Loading
Corrupted Structures v.2 is Verhalten's sequel to the v.1 release of the same name that I reviewed here on this site a while back now. It was released by the label Modern Tapes alongside a new tape from Swedish HNW project Rien, The Grey Tape, in September this year. Both releases have sold really well, with only three copies listed as available of the new Verhalten on the bandcamp site.
Intruders finds The Residents severing up a selection decidedly moody, at-times unsettling & down-right creepy tracks based around often unseen & undefined spirits, entities, or sinister interlopers. Each of the eleven tracks tells their own separate tale, and each utilizes the collective’s tendencies to mold, blend or shape musical genres into their own distinctively unbalanced & often theatrical odd stylings.
Discharge are one of the most controversial & confrontational bands to appear out of the UK Punk genre. The Stoke-On-Trent band formed at the height of the genre in 1977, and offered up a stark, battering, and speedy mix of distorted guitar work, shouty blunt vocals, and grim lyrical content. The band went onto give birth to the hardcore Punk genre, & influenced trash & other extreme metal genres- with their no-nonsense & no-hope brand of rapid metallic tinged punk.
Ghost Story is a four CDR box set from respected female wall- noise/ harsh noise project Tissa Mawartyassari(aka Monica Isabel Sanchez). It severs up a selection of mostly dense, sometimes shifting, but always moody wall-craft that’s based around the classic tale of terror Ghost Story, which started off as a 1979 book by Peter Straub, before been made into a film in 1981.
Schlock is the debut film from two cinematic legends- director John Landis, who of course went onto direct the likes of American Werewolf in London, and The Blues Brother. And special effects master Rick Baker, who has over seventy-five make-up/ effects credits to his name- going from Star Wars, The Howling, Michael Jackson’s Thriller, the Men In Black films. Here on Arrow Video is Blu Ray release of the film- offering up a new 4K scan, and some rather neat extras.
Constructionis is the debut release from Architectonicum- the three-piece collective that brings together some of the finest & most respected names in Euro/ balkan HNW/static texturing. The projects made up of UK’s Clive Henry & James Shearman(A Raja's Mesh men), Serbian Nemanja Nikolic (Dosis Letalis)- with project concept & manifesto by Jan Warnke – who is the sleazy HNW project Sacred Climax, and also runs the Geräuschmanufaktur label.
The wider Italian experimental music scene has always given a strong impetus to the development of more edgy sonic forms in other countries- and still to this day it's one of the most varied and interesting representative of the genre.
From the tail end of the 1980’s The House on Tombstone Hill is a slightly clunky though entertaining horror flick that brings together elements of haunted house cinema, zombie flick, & slasher- all tied up with a ton of blood, fairly impressive practical effects, and lo-fi campy flair. From Vinegar Syndrome- those seekers of lost or forgotten genre fare here’s a nice & shiny Blu ray/DVD combo of the film- which offers up an impressive new 2k scan of the film, and a few extras.
Here’s a double-headed satanic themed curio from Vinegar Syndrome. We have 1974’s Lucifer's Women- a rather rare occult mystery, which here gets it's first ever released. And 1978’s Doctor Dracula- a decidedly campy & muddle film that blends together elements from Lucifer’s Women, with a soap-bound & bloodless vampire plot. Both films featuring the expected classy Vinegar Syndrome scans, along with a fair selection of extras.
Georgian sound artist Rezo Glonti returns as Aux Field for his sophomore release, Square Landscapes. Using deftly layered synths, rhythms, and oscillations, Aux Field constructs an expressive and deep synthscape that further unfolds itself on successive listens. When paired with the glitchy, black and white line work on the album sleeve, the listener is brought into a futuristic world.
Experimental guitarist and experimental ambient soundscape creator Mike Fazio has been releasing his unique output through his own personal label, Faith Strange, for more than 20 years, under various aliases. The other two releases I've heard from this moniker, A Guide For Reason, were brief mini-CDrs containing spacious musique concrete-esque presentations of liquified processed guitar texture. "Iconography", however, is a hefty full length album, with 4 pieces nearing 20 minutes each.
Antropophagus stands as one of the more reserved, creepy, and bleakly moody films from notorious euro-horror/ sleaze director Joe D'Amato - though it’s still managed to get on the UK video nasty list, and got accused of been snuff movie. Here from Serevin, we get a recent region free Blu Ray of the film- offering up a new 2k scan, and some juicy new extras.
The Nightmares is a recent CD release from HNW/static noise legend Werewolf Jerusalem- the discs takes in seven tracks, and has a runtime of forty-eight minutes. The sound here is very much darkly atmospheric wall-craft, with a few dips into more dense & dark ambient waters.
This latest reissue from Talking Elephant is the fourth album from Rare Bird, originally released by Polydor records in 1973, Somebody’s Watching was their second for the label, and also their second since their shift away from the more progressive sounds of their first two albums in favour of a more radio friendly style. Unfortunately for Rare Bird, this change of style did not herald the commercial success they had craved since the moderate commercial accomplishments of their debut single, Sympathy, which charted at number 27 in February of 1970. Despite their attempts to create something with mass appeal they never managed to breach the charts again, either with albums or singles and Sympathy remains their only chart success.
Legion of Swine's 'italia' is an LP which was conceived and recorded in Naples in April 2015, using samples from Pompeii and Vesuvius, and consequently dubbed to a limited run of cassettes on the Leeds (UK) label Ojud Records.
States of Minds is the fourth album from this genre-blurring Norwegian five-piece. The double album sees the collectively liberally bending, melting & merging together elements of jazz, rock, electronica, & ambience into a selection of often twisting & turning sonic adventures that flit between build & changing song-craft, abstract improv, and playful tone poems.
Oasis Of The Lost Girls is a grimy slice of unapologetic sleaze from the 1980’s. It was originally put out by notorious French erotica & exploitation studio Eurocine; who of course put out some of Jess Franco’s more openly perverse & simplistically sleazy features. On Full Moon Features here we have a recent region-free DVD of the film, and I believe this is the first time the films been put out on DVD.
Here we have a CD reissue of two late 1990’s examples of dungeon synth/ fantasy focused dark ambience from Finish project Jääportit. This is one of the first batch of releases on Faust- the new dungeon Synth sub-label of respected Ukraine based post-industrial label Old Captain- and I must say I’m most impressed by the sounds within, and the releases packaging- so I’m most looking forward to checking out more from Faust
Tyrannic - are an Australian band from Sydney, and they create music at the intersection of black, doom, thrash, and death metal. Moreover, it is worth noting that the group focuses on the origins of these genres, playing the old-school mix of these musical styles.
Vaporwave is a micro-genre that's largely passed me by. The style has its roots in the late 2000s during that productively turbulent period around the start of the Arab Spring and the UK riots of 2011 and came along with other short-lived forms such as Witch House and the even more improbably themed Seapunk. All these forms share a common antecedent in the chopped and screwed style of hip-hop pioneered by Texan DJ Screw along with familial associations to hypnagogic pop and the side projects of Daniel Lopatin's Oneohtrix Point Never, such as Chuck Person and Games.
Pär Boström returns with another solo project; this time under the moniker Bonini Bulga. More atmospheric and minimal than his Kammarheit project, Bonini Bulga's Sealed presents wonderfully mingling layers and often introspective synth drones. With the cooler weather approaching, Sealed is a great soundtrack to a very welcome season.
The final release from Parisien HNW mistress - Naughty - came in the form of the dire and pummelling 'Grateful' c90 release, out through Spokane-based Lost Light Records.
The Ravenous Dusk is the debut album from the mysterious Apparition. Very little seems to be known about Apparition as an entity, is it a single person, a band, and from where do they hail? What we do know is that they produce pseudo horror movie soundtracks with more than a nod to the classics of the genre. You will hear the influence of John Carpenter, Goblin, Fabio Frizzi, Vangelis, Richard Einhorn, Rick Wakeman, Keith Emerson and a host of the best 80s revival Electronica that is currently popping up all over. The difference here is that you get the feeling this is more of a continuation of a tradition that had begun with the likes of Goblin and Frizzi.
Originally released back in 1995 Stormcrowfeet was the majestic, grand & epic debut album from key Finnish Funeral doom band Skepticism. Here on Svart records we get a much-needed reissue of the album- featuring a brand new remastering from the original master tapes, and coming in three different formats double vinyl, transparent red vinyl & CD- this is the first time this album has had a vinyl pressing.