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Jérôme Bouve & Delphine Dora present an album of thoughtfully yearning magickal drone, encircled with field recordings, for their first collaboration, this album entitled Vents d’aether, released on Hallow Ground. The album has a twenty-minute opening track, titled after the album, followed by a series of shorter pieces.
This 2-disc DVD collection from FilmLandia and Aggregate Media features two documentary films looking at the VHS phenomenon that swept across the planet in the 1980s. Both films are a nostalgic trip into the golden age of VHS, however we are treated to a lot of chat and discussion about how VHS tapes continue to live on in the horror and exploitation underground. The two documentaries featured on this set are VHS Lives!: A Shlokumentary, and VHS Lives 2: Undead Format, both directed by Tony Newton (Virus of the Dead, Plague of the Dead and Grindsploitation).
Symphonies is a five CD boxset collecting together the output of French Prog Rock Band Clearlight- whose sound brought in elements of symphonic rock, space rock, jazz fusion, and proto new-age music. Most of the albums come from the 70’s, though the last album is from the 2010’s.
Theta Seven is the latest, and seemingly last album from Sheffield’s genre blenders Orchestra Of The Upper Atmosphere. The eleven track affair finds eight piece once again letting go of the normal musical genre restraints, to create a wonderful drifting and flowing experience.
Langeleik is a collaboration between two respected and revered pedal-steel players- Norway’s Geir Sundstøl and London-based Joe Harvey-Whyte. The resulting nine track album nicely slips from the mellow, into the trippy/ vaguely groovy, onto the moody/ dramatic.
From South Carolina’s No Fun HNW here is a just shy of half an hours’ worth of chopping static & baying bass toned walled noise. It’s wall craft that managers to sit in both crudity and almost roughshod groove.
Here’s a wall noise split bringing together Czechia’s RDKPL, and Portland’s Hana Haruna. Each project severs up two tracks, running ten mins a picec- with the former presenting us with dense/ malfunction ‘walls’. And the latter more layered/ nuanced take on the genre.
Diathermy II is a decidedly entrancing slice of walled noise- blending soothing bass purrs, skittering-yet mellow static grain rubs, and a generally comfy feel. This is digital release takes in a single thirty two minute track from this Oregon-based project, which started last year.
The Dancing Hawk is a Polish rags-to-riches drama, told in a surreal, arty, and at times troubling manner. The film utilises some wonderful unbalancing/creative camera work, a general keen sense of unpredictability, and a distinctly skewed take on storytelling. It follows the life of a country boy, who works his way up the corporate ladder- trying to keep connected with his roots, but also focusing on what’s best for him. Here from Radiance Films is a new Blu-ray release of the film. It takes in a 4k scan of the picture, a new interview, and a selection of a few shorts by the director
Highway To Hell is a quirky, at times downright darkly wacky take on the road movie form. This early 90’s film blends fantasy, horror, action and dark satire- it regards a late teenage pizza delivery driver, eloping with his girlfriend to LA. But on the way, they literally ride into hell.Here from Transmission, Radiance Films' sublabel, is a new Blu-ray of this seen/ known film. With a new HD scan, two new commentary tracks- with a selection of old & new archive extras.
From the early 2000’s Decadent Evil sits at the sleazier and bloody end of Charles Bands huge filmography. It brings together bloody throat rippings, darkly glamours female vamps, randy Homunculus, and little person vampire hunter played by Phil Fondacaro (Troll, Ghoulies II, Willow). Here from Full Moon Features is a Blu Ray release of the film.
Immersing himself in the scoring of film and theater, Kreng has gone over a decade without releasing a personal album, but has come back to Miasmah to drop his latest, Wormhole. His time spent building cinematic tension and atmosphere is carried over wholesale for this work, as the album is rich with feeling, texture, and storytelling, the music guiding the listener on an unexpected and gorgeous journey. Dramatic and daring, Wormhole provides vivid, sonic imagery and a road map for the listener to take an interstellar trip into the unknown, as well as into the inner depths of their own psyche.
Processed into near-unrecognizable passages of ringng and breath, the saxophone on Alex Zhang Hungtai‘s Dras is unlike any I’ve heard. While the recordings for Dras were made in 2019, it’s clear that a great deal of planning and curating went into the progression and drift of this album as it is now, which moves from strangulated bleats to wide-open expanses into the unknown. The title track opens with what sounds like a phalanx of ring mods and flangers, bellowing from somewhere deep beneath an oceanic trench. The metal chambers of the saxophone have never sounded quite so metallic!
Danger: Diabolik is a camp, cool, and often groovy slice of 60’s supervillain action. Helmed by Mario Bava- it features, as you’d expect a great eye for colour, amazing set design, and clever shot composition. There’s a moody/ doesn’t say a lot supervillain, with futurist underground hideout, and some great suspenseful set-ups, going from high up in the sky, to deep down in the ocean. Here from Eureka is dual disc UHD/ Blu Ray release of the film. It takes in a 4k scan, three commentary tracks, and some most instresting extras.
Topographie Parisienne is four CD box collection featuring some truly stealler improv/ avant jazz from three masters of the genre- guitarist Derek Bailey, saxophonist Evan Parker, and percussionist/ other instruments Han Bennink. The set takes in three nights worth of live recordings captured in April 1981 at in Paris.
Here’s a CD compilation focusing on the Jamaica dub out put out by independent label Burning Sounds- who formed in the late 80’s. As its title suggests it features twenty tracks- with a fairy varied mix of different types of dub.
It’s fair to say that along with both Jaws and Star Wars, The French Connection is one of the most influential pictures of the 1970’s. The Amsterdam Kill is one of the many pictures inspired/ informed by the film. It regards a Amsterdam/ Hong Kong Heroin ring, were a Ex-DEA agent- played by ageing Hollywood star/ tough guy Robert Mitchen,is brought into try uncovering the ring with the help of a informant. The late 70’s film also features Leslie Nielsen in a supporting role, and is for the most part a engaging enough/ twist ‘n’ turning plotted crime drama, with touches of action and a few WTH moment. Here from 88 Films is a Blu Ray release of the film, taking in a 2k scan, a commentary track, a interview with one of the films actors.
From last year, The Space Rodent is a low-budget mix of comedy, sci-fi, and horror- really in that order. Set-in small-town America, on Halloween day/ night- it focuses on two thirtysomethings couples, and their encounters with jabbering, red eyed wolf aliens. It’s a fairly gore-less affair, the alien creature effects bring to mind a very cheap mix of the invaders from Attack The Block and Critters. Though the space effects are neat, and we get a few moments of tension/ fear, but really the most rewarding element here is the character interaction/ humour. Here from SRS Cinema is a Blu Ray release of film.
Earth's surface is roughly seventy-one percent water, and with our bodies being a little shy of that percentage as well, one can see why water is such a frequent source of artistic inspiration. Werner Dafeldecker and Lawrence English team up for their third release together, Fathom Tides, to investigate and explore costal environments, tides, and the cyclical changes found all over our vast world with the question in mind: "What impact do we have on the world we inhabit?" The seven pieces on Fathom Tides were all born from coastal field recordings by English which where then treated by Dafeldecker, along with his addition of some further electronics.
His Motorbike, Her Island is a 1986 romantic drama from director Nobuhiko Obayashi (Hausu, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Labyrinth of Cinema) and based on the 1977 novel by Yoshio Kataoka. The film stars Kiwako Harada (Godzilla Vs King Ghidora, Yuwakusha and Hana’s Miso Soup), Noriko Watanabe (Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Godzilla Tokyo S.O.S. and Tsumiki kuzushi), Riki Takeuchi (Dead or Alive, Battle Royale II: Requiem and Blood), Ryoichi Takayanagi (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Legend of the Eight Samurai and Bullet Train Explosion) and Takahiro Tamura (Tora! Tora! Tora!, Hoodlum Soldier and Seisaku’s Wife).
Released in the early 1990’s, Voices From Beyond was the penultimate film from Italian director Lucio Fulci. It was his 52nd feature film, and it found him returning to the more macabre, dream-focused and surreal feel of his early 80s pictures. with some very memorable set pieces, and moments of ffectively shocking gore. The film is a blend of how/who-done-it mystery, beyond-the-grave horror, and bickering/back-stabbing soapy 90’s drama. Here from those swell folks at Severin is a three-disc reissue of the film. Taking in a UHD, Blu-ray, and CD. It features a new 4k scan, over an hour of extras, and the film's soundtrack.
Shogun’s Samurai is an epic addition to Eureka’s Master of Cinema series. Released in 1978, director and co-writer Kinji Fukasaku’s chanbara epic is packed with clashing samurai and rōnin swords and deadly intrigue that might well leave viewers feeling they’ve watched a dynasty rise and fall over its 130-minute runtime.
Nicolas Leirtrø's Action Now is a quartet which I immediately noticed includes one of my favorite modern free jazz performers, saxophonist Mats Gustafsson. Their lineup also includes Kit Downes on organ, Veslemøy Narvesen on drumset and Nicolas Leirtrø handling double bass and compositional duties. These are all musicians who hail from the Scandinavian or larger European jazz scene, which has been a rich vein of forward thinking music over the years. Entrance is their first album as a group, an hour long recording with eight tracks.
If you’re into sharp parodies, Oonagh Haines’ debut release, Not Not Pretending, might be right up your alley. Do you drive a Ford Focus? Are you liable to torch said Ford by creating a candlelight ambience inside it to impress a love interest? These are just some of the comical scenes sketched over minimalist beats and heavily-pitched vocals, in the Queen’s— what else! Despite the parasitic nature of Haines’ stylings, some of the rudimentary beatmaking is actually pretty listenable, if that were the aim here, though I suspect it’s not.