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Veteran German electronic musician/producer Arovane began in 2000, with his debut album "Atol Scrap", an emotive and solidly composed, if rather straightforward, entry into the subdued side of the IDM genre, defined by catchy, symmetrical melodies and downtempo energy levels coupled with glitchy, complex drum programming. He has come a long way since the music of his debut, and the 'thoughtful noise' found in this latest collaboration with Portya Hatami (with whom I am otherwise unfamiliar) is closer to musique concrete than IDM.
Here we have a recent rendition of the Philip Glass’s Music With Changing Parts from this ten piece electronic ensemble. And boy is it a sonically thick, layer shifting, and sonically complex take on the piece- that comes in somewhere between dense minimalism, meaty modern composition, and rich ‘n’ cascading Berlin style electrionica.
My Friend Dahmer is a part coming-of-age story, part domestic drama, & part subtly psycho study telling the teenage story of US serial killer/cannibal Jeffery Dahmer.The film is a talky, at times arty slow burn- which along the way adds in elements of sly dark humor, moments of building uneasy, and extremely fleeting moments of gore/ violence. If you’re looking for a grim & bloody serial killer flick, with lots of tension/ threat- this isn’t the film for you. But if you after a well acted, intelligent & thought-provoking film about the growth of a human monster- you’ll find much to like here.
Here we have a Blu Ray issue of two decidedly quirky, deranged, though fairly tame martial arts/action films from the 1970’s. Featured here is Turkish made The Sword And The Claw, and South Korean made The Brawl Busters.
Shortly after the Melvins released The Maggot back in 1999, which contained their absolutely monolithic cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “The Green Manalishi (With The Two-Pronged Crown),” I remarked to a friend that I’d really love to hear the band do a proper, stripped-down rock n’ roll record. Given their penchant for covering songs by KISS, Queen, Ted Nugent, the MC5, the Mac, Black Sabbath, the Kinks, and a whole bunch of others, I thought Buzz and Dale could easily turn in something fierce, a whirlwind of sleazily obvious riffage and simplistic, perhaps regressive, youthful aggression adhering to a classic template. I’m pleased to say that “Pinkus Abortion Technician,” the Melvins’ 27th (or so) studio album, comes pretty damn close to the realization of my wish.
Here from BGO, we have a double CD reissue bringing together four mid-to-late 70’s album’s from this respected & prolific Chicago based pianist & composer. And each album highlights both Mr. Lewis versatility & skill- over the four albums moving from between P-Funk like work-outs & groovy-to-romantic soul, onto more African and Latin-styled jazz fusion. Through to horn-laden & funk lined easy listening, onto more dramatic & dynamic sound-tracking/ work-outs with a keyboard/ piano lead.
Do Nothing offers up a suite of six pieces for guitar & percussion. And the sound here is (mostly) best described as very minimal & bare bone modern composition, with some slight jazz bound & ritual like flavors mixed in.
Since their foundation in the mid-80s, the Fossil Aerosol Mining Project have experienced several stops and revivals, through thorough-out they have remained consistently devoted to the ambient sound collage style. Using old films, audio cassettes, records, old equipment and much more, the project produces interesting, but at times strange sound works, which could easily be the soundtrack to some post-apocalyptic movie or game.
Originally composed in 1982 For John Cage is one of the more angular, urgent & flightily moody compositions from the great Morton Feldman. Here from Bridge Records, we have a recent release of 2017 playing of the piece.
Less than a year after the fourth installment of the stellar Too Slow to Disco series, How Do You Are? heads to the tropical climes of Brazil for their latest compilation. Enlisting the help of Brazilian artist and musical curator, Ed Motta, this newest collection features many hard to find funk, soul, and AOR gems from a diverse scene. Whether very familiar with the acts on display, or a new comer to the Brazilian scene, every fan of slow, smooth disco owes him or herself the treat of spinning this release and welcoming in the great weather.
Hungarian label The Level of Invulnerability presents a split between Necrotik Fissure and The Rita. Available as both a C40 cassette and digital download, the split offers up two varying takes on the HNW idiom.
A decade since their debut release I, Dark Buddha Rising have returned with the widely anticipated blackened, psychedelic, doom of their 7th release II. The band hail from the town of Tampere in Finland, their lineup consisting of of J. Ramanen on drums, P. Ramanen on bass, V Ajomo on guitar, J. Saarivouri on synth and vocalist M Neuman. II represents the band’s first release for their new lable Neurot Recordings, with whom they signed two years ago.
Here we have a rather satisfying & enjoyable walled noise split from June last year. The CDR offers up three fairly different examples of the form going from the unrelenting grinding crude-ness of Vomir. Through to atmospherically focused-yet- pelting wall craft of Asleep In The Lake. Onto the lo-fi & muffled hazed textured persistence of Duplo Chat.
Octopus are the soon to be crowned overlords of Detroit doom metal. Their sound is a unique amalgam of psychedelic doom, classic NWOBHM and progressive rock. Freshly signed to Rise Above Records this is their debut release, formed in 2008 by guitarist J. Frezzato, and vocalist Masha Marjieh the band have taken ten years to hone their craft which is why this debut record is so damn good. Not many bands can mix up the influences the way these guys do without sounding like a pastiche, these guys can. The lineup is completed by bassist Matt O’Brien, drummer Chuck Burns and keyboard wizard Adam Cox.
Your Blonde Wife presents the listener with two ten minute examples of sourly sleazed, extremely searing & often shifting walled noise. This C20/ digital release appeared in February of this year on ominous Recordings- and as of this review the label still have copies of the tape left.
From October last year here, we have a C39/ digital release from California based She Walks Crooked, who since 2013 have been slowly but surely been releasing a quality bound selection of walled noise releases. Pink Foot Bandage Volume 1 offers up two side-long tracks that nicely blur between building & tonally varied wall-craft, and densely buffeting drone craft.
Anonymous Masturbaudioum's "Pantyhose Rubbing" was released in December, 2015, on the Italian noise label Signora Ward. It was released on white C60 cassettes in a clear casing, with black and white artwork depicting feminine feet in pantyhose. The tape came only a year on from when they had begun a wave of HNW releases focused on the genre's relationship with worship and fetishization. Specifically, Signora Ward is known throughout the HNW realm as the home of the "Nylon HNW". While it can hardly be considered the very first noise vehicle to draw upon these thematics, the determined proclivity of the label was perhaps unmatched once the obsession had spiralled and spiralled- from its inception at the end of 2014 through to this, it's thirtieth release, at the end of the following year- in that time proving beyond all doubt to most listeners that this label had gone furthest in their allegiance to this topic.
This two disk anthology of 21st century classical ('art') music is a state funded project by Music Information Centre Lithuania, which promotes Lithuanian music worldwide. Eastern Europe in general has a strong history of classical music, although there aren't many noted composers to come from Lithuania specifically.
It’s fair to say Mad Foxes is one of the most OTT, depraved, and sleazy shots of exploitation you’ll ever have seen. Originally released in 1981, and pretty much banned in most of the world for many years- the film is a scuzzy blend of biker, kung fu, and vigilante cinema- smeared with liberal amounts of flesh( both male & female), gory death, and very un-PC sentiment. Here from Full Moon Features, we have a recent region free DVD.
Ten Years Under The Earth blends together elements of (mostly) pared back improv, acoustic industrial/ ritual texturing, organic dark ambience & field recordings. The single forty five minute track offered up here moves from the foreboding & eerier, to the building & atmospheric, onto the denser & (semi) noisy.
The Devil’s Rain is a 1975 horror film starring Ernest Borgnine, William Shatner and Tom Skerritt. It is also remembered as the film debut of a young up and coming actor, a pre-Carrie and Grease, John Travolta. The movie was directed by the wonderful English film maker Robert Fuest, he of The Final Programme, and Dr Phibes movies. If you’ve seen these movies you already know to expect something a little different that will challenge its audience, which The Devil’s Rain does in spades.
Swedish industrial stalwart Nordvargr returns to the fold once again with his latest, Metempsychosis. His first on the revered Cyclic Law label, this brutal slab of grim, pounding, ritualistic industrial unleashes Nordvargr's long distant, primitive past, and captures the raw emotion of the human condition. The struggle for survival is not always pretty, and the music on Metempsychosis revels in this grim, uphill battle.
When one considers 80's British Punk music, you often think of spiky angry- focused in on the government, the establishment, or big business. Sunderland based Toys Dolls where one of the first bands to focus in more humorous & comic lyrical themes. Which was backed by the bands often speedy, tuneful, and playful punk sound that brought together elements of pop punk, Oi, & guitar-based pop indie. Here we have a five-CD box set- bringing together all of the band's output between the years 1983 & 1987- taking four studio albums, and a disc of rarer B sides/ alternative track versions.
This self-titled release is the first ‘official’ solo release from Hardy Fox, who has recently revealed himself as one of the key minds behind avant pop/ experimental trickster The Residents. This CD offers up a selection of emotional & at times quite fraught electronica/ minimal synth pop- all topped off with Mr. Fox’s weary, wavering, yet often felt vocals