Loading
Here from the folks at BGO Records, we have a CD bringing together the first two late 1970’s albums from Commander Cody- a Michigan based band who offered up a largely energetic and buoyant brand of country/ bar rock, which is often horn tipped and boogie-woogie piano lined.
Gary Moore stands as one of the greatest guitarists to come out of Ireland. He gained notice after being in a certain Thin Lizzy, going on to build an impressive and respected solo career- which saw him embracing a host of rock sub-genres, as well as metal, and the blues. One genre he’s less known for is fusion, and here from the guys at BGO Records is a two-CD set bringing together two albums from his 1970’s project Colosseum II- who offered up a blend of rock-fusion/ prog.
Here Comes Santa Claus is a twenty-nine track CD compilation, taking in a selection of more swinging-to-easy listening festive songs mainly from between the ’50s and the early ’60s. With the selection moving between largely inventive/ interesting renditions of classic tunes, and wackier novelty tracks.
Night Of The Bloody Apes is a late 1960’s blend of mad doctor horror and sleazed ‘n’ gore bound stalking monster fun. The film is most known as being part of the UK video nasty list, and on the whole, it’s a passable enough exploitation ride- with campy( dubbed) dialogue, bloody ripping gore, a fairly bit of female flesh, and some masked female wrestling thrown into the mix. Here on VCI Entertainment is a dual Blu Ray and DVD release of the film- taking in a bonus film Doctor Of Doom( which Night was meant to be a remake of), a commentary track for the main film, a few video essays, and an inlay booklet.
From the year 2014 Odd Noggins is a wondering ‘n’ wacky mixture of Sci-fi and horror tropes. The films fed through with touches of weird humour, repeated in film references, extremely low-grade effects, rubbery aliens and corpses, mayonnaise, well-proportioned and tattooed women, and a floating plot will often have you puzzling what the hell is going on?
Bleeding Skull!: A 1990’s Trash-horror odyssey is a three-hundred-page book, which looks at the wackiest, low grade, demented, and deranged horror films of the 1990s. The glossy though deliberately messily laid out tome takes in a selection of reviews from the Bleeding Skull team, with the tone of the reviews going from flippant and jokey, onto amusingly storytelling led, though to the more passioned and in-depth.
Madam Padam is a recently started HNW/ ANW project from Paris- and as far as I can gather this nineteen-minute release is its first formal length presentation. rouges à lèvres OU lèvres rouges is a rewarding example of quietly busy and manic wall-craft, which is edged with a woozily drifting quality.
The Job is a new three-track walled noise release from Whore’s Breath- aka Cincinnati based noisemaker David Hilshorst. And instead of the more weathered and stark sound we’ve heard from the project in the past- the setting for all three tracks is seared, raging, and largely fairly simplistic HNW.
Not to be confused with either David Cronenberg’s 1996 cold and disturbing sex ‘n’ wreaks film, or 2004's edgy LA drama, Crash! Is from the mid-’70s, and is best described as a demonic car-meets- campy supernature revenge thriller. Here from the guys at Full Moon Features is a recent region free Blue Ray release of the film- taking in a new scan of the picture, a directors’ commentary, and a few other extras.
From the late 1980s, Evil Dead Trap is a Japanese film that blends Giallo and slasher tropes, with moments of extreme gore, female flesh, and a deranged body horror plot twist. Here from the guys over at Unearthed films- is the definitive version of this Japanese cult classic, taking in three commentary tracks, and a few other extras.
An Alphabet Of Fluctuation focuses on creating a sonic air of slowly constricting unease and pressing stark tension. The four-track album is built around airless and oppressive drones, coldly reverberation tone detail, barrenly ringing percussive, and nerve slicing sine wave swoops.
Hellfighters is a firefighting action caper-come-soapy US drama from the late 1960s. It features John Wayne as the head of an oil rig firefighting company, whose estranged daughter and ex-wife sudden come back into his life. The film flip-flops back and forth between heroic and daring rig action set-up, soapy dramatic interactions, a few moments of tension, a few fistfights, and some fleeting gunplay. Here from the guys at Powerhouse is a Region B Blu Ray release of the film- taking in a new HD print of the film, a commentary track, and a few other extras.
Songs For A Shed collects together six 2020 compositions from Royoko Akama, a British-based, Japanese female composer- who creates stark, angular, at points felt modern composition. This collection focuses on work for piano and other instruments, with the pieces moving between bounding and waving angularity, uneasy-yet-compelling discord, and simply felt emotion.
Piano and String Quartet was one of the later works by minimalist modern classical composer Morton Feldman. He penned the chamber composition in the year 1985. It was originally written for pianist Aki Takahashi & the Kronos Quartet, and premiered at LA’s County Museum in November of 85. Over the years the piece has received several playing’s/recordings- this 2021 one finds members of the highly respected Apartment House tattling the work.
Ten years after their inception, Cadaveric Fumes releases their first (and final) album. The French death metallers are going out on a high note with Echoing Chambers of Soul, blasting forth an album chock full of modern death, with heavy mid-90's influence. Having honed their craft over the past decade, Cadaveric Fumes is no stranger to recordings, just not full-lengths. Pulling out all the stops on their swan song, the seven tracks on display highlight a career forged in the cult and show promise of a bright (albeit separate) future.
Here’s a CD release bringing together two out of print releases from Mlehst- aka UK noisemaker/ electro experimentalist All Brentnall. There’s 1996’s Breathing In Dead Flies, and 1995’s Cock Sucking Lips- each highlights a different side of the project sound, and together make for a consistent and rewarding CD release.
A Silent War is the fifth album from Srmeixner, which is the solo project of Stephen Meixner of dark electro surrealists Contrastate. And it’s a heady, though often sinisterly satirizing album that blends of constricting electro texturing, vapid harmonic swim, hoovering new-age ambience, with slurred out vaporwave sensibilities- all topped with moments computer voice uneasy.
Here’s a C20 split bringing together two takes on noisemaking craft. We have an active and fairly experimental take on walled noise from Dosis Letalis, and a predictable if enjoyable enough example of Japanoise from MO*TE.
From the golden age of the Slasher- the early 80’s- The House on Sorority Row, is a classic and prime example of the genre. As its title suggests the film is set in a Sorority house, regarding a prank that goes deadly wrong, and the series of murders that follow this. The film features a selection of memorable character’s, an even/ eventful pace, some neat killers, and a few effective creepy moments. I’ve always found it one of the more rewatchable films the genre has to offer, so it’s great to have this recent(ish) special edition blu ray of the film from the MVD Rewind Series. It takes in a new HD print of the picture, commentary tracks, a selection of old & new interviews with the cast and crew, a mini-poster, and a card slip.
Acts is a new US wall-noise project that’s supposable focusing on the suicidal/ depressively themed side of the genre. Hidden is a just over forty-eight-minute wall, which is certainly tight ‘n’ taut- though I’m not sure if it feels very suicidal/ grim- as at the centre of the track we have this mid-range juddering tone, which feels anything but bleak/ hopeless.
Here we have a recent(ish) double album release from Swedish master of arcane and ancient ambience Raison D'être. Daemonum- is a six lengthy tracked and seventy-three-minute album, which is very much in the classic vein of the project, with haunted and at points fairly abstract and sparse soundscaping. Whereas Daemoniacum- is a more compact thirty-nine minute/ six shorter tracked album- which offers up a more shadowy hazed example of the classic dark ambient form. The release was presented as either a three vinyl release, double CD( I’m reviewing), or a digital download.
L.I.T is a fifty-seven-minute slab of pelting ‘n’ jittering walled noise from this Springfield, Illinois project. The ‘wall’ is both unrelenting and oppressive, yet at the same time oddly entrancing example of the genre- and it appears as a digital download directly from the artists.
This is a very smart package from Inexhaustible Editions, with six tracks accompanied by liner notes from Osvaldo Coluccino. These notes threw me; I’ve heard some of Coluccino’s work before, on the excellent Another Timbre label, and it was very ‘soundy’ - as in, focussed on timbre and texture; here, though, absum’s notes analyse and introduce the piece in very musical terms, discussing notes and chords. The release is in fact an electroacoustic piece composed, performed, and recorded by Coluccino in 1999.
In The Name Of Love is the second Grover Washington Jr CD boxset from SoulMusic Records. It takes in five albums from the New York-based sax player Washington, who is seen as one of the key figures in the smooth jazz/ mellow fusion scene. The albums here date from between the years 1979 and 1984- with each of the five albums getting their own disc & featuring bonus tracks.