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From the late 80s, Her Vengeance was one of the first films to receive Hong Kong's Category III rating, which indicated graphic or disturbing content. As the film's title may suggest, it’s a rape revenge thriller, taking in more than a few extreme scenes such as sexualized violence, brutal scissor slicing, a fair few gory facial attacks, and bloody pole damage. It also features a believable lead, a decent selection of nasty characters, and some neat wheelchair-based fighting. Here from 88 Films is a new Blu-ray of the picture- it features two versions of the film, a standard more seen version, and a more extreme unrated version, and a commentary track.
From last year, Fear Cabin: The Last Weekend of Summer is a blend of friends-in-a-cabin horror and stalking witch terror. The film features passable low-budget acting, moments of unsettlement/ unease, and some decent( if slightly overused) floating in the air effects. On the less positive side, it’s edited somewhat erratically- with new characters dropping in & out, seemingly randomly. Here from Cleopatra Entertainment is a region-free DVD of the film.
Experimental Irish trio, Rún, see their self-titled debut album hit Rocket Recordings this week, showcasing depth, heaviness, release, and mystery through varied forms of engaging expression. Not pigeonholed to one sound or style, the three artists each bring their whole selves to the table and craft a work that is fresh, exciting, and invigorating, with every song taking the listener on its own separate journey. And while rún can mean mystery, anyone that listens to this album can easily see that there is something magical here, a passion that is audible from the second the first note jumps from the speakers.
There is little room to breathe on Jorge Espinal's debut solo effort, Bombos y cencerros, as each of the nine tracks on the album pushes the limits of listenability.
From the early 1990s, Arcade focuses on a VR game that is figuratively and literally hooking a group of teens in. The film blends Sci-Fi, light horror, and John Hughes-like teen drama. It’s an entertaining enough ride of movie, and if if like me, you dig retro tech and old computer graphics, then you’ll enjoy what’s on offer here. This recent region-free Blu-ray from Full Moon Features offers up a new commentary, and a few archive features.
First released in 2010, Gateway was the 14th studio album from Norway’s Erik Wøllo. It’s a release which wonderfully shifts between the tuneful and moody, with its effortlessly blending of ambience, electronica, instrumental rock, light prog rock, and soundtrack. Here from Projekt is a fifteen-year anniversary/ double disc release of the album, taking in the original album, plus a bonus disc of eight never-released tracks.
Dirt Collector is the seventh studio album from Warshall-based two-piece Mazut. Active since the mid-2010s, they create often sample dense/ at times sonically unbalancing retro-focused electronica.
Here’s a smartly presented CDR in a printed card wallet, with both front and back covers depicting a bridge across water. The label spiel says that although it was established to reissue archival recordings, it has released Rolling Stock, recorded 2023-2024, since it revisits the late 1990s as a ’well crafted homage to DHR releases and ambient breakcore/jungle playlists from the 90’s’. The album is a compilation of tracks taken from three digital EPs.
Twilight Of Perception Redux Volume Two 1995-2002 is the next in a series of CD compilations from Poland’s Zoharum. Each release in the series serves up a selection of rare and unreleased tracks from Euro ambient pioneer Vidna Obmana, aka Belgium's Dirk Serries. This three-CD set takes in sixteen tracks, and as you’d imagine from such a collection, we get variation in both the tone/atmosphere, moving from pared-back ambience, all the way through to detailed/rhythmic-edged ethnic ambient works.
A Viewing Guide To The Pandemic is just over two hundred pages guide to depictions of plague and pandemic, in both Film and television. It blends (largely) concise & honest reviews with often troubling facts/ figures regarding real plagues and pandemics, as well as looking into the background/origin of the fictional side of things too.
Released in 1995, Panzerfaust was the fifth album from Darkthrone. It saw the band returning to their BM roots, with many of the tracks having very clear nods towards the likes of Bathory and Celtic Frost- though still managing to maintain some of their own grimly churning and blackly lo-fi coldness. From Peaceville Records, as part of their series of two-disc CD releases of classic BM albums from the band, this is a reissue of the album. The first disc takes in the original album, and the second disc features a full-length commentary track from songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Feriz.
Transilvanian Hunger was the fourth album from Norway's Darkthrone; and it was also the third and final chapter in the band’s Unholy Trinity, which defined not just Norwegian black metal, but the whole second wave of BM. The eight-track/thirty-nine-minute 1994 album is the very definition of grim ‘n’ freezing BM, and has gone on to probably one of the mimicked/all-out copied albums in BM history- if you don’t know this album, you don’t know the genre!. Here from Peaceville Records, as part of their series of two-disc CD releases of classic BM albums from the band, is a reissue of the album. The first disc takes in the original album, and the second disc features a full-length commentary track from songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Feriz.
Extensive and enigmatic, this massive first collaborative effort from Yorkshire Modular Society & Peter Digby Lee is four pieces of rich, droning ambient totaling over two hours in length. Beneath the Hanging Sky is the product of a chance meeting at the resonance Drone Bath in Todmorden, where the two made a connection through a shared vibration at the space, linking their minds for future work together. While not instant, this collaboration came in the form of vast amounts of samples (recorded and collected by Peter) being reworked and reformed by Dominich Schofield (Yorkshire Modular Society), resulting in the monolithic album coming from Dragon's Eye this month.
Carnal Knowledge is a 1970s US drama regarding the sexual exploits and romantic entanglements of two men, spanning from college to middle age. Surprisingly, it features little or no nudity, but instead focuses on the men’s discussion & their dramatic interaction with their partners. At the film's centre, we have two great leads/performances, with Jack Nicholson as the more sexually experienced/ devious, and Art Garfunkel as the more timid/sexually naïve. Here from Powerhouse, as either a UHD or Blu-ray, taking in a 4k scan, a new commentary, and new/ archive extras.
The Dresser is an early '80s drama/character study set during WW2. It focuses on an ageing, tyrannical, at times unbalanced, theatre actor, and his camp/ always trying to look on the bright side, dresser/assistant, who keeps both the actor and the shows rolling on. Playing the two leads, we have two great actors- Albert Finney as the actor, who is simply known as Sir, and Tom Courtenay as Norman, his dresser. Here from Powerhouse is a new Blu-ray release of the film, featuring a remastered HD and a few extras.
Berlin is such a hotbed of activity for experimental art. Long established as a hub for innovation and rule-breaking, be it in literature, art, music or film, it’s little wonder that so many artists base themselves in this great city, which allows them to create freely and collaboratively. And what better place for a musician who is just beginning to find their foothold, developing their own style, and making their first forays into the music world? Laurén Maria is one such artist. Nominally, a folk artist, Maria is blessed with an incredible voice. A voice that she uses to elevate her chosen genre from something familiar to something totally distinctive. Deftly combining her ‘instrument’ with a carefully selected collection of field recordings, distortion, drone and collage, she accompanies the listener on an unpredictable journey of sound and sensation. This aesthetic was evident on her solo debut, 2023’s Leaves Falling Beyond The Sky, but since then she has undeniably upped her game as on the newly released follow-up, You’re Beautiful.
McCarthyism may have been notorious for ending careers thanks to its ardent blacklisting policy, but Japan was no stranger to excluding its filmmakers, either. Left-leaning politics might see you cast out, a la Tadashi Imai, but so could experimental arthouse filmmaking when it was considered an affront to Japanese moral values. Director Seijun Suzuki found this out the hard way. While working for the Nikkatsu studio, he decided to turn the standard yakuza tropes on their head for 1967’s Branded To Kill, and while now considered his masterpiece, it proved to be the straw that broke the studio’s back. Having grown tired of his seemingly outlandish and wayward filmmaking, they promptly terminated his contract. Furious, Suzuki took them to court - and won. But it led to him being blacklisted for the next decade, most of the seventies, which ironically feels like the ideal time for his innovative, art-led filmmaking. Ten years later, however, Suzuki returned with 1977’s A Tale of Sorrow and Sadness, a socially astute and darkly comedic tale of vapidity, greed, manipulation and golf.
MDS vs Satan features three militantly brutal slabs of HNW, with each being as intense, unrelenting, and set as the other.
In A White Room is a crude’n’crusty slice of perversely themed wall matter from this South Carolina-based project. The just under nineteen-minute release bluntly purrs, clutters, and hacks along.
The Modern Day Crusades serves up two twenty-five-minute slabs of thick ‘n’ grinding walled noise. With each track being as unforgiving and unrelenting as the other.
J.W, Coop is an early 1970s blend of bitter-sweet drama and contemporary western. It regards the titled character, an all-in-denim blue cowboy who gets released after nearly ten years inside, to retake up his rodeo career- the film mixes in road movie elements, as well as fairly extensive real rodeo footage. Here from Imprint is a bare-bones Blu-ray release of the film.
With his punning stage name, New Jersey resident Bill Zebub has achieved cult notoriety for his promotion of independent movies of dubious taste and heavy metal. If you’re a fan of both, this Blu-ray release of his 2014 horror might be a passable hour and a half.
Duchamp is an Italian, Berlin-based solo project of instrumentally sourced drone ambience, from instruments such as organ, synth, voice and baritone guitar. The Wild Joy is a five-track album, about forty-one minutes long, with tracks ranging from five to ten minutes.
From the late 1970s, The Odd Job is a London-set black comedy that evolves into a macabre farce. It features Graham Chapman ( Monty Python) hiring a bumbling amateur hitman, Sir David Jason( Only Fools and Horses, Open All Hours, Frost), to kill him after his wife leaves him, but when she comes back, he won’t stop until his job is completed. Here, from Severin, as part of their series of reissues of films by Hungarian-born British film director Peter Medak, is a Blu-ray release featuring a new scan and a fair few extras.