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Free As Dead is (as far as I’m aware) the first film foray from Frenchman Romain Perrot- most known for his walled noise project Vomir, as well as spastic folk & rant project Roro Perrot, and avant funerary chapel projects Trou Aux Rats & Free As Dead. Here on Perrot’s Decimation Social label we have a region free DVD, and it’s certainly a crude, ghoulish & ugly slice of ultra lo-fi art house horror- think a shorter, more nonsensical, corrupted, and unsettling take on Begotten- and you’ll get a rough idea what to expect.
Here’s the second in the recently rediscovered wall releases, that ‘repapered’ in the M[m] sort-out. This split C60 comes from early 2016, and brings together Serbian Dead Body Collection & Eugene, Oregon based Willowbrook.
While having a clear-up/sort-out at M[m] we came across a few wall noise titles from a few years back, which had slipped through the cracks, and here we have the first of these. It’s an excellent C60 split from 2015 bringing together the taut & shifting textured detail of Italian project Nascitari, with the dense & crude shredding walled noise power of Frances Vomir
Although Fred Weldont Warmsley III (Dedekind Cut) made his mark as a hip-hop producer, he's continued to grow and expand and show his talents in other genres of music. Differing quite a bit from last year's The Expanding Domain, Kranky's release of Tahoe shows Dedekind Cut with a more refined, further reaching scope. The fun, fairly disconnected, near-industrial beats have given way to lush ambient, and reveal Dedekind Cut's passion for artistry.
The split between Clive Henry and Trou is untitled, that is the spine gives us only the titles given to each artist's track ("Untitled / Scorch I"), and comes in a white case with black text on grey paper for the artwork.
Robert Schwarz' previous effort on Gruenrekorder, The Scale of Things, was a superlative amalgam of dense musique concrete, treated field recordings and modular synthesizer that conjured worlds of amplified natural processes and disquieting soundscapes. The beauty of that record was how it showcased a variety of techniques in such a way to produce a unified, highly composed, not-to-mention dramatic vision of avant-garde electronic composition. Like its predecessor, Double Negative features a cover that hints at what lies within the grooves of the record. The strange almost claustrophobic collage which adorned The Scale of Things gives way here to a seascape, on the horizon of which drifts the unmistakable geometric form of an iceberg, or could be a shark fin or even the prow of a sinking ship? The picture is almost abstract in its composition and finds kin among the similarly abstract and musically dissociated music on the record.
Talibam describe themselves as Dadaist provocateurs with an innate love for the history of music. Talibam! grew out of the New York avant garde/improv scene and have two members Matt Mottel and Kevin Shea. Stretching out from basic musical concepts Talibam! explore sound and structure to create something interesting and unique that lies beyond classification. "Endgame of the Anthropocene" is their latest in a long line of releases spanning the last 11 years and apart from being a wonderful title, it is a record cramp packed with possibilities and ideas.
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.