye-contact," one can feel the artists channelling their grief, thoughts, and processing their own mortality through dark drones, rolling reverb, and subterranean synths.

Freckled Max and the Spooks is a 1987 Czech horror/comedy film from writer/director Juraj Jakubisko (Perinbaba, An Ambiguous Report About the End of the World and Bathory: Countess of Blood) starring Martin Hreben (Juzná Posta, Panelák and Frankenstein’s Aunt), Gerhard Karzel (Tatort, Frankenstein’s Aunt and Le Gorille), Eddie Constantine (Alphaville, The Long Good Friday and Frankenstein’s Aunt), Viveca Lindfors (Creepshow, Stargate and The Adventures of Don Juan) and Ferdy Mayne (Where Eagles Dare, The Fearless Vampire Killers and Conan The Destoyer). 

Sergio Armaroli & Pietro Grossi's OSTN is described in the liner notes as a piece for "vibraphone and tape", a delirious midnight reverie of cold, aqueous resonances and bell-like tones from Sergio Armaroli's vibraphone. It is pleasantly reverberant, as if emerging from a sewer pipe. The tape effects are generally so subtle as to constitute a faint hiss in the background for most of the recording. Only in rare moments when the vibraphone is completely removed are any tape effects clearly audible, and they still seem to be comprised of faint static.

2011's Rural Gothic Horror Jacob is a relatively straightforward take on the slasher genre, where a disturbed, mistreated and misunderstood figure becomes a local bogeyman. Written, directed, and produced by Larry Wade Carrell, his additional involvement in taking not one but two roles on screen leaves us in no doubt that Jacob is very much his film.  Here's a recent Blu-ray release of the picture from Crazed House.

Praise Be! is the latest in the ongoing Lux & Ivy compilation series, which finds respected music journalist Dave Henderson crate-digging for obscure 45s. And this time around, it’s something a little different from the normal 50’s/ 60’s Rock & Roll, Exotica, or novelty tunes focused fare- as its title may suggest, the compilation's focus is Gospel. It features twenty-three tracks, which cover most sides of the genre, going from raw and rowdy, to the soulful/ blues tinged and to the more country side of things.

Better Times is the second in the series of compilations from Doctor Bird, bringing together singles produced by influential & creative reggae producer Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry in the year 1971. It’s a double CD affair, bringing together forty-five tracks. I’d say this is one of less consistent Perry compilations I’ve heard, as on more than a few occasions when we get different versions of the same tracks played after each other. And the focus is generally on the more straightforward side of producers' output, but there are moments of greatness present.

From the early 1970s, Neither the Sea Nor the Sand is a windswept and seawater-lashed mix of moody romantic drama & low-key folk horror- with light touches of undead mystery and eerie unease. Here from 88 Films, as part of their Tigon Studios series, is a release of the film. Available as either DVD or Blu-ray- it features a new HD scan, two commentary tracks, and a selection of new interviews.

From the late 80s, Her Vengeance was one of the first films to receive Hong Kong's Category III rating, which indicated graphic or disturbing content. As the film's title may suggest, it’s a rape revenge thriller, taking in more than a few extreme scenes such as sexualized violence, brutal scissor slicing, a fair few gory facial attacks, and bloody pole damage. It also features a believable lead, a decent selection of nasty characters, and some neat wheelchair-based fighting. Here from 88 Films is a new Blu-ray of the picture- it features two versions of the film, a standard more seen version, and a more extreme unrated version, and a commentary track.

From last year, Fear Cabin: The Last Weekend of Summer is a blend of friends-in-a-cabin horror and stalking witch terror.  The film features passable low-budget acting, moments of unsettlement/ unease,  and some decent( if slightly overused) floating in the air effects. On the less positive side, it’s edited somewhat erratically- with new characters dropping in & out, seemingly randomly. Here from Cleopatra Entertainment is a region-free DVD of the film.

Experimental Irish trio, Rún, see their self-titled debut album hit Rocket Recordings this week, showcasing depth, heaviness, release, and mystery through varied forms of engaging expression. Not pigeonholed to one sound or style, the three artists each bring their whole selves to the table and craft a work that is fresh, exciting, and invigorating, with every song taking the listener on its own separate journey. And while rún can mean mystery, anyone that listens to this album can easily see that there is something magical here, a passion that is audible from the second the first note jumps from the speakers.

There is little room to breathe on Jorge Espinal's debut solo effort, Bombos y cencerros, as each of the nine tracks on the album pushes the limits of listenability. 

From the early 1990s, Arcade focuses on a VR game that is figuratively and literally hooking a group of teens in. The film blends Sci-Fi, light horror, and John Hughes-like teen drama. It’s an entertaining enough ride of movie, and if if like me, you dig retro tech and old computer graphics, then you’ll enjoy what’s on offer here. This recent region-free Blu-ray from Full Moon Features offers up a new commentary,  and a few archive features.

First released in 2010, Gateway was the 14th studio album from Norway’s Erik Wøllo. It’s a release which wonderfully shifts between the tuneful and moody, with its effortlessly blending of ambience, electronica, instrumental rock, light prog rock, and soundtrack. Here from Projekt is a fifteen-year anniversary/ double disc release of the album, taking in the original album, plus a bonus disc of eight never-released tracks.