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At first glance, jazz guitarist Stian Westerhus and vocalist-cum-electronic instrumentalist Maja S.K. Ratkje are an unlikely pairing. Westerhus has created his own niche as an experimental jazz musician working with the likes of Nils Petter Molvær and Arve Henriksen, while Ratkje leans more into performance - the classical, dance and operatic worlds, alongside some avant-garde noise experimentation. But five years ago, the Norwegian compatriots joined forces and have finally released their first album together, All Losses are Restored.
The very long-awaited follow-up to 2021's Liquid Crystal sees proggy, synthy rockers Zombi building an album based on their improvisations with Direct Inject. This duo has been together making records for a couple of decades, so their knowledge of each other's inner workings and cohesiveness can't be beaten. Putting together an album that covers varied influences and styles over their well-loved and respected careers, Direct Inject is Zombi at its heart. However, like many zombies, there needs to be a little bit more flesh to consider it whole.
Goodbye & Amen is a late 70’s Italian thriller that mixes gunman/ hostage tenseness, with espionage drama. With a few neat twists along its length, some taut interactions, and touches of moody visual flare. Here from Radiance Films is a new region A/B release of this film- taking in a new scan of the film, a commentary track, and a few other things.
Slashening: The Final Beginning is a send-up of post-modern slasher films- where a sack masked killer is taking out the members of a self-help group. The film is a blend of PC/ woke/ feminist mocking humour, and general slasher parody, with brief gore, and some sexualized humour/ nudity. Here from Troma Entertainment is a region-free Blu-ray release of the picture-taking in directors’ commentary, and a few other extras.
From the mid 70’s here we have an adult take on Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland. It’s a blend of musical, hard-core sex romp, and often bawdry comedy- with twenty-something virgin librarian Alice following the rabbit into a sleazed-out Wonderland. Here from Impulse Pictures is a barebones region free DVD release of the film.
Here’s an HNW two tracker from California’s Koobaatoo Asparagus- with both ‘walls’ hitting around the twenty-five-minute mark, and both are equally battering ‘n’ baying in their simple yet effective attack.
Still Nothing is a just under the half-an-hour example of greyly numbing and low-key industrial churning walled noise from UK’s Death To Dynamics. It’s a ‘wall’ that slowly rages, as it hopelessly drones on- for a decidedly grim & relentless attack.
Infrequent Seams presents Five Apparitions, the new album by Matthew Goodheart & Broken Ghost Consort. And it certainly isn’t an easily definable or categorised album.
Séries for Piano and Soundtrack is a six-track album where complex-to-moodily felt piano playing meets electronics- be they textured, atmospheric, dramatic, or just generally creative. Each of the pieces offers its own tone/ vibe for a wonderful varied, at-points eventful ride of an album.
Khôra is a nine-track album which sits at the more abstract, loose, and texturally focused end of the modern classical/ modern composition genre. It utilises a mix of strung-out to waveringly drone-focused saxophone playing, and microtonal accordion playing.
Celer, ambient project of Will Long, has had dozens of releases throughout the years, exploring a dream-like realm of faint glimmering resonances, slowly unfolding air textures and semi-melodic drones, generally resulting in a peaceful but somewhat melancholy state of embryonic stasis. I have enjoyed many of his recordings in the past.
Andrea Bianchi’s cheapo 1981 Zombie Flesheaters rip-off has no right to be called a classic. It's badly made, the acting is abysmal, and the dialogue is woeful, however, it has become one of the most beloved of all zombie movies. It’s a seriously creepy affair reminiscent of the Spanish Blind Dead movies, that utilizes a fantastic score from Berto Pisano (Death Smiled on a Murderer, Patrick Still Lives and Giallo A Venezia ) and Elsio Mancuso (Malabimba, La Collegiale, and Moglie Nuda e Siciliano) and a host of zombies that are pretty much decaying before your eyes. On top of that, it’s bonkers (in a good way), there are so many warped ideas floating around in this movie that you simply can’t ever find it dull. More on that later!.
Brooding, ominous, and grim, Uncodified's latest, Erased People, sees Corrado Altieri's project continuing its death industrial march forward bringing doom and gloom to the masses. WIth over ten years under his belt, he brings his craft to Dunkelheit to further spread his dark vision. Erased People is the latest volume in an already swelling catalogue of Italian industrial, and its textures and atmospheres will instantly grab any fan, new or old.
Here’s a double disc CD & DVD set taking in The Resident’s Secret Show, which took place at the Conservatory of Music in San Francisco on the 14th of January of 2023. It was part of the celebrations for the project's 50th anniversary- with the twenty-one-track set featuring songs from throughout their career- with a host of guests, and some very distinctive/one-off takes on tracks. All making for an original, at points surprising, and of course wonderfully odd look back on the project’s half-a-century career.
Dagr is a British found-footage film that slips from YouTube /pretentious film-maker satire to glitching ‘n’ phantom darting folk horror. With the often uncomfortable comedy and creepy chills largely kept separate.
As its title suggests ILOG3 is the third collaborative album between these two German improvisers. And it’s another overloading, yet often highly creative journey into where percussive electro improv, turntabling, darting electro-acoustics, and manic genre blending meet.
Math is a twenty-three-minute example of densely droning & rushing walled noise from this UK project. With the whole thing having a nice searing yet oppressive quality about it.
Abandoned Spaces is a collaborative effort between solo musicians Michel Mazza & Jeff Düngfelder (aka OdNu + Ümlaut), both artists having relocated from their previous NYC climes to the nether reaches of what that everywhere and nowhere moniker, "upstate." The results are spread over eight long tracks – nothing shorter than seven minutes – which do a lot of meandering with sparse instrumentation. And despite the length of each cut, there is surprisingly little development that occurs, each composition moving more circularly than linearly, creating the feeling that we are stuck in a limited sonic equation that is not headed for conclusion or resolution.
In his feature film debut, Sébastien Drouin brings us this new two-hander thriller Cold Meat. After saving a waitress (Nina Bergman) from her abusive partner, David Peterson (Allen Leech) finds himself desperate to survive in the frozen tundra of the Colorado Rockies. Violence, betrayal and brutality appear to be the only options, but how willing is David to take them?
Released in 1959, Horrors of the Black Museum was the final directorial feature by Yorkshireman Arthur Crabtree (Fiend Without a Face, Caravan and Lilli Marlene) and the first in a trilogy of films known as the Sadian trilogy. The other two titles that feature in this sadistic triumvirate are Sidney Hayer’s 1960 classic Circus of Horror and the same year’s Peeping Tom, directed by the legendary Michael Powell
The Blue Jean Monster is a wonderfully wacky, at points bad taste humour-lined Hong Kong-produced send-up of US buddy cop films of the 1990s. The Category III film blends action, horror, and fantasy elements- for a crazed romp of a film, that seemingly gets more demented & deranged as it unfolds. Here from 88 Films is a region-free release of the film- taking in a ltd slip, and a few extras.
Fear City is a mid-80s thriller set in Times Square strip joints, where a martial arts practising madman is taking out the talent. The film mixes cops ‘n’ club owner battlings, light slasher tropes, and mafia drama- with a fair bit of sleaze, tough guy/unintentionally amusing line…and a hell of a lot of flashing ‘n’ darting neon. Here from 101 Films is a recent Blu-Ray release of the film- taking in a new bright & buoyant scan, two versions of the film, and a commentary track.
V/H/S/85 is the sixth, and most recent instalment of this horror found footage anthology series. It takes in five more stories- each featuring an effective and largely rewarding mix of shocks, wacky derangement, gore, and very dark humour. As this series of films go- this is certainly one of the more consistent- with the whole thing rewardingly set in a darting & playful sea of (seemingly) random 80’s clips, eerier tape glitches, and unsettling static reels. Here from Acorn Media International is a recent release of the film- coming as either a DVD, Blu-Ray, or digital. I’m reviewing the first of these- which takes in a few extras.
Danish destroyers, Septage, descend with their debut full-length, Septic Worship, on three formats through three different labels. If the amount of people and logistics behind this release weren't enough to sell you on it, just look at the cover. Making the most of the vile collage imagery of goregrind legends of yore, Septage sends their message right from the gate: not for the faint of heart. More than just a pretty face, behind the band's grisly caricature is some pummeling, gore-soaked, grinding death.