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As stated in the review for the first of two Trepaneringsritualen rarities releases, The Totality of Death covers this acts well respected career by highlighting compilation appearances, unreleased tracks, as well as engaging cover versions, all of which take the Trepaneringsritualen aesthetic and place it in its own atmosphere, devoid of further album influences and atmospheres. With this, one gets a better look at their creative process and songwriting acumen, as well as getting these scattered tracks in one nice location (well, two, technically). The first, Alpha, was reviewed above, and this will cover the second set of ten songs, Omega.
Long-running ritual and dark ambient project Trepaneringsritualen has released music on a variety of labels, styles, and formats over their nearly twenty-year career. Due to the changes in formats and delivery of releases in this time frame, many tracks have been limited to digital-only releases, on limited-run formats, or not even released at all. Cold Spring and Trepaneringsritualen have put together twenty of these tracks spread over two CDs, The Totality of Death. Split between Alpha and Omega, each features ten tracks on a beautiful and well-designed six-panel digipak.
From the jump, Zenjitsutan pushes hard – against your ears and any other body part that stands in its way. Yuko Araki has done his best to recreate the experience of one of his infamous noise performances within the bourgeois formula of an album, and if that is what listeners expect, they will probably be pleased with the results. For the uninitiated, Zenjitsutan is an aural onslaught, filling the acoustic spectrum to near-total exhaustion with pure noise, walls of it. Over seven tracks, Araki does his best to push the absolute limits of listenability, assaulting unapologetically, with almost no respite (save for a few audible tracks changes).
French occult rock legends Aluk Todolo returned to action on September 6th with their new album, Lux, recorded during the summer of 2023 Lux becomes the band’s fifth studio album, their first since 2015s VOIX. The album was recorded, mixed, mastered, cut and pressed using all analogue equipment to give it that authentic 70s occult rock feel. I am very tempted to pick up the vinyl release for this to hear just how good it sounds on what is the most appropriate format.
Street Cabinet features three minimal drone/ field recording works from Norwich UK’s Michael Ridge( Acerbitas, Norfolk Trotter, Zebra Mu). The release appears as either a tape release or a digital download- I’m reviewing the latter.
Ikenie Man is a late 2010 Japanese slasher that leans more towards the manically paced & parody-focused side of the genre. The largely woodland set affair is full of self-referential dialogue/ set-ups, character cliché send-ups, and fairly light moments of splatter bound ‘n’ vein spurting gore. Here from Wild Eye Releasing is a recent DVD release of the film.
The Agitator: Three Provocations from the Wild World of Jean-Pierre Mocky is a Blu Ray boxset focusing in on three 1980 films by Jean-Pierre Mocky- a prolific French director, who also acted, wrote novels, and was an in-demand raconteur. His films blend & blur genres in interesting and creative ways. With the set moving from the horror, mystery and fantasy mix of Litan. Onto the thriller/ dark comedy/ action blend of Kill The Referee, finishing with quirky edged mystery/ thriller Agent Trouble. Each film is given a wonderful new bold and bright 4k scan, with a good selection of old and new extra, and a eighty page book.
Deathdream ( aka Dead Of Night) was the second feature-length from Louisiana-born Bob Clarke( Black Christmas, Porky’s, Turk 182 ). The film is a decidedly ghoulish example of 70’s horror exploitation- blending proto-slasher tropes, down-beat back from war drama, and one of the more original takes on living dead horror. Here from Blue Underground is a recent(ish) Blu-Ray release of the film- taking in a 4k scan, a new commentary track & interview, as well a great selection of archive extras.
As a child of the mid-70s, my first experiences of video gaming were far simpler/ basic, than those of today's kids. The first impactful game I played- not at home- but in an arcade was Space Invaders- a highly basic shoot ‘em up where you were a set/ fixed spacecraft firing at lines of descending aliens. And I thought this was amazing/ wonderful- flash forward to the early 80s, and we got The Last Star Fighter- which saw a small-town teen playing an upgraded space invaders game- beating it, and getting to take part in a real space-bound shooting match/ saving several universes. The film was a great teen-focused Sci-fi picture, blending action- both space-bound & earthbound, humour, and a fair bit of heart, as well as one or two cheese romantic moments. It always stood as one of my favourite films of childhood- so it’s great to see this new reissue from Arrow Video, and while some of the effects do look rather dated- it’s a great slice of action-bound 80’s Sci-fi.
Practical Dreamers is a seven-track electroacoustic/ improv jazz album. It’s a release that shifts ‘n’ swirls between the abstract & sound layer shifting, onto the more harmonic and atmospheric fare- all making for a rewardingly unpredictable release, which offers up surprises/ shifts even on the single-track level.
Untouched (aka Sombra Verde) is a torrid Mexican jungle melodrama from 1954. Here from Indicator/Powerhouse is a US/Canada-only Blu-ray release of the film. It takes in a new 4k scan, a commentary track, and a few other extras
Konwulsanki is a ten-track album that’s a jarring-to-dizzying collusion between electro-martial beats 'n' chants, wavering 'n' wonky stringed folk melodies, and off-kilter carnival-like drives into metal 'n' fat electronic beats loaded with shouty vocals.
Eden, Fall is a new album from Melaine Dailbert. It finds the French pianist/ composer returning to his early more pattern-based work for two lengthier tracks and one shorter piece- with the album having a rather Yin & Yang that it's title suggests.
Death Occurred Last Night (originally titled La Morte Risale a Ieri Sera) is a 1970 crime thriller directed by Duccio Tessari (Puzzle, The Bloodstained Butterfly and A Pistol for Ringo) starring Raf Vallone (The Italian Job, The Godfather III and The Other Side of Midnight), Frank Wolff (Once upon A Time in The West, Death Walks on High Heels and The Cold Eyes of Fear), Gabriele Tinti (Endgame, Cut and Run and Caligula: The Untold Story) and Gillian Bray (Vow of Chastity, The Bod Squad and Riuscirà l'avvocato Franco Benenato a sconfiggere il suo acerrimo nemico il pretore Ciccio De Ingras?)
Vasco Trilla is by all accounts an experimental percussionist, although I'm unsure how to label his work after hearing his latest The Bell Slept Long In Its Tower. The album takes ten in tracks and forty minutes of mostly continuous, droning tones.
Appearing in the late 70’s Orca: The Killer Whale was one of the early examples of a Jaw’s rip-off, as it finds a lairy-play-by-his-own-rules Irish Fishman( Richard Harris) getting taunted and stalked by a vengeful killer whale. And while it certainly plays up to the rip-off tropes, it does add its own twists ‘n’ turns- with our water-bound killer coming off way more sympathetic/ justified than the money-grabbing/ arrogant human that starts it all off. Here from StudioCanal’s Cult Classics series is a new release of the film- available as either a UHD steel book, UHD, Blu-Ray, DVD or digital release.
Homework sells itself as an out-and-out sex comedy, but the reality is it's a teen drama with one or two moments of light softcore- though sadly there is very little amusing about the whole thing. The early 80’s film was sold off the back of Joan Collins, as a teen grabbing cougar- though her part is fairly small. Here from Unearthed Films is a recent Blu-Ray release of the film- with a few extras.
Kvarpa is Swedish for clarinet; at least it is according to Roland Keijser, folk melody historian, saxophonist and inspiration to Swedish composer and improviser Isak Hedtjärn. It is highly fitting then that Hedtjärn has decided to christen his new clarinet-centred solo debut - an improvisational journey recorded over just one day at his favourite practice spot, Kvarpan. As a disciple of free jazz, Hedtjärn has called on his self-taught grounding in the art of improvisation to provide the basis for what is an enthralling musical experiment. But to call it a ‘solo’ record may appear somewhat misleading. True, it is just Hedtjärn who appears on Kvarpan, but have a listen and it’s clear that there is more than one musician at play here. In fact, Kvarpan is constructed around a quartet – just one that features Hedtjärn playing all four parts.
Self-generating, autonomous, and indifferent to the vagaries of harmony and fundamentals, the drone is maybe the last of the non-domesticated musical beasts. We know that the same frequencies can be achieved with electronic or acoustic means, but their manipulation requires subtlety and attention to detail that is beyond the scope of many musicians and trained players. One, by Wave.Collapse (aka Henry Oakley) is a powerful, intense, and breathtakingly new spin on the drone genre. Divided over 21 tracks and more than 2 hours, One feels like a research manual for constructing the most discrete electronic sounds imaginable, marshalled in such a way as to feel as though they were always already there, festering and decaying on the margins of the auditory spectrum.
The Devil Rides In is a three-CD compilation looking at satanic-influenced fare from between the mid-60s and early ’70s. The selection on the discs moves from the expected proto-metal/ doom, on through more pop-focused fare, into folk, jazz, funk, and slightly more experimental/quirky fare.
Here we have two CD set bringing together the first two early 80s albums from Scotland’s The Exploited, as well as a good selection of bonus tracks. The sound shifts between raging street punk, bounding Oi!, and more speeding hardcore, with a few more broodingly mid-paced to semi-metallic moments here ‘n’ there.
Here’s a walled noise split that shifts between the murky ‘n’ brooding, to the pelting ‘n’ the wonkily winding down. It features Poland's Olion, and Cincinnati, Ohio's Whore’s Breath- the former offers up two fifteen-minute tracks, while the latter a single thirty-minute wall.
Pinniped is a German project that creates noise/ ambient themed around seals. Fixation Without Resolve mixes lightly glowing arctic ambience with textured noise & walled noise- to a moody to battering effect.
Harsh Prophecy features two extremely raw & ear roasting examples of the walled noise form from this highly prolific Californian-based project. Each track nears the thirty-six-minute mark, and each is a searing & sonic nerve flaying as the other.