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Six Seasons is a seven-piece release from Chinese American composer Lei Liang. The work blends detailed/ textured violin and viola d’amore playing with field recordings captured from under the ice in the Chukchi Sea in North Alaska. It’s a release that will appeal to those who enjoy more textural to actively ambient sound craft.
Bird of Paradise is a darting, at times heady crossbreed between modern classic music, electro texturing, and noise. The seventy four-minute CD release brings together three pieces that take you on a twisting ‘n’ turning ride.
Gaudenz Badrutt has composed what might be the most compelling contemporary update to the work of Charles Ives, bringing the American composer into dialogue with a host of techniques – electronics and sampling chief among them – while continuing the perambulatory nature of Ives's example. Palace is the result of this foray into the real-time mash-up of electroacoustic composition with archival recordings, including snippets of Badrutt's playing Ives pieces on the piano. The addition of feedback and oscillating sine waves gives the piece both continuity and drive, making sure that we can never stay too long in one place, looking for the next bend in the road, around the Ivesian gazebo.
Here’s a three-track journey into taut, tense, and hearing ripping walled noise from this Mexico City project. Each of the fifteen-minute tracks consists of tight ‘n’ airless walling, which are as unrelenting and unforgiving as each other.
Depending on who you ask, Ed D Wood Jr is either one of the worst filmmakers ever, or a quirky/ bumbling auteur- who cut out his own distinctive path within US low budget/ cult cinema of 50’s to 70’s. Towards the end of his career, when he was somewhat of a washed-up alcoholic - he made selection of porn loops, and porn features- both in the soft and hardcore markets. Hardwood: The Adult Features Of Ed Wood is a three Blu-ray boxset, bringing together a selection of films from this period, as well as some of his loops, and a hicksploitation comedy drama he scripted.
Opera was the tenth film by Dario Argento. The late 80’s opera house set picture blends murder mystery, euro drama, eerier stalking through lavish corridors, and of course, often brutally creative murder. The film has a soundtrack that blends ornate & soaring classical music, with throbbing heavy metal. Here from Severin- is a three-disc UHD and Blu-ray release of the film- featuring a new 4k scan, two versions of the film, and over eight hours of extras.
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of legendary composer and experimentalist Iannis Xenakis' birth, the X100 Festival was held in Berlin in 2023. Solely using Xenakis' UPIC computer system, the duo of Russell Haswell and Florian Hecker teamed up again to record UPIC Diffusion Session #23, performed and recorded live at the above festival. THe UPIC system creates sonic translations of visual images, so while a picture may be worth a thousand words, it's also worth a thousand sounds. The duo used hand drawn images with varied inspiration (news photos of disasters, atrocities, "food porn," molecular structures, etc) and let their thoughts and art feed UPIC and give the world its result. Mego released the 32'43" track on vinyl and digital, and the voice of UPIC is engaging, captivating, and oftentimes noisy. Pretty interesting considering the source material, no?
Engulfed By Fungus is a slice of lightly searing & subtle bird song laced ANW. The single half-an-hour track managers to find that sweet spot between low-key muffled noise craft, and lulling ambience for a decidedly entrancing sound ride.
Tulpa is a nearly sixteen minutes of rushing meets galloping walled noise, which is a consistent, yet rewardingly comforting example of wall-craft.
Black Chapter is a new four track album from Russia’s Train Cemetery. It finds the project moving away from the complexly layered detail sound it’s known for, to a more progressive building/ shifting walled noise sound.
Contemplation Of The Endless Collapse is a forty-five minute wall noise ride- which blends bass bounding rolling heaviness, with shifting hissing, and subtle layer detail. This is the first release from respected Polish project Sado Rituals in some time.
I recently watched Bill Morrison’s Dawson City: Frozen Time (2016) and, with a few caveats really enjoyed it; The Village Detective: A Song Cycle (2021) follows that film and shares much the same purpose and themes. It tells the story of some reels of film salvaged from the seabed by an Icelandic lobster trawler in 2016, which turned out to be - unlike the treasure trove dug up in Dawson City - parts of the very non-rare Russian film The Village Detective (1969), starring Mikhail Zharov as Fyodor Ivanovich, a policeman. Zharov (1899-1981) was one of the most popular Russian actors in his time, though his was a popular, not critical, fame; he made over 70 films and was an equally prolific performer on stage, he was also notably the first Russian to sing on film in Road to Life (1931). The Village Detective tells his story, using clips from his films, interspersed with commentary on Russian history and cinema, and the role that cinema performed in Russian society.
Black Tuesday is a grim at points brutal, mid 50’s noir regarding a prison/ death row breakout. It features Edward G Robbins as a ruthless and uncaring gangster- who will do anything to stay alive. The film features some unpredictable plot twists ‘n’ turns, and a well-acted/varied cast of characters. Here as part of Eureka’s Master Of Cinema series is a Blu-Ray release of the film- featuring a new crisp, yet stark 2k scan, a commentary track, and a selection of other extras.
Doctor Vampire is an early 90’s blend of comedy, martial arts, and horror. The Hong Kong made picture blends romantic to raunchy comedy, with touches of slapstick. The horror elements are largely playful, featuring only a few moments of bloody gore- with wacky characters meeting vamps & martial arts elements in the final quarter of the film. Here from Eureka! is a new Blu-ray release of the film- featuring a new 2k scan, two new commentary tracks, and a few more extras.
The Brides of Funkenstein were a spin-off project from George Clinton’s Parliament universe. The female-fronted band dabbbled in funk, soul, and disco. They existed between 1978 and 1981- releasing two studio albums and a post-breakup live album. Funk Or Walk is the project's debut album- taking in seven shots of funking, grooving, and soulful fare, with that very distinctive Clinton flavor. Here from Ace Records is a CD reissue of the album.
Land Of Kinks is a double disc/fifty-two track compilation focusing on the work of legendary/ innovative reggae producer Lee’ Scratch’ Perry in the early 70s. The collection moves from the quirky/ tuneful/ grooving, to the creative/ wacky, to the ahead of its time material. Aside from a few repeated tracks & the odd suspect covers, this is another mighty fine ‘n’ excellent 'Scratch' compilation, which is a must for fans of this creative/ important legend, whose impact stretches way beyond the confines of the reggae genre.
On the one hand, punk and free jazz may appear to be poles apart – opposite ends of the musical spectrum on practically every level. But the overlap in attitude and aesthetic is quite significant. Both push against musical boundaries, both are on the periphery of the mainstream, and both produce music that at its core is entirely rebellious. With this spirit of interconnectedness and shared exploration, avant-garde jazz sax and clarinet player, Ken Vandermark and Terrie Ex, aka Terrie Hessels of post-punk band The Ex, found common ground, working together now for over 15 years - as guests on each other’s records, as part of improvisational quartet Lean Left and as a duo in their own right. Yet despite being onstage together countless times, This is Not a Holiday! is only the second album that the pair have released as a duo and rather appropriately it is a live recording of their 2021 performance at Poznan’s SARP Social Club.
Evilenko is a glum, often highly troubling, though largely bloodless cinematic retelling of the story of one of Russia’s most prolific serial killers- ex-schoolteacher Andrei Chikatilo. Between the late 70’s and early 90’s he took the lives of fifty-six victims- many children- with him even eating some of the victims. This early 2000 film finds Malcolm McDowell ( A Clockwork Orange, Time After Time, Rob Zombies Halloween films) playing the killer- here renamed Andrej Romanovic Evilenko, with the Leeds born actor giving one of his chillingly convincing late-career performances, and the picture featuring a lulling grim score by David Lynch collaborator Angelo Badalamenti. Here from Unearthed those seekers of extreme and unsettling cinematic fare is a new release of the film- coming as either a UHD or Blu-Ray release- featuring a new 4k scan of the film, new director/ lead actor commentary, and a few archive extras.
Originally released as a four-part TV series in July 2023, 1982 Greatest Geek Year Ever! has found its way to Blu-ray as a nearly 3-hour documentary film. Directed by experienced documentary film-maker Roger Lay Jr (The Twilight Zone 60th: Remembering Rod Serling, Star Trek: The Journey to the Silver Screen and Toy Masters) the film takes a look back at one of the key years in the development of geek culture. It was the year that brought us ET, Blade Runner, The Thing, Tron, Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan, Poltergeist, Dark Crystal, Conan the Barbarian, Firefox, First Blood and a host of other risky titles that could make or break a director or a studio. Steven Spielberg was king to the point that he released two films within a week of each other (ET and Poltergeist), albeit one was as a director and the other as a producer.
With just two tracks, together coming in at exactly fifteen minutes, Jacek Doroszenko's R_sin _io is clearly a prolegomenon to something much bigger. What that is, or might look like, is not the subject here, though, but it is worth mentioning given the length and scope of R_sin _io.
First appearing in the early 80’s Tissues Of Lies is glum, grey, at points jarring mix of murky bass lines, disquieting dada, troubling industrial texturing, jaded electro beats and general ugly/grim 1980’s sound-scaping. Here from Klanggalerie is a double CD reissue of the album- with the original album on disc one, and a complete bonus disc taking in three bonus tracks and a highly murky/ noise thirty six minute live set.
The Clear Observatory (Eyepiece Musique) is fifty five minute trip into slowly tolling, reverberation, and eerily shimmering ambience from Italian sound art designer/ experimental musician Massimo Toniutti. The single track feels very much like a uneasy ritual- where there is no beginning or end- just the eternal present.
Although oft maligned, Alien³ is a strong entry into the franchise and has many fans and supporters, myself included. Bestia Astrum (aka Abby Helasdottir / GYDJA) is clearly a fan as her debut album, Fury 161, is an alternative soundtrack not only the film, but the film as it was originally intended. Based in the heart of a prison planet, this grim, industrial-ambient work captures the darkness and isolation at the heart of the thesis and allows its expanse to envelop the listener and further foster their terror. Cold and impersonal, Fury 161 is a gem that easily transports you away in time and space, so listen loudly and enjoy the trip.
Zangoma is a funky psychedelic blues rock band from Finland with an infusion of a Zambian offshoot of the style called 'Zamrock' which incorporated traditional rhythms in a similar way as afrobeat does. Faka Mulilo is their debut album on Svart Records, with nine songs of average three-five minute length, filled to the brim with juicy guitar licks and satisfying soulful harmonies.