Here from the fine folks at Cherry Red’s Doctor Bird is another collection of tracks produced by legendary/ innovative reggae producer Lee’ Scratch’ Perry. Black Man’s Time- The Jamaican Upsetter Singles 1972- Chapter 1 is a two-CD set, and as it’s sub-title suggests, all the tracks date from the year 1972.  The release takes in forty-nine tracks, and as we’ve come to expect from these Doctor Bird compilations, we get a good/ varied selection of material, with some true gems.

Bøyning, Brytning ( Bending, Breaking) is a very fitting title for this new album from  Norwegian guitarist Ivar Grydeland. As the tracks often feel as if they are being steadily pushed, pulled, and at times twisted out into unpredictable/alien shapes.

Percolation is the third solo album from Norwegian pianist/ composer Christian Wallumrød. In the late 90’s, he started off squarely in the Jazz genre, but as this ten-track release illustrates, his sound has become much more genre mixed now, with some of the material going down some fairly surprising/ quirky sonic paths.

Recorded in a single take and spread over 4 parts, Respawning as a Pearl is a breathtaking work of sustain, concentration, and tension, expertly woven together by Androctonyx (aka Lucas Gendre). There is continuity above all else, achieved by an organ–like drone that runs throughout, but the rest is pure minimalism. Washes of glitchy filters enter like comets passing, lifting the electronic composition while never distracting from its telos

Private Blue is an early 2020  picture that sends up both 80’s/ early 90's cop films and neo noir, for an entertaining, at times wonderfully camp ride, with a great retro score. It’s a SOV affair, though it technically sits at the more competent end of the genre. Here from SRS Cinema, those resurrectors of low-budget cult fare/ SOV, is a DVD release of the film, taking in a director's commentary track, and a few other things.

Here’s a 2024 documentary looking at the life of  Harley Flanagan, who helped define the New York Hardcore punk sound and founded key crossover band Cro-Mags. Now in his late 50s, he’s lived a hell of a life- moving from being left to fend for himself in childhood, to being a drummer in a popular punk band at the age of eleven, where at times he was used & abused. Before jumping into an adulthood full of anger and addiction, which later shifted into faith and focus. Here from Lightyear Entertainment is a dual Blu-ray/ DVD   release of the film, taking in seventy minutes of extras.

Director Matt McClung, known for Gentleman's Fury (2017), brings us Inhabitants, a 2025 supernatural horror that attempts to blend psychological thriller and religious horror elements. Starring Anna Jacoby-Heron (Stranger Things) as Olivia and Josh Andres Rivera (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes) as Francis, with Kevin Nealon (Happy Gilmore 2) as Denny and Ana Ortiz (Ugly Betty) as Lillian, the film promises much but falls flat.

Fantomas Returns! is a Blu Ray boxset bringing together the three 1960’s French adventure comedies featuring Fantomas, a blue masked supervillain who wants to take over the world. The films draw from a huge range of influences, from The Pink Panther and James Bond to Silver Age superheroes and Dr Mabuse. Each is a lot of fun, with some great moments of suspense, comedy, action, gadgets, and camp. This set is from Eureka Entertainment- each picture gets an HD scan, new commentary tracks, with featurettes and a sixty-page inlay booklet.

Despite the years old claims that physical media is dead, not only are older albums being re-released physically, but they're hitting fans on even older formats. Pita's Get Out is like Benjamin Button, originally released in 1999, getting a 12-track CD edition in 2008 (also from eMego), and now getting all of these 12 tracks released on vinyl for the first time (with an added live track to sweeten the deal). Widely regarded as an important work that moved experimental electronics in a new direction, Pita (Peter Rehberg) takes noisy, sparse electronics and melds them with melodies, adding new dimension to the pieces, and showing that noise can be more inclusive and musical than the aberrant onslaught that got many fans into the genre years prior.

The Knife is a quietly devastating procedural and psychological drama set entirely inside or around a house on one terrible night. Director and co-writer Nnamdi Asomugha doesn’t hold back with this taut tale that turns a family’s life upside-down in an instant, and has a lot to say about the state of the nation. Intense and thought-provoking, it’s a brilliantly filmed, unsettling watch.

Androctonyx's Respawning as a Pearl is a work of space ambient or drone, created with layers of synthesizer, not unlike Steve Roach's Immersion series, or Mathias Grassow's longform drone works. It is divided into four tracks, 12-20 minutes each, but is actually a continuous play, with no breaks between parts.

Veiled Erosion is the debut album from Anqi Liu- a composer, interdisciplinary/multimedia artist, photographer and filmmaker.  The CD takes in five pieces from the late 2010’s and early 2020s, with each being highly unpredictable- sitting somewhere between the composed and improvised. 

Here’s a CD bringing together two around thirty-minute pieces from Israeli-American modern classical composer Chaya Czernowin, both of which possess a rewardingly woozy/ unbalancing quality. They utilise the likes of an ensemble, double bass recordings, an orchestra, and amplified voices.

Hells Bells is a 2020 screwball horror comedy written, directed and starring Jim O’Rear (Torture Room, Nightblade and Scream Farm) and Scott Tepperman (Nightblade and the Cruel Summer movies). Starring alongside them we have Marc Price (Trick or Treat, Killer Tomatoes Eat France! and Little Devils: The Birth), Rebecca Erb (Kill Dolly Kill, Idle Girl and Death Care), Paul Von Scott (Cruel Summer, The Uncivil War: American Divided and Strange Love) and Jimmy Maguire (Unbillievable, The Mother God and Frenzy Moon).