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Released in October of last year -rumore ostile- is the fourth release from this seared-yet-densely thick harsh noise project from Switzerland. The release features six around five-minute examples of the noise form, that are both rewardingly constriction and textually active.
I stumbled on this album in the late-night hours, and it ended up being a fitting time to absorb this sleepy, cosy opus of ambient & folk guitar by Seaworthy (guitarist Cameron Webb) and soundscape artist Matt Rösner.
Sleep is a greyly wonky & unevenly paced arthouse horror/ come dream fed psycho chiller. The film comes off as a blend of cryptic-slow burn mystery, and a bleaker Twin Peaks, with often dizzying shifts back & forth between dream and reality. Here from Uk’s Arrow Video is a blu ray release of this 2020 film- featuring a commentary track, and a few other extras.
Here we have a CD bringing together work by German improviser Annette Krebs from between the years 2014 and 2018. Her work is often extremely sparse, spaced and abstracted take on improv/ modern composition.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of those great American Avant pop/ satirical genre shifters The Residents, and what better way to start off celebrating this impressive milestone, than this new hardcover coffee table book that focuses on the visual side of this truly one-off project. A Sight For Sore Eyes Vol 1, is a three hundred and fifty-six-page tome that homes in on the projects first or so decades- and boy it’s one wonderfully strange, bizarre, and thoroughly fascinating visual journey.
Jagath are the latest dark industrialists to sign and release music through Cold Spring records. The label has become synonymous with some of the most interesting and innovative musicians to have sprung from the darkest recesses of contemporary music, equally at home with drone, neo-folk, raw black metal, industrial or power electronics, Cold Spring have released some obscure underground classics over the last 32 years.
Released towards the end of last year Despair In The Gutter II is a thirty-one-minute example of tensely constricting, yet muffling wall-noise, themed around female sex workers and their abuse. The release appeared as either an eight-track cartridge (sold out), or digital download- I’m reviewing the latter.
Demonic is the first feature-length film in six years from South African writer/ director Neill Blomkamp- who made a big impact with his distinctive debut film District 9, which saw giant prawn like aliens landing in a township near Johannesburg. After this, he followed this with two impressive at times quirky & creative Sci-fi films 2013's Elysium and 2015's Chappie, and at one point he was going to be doing an Alien sequel. So when I saw he had a new film, I was most keen to see it, and what we have is a tech edged take on the demonic possession genre. Here via Amazon Prime video is a release of this 2021 film.
O Clube de Gelo is a recent C40/ digital download from the French black bag wearing master of walled noise Vomir. The release offers up a two-sided slice of unrelenting and hope grinding walled noise- that’s suitable intense, yet oddly appealing in its crude and wonkily battering intent.
Here’s a three-CD set charting the short-lived career of the late ’60s/ early 70’s Blackpool based band Complex. They offered up a very keyboard focused, and at times quirky creative brand of psychedelic/progressive pop-rock- and this set takes in the bands two released albums, and a good selection of rare/unreleased material.
From the late 1960s Red Angel is a terminal grim, yet starkly compelling Japanese war film- following the plight of a young nurse in the Sino-Japanese War of the 1930s. It blends troubling and bleak drama, harrowing hospital and front-line interactions, with moments of stark romance, grim sleaze and grittily jarring battle footage. Here from Arrow Video, both in the UK and stateside, here’s a new blu ray release of the film- taking in a commentary track, and a selection of other extras.
The Go-Go Boys is a 2014 documentary directed by Israeli screenwriter/director/producer Hilla Medalia (After the Storm, Dancing in Jaffa & To Die in Jerusalem) that tells the tale of two men, Israeli cousins, Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, the two figured behind both Cannon films and Golan-Globus. The pair would produce over 300 movies, and in the process become the most powerful independent film-makers in the world.
From the late 1990s, Jack Frost is a festive slasher that swings between the campily silly and nastily cruel. It charts the killing spree of a serial killer, whose spirit gets sucked into a tall and imposing snowman. Think a more playful and ice-bound take on Child’s Play, but with more grisly gore- and you’ll get an idea of what to expect. Here as part of MVD’s Rewind series is a Blu Ray release of this camp, yet brutal slice ‘n’ dice film- taking in two commentary tracks, a few interviews, a slip sleeve and a mini-poster.
Awon Ona is a two-CD release bringing together two live set collaborations between American jazz drummer/percussionist Hamid Drake, and Austrian pianist/ vocalist Ingrid Schmoliner. It’s a release that moves between tight and taut improv, more pared-back minimalism with feet in both modern classical and jazz forms, strange warbling and wondering vocal touched pieces, through more bounding 'n' building atmospheric fare
In Better Shape Than You Found Me is an hour-long journey into mysterious, at points meditative, at others jarring modern composition utilizing piano, viola, pitch pipe, crotales, electronic programming & subtle field recording elements. It’s a lulling eventful release, that offers compositional surprise, atmosphere and rewarding flow.
Appearing at the tail end of last year Hungarian Masters is a rather wonderful Blu Ray boxset, bringing together three key/ important films made in Hungary between the 1950s and 1970s. The films featured move from an impactful & thoughtful romantic drama, an arty & troubling coming of age drama, and a theatrical/ arthouse re-enactment of Hungary’s 1919 revolution.
The Dead Time is a six-track release that sits somewhere between woozy droning noise, grim-to-unwell ambience, and general seared-yet-troubled electro texturing. It’s a release to put you on edge, creep you out, and unsettling- and I must say it manages to do these with a great amount of success.
Whipping Scars is a walled noise collaboration bringing together Serbian’s Dosis Letalis and Ohio's Valvan. The release appeared as a pro pressed CDR on Seattle’s Imploding Sounds, with it taking in four examples of densely textured yet detailed wall-craft.
Illwisher severs up a moodily rewarding mixture of churning ‘n’ droning noise texturing, and faint foghorn-like ambient bob. It’s a track that’s on the cusp of walled noise and ANW, with a nice undercurrent of eeriness added in for great effect.
Death Is A Gift presents us with two around fifteen-minute examples of blunt and bothersome HNW, which is themed around casualties of War. The release is a digital download put out by UK’s Death To Dynamics.
Stepping Lightly features a single thirty-six-minute example of feasting and loosely juddering walled noise from US project Monolithic Torment. This is a digital self-release put out by the artists themselves.
Well, here’s two discs of utter madness from Ujicha and Third Window Films. The release holds all of the work thus far by Ujicha: two feature-length films, Violence Voyager, and The Burning Buddha Man, and several short films. Ujicha is a Japanese director and auteur, with a direct hand in all aspects of his works. Most notably he himself painted and illustrated practically every image you see on the screen, because the films on this release are not live-action films, but gekimation. I still can’t ascertain whether Ujicha is a pioneer in this regard, or whether he is building on a specific Japanese tradition, but certainly, his work fits into a wider history of cut-out animation. Thus, all the characters and scenery are constructed out of card and painted, then manipulated for live or stop motion filming. It’s a thoroughly odd and alien effect and not the basic technique you might imagine; it adds an unusual angle to the content of the films.
From the early 1980s End Game is a post-nuke euro action romp, which blends together elements of The Running Man, Mad Max, and the X Man franchise. It’s a cheap, cheerful, but largely entertaining ride featuring a narrowed eyed all-in black leather hero, plenty hand to hand and gunning it up action, a good selection of campily quirky at times bizarre characters, and a great throbbing synth to dramatic orchestration soundtrack. Here from the guys at Severin is a double-disc Blu Ray and CD release of the film.
From the early 1970s, Hoffman is a lightly unbalancing drama-come-lulling thriller, featuring Peter Sellers as a bachelor businessman who blackmails his secretary to spend a week with him. It’s certainly a slow-burning and largely pared-back affair,but along its length, we get an effective air of both sly unease and gently simmering suspense- with jarring moments of creepiness and dark humour. Here from the folks at Powerhouse, both in the UK & US, is blu ray release of the film- bringing together a 4K scan of the picture, and a good selection of interesting extras.