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This compilation, themed around pessimism and nihilism, arrives courtesy of Cioran Records, named after Emil Cioran, the Romanian philosopher of pessimism and nihilism. It features ten tracks, amounting to 72 minutes of music. These sounds draw on harsh noise wall, power electronics, harsh noise, and more droney-y soundscape-esque elements, and the album is predominantly, decidedly noisy - even the power electronics contributions are based around scourging, blown-out noise rather than, say, synth loops. The tracks come from a mixed bag of names new to me and projects more widely known - most notably Vomir.
Bandaged Invisibility is a new release from highly respected and influential noise/ wall-noise legend The Rita, aka Canada’s Sam McKinlay. It’s a double C30 tape set, which comes presented in a classy/ deluxe laser-cut wooden box. Sonically the sound here finds McKinlay offering up several fifteen examples of wonderfully crafted textured noise-craft, as only he can.
Cinderella is a late 70’s softcore, musical, and bawdy-to-bumbling comedy take on the classic fairy tale. It’s a mellow, lightly romping, and groovy ride of a film- with not bad production standards, costumes, and presentation for an adult parody/ send-up. Here from Full Moon Features is a region free & bare-bones release of the film.
Πάθει μάθος (English translation He learned a lesson) is a disorientating and at points downright strange mixture of audibly set-back black metal, elegant piano playing, ambience, crude PE/ noisemaking, and felt, if at points off-kilter mood music- all fed through a prism of recording hiss & subtle noise hazes.
From the early 1970s Connecting Rooms is an unpredictable and often compelling drama/ character study featuring two acting legends in their later years- Bette Davis and Michael Redgrave. The film is set in and around a London boarding house, focusing on the lives of its occupants. Here from Powerhouse Films is a Blu Ray release of the film- taking in a new 4k scan of the picture, an inlay booklet with new writing on the film, and a selection of interesting archive extras.
Best known for his forty years working with Einstürzende Neubauten, Alexander Hacke originally released experimental, avant-garde music under the pseudonym Alexander von Borsig. His first two cassettes, 12" EP, and compilation contributions have been compiled by Mauerstadtmusik and released for the whole world to enjoy. What does the early work of the "musical director of [Einstürzende Neubauten]" sound like and how has it sat so long without being re-released?
Girls Nite Out aka The Scaremaker is an often haphazard / uneven blend of slasher and frat comedy from the early 1980s. When it wants to be it can be both creepily moody and quite bloodily brutal, but equally, it can be somewhat cliched and a little trying with its frat shenanigans. Here from the folks at Arrow Video, both in the UK & stateside, is a new blu ray release of the film- with as usual for an Arrow release, a good selection of extras including a new commentary track from slasher genre experts Justin Kerswell & Amanda Reyes.
Jarl is the solo project of the massively prolific Swede, Erik Jarl. He also remains a member of industrial/power electronics legends IRM (he is a founding member alongside Martin Bladh) and is a former member of the bands Skin Area, Sharon’s Last Party and Kaiten. Phonophobia is the latest in a long line of solo releases and is deemed a continuation of themes introduced in his previous release, Hyperacusis, which was an attempt to explore this noise-sensitive condition through sound, whereas Phonophobia takes things one step further and looks at an ailment that manifests as a fear of sound.
Shimmering is album number six from pianist/composer Melaine Dalibert. It’s an eight-track affair that sees the French man focusing his elegant and rich playing on the more openly melodic, emotional, and atmospheric side of his craft, with the addition of subtle string/ ambient elements on a few tracks.
Originally released in the year 1985 this self-title was the first full-length album of NYC’s Carnivore, who are most known for featuring Peter Steele of Type O Negative. The sound here is a rough ‘n’ ready mix of speed and Thrash metal, with a few doomier/ experimental touches here and there. And while it’s largely a primal 'n' dirty album, it still highlights Mr Steele's creative, and at times dark humour laced songwriting talents.
Here we have a compilation curated by Hawkwind’s Dave Brock. It’s a three-disc/ forty track CD set. which focuses on space rock and psychedelic music from between the late 70s and late 90s. It’s fair to say a lot of the material here has a rather Hawkwind-like sound, and a few of the tracks feature Brock and others connected with the group- though they are a few surprises along the way.
Häxenzijrkell are a black metal duo hailing from Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. They have been active since 2016- so not new players in the realm of the darkly dressed art, they have one demo, two ep's, two split ep’s and two full-lengths in their arsenal, with Urgrund being their latest.
Tomo-Nakaguchi has been drifting of late, not listless or lost, but floating in a sea of his own making. Tomo’s newest release, Tayutau, is a Japanese word that stands for all these conditions, gliding like the slow swirl of the ocean’s nether regions.
Ski Jump is a thirty-one-track compilation that as its title suggests has a skiing & snowy slop focus. Sonically we move between easy listening, light jazz, big band music, light novelty song fare, and even some R&B and mellow country. The tracks date from between the early 1950s and the mid-1980s, and we get a wonderfully quirky and varied selection of sonic fare- making for an entertaining and charming collection.
The Scare Film Archives Vol.1 - Drug Stories collects together a bumper crop of US educational drug-scare films from between the late ’50s and 1970s. In all, there are ten films featured here- with runtimes between ten minutes and half an hour- with the option to watch them one by one, or as one long mixtape. Here on 101 films, as part of their ongoing American Genre Film Archive series, is a recent blu ray release.
From last year Channel 99 is a horror/sci-fi anthology movie by distinctive, quirky, at times brain-scrambling low budget filmmaker Joe Sherlock. It’s his homage to watching movies on local TV in the ’80s, with a blend of tales featuring Haunted/ cursed DVD’s, big eating Werewolves, bizarro mayonnaise edged low-key alien invasions, seemingly friendly-though life-sucking neighbours, & unexpected live streaming- all warped in a campy fake cable channel warp around.
Crazy Thunder Road is an early 80’s Japanese biker gang movie, which blends a 50’s rocker vibe with low-grade Mad Max like touches. It’s a film that switches between manically filmed fights/ chases, punked drama, and rather dangerous looking action set-ups- all topped with a sonic blend of punk, new wave & seared synth scaping. Here from the folks at Third Widow Films, is the first-ever outside of Japan release of the film- with the Blu Ray featuring a new directors' approved print, and extras- including a commentary track from Japanese film expert Tom Mes- who always offers great and informative content.
Legendary Italian doomsters Ufomammut have unleashed their ninth LP, Fenice. Psychedelic, doomy, and even a bit spacey, their latest shows the group at the top of their game and still mesmerizing listeners with their immersive sound. Mixing solid, heavy grooves with expansive experimentation, Ufomammut continues to impress and inspire with Fenice.
During the 1980s the sword and sorcery movie rose to prominence through a handful of really strong movies, most notably John Milius’s Conan the barbarian starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Don Coscarelli’s Beastmaster and John Boorman’s Arthurian classic Excalibur. These movies led to a host of copycats including the likes of the Roger Corman produced Deathstalker series, and a host of cheap Italian rip-offs including Umberto Lenzi’s The Iron Master and Joe D’Amato’s Ator the Fighting Eagle. In the 90s the genre fell out of favour until it was revitalised by the likes of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of Rings series and HBO’s Game of Thrones. Ten years after Jackson’s first instalment of LOTR was released Chris Seaver(Mulva 2: Kill Teen Ape, Sexsquatch and The Meter Man) released his own interpretation of the genre, Deathbone, Third Blood Part VII: The Blood of Deathbone to give it it’s full title.
Rogue Cops and Racketeers is a two Blu Ray set from the folks at Arrow Video. It brings together two examples of 1970’s gritty, often tense ‘n’ taut, action-lined crime Italian thrillers/ aka Poliziottesch from versatile genre director Enzo G. Castellari. Each picture in the set receives a classy and vibrate 2k scan, with a new commentary track for each, and a bulging selection of extras.
Svarte Greiner is the alter ego of the Berlin-based, Norwegian drone/ambient musician Erik K. Skodvin. Devolving Trust is the project's latest release, and the next chapter in the “Zen Music For Disturbed Souls” series.
Du Y Moroedd is album number three from this Welsh dark ambient project on Cold Spring Records. With the ten-track album bringing together sea/ boat field recordings, with moodily ebbing, flowing, and darker drifting ambience. It’s an album that, at points, has issues balancing these two elements evenly- with moments occurring when the field recordings become a little overbearing/ repetitive. Yet when it does manage to get the balance right, there are some really heady and compelling moments on display here.
Released in the late 1990’s Premutos: The Fallen Angel is an epic example of the German splatter form. It blends together limb ‘n’ head lopping historic flashbacks, horse toothed gore headed and glowing eye creature attacks, and extremely splattering zombie action- with sidesteps into crude-slap stick comedy, and bickering party drama. Here from the folks at Unearthed Films, is a double-disc release of the film- the first blu ray disc features two versions of the picture, and a few extras. And the second CD features the film's soundtrack.
Seattle, Washington experimental musician Casey Jones (aka Noisepoetnobody) has sporadic releases physical dating back to 2007, and countless newer works on his bandcamp page. His new 2022 release is this Potential vs Eventual EP, with three untitled tracks totalling roughly half an hour.