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Many artists from wider experimental music scenes are creative people who try & embrace as many musical styles as possible with their work. That’s why an artist may have several projects for different musical orientations, or variation in sound and thematic component. The American musician Jay Gambit, the founder of the project called Crowhurst, took a slightly different path and decided to implement all his versatile musical ideas in one project. Each new Crowhurst album was different from previous works. Throughout its existence, the style of the project has shifted from Black metal and Sludge, onto Drone and Harsh Noise. From 2012 to the present day, Crowhurst's discography has over eighty different releases, including collaborations and split albums.
As this six-CD boxset title suggests the focus of the material is largely percussion & string-based- the 2019 boxset homes in on the years 1987-1988, so it's very much the analogue often the jam-like side of Japans king of harsh noise.
Hungarian avant gothic rock / metal band Thy Catafalque has returned in 2020 with Naiv, the 10th chapter in their ever diversifying narrative. They continue their transition away from metal into ethereal yet technical rock, filling out the production with touches of orchestration, synthesizer and choral female vocal. They have become an impressively dynamic progressive outfit that seems to contain the entire world within their scope.
Elephant is the second album from this duo after Buy Corals Online, released on Editions Mego in 2017. Valentin is better known as one half of experimental ambient pop group Kyo, while Rahbek has released critically acclaimed work as Croatian Amor and with his Posh Isolation colleague Christian Stadsgaard as noise duo Damien Dubrovnik. Like its predecessor Elephant shows these two seasoned electronic musicians in relaxed and relatively accessible form, producing a series of instrumentals that draw on ambient, modern classical and even folk sources, with the creative elan we've come to expect from the Posh Isolation label.
Originally released back in 2006 Scols was the second album from one-man US ambient project Celer- Will Long, who now resides in Japan. It's a nine-track affair that brings together a selection of drone works that move between gloomy spectral to simmering bleak. Here on Long’s own label, Two Acorns is a recent reissue of the album featuring a remastering by Stephan Mathieu- the reissue is available as either a CD or digital download- we’re reviewing the DL- so can’t comment on the CD’s packaging
From Severin Films, as part of their series of lesser Jess Franco films here’s the first-ever digital release of 1983’s Cries Of Pleasure- one of the rare & more obscure films in the king of Euro sleazes huge back catalog. The films a woozy & grimly dreamy erotic thriller- that slips 'n' slides between perverse head-ness, psychosexual unease, and subtly leering morbidity. The films offered up on a region free Blu Ray, which features a new 4K scan of the film, as well as a selection of good selections of new featurettes.
Siberia / Sirens is the latest work by the Swedish sound artist Susanne Skog. Her work in the field of sound art and composition has its roots in narrative art forms such as experimental radio, radio plays, and documentaries.
The second release from Feed Them Death, Panopticism: Belong/Be Lost has Void (Antropofagus) once again handling all the instruments, vocals, and production. Inspired by writings of philospher/social theorist Michel Foucault, the concept at the core of Panopticism expounds upon exclusion of outcasts and their subsequent exploitation by the "normal" masses. With eleven tracks filling 36 minutes, Panopticism is a perfectly digestible length.
If ever I see the name James Glickenhaus attached to a film, it piques my interest. Having been blown away as a youngster watching the somewhat inappropriate for my age, The Exterminator, and later enjoying the succession of wonderfully sleazy films set in New York that he produced for the likes of Frank Henenlotter (Frankenhooker, Basket Case 2 and Basket Case 3) and William Lustig (Maniac Cop) I was overjoyed to be asked review his debut feature The Astrologer (1975), a film that at first I thought I hadn’t heard of but upon reflection realized I knew under its alternative title, Suicide Cult, a section 3 video nasty here in the UK.
When one thinks of Short On Video Horror- you normally think of cheesy bound splatter, haphazard slasher, or dumb creature feature- you don’t really think of atmospheric, & more subtle horror- but that’s exactly what much of City Of The Vampires taps into. Here from SRS Cinema is a recent DVD of this lesser seen SOV horror picture- taking in a director's commentary.
Mixing different styles of heavy music has always been a kind of impetus for the evolution of a scene, and the formation of new trends. A fairly large number of musicians who initially play extreme forms of heavy music turn their talents to classic Heavy metal, returning to the roots or trying to combine different styles. San Francisco based band Nite, is somewhat of a super-group consisting of former members of Satan’s Wrath, Dawnbringer, Older Sun. Nite, characterizing their style as Blackened Heavy Metal, and here we have the bands' debut album released by American label Creator-Destructor Records in March 2020.
Zekeultra is a Delaware based rapper producer whose previous output had mostly been released on Bandcamp. Here on his debut LP for Yorkshire's very own Home Assembly Music he's flanked on production duties by Yonqi, with supporting roles for Melacrusin and Cole Kronberg. The deeply personal and introspective nature of the record is captured in the note printed on the cover: "A collection of works and mantras that I needed to hear but nobody would tell me in my time of need. So I had to say them to myself". This is a long way from the braggadocio of the likes of Danny Brown, and all the better for it.
Holiday is a largely low-key, vapid, at times arty gangster picture with moments of nasty misogynistic violence & tense unease. The 2018 film is set in & around the port city of Bodrum on the Turkish Rivera, and follows the path of trophy girlfriend as she gets used to living with an unpredictable Danish crime boss on his summer getaway. From Anti-Worlds Releasing here we have a recent Blu Ray release of this controversial, yet well shot & often artily realized film.
The Seagulls Want Your Eyes is yet another project from the highly prolific & respected French noise maker Julien Skrobek- who for around the last ten years or so has been releasing work that darts in & out of the walled noise/ textured noise genre. From the evidence of this C30 tape the projects sound is best described as washed & hazed out wall-making, that has a very barren & ill-defined quality to it.
Angst78 is an album/ project that brings together two figures from the Polish underground electronica scene, for a release that offers thirteen slices of retro based electronic music that sits somewhere between ambient techno & laid back IDM. Think a blend of FSOL, The Orb, Boards of Canada, and Plaid, but with an often slight more locked/droned-out & experimental edge- and you’ll get an idea of what to expect over this seventy-nine minute CD release.
Here we have a reissue of The Old Evil from South German Black Metal band Baxaxaxa - released as both CD and 12" in early 2020 on Iron Bonehead Productions. Originally, this appeared as a tape last year- and was a comeback demo from the band who hadn’t recorded anything since 2002
Beyond The Door is a prime slice of demonic focused euro-schlock, think a crazed collusion between The Exorcist & Rosemary Baby, with a huge quota WTH moments, camp-cheese bound acting and an often groovy-to-70 synth-based soundtrack. From Arrow Video here’s a double-disc Blu Ray release on the film- taking in a great new vibrate print, and some neat extras including a full-length doc on Italian demonic possession pics.
Piano Works sees the welcome return of French pianist/composer Melanie Dalibert- who over the last few years has put out a consistent flow of sparse, atmospheric & at times memorable piano based albums. For this release, instead of playing his own compositions, he’s tattling a select of compositions from Greek composer Anastassis Philippakopoulosa- and these perfectly fit Dalibert’s talent for playing pared-back, hauntingly slow, yet intriguing piano music- that slowly but surely gets under one's skin.
The Mad Magician was directed in 1954 by John Brahm, who would go on to direct episodes of both The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits. This Vincent Price vehicle is really interesting as it was made in the aftermath of his huge hit The House of Wax and featured a lot of the same crew, scriptwriter Crane Wilbur, producer Bryan Foy and cinematographer Bert Glennon all returned for this B picture that was also shot in 3D, as was the trend at the time.
Here we have a CD boxset that brings together the three late 70’s to early 80’s albums from Peter Straker- all three albums are passionate, creative, and often playful cross-breeds between Rock & Cabaret- making for three of the more distinctive & original rock albums to appear from the period.
Open, flowing, and engaging, Bit-Tuner's EXO shows the artist expanding and growing into a vast, cinematic soundscapes. Working with filmmaker Joerg Hurschler, Bit-Tuner will bring animated footage to his 2020 live shows, and it all starts with the material here on EXO. Futuristic and still somehow somewhat retro, Bit-Tuner's latest is synthy sumptuousness at its finest.
The 2nd LP by Italian space jazz duo Divus was just released this year on Boring Machines. Their stripped down sound is a novel combination of baritone saxophone and delay laden analog synth progressions, with a feeling and production not unlike a vintage sci-fi soundtrack. The group's minimalist, circular patterns transport the listener to the cold outer reaches.
Heart Beat Ear Drum is a 2015 documentary about Z'EV – one of the more original & distinctive figures to appear out of the early industrial scene of the late 1970s. US-born, though very much globetrotting, Z’EV was many things- percussionist, sound-artist, conceptual artist, scholar and poet, and this rather wonderful doc covers all sides of the man's work. From respected British industrial/noise/ experimental label Cold Spring- here we have a recent region free DVD release of the film- the label put out more than a few of Z’EV’s albums before he sadly passed in 20017- so it seems fitting for them to put out this DVD release.
SPK's Zamia Lehmanni was originally released in 1986 by Side Effects, and gets a gorgeous, modern reissue from Cold Spring Records. Long out of print, this reissue brings back an old, industrial classic to the world and gets SPK back on the mouths of the masses. Showcasing the early stages of what would become his award-winning soundtrack work, Zamia Lehmanni is a timeless piece of lush sound.