Loading
Here’s a double-headed satanic themed curio from Vinegar Syndrome. We have 1974’s Lucifer's Women- a rather rare occult mystery, which here gets it's first ever released. And 1978’s Doctor Dracula- a decidedly campy & muddle film that blends together elements from Lucifer’s Women, with a soap-bound & bloodless vampire plot. Both films featuring the expected classy Vinegar Syndrome scans, along with a fair selection of extras.
Georgian sound artist Rezo Glonti returns as Aux Field for his sophomore release, Square Landscapes. Using deftly layered synths, rhythms, and oscillations, Aux Field constructs an expressive and deep synthscape that further unfolds itself on successive listens. When paired with the glitchy, black and white line work on the album sleeve, the listener is brought into a futuristic world.
Experimental guitarist and experimental ambient soundscape creator Mike Fazio has been releasing his unique output through his own personal label, Faith Strange, for more than 20 years, under various aliases. The other two releases I've heard from this moniker, A Guide For Reason, were brief mini-CDrs containing spacious musique concrete-esque presentations of liquified processed guitar texture. "Iconography", however, is a hefty full length album, with 4 pieces nearing 20 minutes each.
Antropophagus stands as one of the more reserved, creepy, and bleakly moody films from notorious euro-horror/ sleaze director Joe D'Amato - though it’s still managed to get on the UK video nasty list, and got accused of been snuff movie. Here from Serevin, we get a recent region free Blu Ray of the film- offering up a new 2k scan, and some juicy new extras.
The Nightmares is a recent CD release from HNW/static noise legend Werewolf Jerusalem- the discs takes in seven tracks, and has a runtime of forty-eight minutes. The sound here is very much darkly atmospheric wall-craft, with a few dips into more dense & dark ambient waters.
This latest reissue from Talking Elephant is the fourth album from Rare Bird, originally released by Polydor records in 1973, Somebody’s Watching was their second for the label, and also their second since their shift away from the more progressive sounds of their first two albums in favour of a more radio friendly style. Unfortunately for Rare Bird, this change of style did not herald the commercial success they had craved since the moderate commercial accomplishments of their debut single, Sympathy, which charted at number 27 in February of 1970. Despite their attempts to create something with mass appeal they never managed to breach the charts again, either with albums or singles and Sympathy remains their only chart success.
Legion of Swine's 'italia' is an LP which was conceived and recorded in Naples in April 2015, using samples from Pompeii and Vesuvius, and consequently dubbed to a limited run of cassettes on the Leeds (UK) label Ojud Records.
States of Minds is the fourth album from this genre-blurring Norwegian five-piece. The double album sees the collectively liberally bending, melting & merging together elements of jazz, rock, electronica, & ambience into a selection of often twisting & turning sonic adventures that flit between build & changing song-craft, abstract improv, and playful tone poems.
Oasis Of The Lost Girls is a grimy slice of unapologetic sleaze from the 1980’s. It was originally put out by notorious French erotica & exploitation studio Eurocine; who of course put out some of Jess Franco’s more openly perverse & simplistically sleazy features. On Full Moon Features here we have a recent region-free DVD of the film, and I believe this is the first time the films been put out on DVD.
Here we have a CD reissue of two late 1990’s examples of dungeon synth/ fantasy focused dark ambience from Finish project Jääportit. This is one of the first batch of releases on Faust- the new dungeon Synth sub-label of respected Ukraine based post-industrial label Old Captain- and I must say I’m most impressed by the sounds within, and the releases packaging- so I’m most looking forward to checking out more from Faust
Tyrannic - are an Australian band from Sydney, and they create music at the intersection of black, doom, thrash, and death metal. Moreover, it is worth noting that the group focuses on the origins of these genres, playing the old-school mix of these musical styles.
Vaporwave is a micro-genre that's largely passed me by. The style has its roots in the late 2000s during that productively turbulent period around the start of the Arab Spring and the UK riots of 2011 and came along with other short-lived forms such as Witch House and the even more improbably themed Seapunk. All these forms share a common antecedent in the chopped and screwed style of hip-hop pioneered by Texan DJ Screw along with familial associations to hypnagogic pop and the side projects of Daniel Lopatin's Oneohtrix Point Never, such as Chuck Person and Games.
Pär Boström returns with another solo project; this time under the moniker Bonini Bulga. More atmospheric and minimal than his Kammarheit project, Bonini Bulga's Sealed presents wonderfully mingling layers and often introspective synth drones. With the cooler weather approaching, Sealed is a great soundtrack to a very welcome season.
The final release from Parisien HNW mistress - Naughty - came in the form of the dire and pummelling 'Grateful' c90 release, out through Spokane-based Lost Light Records.
The Ravenous Dusk is the debut album from the mysterious Apparition. Very little seems to be known about Apparition as an entity, is it a single person, a band, and from where do they hail? What we do know is that they produce pseudo horror movie soundtracks with more than a nod to the classics of the genre. You will hear the influence of John Carpenter, Goblin, Fabio Frizzi, Vangelis, Richard Einhorn, Rick Wakeman, Keith Emerson and a host of the best 80s revival Electronica that is currently popping up all over. The difference here is that you get the feeling this is more of a continuation of a tradition that had begun with the likes of Goblin and Frizzi.
Originally released back in 1995 Stormcrowfeet was the majestic, grand & epic debut album from key Finnish Funeral doom band Skepticism. Here on Svart records we get a much-needed reissue of the album- featuring a brand new remastering from the original master tapes, and coming in three different formats double vinyl, transparent red vinyl & CD- this is the first time this album has had a vinyl pressing.
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.