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Taking on the topic of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Portugal's Colosso unleashes their most ambitious release yet, the aptly titled Apocalypse. With four tracks of varying flavors and vocalists, each track represents one of the aforementioned horsemen, complete with its own personality. Deftly tackling this fun and creative project, Max Tomé. lined up a talent crew to help him complete his vision, and Apocalypse certainly bears the fruits of their collective labors.
The Culture of Fear is a C40/ digital release that highlights both sides of this Serbian walled noise project sound- moving seared & tight intensity, to more detailed & creavlity textured. This release appeared back in 2018, and is now sadly out of print in physical form- though it’s well worth tracking down in digital form, as each of the side long tracks are great- showing off the projects ability to pick 'n' build great textured 'walls'.
Here we have The Vast Apart, a curious project from experimental guitarist Mike Fazio which was apparently begun all the way back in 2007, left dormant, and only recently finished. It also differs from his usual work by being a collection of short pieces, as he has often been inclined to fashion twenty minute longform collages.
For today's review, we have the new Jessica Ekomane album Multivocal. The album features two long-form pieces created by on what I assume is a hardware synth or soft synth on a laptop (kudos to the artist for not mentioning what kind of synthesis was used though because it doesn’t matter ever). Both pieces are slowly formed and use minimal arpeggios, which add little textures and sounds over time.
Appearing in the early 1990’s Prehysteria! was a campy, tacky, though often charming/ lightly amusing slice of family fantasy- featuring a group of miniature dinosaurs turning up in a US family home. The film was the first feature to appear from Moonbeam Pictures- which was the family-focused branch of Charles Bands Full Moon Pictures. Here we have a dual format Blu Ray & DVD release of the film from last year- it features a director's commentary and a making-of from when it originally came out.
Released in 1981 The House By The Cemetery was the third, and final part in Lucio Fulci's ‘Gates Of Hell’ trilogy. It stands as not only the most coherent & balanced of the trilogy, but one of Fulci’s finest films & a classic example of creepy-to-gory 1980’s horror. The film perfectly balances creepy house gothic horror and splatter gore- with very effective moments of dread,campy acting, bizarre dubbing,and subtle Lovecraft like touches. Here from the folks over at Blue Underground is another one of their great & classy deluxe editions of the film- taking in two Blu Rays- full of new & old extras, a CD with the soundtrack on, a glossy color booklet, and a neat Lenticular 3D cover in the Ltd edition of the set.
Recorded at the Intraspect Concert Series, the aptly named Intraspect sees the drone-noise stylings of Phil Durrant and Bill Thompson on their first ever recorded improv session. With Durrant handling the modular electronics and Bill Thompson playing the Moog guitar, the duo manages to create quite an atmosphere. Build with slowly growing and moving layers, Intraspect is a wonderful document of their 2018 performance. This second release on Burning Harpsichord shows great direction for this fledgling label.
Concrete Vital is the latest work from noisepoetnobody- it was released on CD and in digital form by Scry Records. Behind the project is the experimental musician Casey Chittenden Jones, who is a well-known artist from the Seattle scene.
Madame Delbène is a two-track C40 from this Swedish project who creates blistering thick ‘n crudely cluttering walled noise themed around 1800-1900 erotic literature & fetishes. This tape appearing last September, and seemingly the label still has copies for sale as of this review.
From last year Life Feels Empty is a C50 spilt bringing together one starkly focused example of droning bound wall noise, and a more formal- though-no-less bleak HNW. The release brings together two US projects from Texas N0123noise and Tissa Mawaryassari.
Viy is a 1967 horror movie based on the 1835 novella of the same name by Russian literary giant Nikolai Gogol, however, it was not the first version of the story to make it to the big screen, having been adapted previously by Mario Bava as a segment for his 1963 portmanteau, Black Sabbath. On a side note Viy has the somewhat dubious honour of being the first horror movie ever produced in the Soviet Union.
During the mid-1980’s most teen films fitted into two or three categories- drama with touches of comedy, campy slashers, or cheesy Sex comedies. The Boys Next Door stood apart from many teens focused fare of the period, as it was often fairly disturbing/ alarming, and it largely took its subject matter in a serious and un-flippant manner. The film tells of two troubled small-town teens going on a violent crime spree in LA just after they graduated high school- it brings together a largely effective believable cast, moments of explosive violence, and a feeling of little or no hope. Here from the folks at Severin is the first-ever Blu Ray release of the film- which offers up a region free pressing- taking in a new vibrate print, and a great selection of new extras.
Anatomy Of The Beast is the recent full-length album from Fouke- the bigfoot walled noise project of US Noise Legend Richard Ramirez. Over the years I’ve enjoyed many of Mr. Ramirez projects- but I’ve always seen Fouke as my favorite- as it finds him perfectly distilling a distinctly atmospheric vibe that conjures up both feelings of been stalked by something huge, the bigfoots often forest bound domain, and other facets related to this most allusive of creatures. This release from the tail end of last year came as either a C50 or digital download- and features two side-long tracks.
Here’s a two-way wall split featuring two Russian HNW projects- each offering up a single around the twenty-minute track. We have the up and coming Shumoizolyatsiya project, and Train Cemetery whose one of the more creative and respected names in the Russian wall scene.
No Feeling is a decidedly nasty ‘n’ dense slice of harsh noise- with the C20/ digital release finding two around ten minutes examples searing noise matter, that feature occasional touches of more nuanced & moody texturing.
So for today’s review, we have the latest release from Edition Mego runner, Peter Rehberg AKA Pita. The release Get On follows from Peter’s 2016 release Get in, and finds the former Magma keyboardist in familiar territory; glossy minimal blasts of rhythmic synthesis interspersed with moody ambience, and harsher Haswell style digi-noise (Russell Haswell mastered this it seems? So Cool).
Arkofagi Nocnych Zjaw is a recent mini-album by the Polish black metal band Krypta Nicestwa. This single-sided 12” vinyl has been released on Harvest Of Death, which is part of the Signal Rex label. Signal Rex operates out of Portugal, and has been responsible for releasing some absolute jewels throughout recent years; the most recent one being Glacial Conjuration by Occelensbrigg, released in November last year. Sarkofagi Nocnych Zjaw is the first release I’ve heard coming from the Signal Rex stable since that one, so I was really excited to give this one a listen.
Ludwig Wittgenstein once contended that if a lion were to speak we would not be able to understand him. This is for the reason that we have no access to the world of the lion out of which its utterances come. On The Hour in the Woods is New York based British artist Viv Corringham's attempt to circumvent this seeming aporia and spend 24hours communing with the denizens of an American forest.
Originally released back in 1997 The Vicious Sweet stands as one of the more professional, and at times both triply head spinning and emotionally fraught Shot On Video films. On SRS Cinema here we have a region free DVD from last year- featuring a director’s & lead actor’s commentary tracks.
From the guys over at Vinegar Syndrome here is another shot of campy-to-puzzling 1980's horror genre-blending. So with Zombie Island Massacre, we get a bizarre mix ‘n’ match between slasher, creepy house horror, with fleeting touches of voodoo shenanigans, and one or two living dead references/mentions- though not enough to warrant the title. Certainly, if you enjoy similar release the label has put out I think you enjoy this new duel Blu Ray/ DVD release.
Santa Dog was the first official sonic statement from the avant pop collective The Residents. The project self-released the double 7-inch single in December of 1972, and the four-track affair highlighted the collectives career-long tendencies to shift between upbeat often memorable oddness, and more experimental/ quirky avant grade fare. Through-out the projects forty years existence the collective has returned to the "Santa Dog" track again & again- and this eighteen track CD collects these together in chronologically order…for uninitiated an eighteen track/seventy-eight minute compilation of different versions of the same track may sound mind-numbing & torturous in its repetition- but this been The Residents each take is different, at time drastically so as the collective try out various genres & instrumental/ vocal use on this most beloved of tracks.
Originally released back 1986 Shadowland was the third album from Sheffield band Hula. The album is a decidedly abstract and shifting affair that darts between post-industrial ambience, throbbing synth bass lines, clunking ‘n’ stripped back industrial sound-scaping, moody noise-making, and wayward vocal elements- at times things become more coherent & structured taking in elements of synth-pop, white funk, and smooth jazz horns- but mainly Shadowland, fitting its title is a strange & heady journey. On Austrian label Klanggalerie here we have a recent CD reissue of the album- bringing together the albums two original long-form tracks, with a selection of shorter tracks from the period.
Room40 presents Slowly Dismantling, the new album (available in digital and CD formats) from Los Angeles based queer sound composer Yann Novak.I decided to dive into this album without digging into the background information, to just experience it sonically, first and foremost. I wasn’t particularly familiar with Novak’s work, so sometimes I like to go in cold when listening to a new (at least new to me) artist. Seconds into Slowly Dismantling and I can already tell that I’m in for a treat.
Drone as a style of music, is probably one of the most ancient. Monotone & repetive sound are at the roots of shamanism & other religious music and songs, starting with shamanistic rites, folk music, Buddhist mantras and classical Indian music, ending with Gregorian and Orthodox chants. In a modern interpretation, the drone genre is quite diverse. Going from electronic experiments of the likes of Elaine Radique and the acoustic works of Vibracathedral Orchestra, onto the autistic gloom of Sunn O))) and atmospheric tracks by Dirk Serries.