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Seasonal Decay is a new three-track release from this up ‘n’ coming/ most promising new UK walled noise project. The release is a self-released digital album and severs up three fairly active examples of the wall-noise form.
From the mid-1970s The Monster (aka I Don’t Be Born, Sharon's Baby) is a schlocky slice of demonic baby shenanigans. It finds ex-stripper Joan Collins been cursed by her little person dance partner, then giving birth to a satanic ankle bitter. The film features lots of campy ‘n’ hammy acting, some blood-red spurting gore, and a few sprinkles of sleaze. Here from Network, as part of their British Horror Classic series, is a new Blu Ray release of the picture- with the disc featuring a commentary track, alternative credits, a trailer, and an inlay booklet with new writing by Adrian Smith.
The Fourth Victim is a Spanish Giallo/thriller set in the UK. The film is from the early ’70s and is very much more on the mystery/ gore-less side of the genre- and I must say it was a most intriguing, slowly twisting ‘n’ turning film regarding a man whose wife’s keep dying. Here from Severin is a Blu Ray release of this rarely seen film/ lesser-known Spanish Giallo.
One Dark Night is a campy, at points decidedly creepy and icky PG horror film from the early 1980s. It finds Psycho 2’s Meg Tilly spending a night in a mausoleum, where a darkly sinister Russian psychic has just been interned- with the film building nicely from 80’s camp teen caper to decidedly chilling and ghoulish horror picture. Here as part, of MVD's Retro collection is a new region free release of the picture- taking in a new high def print, two commentary tracks, selection of cast and crew interviews, and workprint cut of the picture- all featuring packaging that takes in mini-poster, and retro VHS like slip.
From October 2020 Go Vegan is a six-CD boxset focusing on the early 2000’s output of Japanese legend Merzbow- it takes in both unreleased and alternative takes of released work. The set features three CD length tracks hitting around the fifty-minute mark, and a selection of largely jam-based noise workouts.
Eight years after their formation, French death metallers, Venefixion, churn forth their debut album, A Sigh From Below. Coming on Iron Bonehead, this old school chug fest is a throwback to the early days of death - as it quickly emerged from the blistering speed of thrash. Like the second coming of Morbid Angel, this quintet may have taken a while to put out their first full length, but those looking for old school shred will be glad they waited.
Eclipsing Through The Womb Of Twilight And Dementia is the debut album from one-man London based Black metal project Glemt. It’s an eight-track affair that blends clamouring ‘n’ wonky mid-paced BM, with moments of crude speeding chaos, and dips into creepily grim to darkly lumbering atmospherics.
The Bingo Long Travelling All-Stars and Motor Kings is a 1976 comedy directed by John Badham (Short Circuit, War Games, Blue Thunder & Saturday Night Fever) that features a triple threat of legendary African American actors, first, up is Billy Dee William (Lando Calrissian in the Star Wars trilogy) as Bingo Long alongside another Star Wars veteran, the brilliant James Earl Jones (The voice of Darth Vader and The Lion King’s Mufasa) as Leon Carter, the two are ably supported by the emerging comic genius of the time, Richard Pryor (Brewster’s Millions, Stir Crazy, See No Evil, Hear No Evil and Superman III) as Charlie Snow.
Latex Days is a two-disc CD compilation celebrating/ paying tribute to Awkward Geisha- a free improv noise collective who blended and blurred genres together. And as you’d expect with a tribute to such a project, this is an extremely varied comp- moving between dada playful-ness, noisy warped-ness, wonky ambience, seared beat bound constructions, disorientating audio tricky, and all manner of wonky 'n' strange sonic encounters
Baphomet is a devil cult focused thriller/ horror film- it blends together pulp with satanic curse action, which of course was big in the '70s. The picture is from this year, and while the acting is bad/uneven and the filmmaking is more than a little sloppy - it’s an enjoyable schlocky romp- with plenty of camp, bizarre curse kills, darts of gore, and neat enough-if-fleeting creature effects. Here from Cleopatra Entertainment- the company who put out Glen Danzig’s Verotika- is a Blu Ray release of the film, taking in a few extras.
Palace of Peace and Reconciliation severs up four slices of warped and waving electro soundscaping that’s edged with atmospherics guitar texturing and other moody elements. The LP/ CD release is meant to be the soundtrack for a long past digital era, so it’s the audio equivalent of jumping in a time machine several 100 years when mankind has finally snub it’s self out…finding all that’s left been decaying and malfunctioning tech.
Yuki is a forty-six-minute slice of taut crackle ‘n’ crunch based wall-craft, with the release having dense snowfall in a forest theme that nicely fits the textures with-in. The release is a digital-only download on Seattle, Washington Imploding Sounds.
Serpentomancy Experiments is a C40/ digital download from Yotzeret Sheydim, bringing together noised up texturally recordings of a snake- with the tape version of the release coming presented in a real shredded snakeskin cover- collected from the artist's pet snake.
Karl-Henrik is a collaborative wall noise project between Thomas Pupuolo (Scarlet Diva, Celebrity Sex, Black Leather Jesus and more) and Sean E. Matzus (also from Black Leather Jesus, Thin Mountain, Thewwhitehorse, Obsession, [untitled] and more). This is their second release after a first tape in 2020. The project is inspired by Persona- the Ingmar Bergman movie from 1966 that tells the story of Alma and Isabel. Alma is a nurse who takes care of Isabel, a mute (Alma's fiancé is called Karl -Henrik, hence the project's name). The movie explores themes of identity, sexuality as well as possession.
Here is a rather odd record - though not in a crazed or obvious way - from a Seoul based duo on piano ( Jiyeon Kim) and drums (Sangyong Min). Snow features six tracks, all except one being reasonably short, of often minimal, often sparse duets, which feel composed rather then improvised. The pieces are disarmingly simple, and the piano is often supremely simplistic, setting up a strange tension with the more complex percussion from Min.
Released at the tail end of 2020 Let The City Sleep is something rather different from this London base noir influenced-to-Avant jazz collective. The twelve-track album was created during lockdown last year- with much more focus on the use of electronic elements and electro orchestrated elements- sure there are live/ real instrumental passages in the album, but these are far from the focus. Also, structure-wise the songs/ flow of the album is a lot more darting/ jarring- all in all making for a most different and distinctive release from The Remote Viewers.
From the late 1960s, Blind Beast is a Japanese film that shifts from light thriller/ exotic edged Kidnap drama, to psychosexual horror in its last quarter. It’s certainly a film that will generally wrong-foot the watcher- pulling the rug from under you- dropping one into a darkly sexualized abyss when you’re least expecting it. Here from Arrow Video- both in the UK & the US- is a Blu Ray release of the film, bringing together a nice new clear ‘n’ crisp scan of the picture, as well a new commentary track, and a few other extras.
Minimal darkness, like a starless night sky, Aubrite is a contradiction; meteorites leave a trail of light, and the tones here are dark. Much like the soundtrack to space footage, Thomas Köner captures the essence of naught, and allows that to go deeper. Like the vacuum that surrounds us, the beauty of Aubrite is in its expanse - an expanse that is hinted at and furthered by the listener's own interpretation.
Snuff Kill (aka Screen Kill) is a late 90’s SOV film focusing on two old school buddies who start making a horror film- then kill someone for real, and get a taste for filming murder. It’s fair to say SOV is very much an acquired taste- but I’d say this is one of the more pro-shot and pro looking films in the genre, with good pacing, plenty of sleaze and some impressive kills. Here from the guys over SRS cinema is a recent(ish) DVD release of the film, taking in a directors’ commentary track and a few other extras.
Duel to the Death is a 1983 martial arts movie from director and stunt co-ordinator, Siu-Tung Ching (Chinese Ghost Story, Dragon Inn and The Swordsman trilogy). The film was Ching’s directorial debut, up to this point he was renowned as one of the great stunt-co-ordinators on the martial arts scene having previously worked on The Shaolin Boxer and The Sword before going on to work on some of the greatest martial arts films of the 1980s and 90s including A Better Tomorrow II, Moon Warriors and Hero, as well as working with Sam Raimi on the first instalment of his Spider-Man trilogy.
Ballad is a recent CD release of two cello and piano pieces by Toronto based Linda Catlin Smith, who has a real talent for composing sparse and melancholic modern classic music- that’s often edged with haunting melody and mood. This release appears on the always consistent Another Timbre label- with the CD been presented in the labels house style minimal white gatefold packaging- this release features on its front cover a black and white picture of a collection of glass containers in a window filled with picked wildflowers- and this certainly feels fitting to the feeling of downturn wonder and grandeur with-in the two pieces presented here.
Edenic Past is an experimental brutal death metal band with disorientingly elaborate structures and thick, tar-black, downtuned tonality, with a dash of dystopic irony and absurdism. I was surprised to find it was a project of Behold... the Arctopus and Krallice guitarist (as well as Gorguts bassist) Colin Marston, whose usual fare has a bit more melodic color and jazz influence. This album/band is a deliberate step into new realms of lower octave sludge, for him. Joining him is fellow Krallice member, bassist Nicholas McMaster, who is actually credited with the songwriting on this album, and vocalist Paulo Paguntalan, whom I have no previous familiarity with.
Fäul is a Swedish harsh noise two-piece, who blend black metal visuals and title aesthetics with their violently crunching ‘n’ searing noisemaking. Total Necro is the projects second release, and it appeared in late August of this year- as either C35 or digital DL on Stockholm’s Ominous Recordings.
Kulotus is a two-CD set that compiles together ten years’ worth of cassette releases from Umpio- aka Pori, Finland based noisemaker Pentti Dassum. In total, the release features twelve tracks and nearing eight-nine minutes of noise- that often fairly textured, dense, yet subtly shifting/ developing in its attack