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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.
Here’s a 3inc CDR from Tetsuo- one of the more recent, and still (I think) active project from French noisemaker Julien Skrobek ( Ghost, Gesis, Ruine, Sumbru & many other projects) who has dwelled in, and skirted the wall noise scene since 2011. As far as I can gather this is the projects second release after their Eternal Respect 2019 full-length debut. Gabber DNA/ Empty Warehouse mix has only vague connections with the wall-noise genre- as the two tracks utilize elements of fixed rhythmic bass chops, with layers of textured noise and often very piecing sine wave sweeps. I guess you could really see this release as an experimental focused version of the club single, as we have the lead track, and it’s remixed/ altered version.
New York artist Jacob Long has been working in the field of experimental music since 1997, in projects such as Amalgamation, Black Eyes, Mi Ami, and Skate. In 2003 under the banner of Earthen Sea, he decided to focus on solo activities- which has seen him move from raw ambient/drone, onto lighter and more rhythmic sound, combining ambient, drone, dub and techno elements. Earthen Sea has released nine full-length albums, three EP's, two split-albums, two DJ Mixes, and a few miscellaneous releases.
Black Joy is a gritty, at times amusing drama set in Brixton in the 1970’s- it highlights the lives, loves of black Britons and immigrants in the often gloomy & ghettoized London of the decade. On Powerhouse Films here is the Blu Ray premier of the film- presenting us with a remastered print and good selections of extras.
Escape From Women’s Prison is a sleaze tinged Italian thriller from the 1970’s- instead of a straight WIP type caper it’s title may suggest, this is a blend of kidnap/ home invasion thriller. From the folks at Severin here we’ve got a region free Blu Ray release of the film- featuring both US & longer Italian print of the film, as well as a few extras.
Interference finds this Spanish noise-maker and stark drone maker presenting us with a lengthy submersion in the more walled noise side of his sound. The pro pressed CDR on Marbre Negre, finds a single track example of pared-back & atmospheric, yet at times violent volatile wall craft.
From Vomir, one of the most infamous and unforgiving projects with-in the walled noise scene, here we have Untitled- a new six-CD box set. It severs up six-length immersions in the French mans crude & nihilistic take on that most extreme of sound genres.
The Furnaces of Palingenesia is the seventh studio album from French Avant Garde Black Metal masters Deathspell Omega. Hailing from Poitiers, the band were formed in 1998. Originally inspired by the raw Scandinavian Black Metal of bands like Dark Throne, the band have since developed a much more technical and experimental sound of their own drawing lyrical influence from their own Satanic beliefs as well some of Europe’s great thinkers, specifically Georges Bataille, whose centrist political stance is mirrored by that of the band.
Dark and brooding, Yair Etziony's latest, Ingress, is a grim, futuristic soundscape that picks up the mantle from his previous two releases since relocating to Berlin. Using analog oscillators, filters, and VCA's, Yair gives Ingress an older, comfortable feel instrumentally, while moving forward through the future with layers, drones, and sonic evolution. Recorded while he was ill and hospitalized twice, the darkness of situation, along with his normal themes of death, decay, and ruins is very prevalent in the music.
So do you enjoy inept, bumbling, and often thickly cheese layered 1980’s bad action cinema?!…then you’ll lap-up Savage Harbor like a coked-up mad man. What we have here is glorious pile-up of dumb mulleted heroes, croaky & sleazed bad guys, and ditsy broads who are either getting beaten, in sexy underwear or taking their tops off. All rippled with cack-handed fighting, silly gun play & badly timed squib explosion,over long dwells in toe-curling & overtly soft focused romantic moments, and sudden dips into cheap screen effects, & one moment of what-the-hell 80’s surrealisms. On Vinegar Syndrome here's a tasty Blu ray reissue of the film- featuring VS classy new scan of the film, a few extras, a groovy & glossy double-sided poster, and a neat thick card slip-sleeve.
Hailing from the Spanish Canary Islands, the irreligious outsider cult of Deathwomb spits out their debut album Moonless Night Sacraments. This power-trio plays a beastly hybrid of sulphurous Black Metal and lycanthropic Death Metal, proving their unwavering love for traditional, unrepentant and ruthlessly raged extreme metal. The album features ten songs of powerful primitivism and each piece is a piercing whip after the other... The production sounds very dark, raw and old-fashioned, while the lyrics deal with the themes of Satanism, Occultism and the Path of the Left Hand.The album was released on the Iron Bonehead label and is available on CD as well as on Vinyl.
You Have Options is the product of a new trio ensemble from clarinettist Francois Houle, piannist Alexander Hawkins and drummer Harris Eisenstadt. While I have heard several albums in which Harris Eisenstadt serves as bandleader and primary composer, in this group, all 3 members have shared compositional duties. The group also contributes interpretations of classics by Charles Ives and Steve Lacy.
Gruesome Mutilation Vol1 is the first in the series of double CDR splits from German label Meat Hook Butchery. It brings together two album-length selections of often rough-shod & lo-fi walled noise brutality from two seasoned scene-sters…we have Michigan based Paranoid Time, and Germanys Cannibal Ritual.
Here we have a double CD section of modern compositions/ often angular drone interpretations of the work of Viola Torros- a mysterious female Indian musician from the late Vedic period (c. 1500 – c. 500 BCE) who was born somewhere in the Indus valley region- then travelled around Indian playing her compositions.
Here from Arrow Video- both in the US & Uk, is the long-anticipated second volume of American Horror Project- which sees the label offering up three lessen known slices of regional US horror cinema, that are all decidedly distinctive, often arty & frequently unbalancing examples of the genre. The finished set features a sturdy box, with each of the Blu Rays coming in it's own cases- then the set is topped off with a sixty-page booklet.
Dynamic, physical, and explosive, Bow Gamelan Ensemble have mixed art and noise since their inception in 1983. Using ordinary objects as well as specially made instruments to create their works, Bow Gamelan Ensemble have made their mark on the performance art world with vivid, compelling performances. Noisy and chaotic, Cold Spring released the 30th anniversary edition of Great Noises That Fill the Air, and did this in conjunction with the Cooper Gallery Dundee's Bow Gamelan Ensemble retrospective of the same name.
Here Jonas Rönnberg (Varg) puts out the solo debut of his FLORA band mate Melina Åkerman Kvie on his Northern Electronics label. She has also previously collaborated with the Swedish producer on last year's Welcoming Elegance record. Like those collaborations Ruin Walls mixes Scandinavian ambient sounds and dead eyed techno with melancholic pop sensibilities.
Of all the bands to appear out of the 1970’s/ 1980’s NWOBHM scene Newcastle's Raven were the most punchy, energetic, and at times unforgiving- the band’s early work was labelled ‘athletic rock’, and went onto influence a host of bands from the then up & coming thrash movement- with projects such as Slayer, Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, Kreator, & many more quoting the band. Here from Cherry Red's metal sub-label HNE Recordings- is a four-CD box set bringing together the band first four albums that were released of the cult UK Neat- who put out classic records from the likes of Venom, Cloven Hoof, Wishbone Ash, Tygers of Pan Tang.
Earth are the band Dylan Carlson has bestowed upon the world and we’re damned lucky to have them. Formed in Olympia Washington in 1989, Earth have continued to grow and evolve from the drone metal beginnings of their classic debut album Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version into something that draws from a vast wellspring of musical influences that includes country, jazz and folk music. Full Upon Her Burning Lips is the band’s ninth full length studio album and the first to see the band reduced down to core duo of Carlson on guitar and bass and Adrienne Davies on drums and percussion. This stripped back line-up has led to the band adopting a similarly reductive style, stripping away some of the sonic layers that have made up the band’s sound on previous albums and taking them into new territory.