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Trill Scan offers up an eleven-track journey into hazed techno beats, murkily pulsing synth tones/electronics, and atmospheric instrumental/ vocal tone sampling. It’s the seventh album from Montreal, Canada-based music producer and musician T. Gowdy.
The Exu are a Leeds-based jazz trio that mixes bebop and free jazz- taking influences from grunge, death metal, hip hop, & experimental music. As far as I can gather this self-titled CD album on Discus Music is the band's debut release, which features twelve tracks.
Floating Similarities is the meeting of two European improv-focused guitarists- Belgian’s Dirk Serries and France’s Christian Vasseur. The seven-track CD album shifts between the abstract, manic, and moody.
Birna is the sixth studio album from Norwegian trad/folk combo Wardruna, formed in 2003 by Einar Selvik and Gaahl, of Gorgoroth fame with Lindy-Fay Hella. Gaahl would eventually leave the band after their second album Runaljod – Yggdrasil was released in 2013. Since then the band have expanded beyond the original three-piece and is currently a four-piece with Eilif Gunderson on Neverlur, Bronselur and Bukkehorn, and John Stenersen on Moraharpe. They also have four backing vocalists. The band plays music that is based on Norse culture and esoteric traditions and they use traditional Nordic instruments.
I realized almost immediately that the title, Enjoy Country Music, must be ironic. The two-man line up is credited with double bass/mixing and Modular synths/amps / 15-meter tape loops respectively. This Italian duo has released this new collaborative cassette on Torta Editions, both musicians have been individually active with various independent and official releases within the last fifteen years.
Here’s another good reason to give Radiance even more of your hard-earned money: Nothing is Sacred: Three Heresies by Luis Buñuel is one of those ‘no-brainers’ for those interested in film and its history, and indeed surrealist art. I’m only reviewing promo discs, but as usual, I can guarantee that the boxset proper will be a thing of beauty, and also includes a 80-page book. The set has three discs, with three films: Viridiana (1961), The Exterminating Angel (1962), Simon of the Desert (1965), and an overwhelming amount of extras - genuinely stunning. It’s simply a great set and you don’t need to read further. But here you are.
Russian World severs up two slices of clanking, snapping, whizzing, and grinding electro-industrial soundscaping, which are both urgent and atmospheric.
Beautiful Isolation is a twenty-minute work that sits somewhere between lightly churning-grained drone ambience, expansively bright to lightly baying ambience, glitch-bound turn ‘n’ grate, and almost beatless electronica.
The Wall is a US noise split- featuring two around twenty-minute tracks, one dense and searing wall-craft, and the other roasting/ painful harsh noise with PE leanings.
Lenses was the first album from Dead, Dead Swans (aka Milwaukee, Wisconsin's John E Swan). It first appeared in 2022, and it showed the projects blend of raw and world-weary American folk music already firmly in place. Appearing at the tail end of last year here’s a CD reissue of the album from Punkerton Records.
The Mask Of Satan is a snow-bound ‘n’ gothic-edged slice of late 80’s euro horror. The film regards a group of skiers uncovering a witch's icy tomb, removing her spiked mask- to become pursued by her spirit. It’s directed by Lamberto Bava- being somewhat of a reimaging/ tribute of his father's classic gothic horror film Black Sunday (1960). The picture blends eerier atmospherics, some neat sets, are-they-going-crazy-or-not thrills, and a few decent effect set-ups/ gory moments. Here from the folks at Severin is a Blu-Ray release of this lesser-seen/ known film- taking in a 2k scan, and a few extras.
Delicatessen is a 1991 French sci-fi comedy film directed by Jean Pierre Jeunet (Amelie, Alien Resurrection and City of Lost Children) and Marc Caro (City of Lost Children, Astroboy in Roboland and Dante 01), and starring Dominique Pinon (Amelie, Alien Resurrection and City of Lost Children), Marie-Laure Dougnac (Alice, Au Petit Marguery and The Good Son) and Jean-Claude Dreyfus (The City of Lost Children, Fitzcarraldo and Two Brothers).
Released in 2024 Terrifier 3 is the most recent film in the brutal gore-bound franchise- focusing on Art The Clown. It upped the creative kills, levels of slopping guts ‘n’ lopping limbs with generally more gleeful deranged air- though on the downside it has a slightly muddled structure/ flow, and it doesn’t really advance/ fill in the series mythos. Here from Signature Entertainment is a Blu Ray release of the film.
Harlequin is a rather curious mix of political and fantasy-fed thriller. The early 1980s Australian film concerns a faith healer, Robert Powell, who seemingly cures leukaemia in the son of an up-and-coming politician, played by David Hemmings. The picture offers an intriguingly engaging mix of family drama, mystery, and thriller genres- with light touches of fantasy and horror. From Powerhouse – either as a UHD or Blu-Ray- is a new release of the film featuring a 4k scan, one new extra, and a host of archive extras.
Australian cellist Judith Hamann brings exquisite collage techniques to Shelter Press for their latest solo album, Aunes. With the addition of synthesizers, organ, field recordings, and voice (notably for the first time in their compositions), the six pieces on the album tie together locations to audible sensations, like the aune tied to the measured material. And, like many materials, Aunes is varied in appearance, often delicate, sometimes shimmering, but always textural. Beautiful and at times haunting, these compositions are a wonderful expression, and shows that Hamann's cello skills are only the tip of the iceberg.
Twilight Of Perception Redux Volume One 1990-1998 is the first in a series of planned CD compilations from Poland’s Zoharum. Looking at rare, unreleased, etc recordings from euro ambient pioneer Vidna Obmana aka Belgium's Dirk Serries. The three-CD set takes in twenty three tracks- with as you’d expect from such a collection variation in both the tone/ atmosphere of the tracks.
The Reverent Sky is a new four-track album from important and prolific US ambient artist Steve Roach. The four lengthy tracks move from layer-shifting/ expansive affairs to blends of low-key beats and ambience. And I must say it’s another wholly engaging ride from Roach- who is now in his seventh decade, with over two hundred plus albums under his belt.
Here we have a release that severs up two twenty-two-minute examples of raggedly rolling walled noise. As this date-titled release suggests, there’s no theme here- just unrelenting wall-craft.
Don’t Turn Out the Lights is a new horror film written and directed by Andy Fickman being made available on digital platforms on 17 March.
El Coco were a project that blended disco with easy listening, soul, and Jazz elements. They existed between 1975 and 1982, signed to AVI Records- releasing a total of eight albums, and twenty-five singles/ EP. Here we have a two CD set from Cherry Red's Robin songs bringing together the first four albums from the project.
For Renstemt Klaver (For justly-tuned piano) is a six-track journey into mechanism-played piano composition from Norway’s Jo David Meyer Lysne. Seemingly, Mr Lysne is most known for his work in jazz circles playing the guitar, so this is quite a departure, the results are best described as ambience, with a fairly glum/ at points dissonant leaning.
Deep down in the world where experimental metal meets electronica, you’ll probably find industrial-cum-grindcore specialist Justin K Broadrick. Primarily recognised as co-founder and guitarist in Godflesh, Broadrick has sat at the epicentre of UK’s industrial metal scene since the early 80s and has gone on to inspire and conspire with likeminded musical acolytes allowing this unique and much-loved subgenre of music to flourish. And this is indeed very much the case when it comes to Duskdawn, the new electronic-metal exploration release by Carthage – solo project of Damian Bennett and third in the collaborative series between Broadrick’s Avalanche Recordings and boutique US label GIVE/TAKE.
Sometimes you come upon a film that leaves you almost lost for words - original in its ideas, imagery or execution, Shinji Somai’s 1987 Japanese arthouse film Luminous Woman is one such film. An extraordinary pseudo-psychedelic Fellini-esque ride through the world of Tokyo’s covert and subversive nightlife, we follow our protagonist, soon to-be wrestler, Sensaku as he leaves the tranquil security of his rustic life in Hokkaido to scour the urban highlife of Japan’s capital in search of his missing fiancée.
Venom (not to be confused with the 2018 Marvel anti-hero film of the same name) is an early 80s thriller/ horror crossbred, featuring two notorious/unpredictable actors Klaus Kinski and Oliver Reed. The film is a mix of taut kidnap thriller, and stalking ‘n’ snapper creature feature, and it’s a wholly entertaining and tense ride. Here from Blue Underground is a dual UHD and Blu-ray, taking in a new 4k scan, new and old commentary tracks, and a good selection of new interviews