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There are a lot of projects working within the experimental music genre of Ambient/Drone. Every day new projects appear, other projects cease their activity ... it seems that artists choose this style of music as a way to express themselves and realize their desire to create atmospheric sound. Most drone/ambient projects are normal solo ventures. However, the American project Empathy Family is a duo of- Drew Collins and Jack Williams. Unfortunately, there’s little information about either artist, but I know that Jack Williams is pretty well known in the world of Noise and Power Electronics.
Wrestling and horror have seemed to go hand in hand since the explosion of the WWF in the early 80's, and the overblown acting and story lines are wonderful partners in crime. As world collided, Brick Bronsky began to be a staple in Troma films, and soon ventured out into an independent project, The Masked Mutilator. Shot in 1994, but unfinished, this tale of wrestling, troubled youth, and murder was recently finished with modern book ends and finally released. Released by Severin's Intervision imprint, The Masked Mutilator has finally entered the squared circle to fight for it's much awaited viewership.
Music To Scare Your Neighbours is the fourth in the series of compilations culled from the basement grates of Lux & Lvy of The Cramps. The two-CD release brings together in all fifty tracks, and most/ many of these are obscure 45’s from the 1950s and 1960s, and as with all this series the comp is themed- and this time fittingly for the time of year and all its horror & Halloween themed.
Air brings together two respected & key figures of the more moody/ drone fed side of European experimental music. Asmus Tietchens is a Hamburg-based acoustician and experimental electronic composer who has been active since the 1970’s carving out his distinctive sound, and Dirk Serries is Belgium based guitarist & ambient composer who might be better known to many as Vidna Obmana- which started off in the early 80’s as post industrial project, before moving into more ambient terroirty to become one of the most respected euro names in the ambient/ drone genre.
Leaving Meaning is the fifteenth studio album by American alternative legends Swans. The version I shall be reviewing is the longer CD version that runs at over 93 minutes. This version features extended mixes of several songs and an additional track “Some New Things”. It is probably worth noting that the vinyl release runs about ten minutes shorter at around 83 minutes. Having funded the making of Leaving Meaning via the DIY release What Is This? Swans leader Michael Gira was allowed the freedom to record the album he wanted to make without any compromises, and you can really tell with this sprawling work of emotional genius.
Here we have Volume I from Canadian BM-solo-project Flešš. You could just label this project as old-fashioned & very raw lo-fi Black Metal, but this simple description wouldn’t do the project justice!. Hailing from the depths of the Canadian forests, Flešš’s work moves from very raw punky influences, over to doomy structures, through to depressive or ambient-like sound-texturing.
"Isn't it strange how times change / I can't imagine living any other way" - Praying to the Aliens, 1979. And, after forty years and many changes, Gary Numan is still living the same way. Granted, the lyrics don't refer to his musical career, but it is fitting nonetheless. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Tubeway Army's seminal Replicas album, Beggars Banquet has released a double album of early recordings and outtakes from the recording session. Although a number of these tracks have appeared on various releases over the years, having them all in one package is great for Numanoids everywhere.
Here we have a C80/digital download walled noise split themed around a short story by Michael Gira. The release brings together two lengthy slices of dense, pummelling, and at times subtly shifting wall matter.
Close Calls is a 2017 US horror-thriller that blends taut home-alone stalker with trippy ‘n’ supernatural Giallo- with a good dose of leering sleaze, and a nicely twisting ‘n’ turning plot- that keeps you wondering what is real & what is not. Here on Scream Team Releasing is a recent region free DVD of the film, which features a director/ writer commentary track.
Skinner is a seemingly once thought lost early 1990’s serial killer film- featuring mock-arty edges, some grisly if a little rubbery gore, and acting that moves between underplayed-to-downright hammy. I’m most certainly the target audience for the film, as I’m a huge fan of serial killer films- but I’m afraid much of Skinner left me feeling either frustrated, bored, or jaded by the very 90’s music & feel. Here from 101 Films- as either a Blu Ray or DVD, is a recent reissue of the film.
Scales of Justice is a C90/ digital download release from Serbian wall noise project Dosis Letalis- offered up here are two forty five minute examples of densely weaved, yet subtle creative and entrancing.
Just in time for Halloween, Lamech Records and Amor Fati Productions bring us a prime slice Gothic blacked Horror Metal in the form of Revenant In A Phantom World- the new full length album from Stockholm one-man project Die Kunst der Finsternis.
Goblin finally split in 1982 after recording the soundtrack for Argento’s giallo classic Tenebre under their individual names. Simonetti would continue to work, soundtracking Italian horror movies in the aftermath of the band’s dissolution. He would go on to score Conquest for Lucio Fulci, New Barbarians for Enzo Castellari and Phenomena for Argento before agreeing to write the score for the Dario Argento produced Demons, directed by Lamberto Bava, the son of Italian horror legend Mario Bava.
Following on from the likes of Evil Town, The House On Tombstone Hill, and Beyond Evil- here’s another slice of nutzoid & tacky effect lined 1980’s horror from the folks at Vinegar Syndrome. The Vineyard is a fevered mind mix of mad doctor horror, oriental voodoo killings, zombies, kung fu fighting, soft-focused T & A, and a shed load of 80’s camp. Here’s a dual-format reissue of the film- bringing together the normal great VS new print & a few extras.
The Method Is The Madness appeared back in May of 2017 and was a five CDR box set from this prolific and often creative French walled noise project. The sets main theme/ influence is photographer Lauren Simonetti- who creates very eerier & darkly unsettling photo work- each CDR comes in their own DVD sized case, and these come inside a white card box. The cases & the box takes in examples of Ms. Simonetti photo work- with the ‘walls’ nicely fitting the photo work as it’s often brooding, lo-fi, and unsettling creative in its feel.
From Cherry Red sublabel El Here’s a three-CD box set that brings together 60’s pop producer Joe Meek infamous electronic space adventure concept album I Hear A New World, and a good cross selection of pioneering electronic music from the 1950s & 1960s.
Famed composer Laurie Anderson has enlisted collaborators Tenzin Choegyal (a Tibetan traditional musician), Jesse Paris Smith (piano) and Rubin Kodheli (cello) to create a new work in 2019, titled Songs From the Bardo. It is an album of instrumental ambience and explicit Buddhist subject matter, driven by Anderson's spoken narration from the Tibetan Book of the Dead.
Toys Are Not for Children is a queasy, troubling, and at times highly twisted example of early 1970’s psychodrama- it follows an emotionally stunted twenty-something woman who obsessed with toys & finding her father. It brings together themes of parental abuse, sex, and manipulation to create a film that slow, but surely creeps up & general unsettles/freaks you out. Here from Arrow Video is a recent Blu Ray reissue of this lesser-known slice of US exploitation- which really wouldn’t have been out of place on the recent second volume of the American Horror Project box set- and fittingly we get Stephen Thrower- who curated said set turning up on the extras, as do respected exploitation/ cult film commentators Kat Ellinger and Heather Drain.
3 From Hell finds controversial horror auteur Rob Zombie (literally) resurrecting the most popular characters of his career- whether you call it the third part in the Firefly trilogy, the third film in the House Of A 1000 Copses series, or The Devils Rejects sequel. Here’s 3 From Hell, and I must say after getting ready to be disappointed I was pleasantly surprised, if not wholly satisfied by what we have here. From Lionsgate here is the Blu Ray release of the film-bringing together a director's commentary & an hour & half making-of doc.
Border Woods sees the welcome return of respected & versatile Norwegian accordionist and bandleader Frode Haltli. This new six-track album sees Haltli embracing both traditional & buoyant folk-to-ethnic melodies, as well as more playful & angular moments, through to acoustic set dark ambience- so it really does feel like a sonic trip into the woods, that shifts from forbidding & creepy, onto brighter, playful & inspired, back to darker more angular territories.
As we all know, the modern version of Black Metal, originated in Scandinavia. Almost thirty years have passed since then, but interest in the Scandinavian Black Metal bands is still high. This applies to both veterans and newcomers of the scene. Swedish band Patronymicon can hardly be called as newcomers, as they started the band in 2008. Though they are not the most prolific- as their discography only features four releases - these takes in 2010 self released mini-album Coldborn, and two full full-length albums - 2011’s Prime Omega and 2013’s All Daggers Towards The Sky, and lastly the release to hand their third full length Ushered Forth By Cloven Tongue which released by respected French label metal label Osmose Productions as either a CD, LP, or as a digital download.
They Made Me a Fugitive is a little known British film noir from 1947 directed by Brazilian born director Alberto Cavalcanti, based on the Jackson Budd novel of the same name and with a screenplay by Noel Langley, who was one of the screenwriters for Victor Fleming’s classic, The Wizard of Oz.
90° In The Shade is a rather grim, carefully paced, yet often an intriguing blend of drama and lo-key thriller.The mid-1960’s film is a Anglo-Czech production, and from Powerhouse, here's a new Blu ray release of this lesser-seen picture- taking in both English & Czech versions of the film,a new commentary track, and an interesting selection of extras.
Chronicling one of the world's smallest music scenes, Svart's Brutal Africa - The Heavy Metal Cowboys of Botswana hits at first like a very strange compilation. The styles are varied, the bands look very different from each other, and the music seems to span many periods. This is because the heavy metal scene in Botswana is very new (c. 2000), and there aren't very many active bands, so this is not only an overview of the entire scene, but basically a showcase of all the bands therein. Working alongside the makers of the documentary "Freedom in the Dark," Svart records put together an interesting snapshot of an interesting and growing scene.