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With a career spanning nearing fifty years, and forty-six studio albums American avant pop/ creative sonic weirdo’s The Residents have covered a lot of sonic ground, as well as many different themes & concepts. But one of their most enduring, known, influential & celebrated are the Mole albums- originally the concept was planned as a trilogy, then a hexalogy - but in the end we only got parts one, two, and four- 1981’s Mark Of The Mole, 1982’s Tunes Of Two Cities, and 1985’s The Big Bubble. From Cherry Red/ MVD Audio, as part of their pReseverved series which has seen definitive releases of Key Residents album- here’s The Mole Box featuring the three released albums, a live album- and literally oodles & oodles of un-released material- if you've been impressed by what we’ve got in the other releases in the series just wait until you check this out- there are twenty unreleased tracks & nearing three hours of new material over spread over this six-CD set.
Scared Stiff is a soapy, at times-unintentionally amusing haunted house romp from the late 80’s- it features big hair, tacky 80’s fashion, a few effective chills, and later-on some nice OTT effects. From Arrow Video here’s a new Blu Ray release of the film- taking in a new 2k scan, some worthy extras, and a new commentary track from the film's director & producer.
Works on Paper is a recent two-CD set, bringing together a selection of mighty fine & varied modern compositions. Each of the four tracks, as the release's title, suggests, are based around graphic scores- and each piece covers a fairly wide bit of sonic ground- going from blends of textural improv & often surreal spoken word, unsettling drone work & found sound elements, wax recording manipulation & other interesting sound elements- with all featuring often sparse & fleeting placement of formal classical instrumentation/ elements such as guitar, piano, melodica, organ and female soprano. Through-out the two discs there’s a real keen air of creativity, invention and sonic freedom- yet there is always point, flow & structure present.
Rosalind Hall is an Australian avant garde musician credited with several ambient/drone recordings with stark, minimalist packaging. Drift is the newest such release, a cassette tape released on the Cassauna label this year in 2019. The tape features flat grey artwork and three pieces of music roughly twenty minutes each.
Gridfailure is a rather interesting and original experimental musical project centred around New York musician Dave Brenner. The project started in 2016 with the debut album Ensuring The Bloodline Ends Here. At the moment, Gridfailure’s discography takes in around twenty releases.
Aoratos - Gods Without Name is the latest offering from Naas Alcameth, of Akhlys and Nightbringer fame. This new project brings together Naas on vocals, guitars and synth, Nox Corvus also on guitar duties, and Menthor on the drums whilst Chthonia provides backing vocals. The idea behind the project is to take the themes and sound of Naas’ other project Akhlys and expand upon them. Probing further into the maelstrom of darkness only ever hinted at on Naas’ previous work. Aoratos modus operandi is to cross creative boundaries into the liminal sonic spaces beyond, the band’s fusion of Black Metal and Dark Ambient reaching new and forbidden realms of occulture, taking us the listener, along for the ride.
During the early-to-mid 1990s, legendary genre movie producer & director Charles Band started a sideline company to his Full Moon Entertainment brand, and this was Moonbeam Films- it saw the focus going on more family-friendly fantasy and Sci-fi pictures. One of the films released on this sub-label was 1994’s Pet Shop- a decidedly wacky & comic child-focused creature feature, which found of two Aliens disguised as ten-gallon hat wearing cowboys coming to a small American town to give the town's children strange pets. Here on Full moon is the first ever digital release of the film( in the form of a region free Blu ray)- which previously only received a VHS release back in the day.
From the infamous & notoriously unforgiving French wall noise project here’s a C90 release- serving up two sides of crude, blunt, and terminal battering HNW. The release appears on Ukraine ShchYL-Records- having a fairly scene reasonably edition of 31 copies.
From the early 1970s, Beyond Atlantis is an adventure-fantasy romp about a part aquatic tribe, and greedy criminals that are trying to steal their undersea treasure chest of pearls. The films one of the many pictures made by Filipino exploitation director Eddie Romero- and while it’s somewhat light & campy, as a bit of Sunday afternoon fun it’s passable enough. Here from VCI Entertainment/ MVD Visual is a duel Blu Ray & DVD release- which features a great new scan of the film, and a commentary track from two Filipino exploitation experts.
Compactor is a noisy project from New York musician, DJ, artist Derek Rush a.ka. The Worker who has been releasing conceptual noise blasts since 2012 containing Industrial based Noise, Techno, and other related sonics crushed into something else, using mostly exclusively obsolete equipment.
Boring Machines presents lI Vento Disperderà la Schiuma by Italian composer and electronic musician, Fabio Orsi. Available on vinyl and digital formats, this is Orsi's third release on the Boring Machines imprint. Back in 2011, the label released their first album with Orsi; Wo Ist Behle. The release was created shortly after a move from southern Italy to Berlin. On Il Vento, Orsi creates a perfect companion album, composed in transition from Berlin back to his homeland.
Elettronica Al Nylon Fottutamente Violenta is a two-way split/collaboration between two of the projects that focus in on the more fetish themed side of HNW- with the C40 bringing together three worthy examples of the (sub) sub-genre.
Absolute Absorbtion is a two-way wall noise split- bringing together Serbia’s Dosis Letalis, and Illinois Lost Graves. The release appeared in February of this year- in an edition of 23 copies- sadly these sold out fairly fast, so ones only option now is a digital download from Ominous Recordings site.
DWII is the second self-released C60 from Spanish walled noise & bleak drone maker Damien De Coene. The release features two side-long examples of very quiet, terminal stark, and truly desolate drone matter.
Former Gallhammer vocalist, Vivian Slaughter, not only relocated to Norway, but also relocated her sound. Recording under the name Viviankrist, Vivian expands her repertoire into the realm of electronic music. Attacking this from multiple angles, Morgenrøde showcases Viv's talents as well as opening her music up to a new group of listeners.
Loke Rahbek's "bubblegum industrial" project Croatian Amor reflects perfectly the long, circuitous journey the musician has made along with Christian Stadgaard and their Posh Isolation label. Eschewing the dank noise and black metal tropes of their early releases, the label has increasingly been taking on a more metropolitan sensibility, with collaborations between Kyo and African American vocalist Jeuru and Varg's recent embrace of Trap and alt-Hip-Hop stylings. ISA also features appearances from Frederikke Hoffmeier and Yves Tumor, both of whom have had records out on Belin's PAN label, which appears to be something of a model for what Rahbek and Stadgaad are aiming at.
Chairete Daimones (Be Greeted, Demons) is the first album (of largely) new material from Austrian project Allerseelen in four years. The CD offers up hefty selection of new music that focuses in on the projects highly distinctive brand of Folk & Industrial music, which often filters in other musical genres- such as bleak new wave/ post-punk, traditional Germanic folk, world music influences, avant-garde pop, jazz, neo-classical, and beyond.
The wonderfully titled A Dandy In Aspic is a decidedly schizophrenic example of late 1960’s spy thriller- which constantly bounces between James Bound camp-ness and stark/ bleak John le Carré like grim-ness. From Powerhouse films here’s a recent Blu Ray reissue of the film- offering up an effective new scan of the picture, and a nice selection of informative extras.
From the height of the popularity of the Giallo genre- here’s The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire, a pacey & fairly eventful take on the genre. The film features a plot that sees vitally everyone been a suspect, some brutal razor blade & acid bound killings, campy & often sleazed characters, and a Stelvio Cipriani score, that’s effective if a little predictable. Here from Arrow Video is Blu Ray reissue of the film- featuring a new commentary track, and a good enough selection of extras.
Here we have a double CD release of early 1970’s work from the quirky & creative pioneering US electronic duo Beaver & Krause. The disc set, on Cherry Red sub-label Righteous, brings together the projects three albums on Warner Bros- 1970’s In A Wild Sanctuary, 1971’s Gandarava, and 1972’s All Good Men- which see the pair moving from a fairly Moog heavy ecological concept album. Onto imaginary film scoring with a Hindu mythological leanings. Through to an album that moves between dramatic musical hall tunes, upbeat easy listening, 70's singer-song writer fare, and beyond.
Sult is the latest release from the highly talented Maja S.K. Ratkje- Norwegian composer, singer, genre blender & noise maker. The nine-track album sees her taking Norse folk music as a starting point- to create a work that moves from low-key & awkward harmonic grandeur, powerful & stirring vocalisations, and moody-to-playful subtle noise making.
Trondheim Jazz Orchestra is a large Norweigen jazz ensemble with recordings dating back to 2005. While the band has many ongoing members, the line up and instrumentation change for each album. For their latest album Happy Endings, they perform complex and illogical music by double bassist and composer Ole Morten Vagan. This is the first time the group has collaborated with him.
The Waste of Space Orchestra sees the melding of two heavyweights of the Finnish metal scene, psychedelic black metallers, Oranssi Pazuzu, and doom metal legends Dark Buddha Rising. Both bands hail from the Tampere region of Finland and so would seem to fit perfectly together as bandmates.
Stekkerdoos is an experimental sound art project from Dutch conceptual artist Jessie Hoefnagel, which she describes as “Dreamy noise with a touch of darkness"- utilizing Field recordings, cassette tape sampling, live vocals, drones, and beats. Her visual art is line based drawings that mainly include female figures. She began this sound project in 2017 and has released a few short run (sold out) cassettes that were available at live shows. Stekkerdoos appears to be primarily a live performance project with video projection accompaniment featuring his artwork, so listening to these tracks I am sure I do not getting the full impact of what the artist conceived- but it’s still very nice.