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Named after the Tibetan word meaning to “to sever” or “cutting through the ego” Chöd is the one-person esoteric dark ambient project of French musician Dominique Maud. Bardo Thodol, based on the teachings of the book of the same name (The Tibetan Book of the Dead) features a collection of twenty two untitled tracks of raw, primordial sounding atmospheric ambience spread across two CDs, that was recovered from old DAT tapes recorded between 1996 and 1999.
In November 2018 I reviewed Vita Arkivet- the most recent album from Dark Ambient project Desiderii Marginis. At the same time Cyclic Law release a re-mastered version of the projects album 2001 Deadbeat- and that’s what I’m reviewing today
Un Lloc Entre Dos Records is an skeletal, bleakly fragile, and at times discordantly churning composition for solo acoustic guitar & sine waves. This fifty-three minute work sits somewhere between often sparse minimalism & stark electro-acoustic modern composition- with the release appearing on the always worthy Another Timbre label in the form of a CD.
Essence!, the first album of new material in eight years from Death in June, is rather aptly titled- as it distills everything you’d expect from this influential, though often controversial Neo-folk project. Over the albums eleven tracks, we get a blend of tightly moody yet often memorable strummed acoustic guitar, gloomy and wordy baritone vocals, and creative use of subtle sampling and unsettling studio effects.
As with any film sub-genre, Giallo’s come in a few different cinematic flavours. You have the classic who-done-it variety, that’s peppered with gory murders & black gloved killers. You have the arty & horror-lined surreal ones like Suspiria, or the perverse & sleaze bound ones like New York Ripper. Or you have the more melodramatic & thriller based ones, that are largely bloodless - and this is the bracket that The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion fits into. Here on Arrow Video( Uk & US), following on from their past reissues of lesser-known Giallo films- is a Blu Ray release of the film- taking in a great new scan, a new commentary track, and a good selection of extras.
Legendary industrial label Cold Spring recently unleashed their 250th release, and to celebrate, they've put out a 2xCD sampler stacked to the roof with 29 awesome tracks. Showcasing their wide breadth of current material, Cold Spring's Earthen compiles artists playing anything from noise to neo-folk, doom to torch songs, and dark ambient to death industrial. Limited to 4000 copies in a gatefold ecopak, this is a sampler that goes above and beyond the standard "ten track disc in a cardboard sleeve."
Hailing from the French cities of Nancy and Avignon, Piles are a trio of vastly experienced drummers, Anthony Laguerre, Guigou Chevenier and Michel Deltruc. Laguerre adds guitar and keyboards to help flesh out the band’s sound.
Possessed is the first album of new material from Alien Sex Fiend in eight years. It sees the two-piece craving out an often rough 'n' ready blend of snapping electro beats, retro synth grooves, chugging punked-blues guitar, and waveringly coarse-yet- ghoulish male vocals. It’s an album that certainly sees the band hanging onto its fairly unequal blend of Goth, psychobilly, punk, & electro-fired shock rock- but sadly for most of its runtime, it rather lacks the more tongue-in-cheek humour, and sense of quirky experimentation that makes their best work so rewarding.
Here’s a Baltic two way split CDR split bringing together two half-an-hour slabs of walled noise- we have often creative & respected Serbian project Dosis Letalis, and Russian based Extreme Kindness. The release appeared on UK wall-noise label Void Singularity Records .
Ben Bertrand's "NGC 1999" is a largely solo recording of ambient improvisations with bass clarinet and electronics. Though the title makes it sound like a live gig from 1999, it's actually a live (in studio?) recording from 2017. "NGC 1999" is also not the release's catalogue number, as the album was released by Les Albums Claus, and the catalogue number is 'lac011'.
The Forest Of The Lost Souls is a Portuguese horror film with arty intentions- filmed in classily scoped black & white. The film brings together elements of moody & bleak drama, brooding nature footage, and later elements of home-invasion/ slasher elements. Here on Wild Eye Releasing is an either Blu Ray or DVD release of the 2017 film- and I believe both of these are region free- I’m reviewing the Blu Ray version.
From Full Moon Features here’s another reissued slice of Euro-sleaze. This 1980 ’s film a bright, breezing, and decidedly leering sex comedy from infamous Swiss director/producer Erwin C. Dietrich, who of course produced a fair few Jess Franco movies in the ’70s.
Malamorte is one of the projects of Italian musician Alex Nunziati, also of Lord Vampyr, Cain, Nailed God, Shadowsreign and Sepolcrum. The project started in 2014 with an EP titled The Fall Of Babylon, which was black metal with heavy elements. In 2016, the first full-length album, titled Devilish Illusions, was released, made in the spirit of the debut EP. The next album, Satan Goes to Heaven to Destroy the Kingdom of God, released in 2017, showed a change of style towards Occult / Doom Heavy Metal.
Earlier Music is a collection of material from the early 1980s recorded by Officer!- the decidedly wonky & sonically unwell British project helmed by Mick Hobbs( Half Japanese). The CD offers up twenty tracks in all- these move from unbalanced singer-songwriter fare, very off-kilter 80’s pop, unhinged folk rock, world music touches, and generally avant tinged genre blending. The release appeared late last year on Austrian experimental music label Klanggalerie, who in the past have reissued works by the likes of The Residents, Renaldo And The Loaf, and Un Drame Musical Instantané- so it’s the perfect label for this release.
Originally released on cassette in 1988 (and reissued on CDr in 1999), Asmus Tietchens' Linea has been once again reissued for a modern audience. This time, though, Klanggalerie has reached out to Asmus and obtained two extra, unused tracks from his original sessions. This new, special edition CD breathes new life into an old Musique Concrete release.
From early summer last year this is Australian/ French C30 split featuring two side-long examples of walled-noise. The cassette moves from densely searing-yet subtle shifting atmospherics of Adelaide’s Visitation, onto the blunt & rushing HNW batterings of Paris based Vomir.
Here’s a two way Euro wall-noise split bringing together Dutch project Ratteknaeghen, and Spanish noise-droner Damien De Coene. Both tracks here rather have a constantly spinning roller quality about them- with one focusing in on rapid industrial like wall-ing, and the other on a more moody & churning introspective wall- matter.
Disciplining Eugenie is the fifth full-length release from Stockholm based Gamiani- who creates kinky fetish themed walled noise. The release appeared in Oct last year- coming in the form of a C90, and digital form- offering up two forty four minute slices of ear-searing & brain squeezing HNW.
Machinefabriek hails from Rotterdam in the Netherlands. He is the one-man electro-acoustic ambient musical project of musician, sound designer and graphic artist Rutger Zuydervelt. Short Scenes came into existence as a by-product of a soundtrack that Zuydervelt was working on with violinist Anne Bakker.
Blood Harvest seesaws between 1980’s camp-ness & perverse-often-blood spurted unease. This 1987 picture brings together elements rural thriller, psychosexual slasher, and cheesy romantic drama- with the added unhinge-ness of a latter day Tiny Tim; dressed as a dishevelled cryptic poetry & song spouting clown. From Vinegar Syndrome here’s a doubled-headed Blu Ray & DVD release of the film- offering up a great fully-uncut new 4k print of the picture, a new commentary track, and a selection of interviews from around the time with Mr Tim.
From the early 1990s, Star Time is a decidedly arty, relatively bloodless, though fairly original take on the serial killer genre. Here from Vinegar Syndrome- those intrepid trackers of lost cinematic cult fare is a duel Blu Ray & DVD release of the film- featuring a new director’s commentary, and a handful of other extras.
That Would Have Been Decent is a woozy–to-caustically seared journey into modular synthesizing & avant Sax playing. The six track CD falls in the gaps somewhere between avant jazz, often manic improv, abstract electro texturing, and roasting-to-alien sound-tracking.
Originally appearing in 1995 The Venus Bellona is a true genre-crossing oddity- bringing together highly theatrical & wordy male vocals, campy & densely layered synth- scaping, often moody sound effect layered acoustic guitar focused folk. Dark ritual electronica, dramatic & fantasy fuelled soundtracking, prog-bound Goth rock & death rock, and forays into world music elements. Here we have a CD reissue of the album on Faust- the manly dungeon synth-focused sub-label of Ukraine based noise/ industrial label Old Captain.
In more recent years American project Equitant have been performing a blend of EBM /electro/techno style music. But their first two demo albums, The Circle of Agurak(1993) and The Great Lands of Minas Ithil(1994), represented something close to Dungeon Synth. Behind this project is Raymond Dillard Heflin- former member of the cult black metal band Absu.