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Maklavun Tholos is a walled noise collaboration that presents us with nearing an hour worth of rattling ‘n’ rumbling wall matter. The track brings together British project Niks, and Croatian based Placenta Lyposuction- with the theme here being a Bronze Age site near Rovinj and Šorići, Istria, which is something a little different from the normal focuses of the wall genre.
Alejandra Cárdenas aka Ale Hop is a Peru born multi-instrumentalist, currently based in Berlin, Germany. She has been active since the 2000s participating with underground bands in her home country, as well as other filmmakers, musicians and artists. Why Is It They Say A City Like Any City? is her fourth full-length. It was released on Karlrecords and materialized as a big, at times overwhelming collaboration, for these strange times. It’s an experimental venture into sound collage, field recordings and spoken word, which is fed through the sonic lens of electronic/ambient with acoustic instrumental touches.
Freedom To The People is a compilation focusing on a selection of tracks helmed by Jamaican reggae producer Joe Gibbs. It’s a fifty-four-track / two-CD affair, which homes in on the years 1971 to 1972. It highlights both Mr Gibbs's skill as a producer, his ability to work within different types/pace of reggae, and his general creativity-at-times quirky flair.
From the early 2000s, Baghead is a haphazard and largely charming blend of awkward comedy, bumbling romance and horror tropes. It charts four actors going out to a cabin in the woods to write a slasher film script, and it seemingly starts coming true. The film is seen as one of the key films in ‘mumblecore’- a largely US-based genre, which features naturalistic acting and at times improvised dialogue, low-budget film production, with emphasis on dialogue over plot, and a focus on the personal relationships of folk in their 20’s & 30’s. So I’d say it’s a fairly Marmite type film/genre, that you’ll either get, or it will annoy the hell out of you- I sit in the former camp. This new Blu Ray release of the film appears on Uk’s 101 Films and features a commentary track from the film’s writers/ directors, and an interview with the pair too.
Shanzhai Acid is a ten-track, nearing half-an-hour trip into woozy, wavering and slowly unbalancing electro- texturing/ modular synthesizing from Isambard Khroustalio- aka British composer and sound artist Sam Britton. The release appears on London's Not Applicable, as either a CD release or digital download.
Here from the folks at Anti-Worlds Releasing is another slice of weird, at points rather wonderfully odd slice of cinema. Patrick is a nudist camp set film that blends ‘n’ blurs bizarre mystery, bittersweet drama, and tragic comedy. This Blu Ray release takes in a commentary track, and a good selection of extras.
Infinite Football (2018) is a slow-moving, dialogue-driven character study of Laurențiu Ginghină, a Romanian bureaucrat who spends his leisure time attempting to revolutionise football. The director, Corneliu Porumboiu, interviews him in various locations and scenarios, chatting to him about his personal history and his efforts to redefine football’s rules; there are a few other people involved in the 70-minute documentary but essentially it is a two-hander.
Caveat is a British horror thriller that's knee-deep in unease and shadowy dread. It’s set in a rundown and isolated house where a man takes on a job looking after a distributed woman, and things unfold in a decidedly creepy and at points lightly plot-twisting manner. Here from Acorn Media International is a Blu Ray release of the film, with the disc featuring two commentary tracks.
An Unsuitable Job for A Woman is a 1982 crime drama loosely based on the novel of the same name by P.D. James and directed by Chris Petit (Chinese Boxes, Flight to Berlin and Radio On). The film stars Billie Whitelaw (Hot Fuzz, The Omen, The Krays and Dark Crystal), Paul Freeman (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Hot Fuzz and The Long Good Friday), Pippa Guard (The Mill on the Floss and a host of other well-respected TV series and films including adaptions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest) and Andrew Lunn (Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Go-Between and the animated Lord of the Rings).
Playing on the theme of synaesthesia, Norwegian sound artist Benjamin Finger mixes many different sources to craft the near hallucinatory Auditory Colors. As the name would imply, Finger sets out to give visual texture to sound art and create a multisensory work. Crafted with synths, piano, guitar, field recordings, and many other sources, crafting this experience for the listener is no easy task. Does Auditory Colors paint a vivid enough picture to see?
Late Works For Piano is a three-CD set from late last year, bringing together as its title suggests later piano-based work composed by great American modern classical/ minimalist composer Morton Feldman. Featured here are three pieces- two longer seventy-plus minute works, and one around twenty-six-minute work- with all three being played with great feeling and clarity by Spanish-German pianist Alfonso Gómez.
Against Nature brings together four unbalancing at times searing pieces from Austrian composer Peter Ablinger. The pieces here are for several types of flutes, electronics, and voice- with this CD release having a runtime of just shy of seventy-three minutes.
Retail Shank is a densely raging ‘n’ layered example of the walled-noise form. It comes in a single thirty-minute sonic shot of noise craft, which is a swim with rewarding, worthy at times moody detail. This is a digital self-released album.
From a few years back here we have a mini-CDR taking in a short-yet-nihilistically seared example of the walled noise form from Vomir- the French black bag wearing master of the unmoving and battering HNW. The release appears on Florida’s Serious Business, which focus on release noise business card CDRs-it's run by long-term noise scenester Joe the Stache(Hoggle, Pig Shrapnel, Extreme Chafing).
Buñuel is a noisy experimental punk rock outfit with members from Italy and the United States. Killers Like Us is the bands 3rd album. It is a project of renowned veteran vocalist Eugene Robinson(Oxbow), whose work I admit I have previously never heard.
From prolific euro trash director Joe D'Amato, Crazy Nights was a late 70’s Mondo film, which focused on the fleshier & sleazed side of things, with a very pronounced disco/ 70’s kitschy edge. The film largely focuses on the more softcore side of things, but here and there we have examples of the stronger stuff- with at points some quite nasty moments. Here from the folks at Full Moon Features is a region free Blu Ray release of the film.
3.15 is a mid-80s example of the high school gang/ youth-go-wild genre, which were prevalent in the decade. It’s a pacey, if thinly plotted affair- featuring from the off some fairly brutal violence, flits of nudity, and packed/ shifting soundtrack that moves from street smart 80’s groove, cheesy AOR, and later moodier synth scaping. Here from Ronin Flix is region A locked Blu Ray release of the film- the disc takes in a new HD master of the picture, and an interview with one of the films actors.
From the mid-60's The Party and The Guests is glumly surreal, at points downright sister and absurd Czech drama, that’s a very thinly veiled comment on government-controlled states. Filmed in crisply bleak black & white- the film tells of a group of friends going for a meant to be a carefree woodland picnic when they get accosted by a group of men who plains for the friends. Here from Second Run, those seekers of great and lesser-known world & arthouse film, is a recent Blu Ray release of the picture. With the disc features a new 4k scan of the film, two commentary tracks, a short film by the same director, and a few other things.
Chilean death metallers Verbum hit Iron Bonehead with their long-awaited debut, Exhortation to the Impure. Nearly six years since their demo, Verbum come with a doom-laden brand of death that adds a great dose of heaviness mixed up with speed to cater to all types of metal fans. Sometimes sludgy, sometimes fast, but always pummeling, Exhortation to the Impure is a solid debut offering.
The McPherson Tape is the crude at times decidedly manic granddaddy of the modern found footage genre. It appeared a decade before The Blair Witch Project, and charts an alien spacecraft landing near a smallholding, and disturbing a family birthday party. The film managers to feel authentic, with the clearly tiny budget and limited effects used well- sure at points the overtalking script, and rapidly darting ‘n’ swirling camera work is a bit too much- but there’s no doubt this is way before it’s time, featuring some effective moments jarring terror and believable fear. Here we have a UK release of the picture via 101 Films, as part of the label's new AGFA (American Genre Film Archive) series- with the extras taking in the likes of directors’ commentary, a second 2017 directors cut of the film, and a few other extras.
Leftover Beats From The Edge Of Time sits in an awkward, though often oddly compelling place between mixed meter jazz, manic chamber music, angular mood scaping, and theatrical touched art-rock/ singer-songwriter fare. It’s the second album from New York City pianist, composer, bandleader and multi-instrumentalist Gabriel Zucker- and I think it’s fair to say it’s one of the most disorientating and unbalancing albums I’ve heard in some time- where harmony and non-harmony meet, merge and fight it out.
Hector Zazou is a once prolific French composer and record producer who worked with, produced, and collaborated with an array of international recording artists including Robert Fripp, Peter Buck, David Sylvian, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Gérard Depardieu, Asia Argento, Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard Dead Can Dance as well as Tim Simenon of The Clash, to name just a few of the more famous figures from a distinguished career that has spanned five different decades and a host of albums both as an artist in his own right and within the confines of those various different groups/projects he has worked on.
Make Space Speak is a new Ep from moody and atmospheric bass guitar-focused project Rothko. The ltd CD/ digital download takes in four tracks that utilize bass with subtle piano touches, making for a release that blurs and blends ambience, atmospheric music, & rock/doom drone.
Untitled features a single thirty-two-minute example of grinding-yet-ringing walled noise weight-ness, which is both grimly enclosing yet urgently churning in it’s attack. The release appears as a download only on Uk’s HNW Netlabel.