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The Island is a derranged redneck thriller/survival horror, Hong Kong Style. The mid-80s films start off fairly wacky/ light comedic, but as it progresses, things become more deranged and murderous. Here from Eureka is the first time release outside of Asia of the film, with a new 2k scan, two new commentaries, and a few other things.
Jess Varley's feature debut, 2025, The Astronaut, stars Kate Mara as astronaut Sam Walker, alongside the always brilliant Laurence Fishburne as General William Harris, and Gabriel Luna in a supporting role. Varley, who previously directed two segments of the 2021 horror anthology Phobias (which earned praise from The New York Times for her standout work), wrote and directed this one. When I saw Fishburne's name attached, I was sold. I will watch anything that man is in.
Smote's (aka David Foggin) latest release, Songs From the Free House, is a heavy work of tribal drumming, low-register chanting, and dense electronica, with a bit of Tolkien-like mythos sprinkled in.
Riding an old school riff attack straight into the 2020's, Atlanta GA's Occulsed hit Everlasting Spew with their sophomore album, Antegnosis. Hearkening back to Death Metal's vile, swampy, Tampa heyday, Occulsed focus on grime and a good time, blasting out some slimy, inspired fury. Metal is a wonderful style, open to many varied forms and approaches, celebrating those who want to experiment and push the envelope, as well as those who want to strengthen the bones of the genre-defining acts that inspired them to pick up their instruments. Occulsed consists of death dealers with over twenty years of experience, highlighting what it is that made them love the scene that made the genre a household name (well, in my house at least). Their modern old school death metal is perfect for both new and old fans alike, moving fast and furious, pummeling the listener with gloom and doom the entire time.
Lost Conversions is a recent two-track release from this Mtskheta, Georgia wall noise project. Each track runs at dead on twenty-five minutes. The first is thick and densely sludgy, while the second is a more eerily droned-out affair.
Nine Rivers is a solo piano album that sits somewhere between rapid free jazz and manically bounding modern classical composition. As its title may suggest, it features nine tracks- though it’s really most effective taken as one forty-seven & a half minute journey into manic & unrelenting piano playing.
Here from ESP-Disk' is a release of 2023 collaboration between Chicago avant jazz saxophonist/ composer Anthony Braxton and Detroit’s noisemaking duo Wolf Eyes. The release takes in two sixteen to nineteen-minute tracks, coming in the form of either a vinyl or CD release. I’m reviewing the latter.
The Sandown Clown is a single-track trip into lightly searing 'n' snapping walled noise meets eerier dark ambience. It’s themed around a late 70s UFO encounter, when two children on the Isle of Wight claimed they saw/ talked to a 7-foot-tall, clown-like being.
For some, role-playing/ cosplaying is their all, making their day-to-day dreary/ drab existence seem barely. Here, from the late 60s, is Negatives- a lightly kinky at points disconcerting arty British drama focusing on one such character- a timid and unsure of himself London antiquarian. The film is a rather lulling-paced affair, dotted with moments of sly erotica, psychological distress/ unfolding, and jarring moments of intensity- where fantasy and reality collide. Here, from Severin, as part of their series of reissues of films by Hungarian-born British film director Peter Medak, is a Blu-ray release featuring a new scan, a good selection of extras, including on a second disc another film, 1963 Sparrows Can't Sing, a kitchen sink comedy drama that Medak was the assistant director on.
American-based label Give/Take are doing great things when it comes to dark and heavy music. Based in both LA and Minneapolis, they generally lean towards music produced in the US, but with a roster that includes Justin K Broadrick, Carthage and DB Armitage, it’s clear that they also have a predilection for music made on this side of the water. So, when Hana Piranha and Mishkin Fitzgerald both of longstanding prog-rock outfit Birdeatsbaby and metal combo Crimson Veil launched their side project HVIRESS, Give/Take leapt on board to release their long-awaited debut, BITCHHOUSE.
Marja Ahti is a Swedish/Finnish sound composer working in the electroacoustic domain with a prolific slew of solo and collaborative works in the last 5 years on labels such as Erstwhile and Hallow Ground.
Heart Of Grief is a recent four-track release from Liverpool’s Silver Dove, which finds the project mixing in elements of formal guitar playing, pedals, and field recordings into their walled noise sound.
Here’s a two-way US wall noise split bringing together Cincinnati’s The Perishing Of Faith and South Carolina’s No Fun HNW. Each party offers up their take on searing, nasty, and totally hopeless walling, with each roll-in around the thirty-minute mark.
The Woods is a 1960s-set film regarding an isolated New England girls' school, where things are not what they seem. The early 2000s picture is a mixing cauldron of supernatural thriller & folk horror- with a few twists of teen witchy, mist-shrouded gothic, axe-bound gore, and tree-limp-hugging terror. Here from Arrow Video is a recent Blu-ray release of the picture, taking in new director's commentary, and a few other new extras.
The Beast To Die is a darkly hued, nihilistic, at times troubling & damn tense early 80’s Japanese crime thriller. It regards a troubled war photographer going on a steadily escalating crime spree, which sees him teaming up with an unpredictable ex-waiter. Here from Radiance Films, both in the UK and stateside, is a Blu-ray release of the film, taking in a moody yet crisp 4k scan, several new interviews, and a new critical appreciation.
![o[rlawren]](/images/migrated/25/25618.jpg)
Much like Gandalf, "[art] is never late, nor is [it] early, [it] arrives precisely when [it] means to." Nine years since 2016's Branches, Scottish sound artist and musician o[rlawren] returns to Dronarivm with The Intimate Overlap. With some help from another Dutch label Fonodroom, this opus is presented in a 6-panel digisleeve with soft-touch finish, in an edition limited to 150 copies.
The Ambulance is one of the more obscure films by NYC writer/ director Larry Cohen, who is known for his more quirky/inventive genre films like The Stuff, It's Alive franchise, and God Told Me Too. The early 90s film is an entertaining/ eventful blend of thriller, dark comedy, horror and action movie, which regards an ambulance that snatches folk off the streets of NYC. Here from Eureka is a Blu-ray release of the picture, taking in an HD scan, and a selection of new/ archive extras.
Faidros (aka Jonas Rosén) has crafted a spectacular homage to golden-era Kosmische Musik, complete with all of the warmth and analogue goodness reminiscent of the genre's most prolific progenitors: Klaus Schulze and Edgar Froese chief among them.
Die'ced: Reloaded is a modern slasher which feels very like a crossbreed between Terrifier and Rob Zombie's Halloween- without the sweary rednecks of the latter. It’s a passable enough attempt at the modern stalk ‘n’ slash genre- with light touches of originality, as well as almost wholesale mimicking of scenes from both Terrifier, and Halloween. Here from Epic Pictures is a Blu-ray. Extras-wise, it takes in the original 2023 Die'ced- which is basically the same film, with a shorter runtime.
Can’t Get Off The Planet is a six-CD set that collects the late 60s to early 70s recording output of English performance artist/singer Pete Brown, with various musical collaborators. His output blended prog/ art rock with blues and jazz in an often original/distinctive manner.
From the early 80s, The Last Horror Movie is a decidedly unpredictable blend of slasher, movie business satire, dark comedy, and fly-on-the-wall film festival documentary. It features Joe Spinell (Maniac, The Godfather Part II) as an obsessive NYC taxi driver, and Caroline Munro (Slaughter High, The Spy Who Loved Me) as the focus of his obsession, a horror starlet. The film takes place during the Cannes Film Festival, and it’s certainly a distinctive/if-haphazard creation. Here from Troma Films is a recent Blu-ray release taking in several commentary tracks and a few other extras.
The Betrayal, originally released in 1966, is an evocative and stylish Samurai film that defies expectations. Director Tokuzo Tanaka, a former assistant to legendary helmer of Samurai classics, Akira Kurosawa, stepped out from the shadows with this jidaigeki (period drama). While it may not have afforded him the same fame as Kurosawa, certainly outside Japan, The Betrayal is a must-watch for fans of the swordplay genre.
Nagual is an album that sits somewhere between modern chamber music and avant-garde jazz. The seven-piece CD release shifts between tautly uneasy, clunkily shadowy, and broodily edgy.
Drift is the debut album from Stroud, UK-based composer James Opstad. It serves five varied and rewarding examples of modern chamber works- performed by Apartment House, GBSR duo, and Heather Roche.