A Spaceman Came Travelling is a three-CD set from the German MIG label, bringing together four mid to early 80’s albums from Eella Craig- an Austrian project who present a fairly synth-heavy blend of prog rock & jazz/funk-classical fusion, which had either a Sci-fi or Christian theme running through it.

Shrunken Headss is a mid-90s  horror/ dark comedy film with a very EC  horror comic vibe. The film is set in a reality that sits somewhere between the 50s and 90s- focusing on a group of comic-loving pre-teen friends, who get tangled up with the local gang, get murdered, then become reanimated in the form of floating heads by the local newsagent/voodoo doctor. Here from 101 films is a Blu-ray release of the film.

Pinocchio 964 is an early 90s Japanese cyberpunk/ surreal horror film regarding an abandoned cyborg sex slave, who is found and initially helped by a homeless woman. The film is often a maniacal, deranged ride, full of up-close/low-angle shots, twitching limbs, with moments of vomit, blood, and a generally anxiety-inducing tone/ feel. Here from 88 Films is a recent Blu-ray release of the film, taking in new/ archive interviews, and a few shorts by the same director.

Mermaid Legend is a mid-80s Japanese film that shifts from being a small fishing port set drama/ murder mystery, onto being a blood-spurting vengeance thriller, with slight fantasy/ supernatural undertones.  It’s a decidedly tonally shifting affair-moving between the dramatic, laidback underwater mellowness, sleazy obnoxiousness, and seared brutality- it’s certainly an interesting/ intriguing mix of genres/ tone.  Here from Third Window Films as part of their Director's Company Collection, which focuses on the legendary 1980s Japanese production company, is a recent Blu-Ray of the film, featuring a new scan of the film, a commentary track, a writer's interview, and a visual essay.

Squeal is a crude, crust grinding, and terminal nasty example of wall noise. This is a short, but effective shot of walling- that will reward you when you're after a quick dose of set noise crudity.

The Harrowing Of Hell is a dense, gloomy, and truly oppressive slice of drone-bound wall-craft, with moodily effective/ distant industrial undercurrents. This recently released digital album from Poland’s Sado Rituals rolls in at seventy-seven minutes and seven seconds long, remaining bleakly tolling and grimly thickly grinding throughout.

London-based death metallers, Vacuous, make their Relapse Records debut with their sophomore LP, In His Blood. Fast, furious, grim, and guttural, this latest shows the band expanding upon their varied influences and moving their sound forward in fun and frenetic ways. Mixing this speed with a dark, brooding ominousness, In His Blood delivers on atmosphere as well as intensity, utilizing both with aplomb and keeping the varied tempos and structures fresh and interesting. With a nod to their influences, Vacuous move forward on their own path of darkness and destruction, and In His Blood is the latest chapter in their story.

Taba is a work of unbridled interiority, cloying at times, others, downright claustrophobic. Spread over 14 short pieces, the album, by Japanese artist, Satomi, is predicated on the simultaneous existence of the individual and the larger collective (Taba) to which it inevitably belongs, however fraught that relationship. 

Andreas Oskar Hirsch is a composer of unconventional and meticulous electro-acoustic music, who I reviewed once previously, in 2018, with his album Early Carbophonics.  He has been largely silent since that recording, only now returning with The Salamander Treaty, his new LP, in 2025.

Zound Delta 2 is, unfortunately, one of the last things that Phill Niblock was working on before his death in January 2024, and in that regard is a fitting tribute to a sorely lost figure. Niblock was known for constructing monolithic drone works, often as installation pieces, and indeed I was lucky enough to see one - many years ago, in Ghent - and it was a visceral, compelling experience. Anna Clementi and Thomas Stern had been working with new Niblock scores in the years before his death, and these tracks came from that work. Clementi is a singer who works in the experimental sphere, whilst Stern is a musician who has worked with numerous people like: Phew, Nick Cave, Jaki Liebezeit, and Swans, and was a member of one of the Berlin incarnations of Crime & The City Solution.

The Coffee Table (aka La Mesita Del Comedor) is an early 2020s film, which blends dark-as-night humour, domestic drama, and visceral horror in a highly troubling and at points very comfortable/tension-inducing manner. The Spanish film focuses on, as its title suggests, a simple Coffee Table- building its disturbing, and later soul-numbing, unfold from its purchase. Here from Second Sight Films- as either a Ltd boxset release, or a stand-alone Blu Ray release- is a release of the film, both versions take in a new commentary track & other new extras. With the box set adding: a one-hundred-and-twenty-page book, art cards, and a rigid slip case.

Edge of Eternity is a late 50s whodunit/ crime thriller set around the Grand Canyon. It’s a well-paced film, with a neat mystery at its centre, touches of romantic drama, some great footage of the Canyon, as well as a few dizzying stunts. Here from Powerhouse is a recent Blu-ray release of the film- it takes an HD remastered print with great colours, and a good selection of new extras.

The Pick-Up is a late 60s blend of post-noir and roughie. It regards, as its title suggests, a money pick up, by two mob couriers, which doesn’t go quite as planned. The film's first half is mainly focused on the noir side of things, with a few light touches of softcore- then it turns very fleshy, sleazy, and nasty. Here, from Severin, is a Blu-ray release of the fully uncut film - the two-disc affair takes in commentary tracks, other extras, and on the second disc, we find Mau Mau Sex Sex- a long out-of-print doc regarding history of exploitation films- with a focuses legendary producers David F. Friedman and Dan Sonney- this once again has commentary tracks/ other extras- though this double Blu Ray version of the release is only available direct from  Severin.

In My Skin is the 2002 debut feature film from French director Marina De Van (Don’t Look Back, Hop – o’-My Thumb and Dark Touch). It’s considered to be one of the New French Extremity movies, a group of French horror movies made at the turn of the century that are perceived to be extreme or transgressive. In My Skin stars director Marina De Van (See The Sea, Sitcom and La Clef) in the role of our protagonist, Esther, alongside Laurent Lucas (Raw, Alleluia and With A Friend Like Harry), Léa Drucker (Close, Custody and Last Summer), and Thibault de Montalembert (Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, All Quiet on the Western Front and The King). 

Là. A ubiquitous word with a meaning that changes according to its use. It’s a word that points to the multiplicity of language and to identity - something that is used to remarkable effect in this piece of musical art jointly created by Laszlo Umbreit, Sirah Foighel Brutmann and Eitan Efrat and labelled after the word in question. Borne out of Brutmann and Efrat’s exhibition of the same name, Là is driven by  a political vision and a lament for the current fate of the people of Palestine’s Negev/Al Naqab desert. The trio along with Ot Lemmens have created a poignant sonic journey that brings together acoustic instruments, processed electronics and mechanical sounds in a prevailing maelstrom of emotion. 

Oil Lamps is a slowly turning sour romantic period drama, edged with dark humour, tragedy, and moments of grim disquiet. The early 1970s Czechoslovak film regards Stepha, the happy-go-lucky/  bright ‘n’ buoyant daughter of a wealthy couple, who is desperate to find a husband, but keeps getting turned down.  So, she agrees to marry her cousin Pavel, who is back from serving in the army/ and has huge debts. Here from Second Run films is a new Blu-ray release of the film, taking in a new 4k scan, commentary track, and a few other extras.

Dreamy soundscapes and almost tactile textures are the focus of Out of the Blue, the latest album from Yokohama-based sound artist Tomo-Nakaguchi. From cool, 80s noir-ish street scenes to high-flying vistas as far as the eye can see, Out of the Blue covers a lot of sonic ground (and mental footage). With its layers working subtly but effectively, the album conveys a very large and lush scope with each track, wonderfully giving the listener a vivid look at Tomo-Nakaguchi's mind's eye.

Brixton Cat is a three-CD set celebrating the work of Joe Mansano- a Trinidadian producer/label owner who moved to London in the early 1960s- to become a key figure in the early Ska and reggae scene. The set brings together 1969’s Brixton Cat, which was the debut album of his project Joe's All Stars, and two compilation discs, Funky Reggae 1969- 1970, and Skinhead Revolt 1970.

Doctor Dark is one of the most sonically contrasting / at points jarring records of The Residents fifty year career. It blends sad and swooning strings/piano keys, with blunt 'n' crude heavy metal, and a side order of electro beats, off-Broadway theatricality, mocked-up news reports, and twittering bird field recordings/uneasy ambience. Lyrical/theme-wise, the album blends 80’s heavy metal influenced shotgun suicide, and a creepy doctor involved in euthanasia. 

Here’s a two-track digital release, Calgary, Alberta’s CORR//PT│0N_UN1T- each track runs at the twenty-minute mark, and each is a journey into busy & detailed walled noise.

Like A Rock( როგორც კლდე) is a recently released three-track release from  Mtskheta, Georgia‘s Owners Of Knowledge, whose sound mixes elements of walled noise, dense ambience, and field recordings. Each track here rolls in at dead on the twenty-five minute mark, and each is a dense journey into all-enveloping sound craft, which sits at the more focused walled noise end of the project's sound.

Womb is a new horror/slasher movie being made available on digital platforms on 29^th April.

Nine Guests For A Crime is a late 70’s giallo set on a Mediterranean island- with a selection of bickering ‘n’ bitchy of rich folks, glimpses of female flesh, touches of eerier atmospherics, and odd dabs of gore. Here from 88 Films is a new Blu-ray release of the film, featuring a new commentary from three genre experts,  and a mix of new/ archive extras.

Dracones is the latest release from Hüma Utku, who maps and performs a journey from pregnancy to motherhood with astounding clarity and detail. Unlike so many other personal narratives transposed into sound, Dracones is anything but celebratory or self-indulgent. Instead, Utku manages to press our noses up against the immediacy and claustrophobia of the corporeal changes she underwent while making this album, building a dark and moody background through minimal instrumentation. 

Eclipse is a little-known/ rarely-seen British film, which sits somewhere between glum drama and a slowly unfolding psychological thriller. The late 1970s picture is largely set in the wintertime on the lonely and barren Scottish coast. It regards a death at sea, and a small Christmas gathering touched by moments of troubling behaviour, doubt, unsettling reveals- all edged by an uneasy to jarring electronic score, which bubbles up ever so often.  Here from the BFI’s Flipside series is a new Blu-ray release of the film, taking a new 2k scan, new commentary track, and a small selection of new & archive extras.

The Cat ( aka Die Katze) is a late 80s German bank robber thriller, with some distinctive elements, and clever twists 'n’ turns in its make-up. It’s a film that quickly pulls you, then nicely notches up the tension, as a tense chess game-like unfold between the robbers & police. Here, from Radiance for the first time outside Germany, is a Blu-ray release of the film, featuring a new scan of the film, and new interviews/ selected scene commentary track.

Impact, from the late 1940s, is a mix of noir and small-town/ courtroom drama. It concerns a scheming wife who tries to off her big city millionaire husband, but instead, her lover gets killed- though the press reports her husband is dead, as he goes into hiding in small town America, and she goes to the slammer. Here from VCI Entertainment is a dual DVD/Blu-ray release of the film, featuring a commentary track

What's the difference between love and herpes? Herpes lasts forever. In this case, the French band Herpes continued to live on as the old-school death metal-inspired Disfuneral. Ten years into the game, the quartet releases their second full-length, In Horror, Reborn, which is nine tracks of classic death - raw, fast, and thrashing. What they lack in flash, they make up for with passion, and In Horror, Reborn quickly draws the listener in to its old-school revelry. Riffs, dissonance, throaty screams, and propulsive drums meld together to provide a familiar experience; one of fun, headbanging, fist-pumping action.

The Savage 7 is a box set bringing together the early 80s to early 90s studio albums/ selection of rare tracks from W.A.S.P- one of the more consistent, memorable and at points, creative heavy metal bands to appear from the 1980s. The band's sound sits somewhere between the heavier/ rawer side of glam metal, shock rock, and punchy-to-moody heavy metal. This recently released set comes as either a seven-CD set or an eight-vinyl box- I’m reviewing the first of these

The Mill Killers (aka Scopophobia) is a Welsh crime thriller, with undertones of horror, mystery, and nods back towards Giallo films of the 70s. The 2024 film regards a group of grown-up school friends who revisit the run-down industrial town they lived in. A large part of the film takes place in a shadowy, at times downright creepy, abandoned steel works- with some neat plot twists, a few decent scares, and light touches of gore. Here from Miracle Media is a VOD release of the film.

The Wolf House is a 2018 animated horror film from Chile, directed by Cristóbal León and Joaquin Cocina (The Hyperboreans, Los Huesos and Strange Creatures). This duo are regular collaborator and has formed a pretty successful partnership when it comes to writing, directing, producing, and animating what have mostly been short films, up to now. The Wolf House was their first attempt at a feature-length presentation, albeit quite a short one at only 73 minutes.

Changeling plays a jazzy brand of symphonic progressive death metal, with a shade more elegance and tastefulness than most of the scene.  Though they are a new band, they are comprised of veteran musicians.  Their self-titled debut is being released by Season of Mist this year in 2025.

In the history of the Cannes Film Festival, only ten directors have been awarded the prestigious Palme D’Or award on more than one occasion. Whatsmore only one of this exclusive group came from the world of Asian filmmaking. In fact, it took Japanese director Shohei Imamura, whose film career started back in the late fifties first as a writer before moving swiftly into directing, nearly thirty years to win the first of his two awards with 1983’s brutal The Ballad of Narayama. His second arrived 14 years later when after an almost decade-long hiatus Imamura unleashed the magical and touching Unagi aka The Eel.

Harakiri for the Sky are an Austrian post-black metal band formed in Salzburg and Vienna in 2011. Scorched Earth is the 6th full-length album from the duo of vocalist, JJ (Michael "V. Wahntraum" Kogler) and multi-instrumentalist Matthias Solla, formerly of black metal band Bifrost.

It was back in 2018 that saxophonist Jean Jacques Duerinckx came together with guitar-vocalist Guillaume Cazalet to form the genre-defying, boundary-pushing collective Neptunian Maximalism aka NNMM. Pulling on the Sun Ra inspired concept of the Arkestra, NNMM blend drone with free jazz and doom metal predicated on a sense of ritual, primal rhythm and otherworldliness. Untethered by expectations, their works range in intensity and scale as its members switch between genres, while always leaning heavily into the power of live performance. As such, their latest release, Le Sacre Du Soleil Invaincu is a voyage through the world of raga revisiting and reworking three classical Indian pieces recorded over four nights at St John’s Church in London’s Bethnal Green. 

From the late 70’s, Thirst is one of the more original/ distinctive takes on vampiric cinema. The contemporary set Australian film adds elements of kidnap thriller, drama, and sci-fi into its genre mix. It regards one of the descendants Elizabeth Bathory- been abducted by a high-tech blood sucking cult. Here, from Powerhouse- either as a UHD or Blu-ray- is a new release of the film. Taking in a new  4K scan, and an archive/ few new extras.

Booger is a coming-to-terms-with-grief drama, wrapped in elements of dark humour, body-horror, and indie artiness. The New York City-set film focuses on twenty-something Anna, whose close friend/ apartment mate has recently passed. She gets obsessed with finding ‘Booger’, the stray cat the pair had, who has recently disappeared. Here from Arrow Video UK is a Blu-ray release of the 2023 film, featuring a few extras.

Pyroclastic Sleep is a thirty-seven-minute slab of densely slipping, sliding, and searing noise craft, which sits somewhere between walled and harsh noise. It’s the first release from SADOPRAXIA- a new collaborative project between two Polish noise acts- Sado Riutals and ECHOPRAXIA.

Taking environmental recordings to the next level, Natasha Barrett utilizes 3D ambisonic microphones to capture the sonic imprint of various locations in exciting new ways. With this as a base, she then transforms the sounds and atmospheres into abstract works that will give the listener an entirely new approach toward the area as initially perceived. Toxic Colour is her latest work, with five pieces of intricately recorded and deconstructed soundscapes to tickle one's brain.

Here’s an Untitled split between two US wall projects- Chianti Ohio's Polyester Ghost, and South Carolina’s  Absurd Reality. The former severs up two shorter/ tauter tracks. While the latter gives us a single slice of longer/ slightly harmonic/ densely moody wall.

Kawaii From The Edge is the very welcome return of Portland’s Hana Haruna, who is one of the more creative projects working within today's walled noise scene. I’m happy to report this new album is up to Hana Haruna's normal high standards, with each of the three twenty-minute tracks blending rewarding/distinctive layering, ambient elements, and a generally skilled/ creative approach.

Here’s a new four-track release from Tucson, Arizona’s Ennaytch- and as we’ve come to expect from the project, it’s another trip into interestingly/ creatively layered wall craft. 

Girl With A Suitcase is a 1961 black and white drama directed by Bologna-born Valerio Zurlini.  It is presented here in a crisp restored version from Radiance in a limited edition of three thousand copies.

Here is another mini-CDR from Inner Demons Records, featuring the work of Sven Phalanx whom I was completely ignorant of, I’m afraid. The packaging and artwork is very diy, and that’s great; in a time when noise releases can be increasingly professional or deluxe there’s something refreshing about a no frills, old school, ‘bedroom released’ noise album: those expensive Urashima vinyl reissues you buy started off like this. Navigation has five tracks, all reasonably different and all ranging from around three minutes to five minutes in length.

80 is a collage work of samples and snippets culled from the eponymous decade and worked into two long tracks, each with a rather telegraphic title, "80:81:82:83:84" and "85:86:87:88:89", respectively. This is the third and final installment in a trilogy that began with 60, and then 70. The source material is necessarily limited in the scope of such a copy-and-paste project, so the familiarity with the sampled sounds will certainly depend on where you spent your 80s, or how you came to acquire an affinity for said decade. Why the archive fever? The question seems to linger like the stale air of a basement room throughout, whether intended or not.

Drawings is a two-CD release bringing together five pieces from up-and-coming Berlin-based modern classical composer, whose work bridges the gap between atmospheric simmering and hauntingly harmonic.

Penumbra serves up four slices of low-key, pared-back, and glumly fragile modern classic minimalism. Think Morton Feldman at his more drifting & fragilely fraught- you’ll get an idea of what is on offer here.

Here, we have a recent, more grown-up cinematic retelling of the classic Brothers Grimm fairy tale, which concerns a miller's daughter making a deal with a forest imp. This new version has a darker, more adult hue with swearier language, sexual suggestion, and fleeting nudity, though until its last quarter, it remains a period drama with fantasy edges...where, after more horror elements come in. Here from Miracle Media is a VOD release of the film.

Rats: Night Of The Terror is a campy, creepy, and action-edged slice of post-nuke sci-fi horror. The early 80s cheapie Euro cult film is a schlocky & enjoyable ride, with touches of gore, cheesy tough guy to OTT acting, and a moody-to-bounding electro score. Here from Severin is a three-disc release of the film, taking in a UHD, Blu-ray, and CD. The set takes in a 4k scan of the film, three hours of new/ archive extras, and the film's score on the CD.

Here, Severin brings us, for the first time on UHD, Antiviral- the award-winning 2012 debut feature from Brandon Cronenberg  (Possessor and Infinity Pool). Brandon is not only the son of legendary body horror maestro David Cronenberg, but he is his father’s natural successor, creating smart, subversive body horror that harks back to David’s finest work from the 70s and 80s.

Originally released in 1992, this legendary compilation from the classic period of Japanese noise got a loving remaster and re-release through Cold Spring. Closing out 2024 with a bang, Noise Forest resurrects the limited, hard-to-find compilation featuring some of the heaviest of heavyweights to ever scorch feedback through their distortion pedals. Readers of Musique Machine will be familiar with Merzbow, Masonna, Incapacitants, C.C.C.C., and the others, but many most likely have never heard this compilation before. Like a wonderful time machine, Cold Spring's re-release of Noise Forest brings us back to a magical time when noise was starting to hit the world scene and opening the eyes (ears?) of extreme music fans across the globe.

Blue Sunshine is a difficult-to-bracket late 70s film that sits somewhere between a conspiracy thriller, drug-fueled drama, and deranged horror film. It regards a batch of bad acid, which, ten years after being taken, is causing those who took it to turn into bald & demented killing machines. Here from Synapse Films is a new classy three-disc set of the film, taking in a UHD, Blu-Ray, and CD soundtrack, taking in 4K restoration of the film, a good selection, inlay booklet, foldout poster, slip case/ sleeve.

Death Streamer is tech focused vampire picture regarding a group of blood suckers who stream their killings, but then things go somewhat askew when a group of YouTube vloggers tune into the stream by mistake. The film is the second in Charles Band’s ‘Pulp Noir’ series, which is all about creating edgier, darker and scarier sort of genre entertainment. The film ups both the gore & nudity of a typical Band production, with a more active use of CGI. Here from Full Moon Pictures- is a Blu Ray release of the film.