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Now here’s an extremely haunting, at times downright eerie trip into modern classical dark ambience, which really seems to seep deep into both your marrow and psyche. Solo I / Solo IV is just shy of fifty minute work, bringing together two flute/ low string solos and their playback.
Listening Time is longform piece focused on subtly ebbing & shifting drone currents. The forty-five-minute work moves between pressing swells, delicate microtonal transfers, and moments of felt simmer.
Cities Burn As We Dream Of A Return is a lament, something we get from listening as opposed to knowing anything about the author here. When we do know, the backdrop of senseless war and a city in flames is none other than Beirut, the former home of Ryan Haïdar, who has since relocated to Paris under the threat of said attacks.
Sorority House Massacre is a mid-80’s slasher. The film blends uneasy flashbacks/ dreams/ premonitions with camp-to-plain bad acting. As it progresses, the bloody, largely knife-bound kills increase, as does the fairly taut & suspenseful nighttime stalkings. It’s a picture that certainly plays up its slasher tropes and is far from original, but if, like me, you enjoy the genre’s predictability & it’s campness, you’ll be entertained by what’s on offer here. From 88 Films, as part of their Slasher Classic series, is a new release of the picture. It comes as a dual Blu-Ray and UHD release, taking in a new 4k scan, an extended UK cut of the film, three commentary tracks, and a good selection of new and archive extras.
Strongroom is a splendidly taut ‘n’ tense 1960’s UK thriller. It is based largely in a bank's strongroom- where two people are stuck inside, with the air rapidly depleting. The film wonderfully notches up the tension- keeping you on the edge of the seat, right until the end. Here from BFI taking a 2k scan, two new commentary tracks, and a good selection of archive extras- including another feature from the same director/ cast & crew.
Like a rift into a terror dimension come to life, Nibiru's Hypóstasis uses whatever means necessary to bring forth their dark, vile, industrial ritual. Their bleak and terrifying soundscapes will darken the brightest days with the six pieces on Hypóstasis securing their place in the blackened pantheon of extreme, ritual industrial. Oftentimes part of the ritual, and other times playing witness through scrying glass caked in distortion and reverb, the listener is taken on a journey through horror, pain, fear, and despair, but in the darkest and most wonderful ways.
Dark Dreams finds über-fan Nick Cato doing a deep dive into his favourite film of all time- the grim and sleazy 1981 slasher Nightmare( aka Nightmare In A Damage Brian). The just under A4-sized full colour book is released by the UK’s Headpress.
Placebo (პლაცებო) is a two-track album from Mtskheta, Georgia‘s Owners Of Knowledge, who create a distinctive blend of walled noise, dense ambience, and field recordings.
From Turkey’s The Crude, here’s a just over twenty-minute example of walled noise focused on furry felines. The ‘wall’ is a rumble ‘n’ roll-based affair, which does offer up quite a comfortable and calming vibe.
Director Heidi Greensmith crafts a short and polished thriller from Nuala Ellwood’s 2017 dark psychological novel. But it’s a story that could have done with more than a meagre 82 minutes to hit home its themes of trauma and the sins of the past.
Steven Halpern is a Grammy-nominated American New Age musician. He released his first solo album in 1976 and has built an impressive catalogue of titles since then. He started his music career in New York, playing trumpet and guitar before moving to California during the late 60s, where he developed the idea that he would like to create music purely for the purpose of relaxation. He possesses the long-held belief that music can heal and classifies himself as a suburban sonic shaman. On the back cover of Music for Microdosing, his music is compared to “a tuning fork for the mind, body and soul” that will heighten the listener’s “receptivity to insights, inner guidance and creativity.”
Wan Pipel comes wrapped in a slipcase, with no booklet and a few extras on the disc; in that regard, it’s not any kind of deluxe edition, but the extras are interesting enough. The film, shot in Suriname, was released in 1976, and was the first Surinamese film after the country achieved independence from the Netherlands; in that regard, it’s historically important, and the themes of nationalism and patriotism, and the relationship between the two countries, are loudly present in Wan Pipel (One People).
Live Wires is a split bringing together two of the most consistent. compelling and creative American walled noise projects. There’s Cincinnati, Ohio’s Whore’s Breath, and Portland, Oregon’s Hana Haruna. Each party serves up around twenty three minute track, and each is distinctive.
Tendrils is a recently released slab of extremely grim and rapidly grinding walled noise from this UK-based project.
Night Of The Rats is a zero-budget 2025 film that blends when-creatures-attack action with foaming-at-the-mouth zombie stalking. The picture has a tiny cast, only a few locations, and acting that moves between competent enough, to dull eyes/bumbling reading lines, and badly hamming it up. Though there’s a stab at foreboding to tense atmospherics, with rat attacks that move between passable( for low budget fare) to the plain laughable. Here from Wild Eye Releasing is a DVD release of the film.
The Ugly Stepsister is a darkly satirical, at times bloody/gut-wrenching, retelling of the Cinderella fairy tale. The 2025 Norwegian film is a costume drama that is beautifully dressed with eye-catching set pieces and grand locations, though as it progresses, it dips into body horror and mutilation. The film has gained a lot of praise since its release, including an Oscar nomination- so fittingly, those masters of ultimate cinematic editions, Second Sight, have stepped in to release the film.
Here we have a boxset celebrating the three cinematic collaborations between renowned Hungarian director István Szabó and actor Klaus Maria Brandauer. The three films date from between1981 & 1988, and each are powerful/ at times moving European period drama, full of great cinematic craft, moodiness, and wonderful acting. The set appears on Second Run, with each film receiving a lovely 4k scan, a selection of short films, and a few extras.
From the early 1980’s, Fade To Black is an original crossbreed between slasher and character study, with light touches of satire and comedy woven in. It regards a shy and geeky film-obsessed twenty-something, who suddenly snaps, going on a killing spree, dressed as various characters from Hollywoods past. From 88 Films, as part of their Slasher Classic Collection series, is a dual UHD & Blu-ray release of the film, taking in the 4K scan, two new commentary tracks, a selection of new extras, and a few archive bits.
You are sitting in a room. It is not clear who is there with you, or what they brought with them today (the present case concerns the year 2006), but there you are. You know this because all of the sounds have been spatialized, to the point where they appear to emerge out of the black night of silence that engulfs them. Things are tapped on, rattled, agitated, and otherwise excited, much like the microphones (we imagine) that originally bore witness to this room and the corresponding sonic events. In fact, it is not so much you but said listening devices that are in this room, much in the way the film camera replaced the eyes of a detective in classic noir. It could be a soundtrack to some horror piece dedicated to blindness, but then the fact of things appearing closer and farther away would make little sense if it were.
Westworld is one of the quintessential and influential sci-fi/ action films of the 1970’s. It regards the rich folks' holiday resort of the title, where the participants can go back to the wild west- kill, fight, and carry out all manner of debauchery without any worry/ harm, as the place is manned by androids. Unfortunately for two Chicago businessmen buddies- played by Richard Benjamin and James Brolin- things go somewhat awry ( to put it very mildly). The film cleverly blurs and blends elements of sci-fi, action thriller, western parody, and satire. Here from Arrow Video- both in the UK and Stateside is a new release of the film. It’s available as either a Blu- Ray or UHD- taking in a crisp & clean 4k scan, a new commentary track & interviews- as well as a great selection of new and archive extras.
Prolific and well-respected electronic/experimental artist, Carlos Giffoni, swings back into the public eye with his latest, Pendulum. Featuring a number of duets with other well-known artists the world over, this latest work runs the gamut of sound, style, tone, and texture. Hard to put one's finger on, but even harder to ignore, Pendulum is a fantastic collaboration and celebration of the world, sound, and imagination.
The Pike is a pulp horror/when-creatures-attack novel set in Lake Windemere, regarding a giant blood thirsty fish. First appearing in 1982, it was the first novel written by Cliff Twemlow, a key figure in micro-budgeted/ often SOV action/horror/sci-fi cinema of the UK, which last year was celebrated by the excellent InterVision/ Severin Blu Ray Boxset Bloody Legend: The Complete Twemlow Collection- which brought together a doc about the great man, eleven of his features and much more. Here from Severin/ Encyclopocalypse Publications is a reprint of the book.
HÉR is a sort of cinematic folk or experimental post-punk project, which takes influence from traditional Viking music. Despite being released on Season of Mist, their debut Monochrome is not metal of any kind, but rather a soundtracky landscape of tribal drums, chants, plodding bass guitar and circular string figures.
Jiří Barta is a Czech stop-motion animator from Prague, famous for his only other feature-length film, Toys in the Attic (2009). He is well known for using wood as a medium to create his animations. This new Blu-ray set from Deaf Crocodile features much of his work. On the first disc we have 1986's The Pied Piper, a 53 minute film that is based on the classic fairytale about the Pied Piper of Hamlyn who cleansed a village of rats and then returned for the townsfolks children when the villagers weren’t forthcoming with his payment, while disc two features seven shorts, Riddles for A Candy, Disc Jockey, The Project, The Vanished World of Gloves, The Ballad of the Green Wood, The Last Booty and The Club of the Laid Off.