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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.
Blanca is an eight-track album focused on windswept and moodily elemental works for the Viola. It takes its name from a small town in rural southeastern Spain, where Berlin-born violist Julia Eckhardt took up residency during the winter of 2022 for a month, spending her days walking the majestic but intimidating hill-lands that surround the town.
The Curve Of The Blade is a recent three-track release from Worship. The decidedly mysterious wall noise/ drone project, which themes all of its work on praising the female form, in a non-smutty/ sleazy manner.
From the early 70s, The Perfume Of The Woman In Black blends are they-or-are-they not-mad thriller, stylish/elegant Giallo, and psychological horror. It features a well-placed/believable lead Mimsy Farmer, who plays an overworked industrial scientist, who may/may not be losing her marbles. Here from Powerhouse, either as a UHD or Blu-ray, is a new release of the film. Taking in a wonderful, lush and bold 4k print, a commentary track from genre experts, and a great selection of new extras.
Finnish filmmaker Joey Palmroos follows up his debut western, The Outlaws (starring Oscar-nominated actor Eric Roberts), with last year's Delivery Run. This Minnesota-set thriller had me hopeful, but ultimately left me cold!
Taking inspiration from a very famous line from a Longfellow poem (The Theologian's Tale), Bewider's Ships That Pass in the Night is the fourth release from the project of film composer Piernicola Di Muro.
Trashy serves up two fifteen-minute slices of terminally battering & bleak-walled noise, with a sleazy theme. If you’ve investigated the wall noise genre beyond known names like Vomir, The Rita, or Richard Ramirez. You’ll probably be aware of this California project, as it most certainly is one of the most prolific projects in the scene.
Here we have two slices of taut lowercase wall craft from this new UK project. Each track comes in at dead on the ten-minute mark, and each is an example of busy to (seemingly) paring back noise craft.
“We do not come in peace. We do not wish to insult intoxicated fanatics, people from Østfold, northerners, writers of children's books, lawyers, those in the service industry, or teachers.” Now that sounds like a mission statement. And it sort of is, these words forming the basis of a union between two unique Norwegian collectives - Oslo’s DNA?AND? & Stavanger’s Lampeknusekontoret – each a coalition of professional musicians and young people with disabilities. They’re no strangers to working together and so last year the two groups joined forces once again to create Hot Hot Hot a maelstrom of sound and noise with pertinent nods to post-punk, ambient and the avant-garde.
Norwegian solo project Rot Shrine is somewhere between dungeon synth and bedroom black metal. They are releasing their first recordings this year in 2025, and their full-length on Polypus Records is called Death to the King of Salem,
Here’s the second in a series of volumes which I hope never end: a six-CD boxset of remastered early Richard Ramirez cassettes. Hopefully, I don’t need to introduce Ramirez, but for the uninitiated, his vast discography is an essential foundation stone for harsh noise walls and indeed harsh noise. The releases in this set sometimes play with the boundaries between those two genres, and beyond that are simply great examples of 1990’s harsh noise.
Hand to Earth is a collection of musicians who are assembled around an intersectional approach to questions of indigeneity language, and place: concepts that are bandied about in many disciplines, though rarely with the same acumen and insights in the field of music. Strange, given that to layer completely disparate elements on top of one another, whether they be sound sources or traditions, is very much within the purview of composition. What's more, the developments in electronic music provide fertile ground for this examination, evidenced by the songs on Ŋurru Wäŋa, which showcase a mixture of live and post-production recorded material.
Three Times Infinite is an eighty-eight-minute dive into droning & juddering wall craft, with a subtle industrial undercurrents. Poland’s Sado Rituals is often known for its more layered, and at times detailed/ creative takes on all things ‘wall’- but this recent(ish) digital release is much simpler and straightforward walling.
Unflinching is a short, extreme, nasty, head-battering slice of walled noise from this South Carolina project. It’s truly an unrelenting attack, and as it’s a YouTube release, it features simple but effective brutal imagery.