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Long-running experimental industrial act SATØRI hit Cold Spring earlier this year for his latest slab of noise and destruction, Pillars of Salt. Blowing out eardrums and blasting brains over the last five decades, SATØRI bring their brand of industrial in a more rhythmic, beat-driven direction, all while staying true to their harsher, layered roots. Heavy in both tone and theme, the grim soundscapes on Pillars of Salt will be sure to darken anyone's day.
O A | F G takes in two very sparse/ spaced-out examples of modern ensemble work, from Belgrade-born, now New York City based composer Teodora Stepančić. These are works that need both patience( from the listener and players alike) and a good sense of memory, so very much a release that will take both time and effort to fully appreciate.
Chamber Works…1943- 1951 is a collection of pieces highlighting both the creativity and variation of John Cage's earlier work. It finds members of the highly regarded modern ensemble Apartment House playing the works, with such great flair, depth and clarity.
Motorpsycho! was the 11th film from American filmmaker/ writer Russ Meyer. It was made just before his first breakthrough/cult classic film Faster, Pussycat!, Kill!, kill! In the year 1965. Unlike much of Ms Meyer’s output, there’s no camp, cheese, or wacky plotting elements- as Motorpsycho! is more of a straight, dusty set and gritty action thriller- regarding a trio of bikers who go on rape and murder spree- with the unlikely pairing of a small-town veterinarian, and French Filipino ex-dancer looking for vengeance. The film feels of its time, with its brisk blend of noir thriller, gunplay ‘n’ chase-based action, and drama. Here, from Severin, as part of their series of reissued Meyer films, is a Blu-ray release of the film, taking in a new 4 K scan, a commentary track, and an interview.
Entertaining Mr Sloane is an early 1970s British seedy drama/ dark comedy regarding a manipulative pretty boy lodger who gets his claws into a quirky brother & sister duo. The film featured ahead of its time homo/hetero-lusting, innuendo tipped to bitchy laced dialogue, and bucket loads of campiness. Here from Severin Films is a Blu-ray release of the film, taking a 2k of the picture, a new commentary track, and a selection of new/ archive extras.
North Of The Viaduct is an example of a more layer active wall craft from Cincinnati’s Whore’s Breath. It’s a thirty-minute track that rewardingly weaves together several textual profiles and interesting tonal details for an engaging yet expertly controlled wall-noise ride.
765cJ finds this Bordeaux-based wall noise project presenting us with a rather mysterious/subtle unsettling wall. The single track runs for just eighteen minutes, moving from a jarring/uneasy start, to the dense swirling disorientation main.
Sinful Secrets is a recent bone-grinding and nerve-searing example of the walled noise from this long-running/ ultra prolific Californian project. The release features a single forty-minute track, which remains full, thick, and completely unforgiving throughout.
The Rapacious Jailbreaker is a 1974 crime drama from Japanese director Sadao Nakajima (A Savage Beast Goes Mad, Jeans Blues: No Future and The Seburi Story). The film stars Kōju Meguro aka Hiroki Matsukata (13 Assassins, The Shogun Assassins and Hanzo the Razor), Tomisaburô Wakayama (Black Rain, Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance and Lone Wolf and Cub: Babycart in the Land of Demons), Naoko Ôtani (Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, Zatoichi at Large and Kitsune no kureta akanbô), and Tsunehiko Watase (The Incident, Heaven and Earth and A Strange Beast Goes Mad).
Klasis, the latest EP from Ben Chatwin, houses four emotionally charged, lushly textured, engaging electronic pieces that quickly make their impact and don't let go until the album is over. Exploring the dynamic tension brought about by skillfully played synths, cello, and cinematic arrangement, Chatwin brings the listener on a quick but fruitful journey through mind, body, and soul. At just around seventeen minutes, Klasis works deftly to hit its stride and make its mark, and still manages to improve with successive spins.
Here’s another CDR from Inner Demons Records, decorated and packaged in their usual diy way; I’m always a fan of labels with a clear visual identity and style. Fog Baptism offers up five tracks, all mired in drone and murk, but all avoiding sounding standard or derivative.
Themroc is a French film from the early 70s regarding a middle-aged living-with-his mother house decorator, who suddenly flips from the day-to-day grind, turning his apartment into a cave. The film has no formal dialogue/language, but instead is built around the characters grunting or talking gibberish. It’s a film that sits somewhere between absurdist comedy, statical drama, and crude-dusty/ noisy art film. Here from Radiance is the first ever digital release of the film in either the UK or US- the Blu-ray takes in a 4K scan, mixed of new and archive interviews.
I Will Never Leave You Alone is an early 2020 film that blends creepy haunted house horror with an are-they-going-mad-or-not thriller. It’s a rather slow-burning affair, which is punctuated here and there with moments of brutal gore. Here from Arrow Video is a recently released Blu-ray of the film, including a few extras
O is a three-inch CDR bringing together the first four tracks recored by Burnaby, British Columbia’s Scrapping Young Bucks. I’d guess you’d discripe their sound as experimental electronica, with touches of skeletal new wave/ indie guitar playing, and uneasy Muzak weaved in. Quite a moody & original sound really.
A. Live Transmission is a single/developing twenty-one-minute track that blends purring ‘n’ rounding noise drone matter, dialogue samples, jarring tone drops, off-kilter keyboard additions, and wayward beats.
All Hallows' Eve Trickster is the third in this horror anthology series of films. The series is most known/ notable for its first film, which launched the career of everyone’s favourite deranged killer clown, Art from the Terrifier films. This third film is from 2023, and takes in six stories plus a wraparound, and I’m afraid to say this is a highly quality mixed anthology. Here from WowNow is a very bare-bones DVD release of the film.
If one genre has truly ridden the wave of egalitarian musicmaking, it’s the deep, dark world of atmospheric, textured soundscapes. While of course there can be no complaints over the current surge of ambient music, it does present a bit of a challenge when it comes to sorting the truly innovative from the more pedestrian. No wonder then that when KPT and his wholly unique form of deconstructed techno-cum-noise music appeared a decade ago, people sat up and listened. An artist who consistently succeeds in pushing the boundaries of inventiveness and creativity in this saturated world, KPT is experimental in the extreme, pushing his form of avant-garde meets the dancefloor degree, intellectualising the beat-heavy experience. This is a current that has flowed through his work ever since he appeared on the scene, but everyone needs a change and for his latest release, KPT is taking his work in a different direction, subverting expectations. Claw adopts a pseudo-minimalist approach to industrial noise that (in the main) keeps its volume low but its intensity high as the American musician continues to take apart what we know and expect and put those pieces back in an order that is both exciting and incredibly creative.
From the late 80s, The House of Lost Souls is a decidedly wacky Euro horror take on the haunted house genre. It throws into the mix of crawling tarantulas, blood dripping light fittings, a selection of stabbing-to-decapitating murders, running wild killer washing machines, a baseball-capped boy ghost who likes misting up glass, and loads of camp/ OTT horror fun. Here from Cauldron Films is a recent region-free Blu-ray of the film, taking in a new 2K/ totally uncut print of the film, two commentary tracks from genre experts, and a mix of new and archive extras.
From the tail end of the 1980s, The House of Clocks was one of the later films made by Italian gore meister Lucio Fulci. It was a TV film that was too bloody/extreme for the Italian network, so it ended up being released on the VHS market. The picture blends house invasion thriller, creepy old folks chiller, and supernatural/time-related horror. Here from Cauldron Films is a recent region-free Blu-ray of the film, taking in a new 2K/ totally uncut print of the film, with a new commentary track by genre experts, and a mix of new and archive extras.
Gather In The Mushrooms was first released in the year 2004- it was a 60s/70s British folk compilation compiled/ curated by Bob Stanley( DJ/ member of Saint Etienne). Here from UK’s Ace Records is a reissue of the compilation. It’s available as either a double vinyl release or as a CD. The collection is well sequenced for a mellow, if at times sombre, to lightly playful tone.
Motor Psycho sees the welcome return of Righteous’s Lux & Ivy compilations series, which sees respected journalist Dave Henderson crate-digging for crude, wacky, or wild 45s from the 50s & 60s. This time around, we get thirty tracks focusing on all things car/ motorbike related, for another rewarding & relatively varied collection with some surprises/ gems along the way.
This is a C45 split bringing together two densely atmospheric edged examples of harsh noise form. We go from the bluntly baying junk drone meets malevolently lightly seared ambience of the Hooked Talons track. Onto the bass gallop, meet swirling slice of Internal Empty.
Here’s a three-way wall noise split- bringing together three US projects. It takes in Massachusetts-based Wallmart, Phoenix’s The Ide Of Earth, and Richmond’s Social Role Theory. Each project offers up its own track, and then the three collaborate on one track.
By the time Mississippi Mermaid hit the big screen in 1969, Francois Truffaut had long been established as the doyen of French New Wave cinema casting back to a decade previously when his groundbreaking debut Les Quatre Cent Coups aka The 400 Blows received rapturous acclaim. This was swiftly followed by the Charles Aznavour vehicle Shoot the Piano Player in 1960 and quintessential tragic love triangle Jules et Jim two years later. Having ridden the wave of this new vanguard of film making alongside his compatriot Jean-Luc Godard, Truffaut’s star began to wane with the troubled production of Fahrenheit 451 but he soon re-emerged as cinematic kingpin thanks to the release of 1968’s Baiser Voles aka Stolen Kisses, which saw the return of the much-loved and considerably older Antoine Doniel, protagonist of his 1959 breakout masterpiece, so adeptly played by Jean-Pierre Leaud.