Loading
From the mighty fine folks at SRS Cinema, here’s another weird ‘n’ wacky slice of low-budget sharkploitation…and boy, this one goes there, in its all-out WTH-ness. We have a size-shifting, talking, at points walking shark who likes making it with the ladies, a demented female cult that follows said shark- with loads of blood, limb-munching, and some awkward humour- all captured in lo-fi, shot-on-video form
Hit The Pulse To Purge…is a CD anthology looking at the output of Portion Control between the years1983 & 1986. The South London industrial electronic/ EBM project is seen as being most influential, going on to inspire/ inform the likes of Front Line Assembly, Skinny Puppy, Orbital and Nine-Inch Nails.
Here’s a CD compilation bringing together three mid-to-late ’60s horror soundtracks by Elisabeth Luthyens-Britain’s first female feature film composer. The twenty-four-track collection brings together score cues ( along with atmospheric sound effects from the films) and a trailer for each film, with a total disc runtime of seventy five minutes.
First released in 2021 as a digital-only release, Ritual was the 11th album from Polish industrial/rhythmic noise project Wieloryb. Here’s a CD reissue of the album, which adds three bonus tracks to make a fifteen-track release.
Contemplator Caeli is a five-track collaboration between these two respected German dark ambient projects. It was first released in 2020 as a vinyl-only release; here, from Poland’s Zoharum is a CD or tape release of the album- I’m reviewing a CD promo of the release. The reissue has been remastered by James Plotkin.
The Fires (2025) is an Icelandic disaster thriller directed by Ugla Hauksdóttir (Alien: Earth), who co-wrote the screenplay with Markus Englmair (Blood and Milk), based on the novel by Sigríður Hagalín Björnsdóttir. The film stars Vigdís Hrefna Pálsdóttir (The Valhalla Murders) as volcanologist Anna, alongside Pilou Asbæk (Game of Thrones), Joi Johannsson (True Detective), Sigurður Sigurjónsson (Rams), and Ingvar E. Sigurdsson (The Northman). After 800 years of dormancy, Iceland's Reykjanes Peninsula erupts without warning, forcing Anna to navigate both a volcanic catastrophe and the chaos threatening her country
First released in 1998 on Repulse Records, Destined To Fail was the lone studio album from Massachusetts death metal band Scattered Remnants. The eight-track album offered up a brutal, bleakly simplistic at times grooved take on DM form, with some effective jarring tonal shifts, and a few more creative/ experiential touches.
Black Rabbit, White Rabbit is a 2025 Tajikistan/UAE production that blurs the lines between drama, mystery and dark comedy, with light touches of fantasy and playful surrealism. It regards three interwoven stories: a middle-aged prop master concerned about a gun, an aspiring actress trying to sneak on set. And a bandaged woman who was involved in a car crash, has a bossy/ unpredictable husband, and believes she has the power to move things with her mind. The film's a wonderfully intriguing/unpredictable/ at times mind-bending ride- all wrapped in a meta bow, so you're often unsure what is real & what is not. Here from Deaf Crocodile is a Region 1 Blu-ray release of the film, taking in a commentary track, visual essay, short films by the director, etc.
Dummy is the 100th film directed by American low-budget horror/ sci fi director Mark Polonia. It regards a troubled/ once famous Ventriloquist- played by a long-term collaborator Jeff Kirkendall- who takes his life, transfers his angst and anger into his dummy Chucklehead. The small-town set picture blends elements of supernatural drama/ light thriller, slasher, and low-key comedy.Here from SRS Cinema is a DVD release of this 2026 film, taking in the always worthy director's commentary from Mark, a pitch video, trailer and trailer reel.
The rather curiously named Lemming Project were a German Death Metal band from the early 90s. They released two albums on the legendary Noise label, which served up a crusty- yet progressive sound that brought in industrial, discordant, and grimly experimental elements. Here from Cherry Red’s Dissonance Productions is a two-set bringing together the band's two albums on Noise- 1991’s Extinction and 1992’s Hate & Despise.
Light Again is a two-CD set bringing together the two albums released by talented British Indian fusion guitarist Gary Boyle in the late 1970s. He’s best known for setting up the four-piece fusion/ jazz rock band Isotope- though he also did session work with the likes of Keith Tippett, Mike Gibbs, Mike Westbrook, Stomu Yamashta, Bert Jansch and Norma Winstone.
Here’s a 2025 psychological thriller from director Jennifer E. Montgomery, who co-wrote the script with cinematographer Andrew Davis, This Tempting Madness is a committed take on a familiar tale of paranoia, mistrust and a breakdown of reality.
The Slasher genre’s true home is the USA, as most of its key developments have occurred there, along with many of its most notable films & franchises. But other countries have also made stabs at the genre too, and I’d say Norway's Cold Prey trilogy is one of the most known/ effective of these. Here from Second Sight is a classy/ definitive reissue of the trilogy. The three-disc Blu-ray set comes presented in a rigid slipcase with new artwork by James Neal. It features a one hundred and twenty-one-page book with new essays by Matt Donato, JA Kerswell, Justin LaLiberty, Paul Lé’s Ariel Power-Schaub and Nathaniel Thompson. As well as five collectors' art cards. Each film gets a new commentary track, and a decent selection of extras too.
Life is full of repeating patterns and cycles, be they from the Earth and Moon, our natural beings, or those we create in our day-to-day. Extend this out, and one can see a city come to life, following its own patterns and cycles, built upon thousands (or more) simultaneously running and moving cycles of its denizens. Nonturn takes these repetitive city cycles, repurposes their sounds, and structures them into a new, 96 BPM cycle for Repeating Town. Capturing the machines, footsteps, sounds, and rhythms of Koenji, Tokyo, Nonturn builds an intriguing new city life via experimental electronic music. Rearranging the recorded sounds to form something musical from nothing, this dada-esque reconstruction makes art from the repetitive chaos of the city routine
Enlightened Depths is a one-hour slab of rolling bass- boil and tumbling static-based wall noise from this French noise maker. The digital release appears on Poland’s Gates Of Hypos.
Gritcore is a new two-track HNW release from Norfolk Trotter- aka Norwich’s Michael Ridge (Acerbitas, Zebra Mu, Dial-Up Summer Breeze). Each ‘wall’ runs between thirty and forty minutes, and has been created by playing sandpaper on a modified turntable.
Now here's a ‘wall’ noise track that manages to blend panic and brooding dread rather well. The around-hour-long creation finds this Stuttgart, Germany-based project serving up something fairly interesting in the wall noise form
Here’s an electro-choppy, grain-juddering, and at points texturally unpredictable example of the wall-noise form from Cincinnati's Whore’s Breath. The single track slides in at just under the forty-five-minute mark and is proof once again why this is one of the most consistent, at times experimental projects operating within walling today.
Mata Hari is the first release I’ve heard in a little while from this Everett, Washington-based wall noise project. Though going from their Bandcamp page, they have been fairly active of late. The digital release features a single twenty-five-minute track- bringing together a galloping low end with crispy clappings ‘n’ cluttering clusters of mids.
Hazy Purple is a rather organic-meets-electronic take on the walled noise form. The just under thirty-nine-minute track from this Polish project certainly feels both weathered-worn & electro-twitchy- all to create a fairly distinctive bit of ‘wall’ craft.
The trio of Matthew Putman, Hill Greene and Francisco Mela have one previous album, on 577 Records, titled Believe That Was Me, and has now put together this second album for the same label, Bright Sun Outside. Their music is improvisatory jazz, so perhaps one might call it 'free jazz', but it is certainly not unmusical, with plenty of melody and structure to be found, and spirited bursts of spontaneous activity that break out of that, as well. This album draws primarily from late 60's and early 70's hard bop, my favourite era of jazz, with rapid tempos, agile figures, and a great avalanche of frenzied notes. The forty-nine-minute album consists of nine pieces which range from two to nearly ten minutes.
Long before the current wave of musings on the ruinous city, before actual skyscrapers were sliding into oblivion, there were those Continental intellectuals who worried about the new metropolis as a monument to amnesia more than cultural advancement. Fast forward to the present, and ruins are again everywhere, this time around, according to sonic polymath Lawrence English, as spurious expressions of nostalgia. And like those before him, English ties this disingenuous form of remembering — nostalgia — to the past, but more importantly, to impoverished visions of the future. English gives this all a name: Acid Nostalgia. His most recent album, The Rest Is My Ghost, is a corrective and critique of the poverty of future thinking, and in typical fashion, English crafts a captivating work of abstraction and ambience filled with moments of tension and conflict, refusing easy resolution or premature release.
Scream Dream is an ultra-low-budget slice of 1980s heavy metal horror shlock. It’s a SOV offering from long-time active horror ‘n’ sleaze merchant Donald Farmer (Cannibal Hookers, Red Lips, Shark Exorcist, Scream Queens Weenie Roast )- focusing on a long-clawed, horned, and big-teethed demon connected to a up & coming/ female fronted metal band… and every time they roll into town, fans seem to disappear. Here from Visual Vengeance is a recent Blu-ray featuring directors' commentary, a few interviews, and a heavy metal horror primer.
The words classic or important are often bandied about, but I think it is fair to say both are very fitting for A Bay of Blood. The early 1970’s film was very much influenced/ help define the slash genre- it’s also a twisting ‘n’ turning mystery and darkest of dark comedies with brutal/ creative effects, and a gleeful sense of the macabre. Here from Severin is a five-disc release of the film- it features three different versions of the picture, four plus hours of extras, and a full soundtrack CD.