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Collaboration can open doors and channels to composition, allowing one to view their pieces in a new light and reveal new approaches to music creation. Autistici has released the third in a three-part collaboration series with Familiarity Unfolded (following Familiarity Folded and Familiarity Enfolded), working with five other artists over six engaging electronic tracks. With the artists both co-writing and remixing each other's work, each collab brings the pair closer together, each track being an expression of this artistic camaraderie.
Cutter’s Way (aka Cutter and Bone) is a 1981 neo-noir thriller, directed by Ivan Passer (Intimate Lighting, Haunted Summer and Crime and Passion). The film stars Jeff Bridges (The Big Lebowski, Starman and Crazy Heart), John Heard (Cat People, Big and After Hours), Lisa Eichhorn (The Vanishing, The Europeans and About Time), Ann Dusenberry (Jaws 2, Lies and The Men’s Club) and Stephen Elliott (Death Wish, Beverley Hills Cop and Arthur).
Appearing four years before Teen Wolf, there was another eighties teenager-focused Lycanthrope comedy on the block, Full Moon High. It took a more slapstick, often plain silly route to its humour, as well as generally satirising teen films of the fifties, with liberal stabs at American politics. Here from Eureka is the Blu-ray release of the film, featuring both new and commentary tracks, with a new interview and essay.
The Stuntman is a decidedly distinctive and original early 80’s film, which blends elements of dark comedy, film-making satire, psychological thriller, drama and action film. It regards a on-the-run fugitive, who literally stumbles onto the set of a film, a seasoned director who may/ may not be mad. The movie is a wonderfully tonal shifting affair, which is constantly batting back and forth between the real ‘n’ unreal and serious drama ‘n’ comedy, making for a head-spinning, unpredictable yet entertaining ride. Here from Radiance Films TX sublabel is a dual Blu Ray & UHD release of the film- featuring a 4k scan, new and archive commentary tracks/ extras.
Wayne Wang, best known for films such as Chan Is Missing, Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart, and The Joy Luck Club, revisits one of his most unusual projects with Life Is Cheap, But Toilet Paper Is Expensive. Originally released in 1989 and later revised into the version presented here, the film was co-directed and co-written by Spencer Nakasako, who also stars in the central role.
Hotel is a 2001 comedy/horror/thriller from acclaimed Academy Award-nominated director Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas, Stormy Monday and Timecode). The film has an excellent ensemble cast including Max Beesley (The Gentleman, Hijack and The Outsider), Saffron Burrows (Troy, Mozart in the Jungle and The Bank Job), Rhys Ifans (The Boat That Rocked, Notting Hill and The Amazing Spiderman), Salma Hayek (Desperado, Frida and Dogma), Lucy Liu (Charlie’s Angels, Kill Bill Vol.1 and Chicago), Burt Reynolds (Smokey and the Bandit, Cannonball Run and Boogie Nights), Julian Sands (Naked Lunch, Warlock and Argento’s Phantom of the Opera) and David Schwimmer (Friends, band of Brothers and Six Days, Seven Nights) and John Malkovich (Being John Malkovich, Red and In the Line of Fire).
With his new album Esoterik, veteran Dutch dark electronic producer Bong-Ra (real name Jason Köhnen) carries on the sound of his previous album, Black Noise, which was a throwback to Godflesh-esque late 80's and early 90's industrial metal sounds, pre-computer electronic compositions with drum machines, sludgy, minimalist guitar riffs, and vocals which to me recall Front Line Assembly or Clock DVA. This was a time when music felt perhaps more open-ended and exciting than in today's streaming-optimised world, and Godflesh's doomy, minimal approach was unusual even in the days from which it originated, so it is interesting to hear it explored more fully. Black Noise was one of my favourite albums, and this style transition for Bong-Ra could not feel more natural.
Here’s a CD box set bringing together the first four albums from Hersham, Surrey's Sham 69. They started off as a street punk/ Oi! band, before shifting into a more produced/ polished classic British rock sound- the albums here very much highlight this shift.
Continuity, Fragility, Resonance is a 2020-2021 piece for octet: string and saxophone quartets from Swiss composer Jürg Frey. It’s a fifty-one-minute work, which compellingly moves itself through brooding pomp, moody saw ‘n’ simmer, and bitter-sweet rises/ hovers.
Paino collects together three solo piano works by Slovak composer Adrián Demoè- all played with wonderful clarity and depth by Czech pianist Miroslav Beinhauer.
Now here’s an extremely haunting, at times downright eerie trip into modern classical dark ambience, which really seems to seep deep into both your marrow and psyche. Solo I / Solo IV is just shy of fifty minute work, bringing together two flute/ low string solos and their playback.
Listening Time is longform piece focused on subtly ebbing & shifting drone currents. The forty-five-minute work moves between pressing swells, delicate microtonal transfers, and moments of felt simmer.
Cities Burn As We Dream Of A Return is a lament, something we get from listening as opposed to knowing anything about the author here. When we do know, the backdrop of senseless war and a city in flames is none other than Beirut, the former home of Ryan Haïdar, who has since relocated to Paris under the threat of said attacks.
Sorority House Massacre is a mid-80’s slasher. The film blends uneasy flashbacks/ dreams/ premonitions with camp-to-plain bad acting. As it progresses, the bloody, largely knife-bound kills increase, as does the fairly taut & suspenseful nighttime stalkings. It’s a picture that certainly plays up its slasher tropes and is far from original, but if, like me, you enjoy the genre’s predictability & it’s campness, you’ll be entertained by what’s on offer here. From 88 Films, as part of their Slasher Classic series, is a new release of the picture. It comes as a dual Blu-Ray and UHD release, taking in a new 4k scan, an extended UK cut of the film, three commentary tracks, and a good selection of new and archive extras.
Strongroom is a splendidly taut ‘n’ tense 1960’s UK thriller. It is based largely in a bank's strongroom- where two people are stuck inside, with the air rapidly depleting. The film wonderfully notches up the tension- keeping you on the edge of the seat, right until the end. Here from BFI taking a 2k scan, two new commentary tracks, and a good selection of archive extras- including another feature from the same director/ cast & crew.
Like a rift into a terror dimension come to life, Nibiru's Hypóstasis uses whatever means necessary to bring forth their dark, vile, industrial ritual. Their bleak and terrifying soundscapes will darken the brightest days with the six pieces on Hypóstasis securing their place in the blackened pantheon of extreme, ritual industrial. Oftentimes part of the ritual, and other times playing witness through scrying glass caked in distortion and reverb, the listener is taken on a journey through horror, pain, fear, and despair, but in the darkest and most wonderful ways.
Dark Dreams finds über-fan Nick Cato doing a deep dive into his favourite film of all time- the grim and sleazy 1981 slasher Nightmare( aka Nightmare In A Damage Brian). The just under A4-sized full colour book is released by the UK’s Headpress.
Placebo (პლაცებო) is a two-track album from Mtskheta, Georgia‘s Owners Of Knowledge, who create a distinctive blend of walled noise, dense ambience, and field recordings.
From Turkey’s The Crude, here’s a just over twenty-minute example of walled noise focused on furry felines. The ‘wall’ is a rumble ‘n’ roll-based affair, which does offer up quite a comfortable and calming vibe.
Director Heidi Greensmith crafts a short and polished thriller from Nuala Ellwood’s 2017 dark psychological novel. But it’s a story that could have done with more than a meagre 82 minutes to hit home its themes of trauma and the sins of the past.
Steven Halpern is a Grammy-nominated American New Age musician. He released his first solo album in 1976 and has built an impressive catalogue of titles since then. He started his music career in New York, playing trumpet and guitar before moving to California during the late 60s, where he developed the idea that he would like to create music purely for the purpose of relaxation. He possesses the long-held belief that music can heal and classifies himself as a suburban sonic shaman. On the back cover of Music for Microdosing, his music is compared to “a tuning fork for the mind, body and soul” that will heighten the listener’s “receptivity to insights, inner guidance and creativity.”
Wan Pipel comes wrapped in a slipcase, with no booklet and a few extras on the disc; in that regard, it’s not any kind of deluxe edition, but the extras are interesting enough. The film, shot in Suriname, was released in 1976, and was the first Surinamese film after the country achieved independence from the Netherlands; in that regard, it’s historically important, and the themes of nationalism and patriotism, and the relationship between the two countries, are loudly present in Wan Pipel (One People).
Live Wires is a split bringing together two of the most consistent. compelling and creative American walled noise projects. There’s Cincinnati, Ohio’s Whore’s Breath, and Portland, Oregon’s Hana Haruna. Each party serves up around twenty three minute track, and each is distinctive.
Tendrils is a recently released slab of extremely grim and rapidly grinding walled noise from this UK-based project.