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White Slave is a cheesy, but surprisingly engaging, and at times damn bloody ‘n’ brutal jungle adventure from the mid-1980s. Here we have a recent(ish) region free DVD release of the film as part of Full Moons Grindhouse series.
Following on from early Arrow Video releases this year, Double Face is another lesser-known, largely bloodless & more moody Giallo film reissued by the company. The Blu Ray features a new commentary track from genre expert Tim Lucas, some neat extras, and a new well-defined print.
The recent announcement that Roger Doyle is to receive the honor of Saoi, the highest award open to an Irish artist, is recognition of a lifetime of musical creativity encompassing theatre, "cinema for the ear", the massive electro-acoustic project Babel, and most recently the electronic Opera Heresy, on the life and death by fire of the renaissance philosopher Giordano Bruno. In between these signal achievements Doyle has also put out a steady stream of records developing the possibilities of combining acoustic and software instruments, electronic processing and the human voice. He has retained a fascination for language (musical or otherwise), a facet of his work most expansively realised in the 5CD Babel project.
For a period of time in the late 1980’s my twin musical obsessions where Hard Core Punk( mainly American), and Thrash- so, of course, I had a great interest in where these two genres met- Crossover. Here from Cherry Red Books is a new, nearing five hundred and fifty- page book on the subject- and it certainly was a fascinating trip down memory line, with more than a revelations along the - as the book covers a lot of acts I’d never even heard of.
I believe, that experimental avant-garde and improvisational music appeared a long time ago- Maybe a couple of hundred years ago. But the key developments occurred with the introduction of jazz, musique concrete, and experimental electronics, around the middle of the 20th century. Currently, there are a lot of bands and artists, to one degree or another, using these styles in their work.
Despite being on the scene and appearing on compilations as far back as 1999, Decadimento Del Nastro - Decadenza Di Tutto is the first album by Tape Dekay (BJ Nilsen of Hazard and Morthound). Noisy soundscapes riddled with musique concrete, Decadimento is a dark, sprawling full length available on CD and digital formats. Hopefully a harbinger of further releases, Tape Dekay's first album is much anticipated and certainly delivers.
The Passing is a dizzying, often disorienting, wholly idiosyncratic Sci-fi film that randomly darts between whimsical & felt, sad & morose, 1980’s technology headiness, and trippy-to-horror fed surrealism. Original appearing in the first few years of the 80’s- this distinctive & effecting oddity has been un-earthed by Vinegar Syndrome- been given a new 2k scan, offering up a new commentary track, shorts by the same director & more.
Norwegian guitarist Geir Sundstøl released his 4th album Brødløs in 2018, on the Hubro label. His style is tuneful, cinematic, psych-tinged folk, with a vibrant timbral range thanks to his use of a massive number of different instruments.
The second album from legendary British progressive rock supergroup UK, features bassist/vocalist, John Wetton (King Crimson), keyboard player/ electric violinist, Eddie Jobson (Roxy Music/ Frank Zappa) and drummer/percussionist, Terry Bozzio (Frank Zappa). These three musical legends join forces to create one of the finest progressive albums of the late 1970s, originally released in 1979 at the height of the post-punk explosion it was an album that went against the grain but sounds so good because of that. Many progressive bands took to playing something akin to what we would today term yacht rock, not UK, they firmly stuck to their roots and unleashed a progressive beast of an album that deserves to be re-evaluated.
Here we have a British/Swedish C41/ digital download wall noise split- bringing together clamouring & crusty- to-more progressive wall craft of Southampton based Clive Henry, and the terminal black & grinding HNW of Stockholm's JSH. This release appeared just over a month ago, but has already sold out in its physical tape form- so ones only option now is a DL.
After a few years away from the walled noise scene, Chitin sees the welcome return of this Russian Federation project. The CDR/ digital download album features two twelve to-fifteen minute 'walls' that are both skillful crafted & wholly captivating in their attack.
Texture Hunter is an hour long example of densely layered walled noise from Serbian project Dosis Letalis. The release appeared in April of this year, as either a pro-pressed CDR in a DVD case or a digital download- the CDR went out-of-print fairly fast, so ones only option now is a download.
Dren is a two piece project from north Poland- the pair brew up a brooding, bass purring, and electro beat snapping blend of stark techno, murky industrial, and electro-tribal beat making. Time & Form is the pair debut release, and it appears on Zoharum- either as a CD or Vinyl release.
Originally released back in 2007 United Abominations was the 11th album from Megadeth- it saw the band offering up a blend of old school thrash riff craft, with the more harmonic leaning metal they had focused on in the previous few years. It’s enjoyable, if at times a little uneven ride, which tries to balance the bands key sounds into a heady union. Here on BMG is a recent reissue of the album, and this is the first in the series of reissues of early 2000’s Megadeth releases- offering up either CD or Vinyl versions of the album.
Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich is a gloriously bloody, at times brutal & funny resurrection of one of the great B movie franchise of the late 1980s. It blends together inventive, at times gruelling killings, rather neat puppeteer/ doll effects work, and a host of memorable enough characters. Here’s a recent release of the film- which is available as a DVD, Blu Ray or digital download.
The Devil's Plaything(or Le château des messes noires as it’s sold here under its French title) is a well scoped, at times effectively moody, but often highly campy example euro-gothic erotic horror. Here we have a recent(ish) DVD of the film- offering a nice crisp & lush print of the film- both in English & French, and a few extras.
Founded in 1971, German rock group Ara Pacis released one LP in 1979, To the Westcoast. Playing intriguing AOR in a time when New Wave, Synth Pop, and Punk were dominating the scenes in Germany, Ara Pacis managed to get a foothold in the public's ear, and their fairly limited, self-released LP became quite a collector's item. Bolstered by a very well received live act, Ara Pacis remained in the fans' memories despite breaking up in 1982, and reformed for two revival concerts in 1990 and 2002. The Artless Cuckoo has re-released the title track from this LP, along with "My Fate" on the B-side, in a 350 ltd 7" EP. And, on top of this, the digital EP contains another album track, "Let's Keep On Going," along with four bonus tracks from their 1981 studio sessions. A real gem for fans of Ara Pacis and German Westcoast Rock, The Artless Cuckoo's presentation of these sought after songs is a delightful treat for the Summer season.
It’s a little tricky to write a review on a album, when information on the artists', is extremely sparse. However, Zane Kanevsky is an American experimental musician who is a member of the band named Banned Books. Zane also releases solo albums. There are only two releases in his solo discography. The first one is a split album with American musician Kyle Flanagan, titled Move Your Head From Side To Side, which was released as a tape in 2018. The second release is an tape release titled Kb, released in 2019 by the American label No Rent Records. This final release is what I’m reviewing today.
Released in 1979 Scum was the big screen remake of Alan Clarke’s BBC play of the same name, originally filmed in 1977 and subsequently banned by the Beeb due to its controversial nature Clarke returned to the film with largely the same cast after the BBC refused to sell him the original film. Scum was one of those films that became a big talking point in the school yard when I was growing up. Alan Clarke’s tale of borstal life was brutal and hard-hitting docudrama that remains as powerful today as it was then.
Richmond Avant Improv Collective (RAIC) create a decidedly dense, darkly dramatic, at times ritual charged & creepy brand of improv. Lamentations is the collectives latest releases, and it comes in the form of a decidedly plush box set- this takes in a fifty-six minute CD album, a collection of 18 postcards taking in pictures of rundown rural America & texts, slimline cardboard box featuring a sticker, and a glossy paper slip sleeve.
With Lycanthropic Metal of Death, Winterwolf, a dead- thought-gone project arises from the Finnish underground. After a break of ten years, these beasts have come out of their dark cave and are ready to go to the throat and spread their death metal sickness once again. The band features members of a few other cult finish bands( Demilich, Shade Empire and Deathchain)- so this might explain the time between records. The album's title - Lycanthropic Metal of Death - is actually a pretty accurate description of what we have here- Or even easier/ blunter: Scandinavian Death Metal thematically related to werewolves. The album appeared in June of this year on Svart Records.
Off The Coast offers a sparse, often ambient- yet taut, & tonally blurred take on improv. With the albums four tracks been drifting & lapping electro-acoustic studies that bring together pressing and expanded drones, simmering-to-sour siren tones, plucking lulls, and darting twangs.
Here’s the second volume of music created by the Rosenberg Algorithmic- a computer music generator created by New York-based avant-garde composer Mick Sussman. And once again we get a selection of manic & crazed compositions, that apt shift between genres & normal musical rules. I thoroughly enjoyed the first Vol of this series, which made it high my best of 2018 list….so is this as good consistent as the first vol?....well it has it’s moments of deranged sonic genius, but equally there's a lot of tracks that just don’t work at all- been more of sonic piles up, instead of worthy-yet- quirky composition.
A Record of Sweet Murder is a Korean/ Japanese found-footage film, that’s both surprisingly tense, often brutal, with moments of jet black humor, and a devilishly twisting & turning plot. The films a largely one location affair- focusing on the meeting between a Serial killer, and a female journalist. The release appears on Unearthed Films- as either a Blu Ray or DVD.