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Now here’s a welcome blast from the past, which recently dropped into M[m] letterbox- “Lovely. Beautiful. Imperfect” is a CD featuring two lengthy slices of walled noise from Ataraxy, a German HNW/ noise project that put out a fair few releases in the early 2010’s.
Anew is a struggling-yet-tightly entrapping example of the wall noise form from this Bangkok based project. The release appears as a digital download on the Polish noise label Gates of Hypnos.
Wild Sounds From An Overheated Jukebox is the next in the Lux and Ivy series of compilations, which finds respected music journalist Dave Henderson bringing together rare, campy and wacky 45’s from the 1950s and 1960s. And I’m happy to report that after the slight disappointment with the last release in the series Lux And Ivy Dig Insane Rockabilly and its largely one genre focus- this two-disc set is back on track, with a good and varied selection of tracks.
Lake Mungo is a convincing and often highly chilling blend of mockumentary and found footage. The early 2000’s Australian film follows the plight of a family after their sixteen-year-old daughter drowns, and seemingly her spirit returns. For a few years, the film has been out-of-print, with the DVD going for fairly high sums- so it’s great to see the classy and deluxe reissue of this modern chiller classic, with a good selection of new and archive extras.
Five Went Up is the debut release from Hanging Rock- a new murky and disorientating ambient/ ANW project from Sean E. Ramirez-Matzus (theNIGHTproduct, Thin Mountain, Thewhitehorse, Last Rape, Black Leather Jesus). The release comes in the form of C32/ digital download on Ramirez-Matzus own label The White Visitation.
Here from Second Run is a region free Blu ray bringing together two films from Catalan filmmaker Pere Portabella, whose work here focuses on European music and history, and does so in an arty and unconventional- yet largely approachable manner. The two films here are 2007’s The Silence Before Bach, which an experimental documentary that blends past, present, fact and fiction. And 2008's Mundaza- which follows the removal of furniture and objects from the home of Spanish poet Federico García, who was assassinated in 1936. As we’ve come to expect from Second Run, we get a classy presentation- with new high-definition prints of both films, an in-depth interview with the director, and a glossy inlay booklet featuring new writing on both films.
German sound artist and multi-faceted linguist, Florian Hecker, returns to Editions Mego with the 2xCD Synopsis Seriation. Machine music at its most advanced, Synopsis Seriation sees programs and other operators extracting auditory features from a signal. Left to their own devices, these bits of code create their own album, feeding on input and producing varied sounds, tones, and textures. Using four, multichannel pieces Hecker produced in 2015 as source (along with a program designed by Vincent Lostanlen), Synopsis Seriation showcases the scientific aspect of Hecker's art and shows that the two do not have to be exclusive.
The wonderfully entitled Womb Polluted By Demonic Infestation is a two-track release that severs up two around fifteen minutes examples of junk metal-wall noise crossbreeds. The release appeared in May of this year, as either an ltd self-released CDR, or a digital download.
Skeleton Elevator is the 6th full-length album from Finnish blues-rock outfit Cosmo Jones Beat Machine. The project pairs straightforward funky blues guitar with raspy, gritty vocals, soaked in oil. This absurd, croaking voice reminds of the chant-like vocals of Can.
Flirting With The Noise Floor is a C30 boxset/ digital download focusing on the lower case/ ambient side of the wall noise genre. The set takes in six fairly distinctive examples of this sub-genre, and I must say it’s one of the more classy/ arty looking walled noise comps to appear in quite some years.
After the Turtles split in 1970 from their label White Whale in acrimonious fashion, vocalist/ keyboard player Mark Volman and vocalist/guitarist Howard Kaylan, who had been prevented from using their real names due to the ongoing contractual restrictions that also prevented the duo from using The Turtles name, adopted the monikers of Phlorescent Leech or Flo (Volman) for short and Eddie (Kaylan). New pseudonyms in place the pair would go on to record as members of Frank Zappa’s backing band, The Mothers of Invention between 1970 and 72 before eventually going on to record as the duo Flo and Eddie. This CD compiles the duo’s 3rd and 4th albums, Illegal, Immoral and Fattening and Moving Targets.
Often when people think of Boris Karloff, the image of his iconic take on the Frankenstein monster comes to mind, but he was a hugely talented and versatile actor who could easily take on many different characters. Here from Eureka Entertainment is a two Blu Ray set bringing together six films, that Karloff made for Columbia studios between the mid-1930s and early 1940s. And it's a wonderfully enjoyable collection of films- with the selection going from a gothic thriller/ chiller, a varied selection of Mad Doc pics, and a horror-comedy. Each film gets a nice crisp and clear new scan, and each features a new commentary track too.
Here is an ancient tape, released on Fall Into Void in 2016 no less - a lifetime in HNW! The yellow cassette holds two long tracks, both around the 50 minute mark, and both excellent pieces of wall noise. The long running See Through Buildings is the work of Ben Rehling, a prolific US noise maker with a multitude of projects. This release was an edition of 15 and it’s sold out in physical form, but it’s still available digitally via Fall Into Void’s Bandcamp.
Flagging: First Four Albums is a CD, which as its title suggest collects together the first four cassette releases from US PE project Straight Panic. The project themes it’s work around heterophobia, with a sound that shifts between creatively searing and more densely moody- with the whole CD flowing as a fairly varied, yet wholly consistent example of PE craft that is largely original/ distinctive in its attack.
A Dangerous Method is a manic 'n' often angered collision between bayed-to-shouted vocals, nastily glitching-to-hacking electronics, battering percussive attack, and screaming Avant jazz attack. This is a six-track CD debut from this Turin based three-piece- and if you enjoy intense-to-moodily seared genre collision, then this will grab you by the neck and give you a nice ‘n’ vigorous shake.
Calamity Toilet is a wonderfully nerve searing ‘n’ tooth jarring C20- that sits somewhere between feedback squealing ‘n’ relenting percussive attacks. It takes in two around nine tracks, and each is as back-breaking and gruelling as each other- so not a release for every occasion, but if you are in the mood for a right searing and battering sonic hit, this does the job just fine.
From the mid-1970s Grizzly is a surprisingly gory, limp ripping, and body smashing PG creature feature set in a US State Park, where an 18-foot bear starts stalking 'n' eating humans. It features a cast led up by Christopher George, joined by likes of Andrew Prine & Richard Jaeckel, and it's an enjoyable entry in the when-creatures-attack/ eco-horror genre. Here from Severin is a new extra packed Blu Ray release of the film- bringing together a great new 2k scan, new and archive commentary tracks, and some other neat extras- both new and old.
Rolling in five years after the first Vol of Scarred For Life, here we have Vol 2- Television In The 1980s. The five hundred and the thirty-page book is a joy to behold, for those (like myself) who lived through the decade, or those wanting to study the darker/ troubling/ more bizarre side of British TV in the 1980s.
From the early 1980s, Maeve is an Irish drama with a feminist tilt, set in Northern Ireland during the troubles of the ’70s/’80s. The film has a shifting and jarring structure- which darts back and forth in the life of young women who lives in, then departs, before returning to Belfast. Here from the BFI is a Blu Ray release of this lesser-seen independent Irish film- with a new scan of the picture, and a few extras.
New Dance is a lively ‘n’ weaving improv release that shifts between skittering 'n' scuttling, and compact 'n' taut. The release brings together two generations of Norwegian improvisers with Carl Magnus Neumann - alto saxophone, Ketil Gutvik - acoustic & electric guitars, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten - double bass, and last but hardly least Paal Nilssen-Love - drums & percussion.
Sonic Drift severs up two slices of buzzing ‘n’ pitch hovering bass composition played by this microtonal tuba trio. This relatively short CD appears on the always worthy/ interesting Norwegian label Sofa Music- which put out some of the more interesting in modern composition/ improv.
The Zorbonauts are a band I knew absolutely nothing about when the CD arrived, and the album’s cover artwork doesn’t give too much away. It’s not until you look at the personnel that you begin to get a sense of what this is, but even that offers us something of a curveball.
Originally released back in 1995 The Gingerbread Man was the 19th studio album from The Residents. It saw the avant-pop collective deepening and expanding the character-based side of their work, and it was also their first fully computer-enhanced release too. Here from the folks at Cherry Red, MVD Audio, New Ralph is the ‘pREServed’ release of the album. This new deluxe three-CD release offers up a newly remastered version of the album and a bumper selection of rare/ unreleased recordings, including a disc worth of never-released song sketches.
Cross Vault are German quintet who describe their musical style simply as Doom-metal. Formed in 2013 and has gone through a series of line-up changes, this group does not have many releases in its discography. Currently, these are two full-length albums released in 2014 and 2015, as well as an EP released in 2016. Then after a five-year hiatus, in 2021, the German label Iron Bonehead Productions release their third full-length album As Strangers We Depart.