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Here we have a ten-track CD collecting together the water-themed/ based work of electroacoustic composer and experimental music composer Michel Redolfi, and as its title suggests the work is from between the years 1979 & 1987. Featured here is a blend of ’70s/ 80’s electronic soundscaping/ composition, ambience, and modern composition- and it’s suitable varied, both sonic and atmospheric, collection.
The Wraith was a supernatural/ sci-fi fantasy spin on the popular 80’s teen action/drama cycle. It finds an all-black biker suit-wearing and sleek racing car figure descending from the skies, to carry out vengeance on a car-stealing gang in a small-town Arizona. It’s an entertaining and decidedly cheesy stew of fast car duelling, campy teen romancing, and exploding car ‘n’ eye stealing revenging. Here from Uk’s Lionsgate, as part of their Vestron Collection Series, is a new extras stacked Blu Ray release of the film.
Toshiaki Toyoda: 2005-2021 is a three blu ray set, bringing together six films from Japanese director/writer Toshiaki Toyoda, who has the ability to create emotionally impactful and visually clever work, which often utilizes genre varied music to great effect. The Osaka born Toyoda has fifteen credits to his name- with five shorts/ docs to his name, and ten feature-length films. As its titles suggests this set focuses on his work from between 2005 and 2021, and takes in three feature-length films, two shorts, and one film that sits between short and feature-length.
MLMC Live at Punctum is a four-track release that sits somewhere between electro-acoustic mood scaping, manipulated water/ ice sound art, and whistling-to-waving drone craft. The release appears on Italians 901 editions- appearing as either a CD or digital download, I am reviewing the CD version.
Univers Parallèles presents us with two around twenty-minute slices of sparse piano wonderings and low-key sound making. It’s a release that shifts between just awakening drowsiness, and very creepy unease- with each track managing to create its own distinctive, and compelling atmosphere.
An den Mond (To The Moon) is a recent release bringing together two compositions by Austrian composer Peter Ablinger. The first is for seven violins and is all about creating a feeling of searing/ pitch wavering intensity. And the second is for chanted female voices/ violin, and creates a feeling of witchy dread and fear. Together these pieces create a compelling, at points unsettling release- which uses two different tacks to unbalance the listener.
Franco Noir is a two-film blu ray that shows a very different and largely unseen side of the often sleaze bound euro-exploitation auteur Jess Franco. Featured on the disc are two black and white films from the 1960s, and as the disc's title suggests they both sit squarely in the noir genre, and are often moody and often gritty examples of the genre. With zero of the sleaze, or any of more creative/ off-the chuff filmmaking- the directors known for. Instead, we two well-made and formally scoped films, so not a release for those looking for the normal fleshy and off-kilterness uncle Jess’s known for. But if like me you enjoy sampling every side of the director's work/ and or you’re a fan of noir- this is most certainly a must-have release. The release appears on Severin, with the disc being topped off with an interview/ feature with Franco expert Stephen Thrower.
From the mid-1970s Shinny Sex is a rare example of a more overtly sci-fi focused film from sleazy euro auteur Jess Franco. The film tells of exotic dancer/high-class hooker Cynthia(Lina Romay), who goes home with a strange and cold couple- they turn out to be aliens and weaponize her lady bits. In any other directors hands, this plot would create an extremely sleazed and silly film, but instead, we get a decidedly trippy and uneasy ride. Yes, it’s still very sleazed and fleshy with at points the overwhelming close-ups getting a bit too much, but it’s certainly an unbalancing and strange film, that takes 70 sci-fi tropes and blends them into Franco’s highly distinctive cinematic world. Here from Severin, those key resurrectors of Franco’s back catalogue is a region free release of the film- taking in a new uncut print of the film, and a good selection of extras.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was shot and released in 1974, in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal. Written by Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel, the film appeared in cinemas just weeks after Richard Nixon resigned as President of the United States. Watergate had been Nixon’s horror show and what better way to satirize it than with a horror movie. Both Hooper and Henkel are on record as having spoken out against the ills of contemporary politics, and both have acknowledged the influence contemporary politics played in the screenplay for the low budget masterpiece, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
Detachment From Reality is a two-way walled noise split- with each project offering up a half-an-hour ‘wall’. And it’s a split that highlights two different types of wall-craft, we have the murky and grim walling of Indonesia’s MÔRG, and the thicker all-out raging wall-craft of UK’s Pace Fatality.
Here’s a very smart, but very limited package from the dependable Geräuschmanufaktur; it’s most likely long gone too, which is a shame because the 8” is two sides of prime noise. Vanity Productions is Christian Stadsgaard, who can be found in various projects within the Posh Isolation/Denmark axis, and Arrangements In Feedback is a lathe cut disc, and yes, as ever, the sound quality is ‘variable’. Both tracks weigh in at around seven minutes long, and both are titled ‘Arrangements In Feedback.’ As is usual with Geräuschmanufaktur there’s high attention to the artwork and design, and also nicely textured card for the insert, and, as already stated, it’s a short run of a mere 20 copies - though of course the audio is available via Bandcamp.
The Noise Years is a three-disc CD bringing together the first three albums (and related tracks) from genre-shifting San Francisco based Mordred. The band morphed from Bay Area Thrash, to turntable edged funk metal, onto more general genre-mixing experimental metal. The albums featured here all appeared on German metal label Noise records- and take in 1989’s Fool’s Game, 1991’s In This Life, and 1994’s The Next Room.
After last year’s Flowers Of Evil, and its deepening of Ulver’s wordy and dark synth-pop sound. This recently released album sees the band investigating the more long-form jam side of their sound. The four tracks feature elements of ambiently hovering kosmische Musik, throbbing ‘n’ building 80’s instrumental electronica, detailed percussive work-outs, and moody often electro bass edged 80’s dance synth atmospherics.
Maniac Killer is a lopsided & largely cackhanded blend of occult horror, bumbling action, and mad doctor mystery. The film appeared in the late 1980’s- it’s a French production, with very stilted and dodgy dubbing. And, depending on ones tastes it’s either an entertaining slice of euro trash, or an unevenly paced mess that tries to juggle horror and action genres badly. Here from Full Moon Features is a recent Blu Ray release of the film, which features just a new HD scan of the film and a trailer reel.
Karkhana is a large Arabic supergroup exploring an intersection of traditional styles of music such as shaabi and tarab with psychedelic and free jazz improvisation. Their 1st release as a group was in 2015. Their latest album, a double LP called Al Azraqayn, was released in 2021 on Karlrecords.
Providence, RI power electronics project, Straight Panic, returns with 16 Shades of Black - a look into darkness, depression, and hitting rock bottom. Dark and grimy, the two tracks on display are densely layered and very active. Moving heavily forward with each noisy oscillation, 16 Shades of Black is a welcome addition to Straight Panic's steadily growing discography.
Yokai Monsters Collection is a recent three blu ray boxset bringing together four films focused on Japanese folklore creatures- be they surreal 'n' creepy monsters, or ghosts. Featured are three films from the late 1960s, and one from the 2000’s directed by talented genre-jumping director Takashi Miike. The boxset is from Arrow Video- available both the UK and stateside, and as we’ve come to expect from the company, we get a neat and classy presentation. Each of the films gets a new HD scan, and over the set, we get a small but very worthwhile selection of extras. The finished set features a sixty-page inlay booklet, postcards, and a poster
Meadow is a recently released thirty-two-minute composition from Toronto based modern classical composer Linda Catlin Smith. The works for a string trio, and is a constantly flowing & shifting work- which moves between moments of subtle melody, rewarding instrumental detail, and worthy atmospheric dwell.
From May this year, One In The Eye is a double CD/ digital download bringing together Alan Wilkinson and Dirk Serries for selection jagged, moody, to-playful improv. The set features one disc taking in eight tracks, and a second disc features two longer work-out.
Celia slowly but surely subverts the nostalgic childhood drama form-pushing into some unsettling at points quite unpleasant places. The films based in 1950’s Australia, as the twin fears of communism and being overrun by rabbits grip the country- with the film focusing on the troubled nine-year-old girl of the title. Here from Second Run films is a new region free blu ray release of the late 1980’s film, taking in a new scan of the picture, a feature-length doc about the picture, and a few other extras.
Befoul takes in two greyly weathered-to-starkly feasting examples of walled noise from Whore’s Breath. Behind the project is Cincinnati, Ohio based noisemaker David Hilshorst
After an absence of coming on for a year here’s a new release from one of my favourite US walled noise projects Root Cellar- aka transgender noise maker Cory Adiee, who also makes noise under the projects banners of Monolithic Torment and Submachine Gun. Misophonia features a single hour-long track, and comes in the form of a self-titled digital download- with the track offering up a great example of tautly tense and rewardingly detailed walled matter.
Tis The Time’s Plague is a CDR release from Serbian wall-nosier Dosis Letalis- it features two tracks, one around the twenty-minute mark and one hitting the forty-minute mark. The sound here is dense, yet detailed in its attack- with the project creating an overwhelming sound, which nicely fits the whole Covid 19 themed vibe of the release.
This CD reissue from July of this year brings together two out-of-print CDR releases from The Tapeworm Vessel. A two-piece project who brew up a darkly heady ambient/ drone sound, which from time-to-time dips in post-industrial and light electronica territory. It’s an eleven-track affair, and I must say the duo manage to offer up a fairly distinctive, at times wonkily unsettling sound- which is quite difficult in the sometimes cliched world of dark ambient.