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Toxic is a modern free jazz trio consisting of sax and wind player Mat Walerian, pianist Matthew Shipp and bassist William Parker, who apparently hasn't been in the studio since he appeared on Frank Lowe recordings in the 60's. This new album, entitled "This Is Beautiful Because We Are Beautiful People" is the group's first release, though Walerian and Shipp have been quite active in recent years, including some previous collaborations with each other.
Jazz' Mad is a decidedly quirky & sometimes outsider tinged synth album from the early 1980’s- it blends together elements off-kilter synth pop, epic & at times spacey synth-scaping, and more unhinged/indulgent moments. Behind the ADN Ckrystall project was Érick Moncollin, who was somewhat of a self-funded synth geek who decided to create his own distinctive blend of synth-focused music- which at times brings to mind the work of more recent synth outsiders like John Manus & Ariel Pink.
El Prêtro Maniaco is a one-man French project that creates an unwell & darkly hued blend of ambience, wonky synth 'n' slurred noise craft, and moody post-industrial sound-scaping. By all accounts, Opus Premum is the projects debut release- which originally appeared as a digital release in late 2015, but here it appears in both physical CDR & digital form on Required Of Rate Records.
Before the two Airplane films, The Naked Gun series, and the Scary Movies- there was this silly, at times amusing,and occasionally laugh-out-loud cult classic from 1978. Here on MVD’s new Rewind Collection line- we have a deluxe duel format reissue of the film, featuring a host of extras, commentaries, and even a poster.
Released on Unearthed Films & with connections to Ruggero Deodato (as producer & actor) one might expect Lilith's Hell is going to be something either brutal, or extreme & promisingly arty. But instead it’s a sadly rather a run-of-the-mill found footage movie- with a fairly interesting concept, that’s really not developed enough, and the odd effectively jumpy/ gore bound moments.
Hour of the Wolf is the eighth studio album by Canadian rock legends Steppenwolf, originally released in 1975. This new reissue courtesy of Talking Elephant records features the regular album and two additional bonus tracks, the single version of Caroline as well as the single’s flipside Angeldrawers.
From 1972 Shearwater was the seventh album from respected British folk guitarist & singer Martin Carthy- who was a member (twice) of Steeleye Span in the early & late 70’s, as well as a member of The Watersons, & The Albion Band. Here we have a 2017 CD reissue of the album on Uk’s Talking Elephant. And it’s wonderfully urgent-to-haunting folk album, mainly based around a pared-down & stripped backed guitar & vocals- with a few tracks been built purely around Carthy’s powerful sing-song/ folksy chanted vocals.
Prolific German sound artist Asmus Tietchens sees another back catalog re-release through Klanggalerie with Dämmerattacke. Originally released in 1997, the CD reissue features the original LP along with two bonus tracks. For fans of aerial electronics, this reissue of Dämmerattacke is a real treat.
Egg Booty brings together a selection of mainly short ‘n’ quirky tracks from (Charles) Bobuck- aka former Residents songwriter Hardy Fox. The CD features seventeen tracks that originally appeared either as exclusive downloads, via Fox’s website, or email mail-outs throughout 2017. So really this is very much the proverbial mixed bag, coming off a bit like the recently reissued Resident comp Dot.com, which also collected together web-based tracks.
From 1984 Disconnected is a fairly original & distinctive blend of slasher, psycho-drama, and arty horror/thriller. For many years the film languished in VHS obscurity, but here from Vinegar Syndrome- those saviors of many filmatic cult curios- we have a well-deserved duel format reissue of the film.
Composed in 1957 Winter Music is piano composition from reviled & respected modern classical & Avant grade composer John Cage. Here we have a 2017 release of a 2014 recording of the work, and I must say I was both pleasantly surprised & taken by this wonderfully jarring & angular work.
The self-titled split between Visitation and Transgresia came out on Ominous Recordings late December last year on a black c60 cassette tape. Visitation is the HNW project of Shaun Mara from Australia, who runs amazing labels such as Needle & Knife and Palinopsia - offering a veritable range of all things delicious noise. Transgresia is the relatively new and positively industrious project of Marko Šiljeg from Serbia - since birthing the project Marko has knocked out wall after wall like he's making up for lost time!
Confronting The Inhuman is a recent two track CDR from Serbian based walled noise/ static texturing project Dosis Letalis. The two ‘walls’ enclosed are both densely weaved, creatively texture, and rather mysterious & a little unsettling in their make-up.
This untitled HNW split has one of the more artily brutal & primal presentations I’ve seen- the shell scratched cassette comes wrapped in a black piece of ripped fabric, and this comes inside a bent, battered & scratched sheet of steel. The C46 brings together two of the most darkly intense, brutal unforgiving, and nihilistic focused HNW projects on the planet- Frances Vomir, and the USA based Nar- with each party offering up a similar nasty & unrelenting example of HNW roasting.
Here we have a C30 spilt that brings together two euro-based walled noise acts. Each artist takes up a side of a tape, with each offering a single fifteen-minute track, which leans more towards structure shifting wall-making. And for the split, we have Austrian based Bruising Pattern, and German-based She Destroys Hope. The release appears on the always worth Russian based wall label Reason Art Records.
French power electronics project Choisir Le Pire brings forth the grimy funk on the limited tape, Représentation du Six. Consisting of one near twenty minute track, this no frills, ripping approach is a refreshing taste of blistering, throbbing noise. Recorded live (the best way), the lack of overdubs gives the listener a front row seat to scathing static in is glory.
Conqueror of Emptiness is the debut release for this French Neofolk outfit, consisting of ten tracks dark ethereal music.
I think Niklas Göransson said it best in his 2016 article for Bardo Methodology when he described Phurpa as being like a Tibetan monastic choir that use a “specific kind of overtone chanting […] based on the principle of the singer’s transmogrification during the chanting meditation”. Hailing from that great Eastern European superpower Russia, little is known of the origins of Phurpa other than they are based Moscow and record and perform under the leadership of artist Alexei Tegin. The band have developed a fascinating contemporary take on the art of throat singing. Doing for this style of music, what Sunn 0))) have done for doom metal. They take it, strip it back to its base form and rebuild it with minimal instrumentation and use immense amounts of atmosphere and ambience to create something that at times sounds menacing and yet is beautiful.
Continuing the GT archive series, Zoharum offer this collaboration with Moan. Once again in a strict limited edition of 200 copies, given the quantity you have to ask yourself “why bother?”, just do it as a download. GT are one of those bands you either liked or loathed, personally I always liked GT, but I still have the gripe that a 200 run isn’t sufficient and really under sells the outfit
Today I have the pleasure of reviewing the 2017 Zoharum re-issue of a Rapoon album I had never previously listened to, 2004's My Life As A Ghost. The original version of this album was a single CD, expanded here to include another disk of material remixed from the original source recordings.
Richard Chartier’s Pinkcourtesyphone project is now six years old and has become a reliable source for some of the best dark ambient music around. Yearly releases on vinyl or CD and distinctive pink artwork help make the project stand out from legions of producers of dull, gloaming, drone music. Indeed the highly defined aesthetic of the project is one of its enduring facets and is rooted in a very particular notion of femininity within the context of modern consumer capitalism and pharmacologically modulated states. That this feminine aesthetic is evoked by a man is of course problematic and worth examining. Also of note has been Chartier’s occasional use of Pinkcourtesyphone’s music to raise funds for transgender and LGBTQ causes. All of which is indicative of a creative depth and social engagement rarely found in the genre. Indelicate Slices follows on from 2016’s lush Taking Into Account Only A Portion Of Your Emotions and features seven tracks ranging from three minute vignettes to half hour epics.
The Devil's Honey is sleazy, cheesy, and at times wonderfully deranged blend of sexploitation, thriller, and romantic drama. This 1986 sleaze feast is one of the later films from Lucio Fulci- most known for his gory & surreal zombie films of the 1980’s, and it’s fair to say if you dig your smut littered with what-the-hell moments- you’ll get a kick from this. On Severin Films, this is late 2017 all-region Blu Ray release of the film.
From Arrow Video here we have a Blu Ray reissue of Scalpel- A tight-as-drum & twisted-as-a-snake 1970’s thriller with southern gothic edges & subtle horror touches. This is the first Blu Ray release of the film, which I believe has only had a VHS release in the past.
Here we have a reissue of two wonderfully creative & varied jazz albums from the early 1970’s by respected American trumpeter, drummer, soundtrack composer, and bandleader Don Ellis. Both albums blend together a big band sound, with fusion, non- jazz genres, and even dives into more angular & avant-garde composition. The release appears in the form of a double CD on UK’s BGO Records- one of the more quality bound reissue labels.