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Tomie is a decidedly heady ‘n’ creepily woozy mix of psychological drama, mystery, crime-triller, and supernatural horror- all scored with a mix of hazy to eerier electronica & looped field recordings. The Japanese film appeared in the late 90s and is often put in the J-horror bracket, and while elements of the film do fit into that genre, there is so much more wonderfully unhinged going on here. From Arrow Video- both in the UK and stateside- here's a Blu-Ray release of the film taking in a new commentary track and a few other extras.
Abduction Of The Innocent (aka Stockholm Syndrome) is a blend of grim thriller and torture-bound horror focusing on human slave trafficking. The early 2000s film is a low-budget affair- with decidedly mixed gore effects and acting- moving between fairly distributing/ troubling, to badly amateurish & somewhat muddled in its plot/ focus. Here from Wild Eye Releasing is a bare-bones DVD release of the film.
From the early 1970s Juggernaut is a blend of disaster movie and psychological thriller, with some great moments of suspense/tension, and odd touches of humour. The film focuses on a blackmailer who has placed seven bombs aboard the transatlantic liner Britannic-which is carrying 1200 passages and crew. It blends on-board footage, with back in London police investigation, and taut office interactions- all making for an entertaining, at points hellish tense picture. Here from Eureka is a new Blu-ray release of the film- featuring a new scan, commentary track, and a few other extras.
Directed by Benjamin Christensen (Seven Footprints to Satan, The Devil’s Circus and House of Horror), Haxan is a film from 1922 that doesn’t neatly fit into any category, it’s part documentary, part dramatisation of images of occultism and part exploitation movie. More importantly, it’s an atmospheric masterpiece of dark gothic imagery that has influenced so much of what has gone on to become integral to our modern perception of what represents horror’s key touchstones from Mario Bava and Hammer to Evil Dead and The VVitch.
Flowers Of Emptiness brings together eight modern chamber pieces from Canadian composer Linda Catlin Smith. All of the works are delicate and often sparse affairs, which move with fraught, felt, and glum melodies- with the whole lot being played by the highly respected modern ensemble Apartment House.
Near Distant is a three CD/three-plus hour journey in Michelle Lou’s sound worlds. The San Digo-born composer's work sits somewhere between electro-acoustic and modern composition, with touches of saw/ grating industrial texturing, moments of all-out noise sear, as well as gloomy to doomed atmospherics.
CEL, the duo of Hubert Zemler and Felix Kubin, head to Gagarin Records to put out five previously unreleased live tracks. Five Minutes to Self-Destruct contains four songs from 2024 and one from 2020, all remixed by Jan Wroński. Although varying in style over each live action, each piece here keeps to a similar vibe, putting fun, energetic electronic music as top priority. As this 12" EP, it is on the shorter side, but the brightness calls for repeated back to back spins, allowing the listener to really develop a great rapport with the material on hand.
Fear of the Object is a collective, of sorts, who perform live together, bonded by a shared spirit of investigation into the resonant frequencies of certain objects. Some of these include traditional instruments – cello, double bass, synthesizers – while others include the more esoterically named "vibrating membrane". Leaves Never Fall in Vain is a recording of one of their concerts, chopped into three short snippets and one very long, meandering piece. While the recorded results share little in common, the happening-like conditions and methodology behind the album is reminiscent of the heady days of AMM and Musica Elettronica Viva, with their explorations of tools and media that would effectively suspend, or at least problematize, the subjectivity of each performer/participant.
With a 2024 film having a title like The Stalking, you’d imagine some form of retro-focused stalk ‘n’ slash afair-but it’s far from that!. What we have here is a pulpy, low-budget and fun slice of pumpkin pie horror. The film is set around Halloween- bringing together an evil witch, killer sunflowers, a bullied ‘teen’, and a reanimated scarecrow. Here from Wild Eye Releasing is a Blu-Ray release of the film, taking in a director's commentary.
Nordvargr might be a name not altogether familiar in the UK, but to say that the Swedish musician is anything but ultra-prolific would be an understatement. Henrik Nordvargr Bjorkk assumed his middle name as an alias for what is nearly forty years spent blending metal, electronic and industrial music. His current Resignation project, ongoing for over fifteen years, is Nordvargr’s (very successful) attempt at dark ambient soundscaping metrically infused with repetitive beats. Two years on from the release of the Resignation trilogy box set, his latest instalment Resignation 4 picks up where its predecessor left off – bringing together dark techno, industrial ambient and electronic soundscapes in one highly cinematic combination.
Blasting from the crypt with their second album of 2024, Sweden's Carnal Savagery keep death, gore, and grime alive with Graveworms, Cadavers, Coffins and Bones. Tallying six albums in four years, Carnal Savagery's release schedule is fast and furious, and this is perfectly echoed in their rousing, pummeling death metal. Channeling their old-school past (fmr Cromlech) and roots, this latest continues to push rejuvenated, old-school death rife with that Swedish sound that has become beyond legendary. Thick, meaty riffs and fast, aggressive drumming keep this one moving and their grim breakdowns add just the right levels of beefiness to keep the listener coming back for more.
From the late 60’s The Red-Light Bandit stands as one more experimental re-telling of a true crime case. The film features a fragmented narrative and darting structure, mixing elements of crime thriller, satire, and anarchic artiness. It was based on the case of João Acácio Pereira da Costa- who in São Paulo in the 60s committed four murders, seven attempted murders, and seventy-seven robberies, receiving a sentence of three hundred and fifty-one years, nine months, and three days in prison. Here from Severin is a Blu-Ray reissue of the film- taking in a 2k scan, a few extras, and a selection of short films.
The Invasion is an early 2000s alien epidemic sci-fi thriller, featuring Nichole Kidman as a Washington, D.C psychiatrist who starts to notice something a miss with both her patients and her estranged husband. In the cast, she’s joined by Daniel Craig (latter-day James Bond) as a Doctor friend- for a nicely pacy and paranoid-edged ride of a film. Here from Arrow- both in the UK and stateside- is a new Blu-Ray release of the picture-taking in a new print, a new commentary track, and a few other new/old extras.
From the early ’70s, A Symphony For Amaranths is a larger jazz orchestra-focused album. It moves from tone shifting/ mood vary composition, to more dramatic/ theatrical poem-weaved pieces. Neil Ardley- was an influential English jazz musician and composer, whose body of work largely dates from the 70’s. Here from BGO Records is a CD reissue of the album- featuring a remastered mix, a bonus track, and a fifteen-page inlay booklet with a new write-up about the album/its composer.
The rather wonderfully monikered Dan Hicks And His Hot Licks were an American band who largely operated between the late 60s and 1970s. They brewed up an idiosyncratic/ at times playful blend of cowboy folk, jazz, country, swing, bluegrass, pop, and gypsy music. Here from BGO Music is a two-CD set bringing together three of the band's albums from the early 70’s- taking Where’s The Money?, Stinking Rich, The Last Train To Hicksville…The Home Of Happy Feet.
Christmas horror is virtually a genre in itself. And by Santa, there have been some greats. Silent Night, Deadly Night Parts 1 and 2, Christmas Evil, Gremlins (?) and of course the best of the bunch proto-slasher, Black Christmas. It always feels like a bit of a win-win for horror fans around this time of year - coming off the back of Halloween going straight into the festive season and director Airell Anthony Hayles’ recent holiday horror, Advent fits the bill rather nicely.
Mother Mallards Portable Masterpiece Co. is a live synthesizer band founded by David Borden, that has taken several forms over the decades, beginning in the late 60's. This two disk collection is an anthology reflecting back upon their various eras.
Originally released as part of Severin’s excellent The Eurocrypt of Christopher Lee, a collection featuring five of the classic horror movies Lee made in continental Europe during the 1960s and 70s. Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace was originally released in 1962, it was a Franco/ German / Italian production with an English star (Lee) and an English director, a man Lee worked with on a number of occasions, Terence Fisher (Horror of Dracula, Curse of Frankenstein and The Devil Rides Out).
Beezel is a 2024 horror film regarding a soul-sucking & flesh-eating Witch. The film's story is told over a time frame of sixty years- blending together filmed and found footage. The picture nicely blends a sense of hovering dreading, with moments of both creepiness & darting horror, and a few neat touches of shock ‘n’ gore. Here from Epic Pictures is a Blu-Ray release of the film- taking in a short making of, and two short films by the picture's makers
Daiei Gothic is a Blu-ray box set bringing together three classic Japanese ghost story films. The pictures date from between the late 1950s and mid-1960s- moving from a samurai drama/ supernatural crossbreed, snow-bound witch meets romantic drama, and a ghostly love story.
Amid the revival of the 80s aesthetic – heavy chorus effects, suffocated synth washes, ethereal vocals – the ability to effectively distinguish the genuine from the genuflected is nearly impossible. I have to admit that this entire genre is one that quite intentionally passed me by in its heyday, almost surely a result of my own narrow-mindedness when it came to anything that had electronic beats thrown into the mix. Well, Tactical Pagan (aka Andy Swan et al.) has put forth a kind of life raft of sorts for those of us who missed the boat, and for those who wished its journey had never come to close. Recorded directly to 8-track and mastered by label head and critical figure in the UK version of this story, Justin K. Broadrick, this eponymous debut revives the specific media technology that brokered dark wave, electro music of the 80s, while updating its most critical elements.
No Sides Records presents True Scale: Live 2014-2019 CD by Hideous Replica. The Brooklyn duo of Dan Hintz and Frank Rose record and perform using only iPods and their amplifiers. Despite being active for a decade and having many recordings available on their bandcamp page, True Scale appears to be their first widely available physical release.
Demons Dance Alone was the 27th album from The Residents. Released in the year 2002, it offered some of the long-running US project's most tuneful/ approachable, at times emotionally charged material- with much of their more difficult edges stripped back, for a quirkier, at points melancholic vibe. From Cherry Red/ MVD audio/ New Ralph here is the next in the 'Preserved Series’ which sees the labels releasing the ultimate edition of Resident albums- with each album getting a classy new remastering, and loads of rare/unreleased material. This is a three-disc CD set- that brings together the original album, demos, bonus tracks, and live takes on the material.
The Polydor Years is a two-CD set bringing together one EP and one album released by British new wave artist Peter Godwind, with each disc also taking in a fair few bonus tracks be they single mixes, remixers, or instrumental takes on album tracks. Mr Godwind’s take on the New Wave is fairly moody/dramatic, though the steady snaping ‘n’ bounding electro beats and jaunting synths are never too far away.