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Originally appearing in the late 1980’s Zombie 3 is a classic slice of ‘bad-euro horror’. Blending together stilted acting, campy 80’s fashion, dumb-yet amusing dialog, & cheesy sound-tracking- with moments of often ridiculous gore & bad action scenes. Here on Severin we have a double disc Blu Ray & CD reissue of the film & its soundtrack.
It must be a good few years since I’ve heard anything from this Michigan based project; who creates lengthy trips into balky-yet-often fairly active walled noise. Here on Stockholm based Ominous Recordings- we have a C64/ digital releases of Vols 3 & 4 in the projects Earth’s Hum Series.
Coming three years after their debut EP, Carnation unleashes their first LP, Chapel of Abhorrence. Released by the juggernaut Seasons of Mist label, this slab of tasty, old school death pummels and pounds its way through 11 heavy tracks. Classic style with fresh production, Chapel of Abhorrence is an excellent way to thrash through an afternoon
Günter Schlienz is a German experimental musician, a member of the ambient/experimental post-rock band Navel, he also works under the alter ego Cosmic Winnetou, recording and releasing some of the finest cosmic sounds around. He is also noted for building his own modular synthesizers, which he uses in the creation of his music.
Electroplasmic Veiling serves up two hours worth of distinctively moody & creepy walled-noise from this Seattle Washington project. It comes in the form of either a double C90 box set, or as a digital download.
Sans Valeur is an extremely lengthy & totally unrelenting submersion in ultra stark, wholly empty, and abyss-like drone matter- which sits somewhere between husk-like ambience & drone based wall noise. Here on Altar of Waste, we have a CDR release- taking in 75 minutes of terminal sonic stark-ness- it extends an original two-track forty minute digital release to new heights of crushing oppressive-ness.
Albums based on just percussion instruments tend to be rather rare. Especially if the album is not ethnic music, but an experiment played by several drummers.
Norweigen accordionist and bandleader Frode Haltli, who has sporadic recordings dating back to 2002, has assembled a diverse ten person ensemble for his latest project "Avant Folk". Common string and wind instruments like saxophone and violin are paired with exotic fare such as the harmonium and goat horn, for a colorful, vibrant sound.
Death by Metal is a recent documentary about genre-defining & shaping Florida band Death, and their founding member/ mastermind Chuck Schuldiner. Here on MVD Visual is a region free DVD of the film and a good selection of juicy extras.
Originally released in 2007, RMX finds a selection of The Residents back catalog receiving often electro focused rethinks/remixes. In all the release takes in fifteen tracks, from through-out these avant-pop collectives forty-plus year career.
Here we have a recent release from AGFA- and the main/ central film here is one of the more unique & bizarre movies from the 1970’s B movie cycle. It’s a decidedly haphazard mix of weird creature feature, cowboy movie, and more than a sprinkling of 70’s quirkiness/ trip-ness. The film comes in the form of a region free Blu Ray, with a pleasing enough batch of extra oddness.
Historically, Italy is home to not only a large number of respected industrial /noise projects, but also wider experimental music in general. One such project is Capricorni Pneumatici, which has been active since 1987. This is a duet of two musicians, hiding under the names of Pazuzu and Soda Caustica. The project plays gloomy music on the verge of ritual ambient, drone and concrete music.
Mayuko Hino, the "Queen of Japanese Noise," has very much earned her reputation. As a founding member of the legendary collaboration C.C.C.C, her noisy assault and bondage heavy performances, she cemented her place in not only Japanese noise, but the noise scene worldwide. Her second solo LP, Lunisolar, is two long form tracks of wonderful, noisy bliss.
With a title like Love Songs- you’d expect an album of mawkish, overly emotional, pleasing and possible lush songcraft- instead you get the complete polar opposite of what you’d imagine. It’s dark, jarring, unbalancing & often uneasy release, that blends together brooding ‘n’ building electro sound design, jarringly cut musique concrete elements, & overwhelming feel of unwell tension.
The Nolans/The Nolan Sisters have always stood as one of top draw guilty pleasures. Though-out the 70’s & the 80’s the British/ Irish girl group released a host of campy-yet- catchy pop fare, that dripped in & out of disco, synth-pop, pop-soul, and cheesy pop ballads. On Hot Shot Records (part of the Cherry Red group) is Chemistry a double-disc compilation of the sister’s finest moments- bringing together a 79 minute CD, with a DVD of videos from the group.
Tender Flesh is one of the more recent DVD reissues in Artus Film’s series of Jess Franco films. Originally released 1997 in the twilight of this euro-auteurs career, the film is certainly problematic, never really reaching the dizzying & powerful heights of his best work in the 70’s/ 80’s- but there are flashes of brilliance here & there, making this worth checking out for fans of the mans work.
This is particularly searing & ultra-intense HNW split- which brings together Serbian based Dosis Letalis, with US-based Planet Shithead. The release presents the listener with two thirty minute seas of sear, and really there is zero let-up and zero relief through-out.
Here we have the second of Vol Racy Reels, from the Something Weird vault. This time the theme is women’s liberation/ equality- and the two 1970’s films offered up here present the subject in fittingly un-pc & fairly male sexists form.
Critters sees the very welcome return of horror film obsessed US wall noise project Burial Ground. It must be coming on for three, maybe four years since this La Crosse, Wisconsin put out anything( aside from a micro/ self-released tape set from early this year)- so this really is a surprise/treat. As this releases title suggests the theme here is those razor teeth bound aliens from the 1980’s, and the four films they featured in. It comes in the form of a four business card mini CDR set, which appears on Serious Business label
Verhalten's "Corrupted Structures v.1" is the twenty-seventh release from Modern Tapes, based in Albuquerque, New Mexico (according to Bandcamp, although Discogs describes the label as being Chicago-based). This is the first time for me listening to and reviewing both the label and the artist in question. I have to say it's quite nice to be presented with opportunities like this - and to come into a release with few expectations and a totally open and clean pallette. I spend a lot of my time listening to music and noise from artists who I have a long history with and it's always refreshing to break from this chain. The release comes in a brown envelope rather than a cassette case, with the envelope closed by a sticker. With releases like these, and those that do use cases but seal those with stickers as well, I tend to use a scalpel to cut a fine line across the enclosing sticker to try and preserve the intended presentation. The tape takes in two tracks of identical size, one to each side.
Designer, artist, and musician Matt Nish-Lapidus' New Tendencies project follows up last year's Missed Month with L5 on Forking Paths Records. Composed on modular and numerous other different pieces of equipment, L5 brings forth a synthy, electronic recording that at points borders on industrial, and jumps to avant-garde dance at others. Well recorded and fun to listen to, L5 is a quick glimpse into what feels like a futuristic train ride.
Here’s a two-way euro wall noise split- this CDR brings together the bleak & windswept drone wall noise of Charles Razeur. With the searing, crude, and unchanging Harsh walled noise of infamous & hellishly prolific French project Vomir.
Chier x Kindstod is a thirty-minute walled-noise collaboration- it sees these French & German projects working together to create a subtle shifting & morphing example of moody, yet seared wall matter. The release appears in the form of a CDR on UK Void Singularity Recordings- it came in an edition of twenty copies, but as of this review the label is down to just six copies.
Svartsyn (in English - "pessimism") is a black metal band from Sweden, formed by guitarist Ornias and drummer Tormentor in 1991. Initially, under the name Chalice in 1993, the band recorded a demo called Evil Mental Cold Winter. Then, the group took the name Svartsyn and continued to exist, having undergone a number of line-up changes. In general, these are real veterans of the Scandinavian black metal scene, which of course in many ways influenced the modern bands playing in the Black Metal genre