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Ms.45 is an early 80's rape/revenge thriller set on the gritty streets of New York City. The film speeds by like a bullet- with the mute ‘n’ timid victim shifting from being traumatised & shellshocked, to a red lipstick wearing/ gun tooting killer. It drops down in horror, manipulative drama, and all-out gonzo exploitation. Here from Arrow Video, both in the UK and stateside, here’s either a UHD or Blu-ray release of the film, taking in a commentary track, and a good selection of extras
Rejection Sensitive is the second physical album released from Illinois-based noise maker Marc Benner, who also runs the noise/ experimental sound label Oxidation. It’s a four-track CDR, which focuses on textured noise manipulation.
Here’s a C50 split bringing together two side-long wall noise tracks. First, there’s the searing rush, battering billow, to later thick battering walled noise of Puerto Rican's Barrena. And second, we have a dense/overwhelming- yet oddly entrancing slab of walling from Garden Grove, California’s See Through Buildings.
Destry Allyn Spielberg makes her feature directorial debut with 2024's Please Don't Feed the Children, written by Paul Bertino, starring Michelle Dockery (Downton Abbey), Zoe Colletti (Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark), and Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad). Spielberg previously won Best Thriller at the City of Angels Women's Film Festival in 2022 for her short film Let Me Go the Right Way, so I had some expectations going in.
Composed for Illustrious Labs' 3D audioscape system, Mesmerine 111 focuses on the physiological properties of 111hz on the human brain. Under the moniker Illustrious, Martyn Ware (founding member of The Human League, B.E.F., Heaven 17, et al) and Charles Stooke release two 50-minute 'doses' of Mesemerine 111, the original ambient, trance-inducing treatment and the vocal mix, with its hypnotic spoken word description of the Mesmerine treatment. Whether holistic medicine, ancient ritualism, or new age quasi-science, Mesmerine 111 is an intriguing premise that would definitely benefit more from the fully immersive, 3D audioscape experience.
The collaboration between Anton Lambert and Thanos Polymeneas Liontiris, captured on their album, tri-n-os, is astonishing. There is little I can say to describe the intricate, mesmerising, and haunted work that is this release.
First released in 2012, as a digital release, then as a limited CD release, GOD O: Music For A Gallery Opening. It finds Charles Bobuck, aka Residents Co-founder and the primary composer, Hardy Fox, scoring the gallery experience of the exhibition of The Residents/Ralph Records. Here from Klanggalerie is an expanded double CD reissue of the release. With a sound here moving between blends of musical pomp and weedy vocalisations, world music beats and wailing guitars, ambience and beyond, making for a varied and entertaining ride
Les Cents Jours Clairs is the next in the series of Etant Donnes CD reissues from the folks over at Klanggalerie. It was the French project's fifth release( well, half of it), appearing in the year 1984, taking nine tracks which move between pummelling/ manic electro/machine noise tracks, and slowly ‘n’ wavering grey tone ambience to billowing yet barren feedback dwells.
Swedish electronic project Sluta Leta started in the late 90s and has gone through a series of lineup changes, resulting in all of the founding members being replaced. The current lineup of producers Andi Pieper and Ramon Bauer, with vocalist Gerhard Potuznik, has been consistent since their debut full-length in 2003. After a long hiatus, they've returned in the 2020s. Their 2nd album this decade, Drift Decoder, is a collection of charmingly analogue, acid-inflected electro, funky breaks, and synth pop, a short forty-one-minute album of two-to-five-minute songs.
Here’s another in a long line of superlative Kleistwahr releases from Fourth Dimension Records, this one collects up two previous albums by the Gary Mundy vehicle; if memory serves Winter was part of the amazing looking - but expensive - tape boxset put out by Helen Scarsdale Agency some years back, whilst Music for Zeitgeist Fighters was released on Nashazphone, on vinyl, in 2017. The two CDs come in a card wallet, with the album artworks on display, and the usual neat presentation that Fourth Dimension delivers. The CDs present each album respectively, and add some additional tracks, bringing each CD to over 70 minutes of music.
Over their fifty-plus-year career, The Residents- those infamous yet unknown avant-popsters have always created their own distinctive/ weird takes on others' material. Going from their noise up ‘n’ churning take on the Rolling Stones' Satisfaction, though to their melted Dada take on 60’s pop that was The Third ‘n’ Reich and Roll album.
Mondo Keyhole is a monochrome roughie from the mid-60s regarding an LA-based serial rapist and his heroin-addicted wife. It weaves together noir atmospherics, uneasy/ troubling sleaze, moments of all-out derangement, and porn business parody/send-up. Here, as part of VCI Entertainment’s Psychotronica Collection, is a dual DVD and Blu-ray release of the film, featuring new and archival commentary tracks.
Video Psycho is a SOV serial killer movie from the early 1999’s. It features a fairly decent/ believable young cast, some rewarding moments of both tension & unease, with an effective score that blends psycho ambience with post-industrial disquiet. Here from SRS Cinema- the main/ key labels releasing SOV films, is a recent Blu Ray release of the film, taking in a director's commentary & a few other things.
H.M.S. Defiant is a 1962 historical adventure movie directed by Lewis Gilbert (Alfie, Educating Rita, and Moonraker). The film was also notable for being co-written by Nigel Kneale (Beasts, Quatermass and the Pit and Halloween III: Season of the Witch) alongside Edmund H North (The Day the Earth Stood Still, Patton and Sink the Bismark) and Frank Tilsley (a TV writer best known for his work on BBC Sunday Night Play, BBC Sunday Theatre and Champion Road). The film also had a pretty strong cast of actors including Sir Alec Guiness (Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Bridge on the River Kwai and Kind Hearts and Coronets), Dirk Bogarde (Death in Venice, A Bridge Too Far and The Night Porter), Maurice Denham (The Day of the Jackal, Animal Farm and Countess Dracula) and Nigel Stock (The Great Escape, Young Sherlock Holmes and Cromwell).
Daughters Of Darkness stands as one of the more mysterious, haunting, and creepily classy Euro horror films of the 1970s. It's largely set in an out-of-season large seaside hotel, where a newlywed couple met a striking blond-haired countess and her female assistant, who may/ may not be vampires. The film blends low-key disquiet with a building feeling of dread, with touches of unsettling erotica, arty unease, and light splashes of troubling violence/ gore. Here from Radiance is a recent Blu-ray release- taking in a 4k scan, a new commentary track, and a good selection of new/ old extras- including an eighty-page book.
Tulsa Terrors is a 2024 documentary, looking at the birth of straight-to-video/ SOV in Tulsa, Oklahoma, following through into more recent times, where the city's low-budget filmmakers are still creating cheap horror genre films. Here from VCI Entertainment – either as a Blu-ray or DVD- here’s a release of the film, taking in a few extras.
Who? is an original and subtly uneasy blend of thriller, mystery and sci-fi genres. The early 70s British film regards an American scientist, who is involved in a car crash in East Germany- he’s taken in by the German’s his face/ most of his body are rebuilt from metal implants- and when he’s seemingly returned to the West, it’s unclear who is behind the mask. Here from 88 Films- as either a new Blu-ray or DVD- release of the film, taking in a new scan, commentary track, and a few other extras.
The Ghost Of Peter Sellers is a late 2010s documentary charting the deeply problematic and ultimately disastrous making of Ghost In The Midday Sun- a 17th-century set pirate comedy. The early 70s film brought together two of the UK’s great comic talents, Peter Sellers & Spike Milligan, with the then up-and-coming director Peter Medak. The doc is helmed by Medak himself, and is a rather bittersweet look at working with an unpredictable comic genius, making for a very insightful, well-realised, and at times quite moving film. Here from the fine folks at Severin, as part of their recent series of reissues of Mr Medak's filmography, is a Blu-ray release of the film, taking in a few extras.
With its genesis in the 2015 A/V festival Electropia: Art, Space, and Sound at mo.ë vienna, Austria, the four artist concept album, Wiener Wasser, presents differing takes on water, its nature, and properties.
First released in 1974, Hall Of The Mountain Grill, was the third album from British space rockers Hawkwind. It's seen as one of the band's most consistent releases, as well as one of the all-time great guitar-focused space rock albums of all time. Here from Atomhenge is a recent CD reissue of this stone-cold/ spaced-out classic, with the whole album getting remastered, and topped off with six rare/ bonus tracks.
Homicide Costume is a new two-track release for Halloween from Sebastian Tomb. It sees the Berlin-based wall noise project, offering up (what initially seems) to be a slightly more formal/ if active take on the genre, compared with their often more progressive/envelope-pushing sound, the project is known for.
It wasn’t called the Golden Age of Hollywood for nothing. From the early 1920s to the early 1960s, Los Angeles cemented itself at the centre of the moviemaking world for, well, ever. Pioneering in its use of sound and colour, this revolution was spearheaded by the rise of the studio system and the birth of star power, but at its beating heart sat a handful of directors who went on to shape cinematic history - the likes of Welles, Huston, Capra, Hitchcock, and of course, William Wyler.
If Detonation! Violent Riders (Bakuhatsu! Boso zoku) isn’t the coolest-looking biker film, it’s close. Although it's fantastic shots of riders and an all-too-cool lead combine with an exploitative approach to sex and violence, that means it won’t be for everyone. At its core, 1975’s Detonation! Violent Riders is a riff on West Side Story, with the action and tragedy of rival biker gangs clashing given authenticity by real-life racer Kôichi Iwaki playing his namesake central character.
Playful White Fingers is an early 70’s Roman Porno, which blends in elements of crime drama with its fleshy encounters. The focus is on a naïve & sentimental twentysomething woman, who gets whisked off her feet by a pickpocket, becoming more corrupted the deeper she gets involved with him & his connections. Here from 88 Films, as part of their series of reissues from Nikkatsu studios' Roman Porno cycle, is a Blu-ray taking in a new HD scan, a new commentary, and a few other extras.