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From the mid-’80s Dune was David Lynch screen adaptation of Frank Herbert's highly respected Sci-fi tome. It’s weird, wacky effects and bizarre character lined big-budget epic. It’s at times a flabby and confusing film- though equally has its own distinctive rewards too. Be-it- the oddly stilted soapiness, impressive giant worm effects, and wonderful costumes/set design that blend grand sci-fi, futuristic medieval and military regalia, with elements of the Middle Eastern culture, and the heady turn-your-eyes blue of all-mighty spice which is at the centre of the film. Here from Arrow Video(in both the UK & US) is an epic double Blu Ray release of the film- bringing together two new commentary tracks, new featurettes, and a good selection of archive extras.
A Hole In The Wall is a two-track affair, which takes in fairly static/ stayed field recordings made from inside a buried pipe/ water tank. Each track runs around the twenty-minute mark, with this being a self-released digital release.
Here we’ve got a C32/ digital split that brings together two side long examples of uneasy and atmospheric walled noise from two US projects. There’s NYC based cosmic horror-themed project The Willows, and rural Pennsylvania based Thin Mountain, which often focuses on/ themes their work around creepy fiction.
Jagged Edge is one of the more compelling and tense (largely) courtroom-based thrillers/ dramas of the 1980s. It features Jeff Bridges and Glen Close in lead roles, and both do a great job, as do the surrounding cast- building a wonderfully well-acted and cleverly scripted thriller, that really leaves you guessing right until the end. Here from Powerhouse is a Blu Ray release of the film- featuring a new high-definition print, a few new extras, and a nearing hour-long archive interview with Mr Bridges.
Here we have a long-form example of swelling-then-receding modern string composition. It’s composed by Jim O’Rourke (Sonic Youth, Illusion Of Safety, prolific solo work), with it been by played members of the respected modern ensemble the Apartment House. The work appears in the form of a CD on the always worthy/ interesting Another Timbre label- coming presented in their house style mini white gatefold packaging.
.Birdeater. is an arachnid focused walled/ textured noise venture, and it’s by the same person who's behind the excellent horror-themed wall project Nightmare Park. .Birdeater. has been active since 2019- with around fifteen or so releases to its name thus far. Skeleton Leg is a two-track affair from last year- each track slides in at around the twenty-five-minute mark, and each manages an effective balance between rewarding textural detail and unsettling 'been wrapped in a web' moodiness.
Death Reel is an anthology horror film based around a collector who buys a collection of odd/obscure films from house sale, so fairly standard/ cliched wrap around story. The thing that sells the film, and makes it both heart-felt and charming is the films we see within the film- early super 8 productions from SOV legends Polonia Brothers. So we get inventive low-budget gore by the bucketload, some cheesy- yet charming acting, and a hella of a lot of love for horror film in general. Here from the folks at SRS Cinema is a region free DVD of the picture, taking in a commentary track Mark Polonia, a making off, and a bunch of trailers for SRS releases.
Beauty And The Beast (aka Panna a netvor) is a 1978 Czech take on the classic fairy tale- and it’s a much darker, both figuratively and visually, take on the story. It features a barbaric ‘n’ schizophrenic bird man-monster as the beast- it’s set around a doomed forest and decaying castle, and the whole thing is edged with horror touches and erotic suggestions. Here from Second Run is a recent Blu Ray release of the film, bringing together a commentary track and the labels normal classy presentation.
With all the horror movie-inspired bands out there, it's great to see something different - Kaiju inspired metal! Big beast loving Oxygen Destroyer is back with their second album, the massively titled Sinister Monstrosities Spawned By the Unfathomable Ignorance of Humankind. This death outfit from Seattle brings forth the speed and rage on par with that of an oversized, mutated monster. Pummeling, growling, and shredding their way through eight tracks, Oxygen Destroyer's latest will get you headbanging enough to take your breath away.
Angel Of Death ( aka Commando Mengele) is a late 80’s slice of cheesy ‘n’ camp lined euro-action, which follows the hunt for deranged Nazi doctor Josef Mengele in 1980’s Uruguay. The film was jointly directed by two-euro trash mavericks- Jess Franco and Andrea Bianchi, and with that pedigree, you’d imagine this would be a fleshy, sleazy, and gored-out ride. But in reality, it’s a fairly straight-if-silly/ campy take on The Boys From Brazil territory. Here from Full Moon Features is a recent Blu Ray release of the film, taking in just the film and a trailer reel for other trashy euro genre pictures put out by Fullmoon.
Here’s a nearing half-an-hour slice of churningly grim & terminally glum textured noise from Flanders based noisemaker Damien De Coene. Over the last few years, he’s become a master of this type of hope sucking wall-craft, and this here is another fine example of the form.
Hungarian experimental folk / progressive metal project Thy Catafalque has had a series of winners in the last decade with a series of increasingly ambitious albums that strayed progressively further from the band's bedroom black metal roots, culminating in 2018's Geometria and 2020's Naiv. Originally a solo project, Thy Catafalque's sound has expanded to include a host of consistent collaborators and now sounds almost orchestral in its compositional scope and sonic massiveness. It took only a couple of minutes to discern that this new album, Vadak is a worthy successor to these detailed epics.
Prophecy is one of the more straight & thought-provoking films of the 1970’s environmental horror cycle, though it still packs a camp 'n' brutal (clawed) punch when needed. Here from Eureka Entertainment is a new Blu Ray release of the film- bringing together two commentary tracks, a selection of new interviews, and an inlay booklet.
23 Untitled Poems is the audio companion to Steve Von Till’s collected lyrics/ poetry book of the same name. It’s a four-track EP, which finds Till’s slightly rough grained-yet-wonderfully descriptive voice intoning words of ragged and deadly nature, inner and outer trauma, demons and gods, blood, ash and grey-to-blacked earth.
I’ve Seen All I Need To See is the 8th full-length album of this Rhode Island-based project. It finds the group filtering their doomed ‘n’ sludge-up experimental electro-rock sound through overloaded death industrial/ power electronics production. Creating a brutal, blunt-yet sonically flat record, which is the sonic equivalent of been constantly battered over your head with a big black cosh.
The Brotherhood Of Satan is one of the lesser-seen/ known films of the later ’60s/ early 70’s satanic horror-thriller genre. Here from the folks at Arrow Video- both in the UK and USA, is a most welcome Blu Ray release of the film. It’s a darkly heady blend of creepy kids kill action and demented elderly folk worship the horned one- with moments of eerier dread, bright red gore, and some great touches of jarring terror.
Meurs is a recent/ new project from French noise maker/ derange-dada sound crafter Romain Perrot- whose most known venture is his black wearing 'n' nihilistic wall noise project Vomir. Blooze, Hazard’s and Off Keys is the projects first release- and what we get here is two lengthy slices of hazed ‘n’ deranged soundscaping that blends in moments of wonky guitar and keyboard jamming, ugly improv, melted easy listening, simmer church organ dwells, mad-man ranting, and all manner of lose/ unwell sound making. It’s very much a release that drifts ‘n’ shambles along, like a bad- though-curious smell put into sound form, that you can’t seem to stop sniffing/playing. So very lop-sided and unwell, though at the same time odd appealing.
The Whalebone Box is a film by Andrew Kötting, from 2019. It documents the returning of a box, made of whalebone, and gifted to the author Iain Sinclair by the sculptor Steve Dilworth, from London to the Isle of Harris on the Scottish coast where the whale which provided the raw material was found.
Incomplete Thought is a pleasing raging ‘n’ churning example of walled noise. The forty-nine-minute track mangers to be both blunt and crude, yet dense and muffling too- all creating a nicely encasing near on hour ride into wall-craft. This is a self-released digital album, which can be found just here.
Ice is a recent(ish) C30/ digital download from UK based sound-maker & academic Emile Bojesen. It severs up two around twelve-minute tracks of disorienting, at points temple drilling drone/ electro texturing- that really shifts ‘n’ ebbs into some rewardingly unexpected places.
Luz: The Flower of Evil is a Colombian film that blends lushly filmed nature, tons of imagery, religious obsession, and broken innocence. It’s a film that sits somewhere between folk horror, skewed fairy tale, and coming of age drama. It’s been sold as an art-house horror film, though I don’t see that, as the story is relatively linear, the flow of the whole thing is fairly conventional, and there’s nothing too deep, cryptic, or arty going on here. From Fractured Vision here’s a new Blu Ray release- bringing together a commentary track, a few other extras, and art cards.
Math, music, and synthesis go hand in hand (and hand), so it's no surprise that science-based artists like Daniele Sciolla take to synthesizers for their creations. Spin of Synth sees Sciolla using his analog synths (found from his hauls travelling Europe) to utilize mathematics and timbre to show the interaction between each synthesizer's soul. Short but sweet, this latest EP is an interesting look at the inner workings of synthesizers and the mind of an artist.
Mosaics is a CD boxset bringing together all the early albums from British experimental rock ‘n’ folk, come stripped prog-rock project Third Ear Band. Featured here is 1969’s Alchemy, 1970’s Self-title- aka Elements, and 1972’s Music From Macbeth. The bands largely instrumental and often improvised sound blends together elements of the world, neo-classical, folk, rock and the sonically ancient/ mystical.
The Day of the Dolphin is a 1973 science fiction thriller loosely based on the acclaimed novel Un Animal Doué de Raison by French author Robert Merle, and adapted for screen by Buck Henry (The Graduate, Get Smart and Catch 22). Director Mike Nichols (The Graduate, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The Birdcage) helmed this one starring Hollywood legend George C Scott (Patton, The Changeling and Dr Strangelove), alongside his Changeling co-star Trish Van Devere (Where’s Poppa?, The Hearse and Last Run, once again with George C Scott) and the mighty Paul Sorvino (Goodfellas, Nixon and Repo! The Genetic Opera).