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Tai Kato (I, The Executioner and Beast in the Shadows) directs this thrilling 1966 crime drama set against the backdrop of post-war Japan. A small rural community is terrorised by gangs of immigrant Koreans, who hassle and destroy the peaceful lives of anyone they can extort cash from. Dr Amamiya (Noboru Ando) watches from the sidelines, his rage bubbling over but prevented from interfering due to his self-imposed vow of pacifism. But how long can he hold back the anger and the lust for revenge?
Sting Of Death is glum, at points arty, at points pitch black comedy touched drama regarding a husband who has cheated on his wife he’s had two young children with. The 1990’s Japanese film is set in the 1950 shortly after the war has finished. It’s an extremely well-shot film- with fairly sparse dialogue, and a largely lulling pace. We get some wonderful imagery, touches of grim pathos, and moments of wondering what’s real & what’s not. Here we have a recent Blu-Ray release of the film from Radiance Films- with a new scan of the film, a few extras, and an inlay booklet.
From the late 1960’s That Cold Day In The Park, is a slow-burn drama-thriller with light psycho-thriller undertones. It regards a repressed, prim & proper thirtysomething upper-class woman who asks a late teen man into her apartment- after observing him sitting in the cold pouring rain. With the seemingly deaf ‘n’ dumb stranger becoming her obsession. The film features two well-picked leads, a slowly unfolding feeling of mental disquiet, and a rewardingly bleak character study. Here from Arrow Video is a new double disc Blu-Ray release of this film- taking in two different cuts of the picture, a commentary track, and a few other archive & new extras.
Those familiar with FourColor's (aka Keiichi Sugimoto) work will be reminded of the richness of his unique mode of guitar processing on Lightscape, though a few surprises await, too. For one, the guitar as source material assumes more of a supporting role here, washed into streams of effects and white noise, in which it finally disappears altogether (more on that below).
Released two years after the first film, Ghoulies II shifts the rubbery and demotic mini monsters to a travelling fairground setting- for a very 80’s blend of comedy & horror- with touches of heart & cheesiness added into the mix. From MVD's Rewind series here is a Blu-Ray release of the film taking in a new HD scan, and a good selection of archive extras.
Fleeting Moments Of Grace features two around twenty-five minutes of bounding, baying, and brain-rattling walled noise from this Scottish project. Going from both memory/ the projects Bandcamp this is the first new work from this project in three or four years.
Downtown Heat is a rather dialogue-heavy, at points unintentionally amusing action thriller from the mid-1990s. The most notable thing about it is that it was directed by prolific, mostly genre-bound, and often sleazy Euro director Jess Franco. And boy it’s very un-Franco-like, with aside a few touches & cast members you wouldn’t know it had anything to with Uncle Jess. Here from Full Moon Features is a region-free release of the film.
David Jackson is a prolific English saxophonist, flautist and composer, famous for being a member of Van Der Graaf Generator, he has also worked with dozens of other artists including Peter Gabriel, Keith Tippett, Osanna Peter Hammill, and David Cross to name a few. This album is a collaboration with long-time friend and collaborator, visual sound artist René Van Commenée from the Netherlands who specialises in creating music and visuals for art installations, theatre productions and film and TV. The pair have been friends for a very long time, with René creating album covers and occasionally filling In on drums for Jackson from time to time. This album is the pair’s second collaboration after the live album, Batteries Included which was recorded in 1992/93 and eventually released in 2003.
In The Gloaming is an electroacoustic improv album that shifts from the abstractly moody- yet taut, onto the warblingly noisy, though to the hissing-to-brood bound. The six-track album appears on London’s Not Applicable- as either a CD or download- I’m reviewing the former.
Pale Guilt is just over an hour’s worth of raw ‘n’ rumbling walled noise from this Moscow-based project. The single-track work is extremely heady with murky subterranean intent and often feels like it could be a recording of the slow awakening of some vast underground monster- as it stretches and snorts out clumps of earth.
Here we have a two-film box set bringing together two very tonally different 1970’s Yakuza thrillers/ action films featuring Shinichi “Sonny” Chiba. The first Yakuza Wolf is a decidedly dark ‘n’ sleazy affair with serious spaghetti western undertones. While the second is more of a typically 70’s action thriller, with some light-hearted/ comedic undertones. Here from Eureka Entertainment is the first-ever UK release of these. Each film gets a classy ‘n’ crisp HD scan, commentary tracks, and a video essay.
Strange Invaders is an early 1980’s tribute/ take on the 1950s when aliens invade small-town America fare- but with a few neat twists, turns, and of course better (if-sparse) effects too. Here from Australia’s Imprint is a recent Blu-Ray release of the film- taking in an HD scan of the picture, and a few new/ archive extras.
Female artists have been central to the evolution of drone and minimalist music from Pauline Oliveros and her pioneering of deep listening, Eliane Radigue, Laurie Spiegel through to current practitioners such as Suzanne Ciani, Sarah Davachi and Kali Malone. It is from this stable of great female artists that Spanish composer Carme López has sprung - bringing to the table her own unique brand of music centered on the Galician bagpipe; fitting given that she is also a researcher of the traditional oral music of Galicia. But López takes her musical adventures to a different level, expanding elements of sound to create ambient and experimental soundscapes while pushing the limit of her chosen instrument and extracting a deep and rich sonic experience all within a minimalist avant-garde framework. It is exactly this aesthetic that we find on her debut album Quintela.
‘Brightwood’ is a new horror movie by director Dane Elcar which was released on 21st March across streaming platforms in the UK. This follows a successful US release.
Frighteningly futuristic and dark, dreary dreams make up the concept of Venomous Echoes' Writhing Tomb Amongst the Stars, now coming to vinyl courtesy of I, Voidhanger. While death and rebirth is a common theme, Writhing covers this with a terrifying twist: being ripped apart and reassembled by tentacles night after night. Like Lovecraft and Geiger working together on a grim Groundhog Day, Writhing puts the vile vision out for all to ponder and sets it to fast and spacy blackened death metal.
The Panther Women is a glorious late 60’s Mexican cinematic feast of masked superhero wrestling action, coffin creaking ‘n’ mist swirling gothic vibes, and detective ‘n’ gangster pulp. With side orders of female wrestling, lumbering-to-crawling creature feature, and a hell of a lot of campy ‘n’ creepy fun. Here from Powerhouse is a recent release of this wonderful crossbred- coming as either a UHD or Blu-Ray. Both feature a new 2k scan of the film, a commentary track, a few other extras, and an eighty-page inlay book.
INRI is a single forty-minute-long work that blends together constantly shedding/ chalky wall noise crunch with set/ brightly simmering ambience. It’s a work that nicely brings together searing & glowing ringing in an engagingly rewarding manner.
Gentrifier Genocide is an just under hour & a half journey in battering ‘n’ baying walled noise from this Cincinnati, Ohio-based project. The digital release takes in three around the twenty-eight-minute ‘walls’ with each being as crudely weathered & unforgiving as the next.
Composed and originally performed in 2019 in Vienna for the Wiener Modern festival, Ingrid Schmoliner's MNEEM is a feat of endurance and minimalist precision, interpreted by the work's author in front of an audience for over an hour! Written for prepared piano, MNEEM is a pre-digital loop: a circular phrase played by Schmoliner's right hand, while the right makes percussive work of the lower register. As with much in the post-Steve Reich orbit of new music/minimalism, the discrete separation of coordinated tasks and notes creates the possibility for an acute appreciation of the subtlest nuances within the looped arrangement of single notes. Without the benefit of a larger ensemble or any electronic device, Schmoliner's playing is breathtaking. Becoming author and interpreter in one, Schmoliner manages to isolate her limbs and hands in a manner as surgical as the steady march of MNEEM's constrained tonal vocabulary. There is no mistaking the recording and playing for anything less than analog and acoustic, with all of its restless movements and unavoidable flaws.
VIPCO (Video Instant Picture Company) were founded in the late 1970s by a man named Michael Lee. During this first incarnation of the company, they would release a host of controversial movies on VHS in the UK market, including such legendary titles as Driller Killer, Shogun Assassin, The Bogeyman and probably most contentiously of all, the strong uncut version of Lucio Fulci’s undead epic Zombie Flesh Eaters. After the introduction of the Video Recordings Act in 1984, all UK VHS releases needed to be certificated by the BBFC (British Board of Film Censorship as they were at the time, Censorship has since been dropped in favour of the less controversial sounding Classification). Lee and his company were one of those most affected by this change and many of his titles were no longer deemed legal in the UK, the BBFC would cut or ban outright certain titles that had been released by VIPCO causing a whole world of trouble for Lee and many of the other distributors operating in the UK at the time.
Sylvaine is the solo project of Norwegian/American Kathrine Shepard, who debuted the project in 2014. This new release Eg Er Framand is her first in a couple of years, containing six tracks three- six minutes in length for an EP-sized release.
Sitting somewhere between off-kilter/ uneasy ambient, and warbling ‘n’ baying electro improv Autumn In The House Of Usher is a three-track three-inch CDR from Vancouver-based Eli Wallis.
Here’s a three-inch self-titled CDR that offers up three tracks worth of noise craft- which sits on the gasp of receptively shearing ‘n’ shredding textured noise, and walled noise.
East Coast vs West Coast is an American staple. Whether it's This is Boston, Not L.A., Biggie vs Pac, or Celtics vs Lakers, it is undeniable. With this disparate approach to life, art, and thought looming, NY artist Stuart Argabright took his time in L.A. as a reference point to start a new work. While helping to produce a mix tape with Stefan Scott Nelson, the two took some vocal tapes that Stuart had brought, slowed them down, and then added whatever they felt to capture certain L.A. vibes. An iconic place even for those that have only seen it in cinema, LA Drones captures the sunshine, traffic, freedom, oppression, and all that L.A. has to offer in between