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Golem is a late 70’s low-budget Sci-fi drama set in a dystopian post-nuclear future, in which a worker is unsure if he’s human or a clone. The Polish film is a decidedly glum, grey and claustrophobic affair, which from time to time is edged with moments of both pitch-black humour and communist satire. Here from Second Run is a Blu-ray release of the film, featuring a 2k scan of the picture, a new commentary track, and four early short films by the same director.
As a huge fan of Cryptopsy's music in the 90s and early 00's, I did not expect to be reviewing a new Cryptopsy album in 2025. Drummer Flo Mounier is the only consistent member in their discography, and this new album features an entirely new lineup from classic Cryptopsy, although it has been largely consistent since their 2012 self-titled album, with Chris Donaldson handling guitars and Oliver Pinard on bass for the last three releases.
Dick Dynamite: 1944 is an action/ comedy/ horror film originally released in 2023 by Scottish writer/ director Robbie Davidson (Radge Land and Vamplifier). Davidson is also a musician who has played in a number of different bands including The Exploited. The film stars Snars, a first time actor who takes on the titular role as Dick Dynamite, alongside Olly Bassi (Dead Among the Pines, Virtual Vendetta and Paul Dood’s Deadly Lunch Break), Shaun Davidson (Vamplifier), Mark Burdett (Vamplifier and Sair Ane), Irvine Welsh (writer of Trainspotting, Filth and The Acid House) and former Queens of the Stone Age and Kyuss bass player Nick Oliveri (Book of Shadows: Blair Witch Project 2, Project X and Sand Castle).
Electric Junk is a four-CD journey into the mid to late 70s German underground music scene-whatever the genre category!. The thirty-two-track collection blends the known, lesser-known, and obscure projects in a nice and even manner, with a (largely ) good/eventful flow of tracks throughout the four-disc unfold.
With new horror films a dime a dozen these days, coming up with something that’s novel, innovative and creatively distinct is quite a challenge. I’m no fan of the elitist term ‘elevated’ horror, but whatever we choose to call it there’s undeniably been a surge in scope, creativity, complexity and emotional depth within the horror genre over the last ten to twenty year; triggered around the release of The Babadook and picked up by the combined forces of Ari Aster and A24, Jordan Peele and Robert Eggers. At the other end of the spectrum, there’s I Heart Willie – a slasher centred upon a disfigured and wildly indiscriminate serial killer masquerading as Mickey Mouse.
Mute Records has been home to Throbbing Gristle since 1986, when they put out their ‘untitled’ CD1, a set of previously unreleased recordings from 1979. Since then, the label has had a hand in most of the band’s releases, reissuing the entirety of their back catalogue complete with a bounty of extras, before moving on to their latter-day live performances. This included 2004’s A Souvenir of Camber Sands, recorded and released on the same night, and now Live at the Volksbühne, Berlin, New Year's Eve, 2005 - a concert that appeared on last year’s TG Berlin box set but has now been made available for the first time as a standalone vinyl or CD release.
Here we have a US wall noise split- it’s a two-track affair. Moving from the crude/raw/ at points unpredictable walling of South Carolina’s No Fun HNW. Onto the thicker/ more set-yet-detailed attack of Portland’s Hana Haruna.
The House of Witchcraft is a late 1980s Italian film that bends elements of supernatural mystery, Are-they-going-mad-or-not thriller, and slasher. It features Swiss cult actor Paul Muller (A Virgin Among The Living Dead, Barbwire Dolls) in one of its lead roles. The picture is an entertaining/ campy enough slice of euro horror, though maybe not a gory/wacky as you’d normally hope from the genre/ time. Here from Cauldron Films is a recent region-free Blu-ray of the film, taking in a new 2K/uncut print of the film, a commentary track from genre experts, and a few other new extras.
The Cathedral Of New Emotions is an animated film regarding a 1970s commune of Berlin stoners and intellectuals, launched in space in a packing container clutched by a giant flying hand. The early 2000s German film is a highly heady slice of sci-fi, woven with threads of surrealism, sexualised imagery, and general stoned-out wackiness- all soundtracked by a mix of tripped-out Kraut rock grooves and spaced-out synth scapes. Here from Deaf Crocodile is a region A Blu-ray release of the film, featuring a new commentary track, and a selection of new and archive extras.
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.