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Here we have a trio of mid 1970’s albums from Chicago based saxophonist & flutist Joe Farrell. And there’s a decidedly strutting, grooving & good-time feel to all three of these albums, which move between jazz-funk & upbeat fusion, with some slight detours into Latin-influenced waters , and the occasionally mellow moments.
Paramoudra is the new full-length release from this UK wall noise project, which has a natural/ elemental theme running through all of its work. This release comes in the form of an artily presented CDR, which features a single forty six minute slice of dense & raging-yet-subtle altering wall-craft.
Men Behind The Sun is a nasty & crude blend of ugly ‘n’ sleazed harsh noise and walled noise. This four track CDR/ digital release is themed around 1988 film of the same name which dramatized the gut retching atrocities/ torture carried out by the Japanese in their Unit 73 between the years 1935 & 1945.
Three years have passed since Cremation Lily's last LP, the Alter released Fires Frame the Silhouette. That record was a collection of scorched tape noise and power electronics, which, it turned out, marked something of a watershed for Zen Zsigo's project. Subsequent releases on Zen's own Strange Rules label have turned towards deftly crafted techno and tape smudged ambiences. Also ramped up was the previously only hinted at sense of melancholy and nostalgia which began to form the central axis around which a very personal kind of electronic music was being made. The previous LP's cover appropriately featured a photograph of a pier (possibly the West pier in Brighton) on fire. Zsigo's connection with the South Coast has been an ever present influence but has become in recent years a very conspicuous muse for his music. So much so that one could describe In England Now, Underwater as something of a hymn to this often neglected part of the UK, which even has Zsigo using tape washed in the sea close to his home.
From the early 1970’s Assault was a British attempt at making a Giallo, and while it rather lacks the overt sleaze, elaborate/gory murders, and often exotic locations of its European counterparts. There is a certain charm to the films often prudish-but-often intriguing & fairly pacey unfold. Here from Network is a recent region B Blu Ray reissue, which offers up a new HD transfer of the film from the original 35MM Negatives.
For many years this lesser known, though effective & sleazy proto-slasher was in the public domain- so it appeared on a bunch of low-grade collections, and budget releases as various bad prints. Here from French cult/ horror movie label Artus- is a great re-mastered print of the film on DVD.
In the world of experimental music/ sound, collaborations between artists or projects are of particular interest to the listener, because different approaches to sound and composition often give an interesting and unexpected result- even when it’s an artist you're already familiar with.
Originally released in 1993, Maëror Tri's Archaic States is the third release in Zoharum's series of classic re-releases. While the advent of YouTube and P2P sharing has allowed fans to hear these releases without spending an arm and a leg, many fans still want physical releases, and Zoharum has come to their rescue. Limited to only 350 copies, fans of Maëror Tri should act quickly and snap up this excellent re-release.
In January 2017 Slomo, the Yorkshire duo of Holy McGrail and Howard Marsden finally released their fourth album Transits. A shimmering, ambient, psychedelic happening that thrilled and delighted fans of the band. Over a year on from that and the band released Super-Individual: Collective Ritual, a collection of 12 remixes of the track Super-Individual by a varied and interesting selection of artists hand-picked by the band to remix this epic twenty-three-minute slice of electronic drone. They chose a diverse array of talent for the purpose, from Teleplasmiste, to Gnod, and Andrew Liles to Teeth of the Sea, each has deconstructed the ambient cosmic drone of Super-Individual, rebuilding it in their own style. The twelve tracks are spread across two discs and vary in length from a mere four minutes (Teeth of the Sea) all the way up to the epic twenty four minutes of Gnod’s remix.
Between 2001 and say 2006 I thought of Autechre as one of my favorite & most personally influential projects. The British two piece basically got me into the idea of noise, their later albums like Confield, Draft 7.30 & Untilted literal blew my mind- showing the true possibilities of complex electronic compositions. And their early-to mid-period albums like Amber, Chiastic Slide & LP5 really were/are benchmarks on how to create original & wholly distinctive electronica records- that both pushed the envelope, yet also offered up rich & emotional atmospheres. Sadly at the release of 2008’s Quaristice my interest started to drift & falter, as it seemed the project were moving away from the more complex & often lengthy composition they were known for, towards still edgy–but-slightly more approachable, and often shorter sound craft.
Insect Cult is three CDR/digital download that brings together six half-an-hour tracks that blend together often very subtle textured noise & subdued simmer ambience. The release appeared last April on Russian label Reason Art Records- and as of the publication of this review the label still has physical copies.
Refiorms is a two CDR/ digital download, which finds two projects in the more ambient side of the noise offering up a disc a piece of material.The work goes from moody wall-noise/ textured noise matter, through to dense brooding weaves of murky drone matter & slurred noise detail. This release appeared late summer last year, in a physical edition of twenty copies- and as of this review, the Reason Art label still have copies left.
Molecules of Motion, one of Steve Roach's many recent works, strikes a balance between his more composed, directly melodic Berlin School derived works (such as Skeleton Keys or Emotions Revealed) and the undirected vaporous chordal ether of his space ambient pieces. In this way, it is similar to such albums as Arc of Passion from 2008 and Spiral Meditations from 2013.
Gruenrekorder, the ever reliable label for all things in the realm of field-recording based sound art, presents Voll.Halb.Langsam.Halt by Gregory Büttner. This release is available in both CD and digital formats.
Third Coast Ensemble are a sixteen-piece jazz/ improv collective- bringing together members from both the US & France. Wrecks is seemingly the collective first ever release- and as you might expect from such a large ensemble the sound here is rather varied. Going from more melodic & building, through to densely weaving, onto playful & jiving, though to slightly more difficult & angular- all laced with the occasional performed & spoken word elements.
The Baby is a fairly pedestrian & soapy-though-at-times queasy shot of shockploitation from the 1970’s.The film blends together dysfunctional family drama, low-key hag horror, thriller, with a few fleeting moments of violence & sleaze. The film has been out of print for a few years, and has never had a Blu Ray- so here from Arrow Video, we get a new 2k reissue of the film.
It’s fair to say that as a form black metal can be a fairly diverse. Some bands adhere strictly to traditions, while others liberally stretch & almost break the genre. But sometimes with-in quite a traditional black metal, you can get subtle interesting touches and nudges- that gentle push the genre in rewarding ways…and that’s what exactly what we have here.
In simpler times, disco took the world by storm and managed to paint itself into every corner of the globe. Not surprisingly, synth loving, beat driven Germany celebrated its open parameters and supreme danceability. This during a time when Neue Deutsche Welle, thrash, and industrial music were on the rise as well, showing how diverse a music scene there was in Germany during this time.
Hailing from the city of St Louis in Missouri, The Lion’s Daughter released this their third full length album in July of this year. The band were formed in 2007 by vocalist/guitarist Rick Giordano, drummer Erik Ramsier, and bassist/vocalist Scott Fogelbach. Extreme in nature, the band utilise influences from across the metal spectrum, and have an excellent reputation as a live act, having played with such legendary bands as High on Fire, Behemoth, Pig Destroyer, Nachtmystium and Dark Funeral to name just a few. This latest release marks a new chapter in the band’s development as they take on board new ideas and augment their sound further with the inclusion of keyboards, a move that often sucks the life out of extreme metal bands, however in this instance it has done quite the opposite. Let’s get down to the review.
"Crackling Worship" by Serbian HNW project Dosis Letalis is a 5-CD set out on the inimitable Altar of Waste label. Frequent readers will recognize the name of both, with Nemanja having given an interview here on this site before and with many, many releases from the AOW catalog having appeared here in the past as well. The reputation of both the artist and the label cannot be overstated.
Body is the twenty-fourth album from Australian three-piece The Necks. It sees the trio offering up a single fifty six minute track that blurs the boundaries between minimalistic & trance inducing jazz, subtle-yet moody improvising, jangling atmospheric rock scaping, and slowly simmered noir tipped- ambience.
Momentary Encounters offers up a selection of fragile, languid, & often extremely sparse examples of modern composition from Canadian composer Alex Jang. The four tracks utilize a relatively varied – but often paired-back sonic pallet that moves from blends of field recordings & wood wood, mixes of percussion, string & woodwind, and guitar.
Released on the cusp of the 1970’s Horror Of Malformed Man is a deliriously deranged & unpredictable slice of fever- dream fuelled horror. The film remained banned in it’s native Japan until last year, and it’s safe to say it’s one of the more unusual horror films to appear in either the 60’s or for that matter the 1970’s. On Arrow Video this is first ever Blu Ray release of the film- which offers up a wonderful crisp & defined new scan of the film, as well as a good selection of extras.
Appearing late last year Maximum Perversum is a four CDR set/ digital download from ultra-prolific French wall-noise project Chier. The set brings together a fairly varied selection of different types of wall-craft, going from heavy, blurred-yet shifting. Onto brutal, focused & often interestingly textured, though to moodily perverse & horror filled.