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Generate and Test imprint presents Die Autokorrektur Treibt Mich Noch In Den Warenkorb , a collaborative effort by sonic fellow travelers WELTFRIED ⇔ GENERAL MAGIC. This slim EP delivers four interesting compositions that seamlessly melds angry to jovial computer music, melodious to abrasive guitar work, variable beat arrangements, and lots of crackle and squeak. It’s a strange confluence of sounds, that goes from rhythmic (dare I say danceable at times), to utterly noisy and cacophonous, which in lesser skilled hands could be a stylistic nightmare, but the pairing on this EP manage to pull it off quite well.
The duo of Massimo Carozzi and Sandrine Nicoletta have created Interplay in combination with three other vocalists, for a total of five. In this piece of process oriented sound art, the five singers recorded themselves independently, without listening to each other, and then combined the result.
Swedish trio Black Wound finally unleashed their debut album onto the world this May through Chaos Records. Capturing the darkness and intensity their countrymen are known for, Warping Structure channels music from the bowels of the earth and plays it dark and heavy. Much like tectonic plates, Black Wound move slowly and deliberately making each note, growl, and squeal as important as the last, choosing depth and darkness over speed and shredding. This allows the band to mix together elements of death, doom, and black metal as they see fit, crafting a creepy, cavernous cacophony of vicious and vile metal.
Cathy’s Curse is a 1977 horror movie directed by Eddy Matalon (Sweet Killing, Blackout and the Brigitte Bardot TV movie) and starring Alan Scarfe (Double Impact, Lethal Weapon 3 and Kingdom Hospital), Beverley Murray (East End Hustle, The Moderns and Street Smart), Randi Allen (in her only movie role), Dorothy Davis (Shivers, Night Fright and The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane) and Mary Morter (The Wicker Park, The Little Girl Who Loves Down the Lane and Dead End).
Here from the BFI is the fifth in the CFF bumper boxset series, which collects together British children's films from between the 40s and the 70s. All the films here were produced by The Children's Film Foundation (CFF)- a non-profit organisation- that between the late 1940s & 1980s made one hundred and seventy-plus films, each running just under the hour mark. This three-DVD set brings together nine films & six shorts, and once again it’s an entertaining, fun, and varied set.
Tarantula Heart is the 27th studio album from The Melvins. It sees the four-piece US rock band birthing one of the more unpredictable and at points downright experimental albums to date.
In his feature film debut, Mortiz Mohr bring us the rip-roaring action romp Boy Kills World. After his family is murdered by the totalitarian heads of state, Boy (Bill Skarsgard, with the voice of H J Benjamin) seeks his vicious revenge on those who organised the annual “Culling” event which saw his family killed. His years of training come to good use as he rips and tears his way through the upper crust of the society which has held him down. After all, revenge is a dish best served bloody.
The Great Alligator ( aka Il Fiume Del Grande Caimano) is a late 70’s Italian exploitation film which blends together stalking killer creature fare, with light cannibal natives & disaster tropes. The film's wonderful shot, with a thrilling & pacing flow. Here from Severin is a new duel UHD & Blu-Ray release of the picture- taking in a 4k scan of the film, and over two hours’ worth of extras.
Native to the Andean regions of South America, the ronroco is a baritone variant of the more well-known charango and is the primary source material for OdNu’s (aka Michel Mazza) latest release, Ronroco Rococo Memories. Mazza, a native of Argentina, takes the stringed instrument and processes it through various guitar effects, such as the Chase Bliss Audio Blooper and Empress Effects Zoia, both of which feature looping programs as well as a host of on board effects. What can be heard throughout the 11 tracks is pitch shifting and reverse delay above all else, with backing tracks of slow baselines and shimmery synth textures to round out the sonic palette. We get rare glimpses of the ronroco on its own, in the introductory phrases of “Under the Igloo”, for example, though the organic is routinely swallowed by waves of digital signal processing.
Cunts or Cnts (as their album cover proclaims them) are a hardcore punk band from Los Angeles who burst onto the LA punk scene in early 2018 before releasing their self-titled debut album on Ipecac Recordings in 2019. Things went quiet for the next few years as the band disbanded, however by the time 2023 arrived they had reformed, hit the road and released a couple of new singles.
Mansion Of The Doomed is a taut, at times grim & unsettling mad-doctor horror/ thriller from the mid-1970s. The Charles Band produced film regards a well-dressed & seemingly charming ophthalmologist who is trying to cure his daughters blindness, with his basement rapidly filling up with eyeless and desperate prisoners. Here from 101 Films is a UK release of the film- taking in a new scan of the picture, and a few extras including a new documentary on Mr Band.
‘Allonsanfan’ is a period epic directed by the Taviani brothers in the year 1974. Here from Radiance Films is a recent limited edition Blu-ray (single pressing of 3000 copies) release of the film. Featuring a 2K restoration from the original negative, and a selection of extras
Here we have a split between two US wall-noise creators- with each offering up a single-length track, and then one shorter collab between them. With the tone moving between the battering ‘n’ buffering, to the more textured/ entrancing.
Bereavement is just over a twenty-five-minute 'wall' from this UK project. It’s both crudely rumbling, yet rapidly cascading in its intent. It feels akin to being slowly buried in a landslide full of muddy clumps of turf, coarse boulders, and sandy stinging earthy grit.
Cold and dark, MoonBladder (Jason Walton - Agalloch and others) creeps forth from the world's speakers with his latest, Dark Sky Equilibrium. Engaging and entrancing, this 23-minute composition moves back and forth through the sonic landscape presented to the listener, all the while growing and expanding into various terrains to compile its final, dark form. The compilation of sounds weave together to define and describe a bleak atmosphere that wonderfully causes discomfort and disquiet.
Alive in the Forest of Odd arrives in a nice little fold-out cardboard wallet, with - importantly - a big enough space that the CD slides in and out easily, even with its accompanying plastic wallet! This might sound superficial, but the amount of times I’ve had to fight to get a CD out of one of these things… The wallet has some suitably arboreal imagery, and liner notes guiding you through the album by Theo May. May describes the influence of European folk-jazz, and specifically Bulgarian folk music, and makes clear his desire to blend classical and jazz musicians, and idioms. The album has ten tracks, with the shortest just over five minutes, and the longest just shy of eight minutes.
Leather Jackets And Diesel Smoke is the next in the seemingly unending 'Lux and Ivy' series of compilations from Righteous. The two-disc CD set finds respected music journalist Dave Henderson compiling together groovy, crude, and bizarre 45s from between the 1950s and 1960s. This time around it’s another suitable varied ride.
The Sex Machine (Aka Conviene Far Bene L'Amore) is a mid-70s Italian sex comedy Sci-fi set in a future where the Oil Supply has run out, with the world sent back to the Middle Ages with horse-drawn transport. But a plucky professor has an idea to create power by natural human sexual friction. It’s a film that blends comedy, sci-fi, satire & farce- for an entertaining, amusing, and at points rather thought-provoking venture. Here from Cheezy Movies is a region-free DVD release of the picture.
The Cat And The Canary is a late 1920s Universal horror film, which helped define/ set the tropes for the old dark house genre. It’s a blend of mystery, light comedy, and creepy/cobweb-covered horror- with some moments of clever/ interventive flare. Here from Eureka’s Masters Of Cinema is a new Blu-Ray release of the film- taking in a 4k scan of the film, two commentary tracks, and a good selection of other extras.
According to Wikipedia, “drone is a harmonic or monophonic effect or accompaniment where note or chord is continuously sounded throughout most or all of a piece” – a definition that captures the very essence of Finnish noise musician Haare’s latest album, Submagic
Mysteries From Beyond Earth is a mid-70s UFO/ mystery documentary- with a fair bit of charm & quirkiness about it. Here from the resurrectors of lost/ forgotten films Cheezy Movies is a region-free/ bare-bones DVD release of the film.
From the late 70’s Behind The Covent Walls is a lightly arty-tinged take on the Nunsploitation genre- with effective enough use of imagery, impressive/ at times hand-held cinematography, and a fair bit of sleaze. It’s an Italian production helmed by Polish painter and lithographer turned director Walerian Borowczyk- who was known for his often- provocative & perversely tinged art films such as Blanche (1971), Immoral Tales (1973), The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osbourne(1981). Here from Arrow Video is a Blu-Ray release of the film- taking in a new 2k scan, a new commentary track, and a few other extras.
Metal is an endless genre – who would have guessed? – which seems to birth something parallel to something else nearly every calendar year. One thing much of this endless spawn of (insert your dark lord of choice) shares with one another is tempo, or, more precisely, a lack of one. Sure, there are riffs, but they march to their own beat, which, more often than not, means no proper beat at all. Enter the French outfit Epitaphe, progenitors of Eventide and their debut release, Waterline. The album apparently emerged out of the recording session for Epitaphe’s II, and Waterline can be thought of as a kind of amorphous, wayward offshoot of II. What transpires over four tracks – two long, one medium, and one very short – is meandering indeed, more of a muddied air than anything cogent or fully formed.
Crossing The Trail is the next in the series of Vidna Obmana album reissues on Poland’s Zoharum. Originally released in 1998 on Projekt- it’s a seven-track album that shifts from the bright & texturally active tribal ambient. Onto the slightly darker/ more introspective side of the genre, before shifting to the brighter & glowing side of the ambient form- so very much of a journey like album.