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Noisy beats are the name of the game for Belgian duo SELM, hitting Aesthetical with their latest, dehNUNG, this June. Somewhere in the mixed-up electronic minefield between industrial and techno, SELM presents an intriguing look at the guts behind the body moving and blasting tones. Hard to pin down and all the better for this quality, dehNUNG is brash experimental electronics with a dark, dystopian vibe. Like something from the future after machines take over, this latest is grim and rough, but a very enjoyable look at alternative tones, textures, and beats.
Butchwife is a London-based project that’s been active since 2023. It releases either no inputting/ glitching edged harsh noise, or walled noise. This two-track digital release sits firmly in the second category.
L7hN is a digital release that serves up two roughshod and rapidly battering examples of walled noise from this Bordeaux-based project. Each track runs at around the thirteen-minute mark- shifting between an all-out bass-ripped attack, and a blend of constant churning crunch/sinister hiss.
Endless Emptiness Forever is a recent two-thirty-minute track release from USA’s Ennaytch. It sees the project moving away from its normal, creative/ at times quirky, and ambient take on walled noise, for a thicker, constantly churning, and bleak sound.
Here we have a CD from Fourth Dimension Records, a great UK label now relocated to Poland, presented in a digipak and decorated with abstract photographs of organic matter - reflecting the sonic themes found on the album. 常若/Tokokawa has three tracks, all very much cut from the same cloth, and is described in the label blurb as: ‘Powered by modular synthesis [and] “concrete” assemblage technique’. In that regard it’s completely unclear who is doing what in the duo, but this doesn’t lessen the album’s impact.
Musical archaeology is finding the lost gems and treasures of past eras that have fallen through the cracks for a number of reasons, either they were very regional and underheard, their label didn't make it during numerous format changes, or even more rare, they were totally unreleased. With the advent of user driven sites/apps like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, many have been dusting off these old classics and spinning them for long time fans and the new generation alike. However, it takes the artist or label themselves to come forth with the rare, unreleased gem and present it like the musical mithril it is. The Outer Edge was contacted by Markus Kammann of NDW group Collage with just that magical find, an unreleased work from 1985, Motel d'amour.
Plasma D'arc is the duo of instrumentalist Nikola Jan Gross and synthesist/producer Gaspard Gigon. Their debut release, Ellipse, is available for cassette or download through Swiss label SBIRE, a thirty-minute release with six tracks averaging five-seven minutes each.
There Is No Space For Us is the thirty-seventh studio album from UK space Rock legends Hawkwind. The eight-track album sees the five-piece firing on all cylinders- creating a record that rewardingly shifts from spacecraft zooming urgency, mid-paced starry wonder, and constellation drifting moodiness
Folk rock band, Home Service were formed by ex-members of the Albion Band in the 1980s. Only two of the original eight members remain, Michael Gregory (drums and percussion) and Graeme Taylor (electric guitars), the rest of the current lineup includes Andy Lester (Trombone), Shane Brennan (Trumpet), Andy Findon (Saxophone), Steve King (keyboards and tenor saxophone), Rob Levy (bass guitar), and last but not least, the legend that is Bob Fox (acoustic guitar and vocals).
Fabien Lévy is a French composer whose work sits between urgent modern composition and angular avant-jazz. Here’s a CD bringing together five of his pieces from between the 1990s and early 2020s.
Evis Sammoutis is a Cypriot American composer who creates dartingly layered, to emotionally taut/ detailed modern classical works. From the always worthy Kairos Music, Atrapós is a CD release bringing together five of his pieces, with a focus largely on string and chamber works.
Night Of The Felines is a 70’s Roman Porno film that blends character study and sleazy humour. It’s set in and around a downtown Tokyo bathhouse, focusing on those who work there & find pleasure there. The film is a quirky, often oddly charming affair, with one or two arty touches here & there. Here from 88 Films, as part of there series of reissues from the roman porno cycle- taking in a new HD scan, a new commentary, and a few other extras.
Bad Channels is a wayward blend of 1950s sci-fi and 1990s wacky comedy, with a side order of 80s metal-focused musical. The film regards a small-town radio station under attack by an alien who snatches, shrinks, and puts a selection of women in glass jars. It’s a picture that manages to both try your patience and entertain, making it a film that is easy to be in two minds about. Here from Full Moon Entertainment is a recent Blu-Ray release of the film, featuring a new commentary track and a few other extras.
From scouring the pages of Google, it’s clear that free-jazz ensemble Das B. place greater emphasis on their music than sustaining a public profile. And why trouble oneself with such 21st-century concerns when you are producing music of this calibre? Formed in 2014, when Lebanese trumpeter Mazen Kerat, keen to continue the sonic explorations he’d been developing for over a decade in his native Beirut, started to assemble a group of Berlin-based musicians. He approached collaborators pianist Magda Mayas and drummer Tony Buck, followed shortly by bassist Mike Majkowski and the quartet set off on tour, pledging their allegiance to the world of noise exploration. With their debut Canopy released in 2020 - a live performance recorded three years previously, now comes their first studio effort, a re-imagining of John Coltrane’s seminal A Love Supreme, recorded in 2022 and simply called Love.
Now here is a film that lives up to its title, and then some!, Visceral: Between the Ropes of Madness is a 2010 Chilean picture, regarding the unfolding/ breakdown of a boxer. It features gore/ violence- both extreme & sexualized, Intense BDSM, rage, torture, vomit and a largely industrial/noise-based soundtrack- which intensifies things even more. Here from Unearthed Films- those seekers of worldwide extreme film- is the first ever Blu-ray release of the film, including a director's commentary track & a few other things.
The Iron Rose was the fifth feature film from French director/ writer Jean Rollin. The early 1970s film saw him stepping away from his normal erotic & often vampiric-focused fare, for a very slow-burning & moody drama, come low-key psychological drama regarding two lovers lost/ trapped in a graveyard. Here, from Powerhouse, as part of their series of reissues of Rollin’s filmography, is either a UHD or Blu-ray release of the film. It takes a new 4K scan, two versions of the film, a new commentary track, and a selection of new and archive extras.
CRYO is a trip into gloomily bounding and ultimately very doom-laden modern composition for cello and piano. It’s a two-track album, with each track lasting around the twenty-minute mark, and each is as brooding & bleak as the last.
I think it’s fair to say that the use of scat singing/ jazz vocalising has a decidedly mixed/ often negative history- more often than not, it can sound either very pretentious, annoying, or just plain silly. So as a result, I usually avoid anything related/ connected to it the like plague, and this is where Hippo Road comes in, as I think it easily stands as one of the most rewarding, versatile, and creative examples I’ve heard of the form, along as been a great edgy/moody improv jazz release.
Challenging audiences for four decades, Icelandic duo Stilluppsteypa has delivered their newest LP, Schokolino Choco Loco, via Futura Resistenza. Experimental but very accessible, this duo creates an engaging composition of electronic indulgence that, while hard to put one's finger on, never gets unwieldy or overly bizarre. Its almost dreamlike construction allows the listener to get lost in its many tones, folds, drones, and layers, changing with each successive spin. Always playing to the brighter side of experimentation, Schokolino Choco Loco is a whimsical bit of electronics that will bring a smile to many faces.
Art Of Receiving is a twelve-minute trip into soothingly tunnelling, if lightly gritty ANW from Poland’s Olion. This is a self-released digital single/ EP.
Here’s thirty minutes of brutalising ‘n’ billowing walled noise from UK’s MDS ( Most Dangerous Soldier). This project's themes all of its work around macho/robotic sci-fi focused anime, and the like- for this release, we get an illustration of a futuristic/ violent ballgame, along the lines of Rollerball (1975).
Punishment For Rebellion ( რაჯანყებისთვის სასჯელი) is a three-track album from Mtskheta, Georgia‘s Owners Of Knowledge, who blend walled noise, dense ambience, and field recordings. As with other recent releases from the project, each of the tracks has a runtime of twenty-five minutes- the sound is set/ fixed
Private Club is a mid-70s French film that blends softcore sleaze with romantic drama, which regards a soon-to-be-wed Paris taxi driver who gets involved with an exclusive/secret sex club. It’s a decidedly tonal mixed affair, weaving together threads of drama, softcore action with light touches of comedy and mystery. Here from 88 Films is a recent, rather bare-bones Blu-ray release of the film.
Steppenwolf is a 2024 thriller from Kazakhstan, written and directed by Adilkhan Yerzhanov (Ademoka’s Education, The Gentle Indifference of the World and A Dark, Dark Man). The film stars Berik Aytzhanov (The Composer, The Liquidator and The Legend of Tomiris), Azamat Nigmanov (Konvoy, Inseparable and Vtoroe Zrenie) and Anna Starchenko (Mavr, Cadet and Nartai).