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The use of misleading titles is an old trick within exploitation cinema, and this early 1970s film is a prime example of this trope. The brutally munching fish of the title don't appear until an hour into the film- and when they do it’s fleeting. Yes, we do get two Piranha-based deaths- but these happen towards the end of the film, and again are fleeting. What the film is a jungle adventure- later- thriller, which finds a female photographer, her womanizing brother, and a guide going into the Venezuela jungles- coming across a cruel & callous hunter. Here from Cheezy Movies is a region-free DVD release of this somewhat forgotten/ lost film.
From Sailor Suit, Machine Gun and Love Hotel director Shinji Somai comes Typhoon Club(1985), a Japanese coming-of-age tale which follows a small group of students who find themselves locked in their school while one hell of a storm rages around them. However, that storm could never match the tempest of adolescent romance, grief and emerging self-revelations which are taking place among the students.
From Second Run, here we have a three Blu-Ray boxset celebrating the early 1960s work of Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski- he stands as one of the key figures in the country's new wave cinema. His work is alive with visual depth and creativity- using conventional genres such as spotting dramas, romantic melodramas, and character studies as starting points to build his subtle satirizing & surreal film world around. The set brings together three feature lengths and a selection of early shorts.
Sealed in a thirty-five-minute shot of pelting, baying, and rapidly rolling HNW brutality from this French project- which focuses all of its work on fetish sexual practices, and dead/ decaying bodies
From late last year 59: No Input Wall finds this French walled noise project in an ANW setting- offering out a droning and windswept wall that slides in at the twenty-two-minute mark
Anabasis is the 4th full-length album from Italian’s Nihil Impvlse. It’s a six-track affair- where the sound sits in a decidedly brooding industrial-bound drone place, with the release working as the perfect soundtrack to surveying shadowy & bleak pictures of war's aftermath.
Split between pieces written for voice and field recordings, Swedish composer Marta Forsberg returns to her native Härnösand for Sjunger För Varandra, originally a commission from the northern Swedish town where the recordings took place. The elegant release is spread over four parts, sandwiched between an intro and outro, coming in at a mere 17 minutes. Without much prior knowledge of the tunnel where the performances were captured, the four central parts appear to have been divided equally between composition and recorded ephemera. It is not immediately clear what significance the tunnel has for Forsberg, but the inclusion of her brother as the sole vocal performer surely speaks to the familial significance of returning home for Sjunger För Varandra, which translates, I am told, to "Singing for Each Other." The gerundive is instructive here, for it places the emphasis on the act or performative dimension of the pieces, rather than hinting at anything like a fixed entity or score.
‘The New Boy’, a new Australian drama set in the 1940s regarding faith & clash of cultures. It was directed by Warwick Thornton, and stars Cate Blanchett- it's now showing theatrical in the UK and the Republic of Ireland.
The Stargazer’s Assistant is the one-man electronic project of visual artist/ percussionist David. J. Smith (founding member of Guapo and member of the Holy Family, Miasma and the Carousel of Headless Horses and the Amal Gamal Ensemble) a multi-instrumentalist with a penchant for Avant Garde prog sounds and German Kosmische drones. Alongside Smith on this release are regular collaborators David J Knight (Danielle Dax, Arkkon and UnicaZürn) on guitar and FX, Michael J York (Coil, The Utopia Strong, and The Witching Tale), and Antti Uusimaki (Panic DHH, Circle and Tindersticks) on pipes, FX and field recordings.
Here’s a pro package from Kairos, which you’d expect as an esteemed classical label, with a CD digipak featuring an extensive booklet neatly fixed inside. The Australian composer Lim presents, yes, three pieces here: ‘Sappho/Bioluminescence’, ‘Mary/Transcendence after Trauma’, and ‘Fatimah/Jubilation of Flowers’, all performed by the WDR Sinfonieorchester, featuring soprano Emily Hindrichs, and conducted by Cristian Măcelaru. The booklet explains that the Annunciation Triptych ‘draws a broad line from the Greek poet Sappho to Mary, the virgin Mother of God, to Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, founder of Islam. The composer considers the stories of these three women as comments on ecological, spiritual and transcultural issues of our times
Patrick is a low-key 1970s blend of medical drama, thriller, with the odd touches of horror and sci-fi. It focuses on the relationship between a nurse & in a coma young man- who seemingly has psychic powers. It’s a key film in the Ozploitation genre- been presented here by the fine folks at Powerhouse is a new release of the film. It comes as either a UHD or Blu-Ray disc- I’m reviewing the latter. Both versions feature a new 4k scan of the film, three different versions of the picture, a good selection of archive extras, and a few new things.
Here’s a two-CD set celebrating the 1970’s work of Kingstone, Jamaica-born producer Lloyd Charmers. The first disc takes in 1975’s Peace And Love – Wadadasow- which features four lengthy, jammed & hash smoked out slices of Roots Reggae. The second disc is a twenty-two-track collection entitled Fire Burning Charmers In Dub 1973-1976, which brings together Charmer-produced/ played on dub tracks- all of which have never been available on CD beforehand.
Hand-Held Hell: The Outbreak of Homemade Horror is a wonderfully informed and truly dedicated look at the world of micro-budget horror- be it SOV, digital, or general captured on less-than-a-shoe-string fare. The nearing four-hundred-page tome takes in not only the history/ growth of the micro-budget horror genre, but forty-four in-depth reviews, and twenty-two well-questioned interviews with some of the film's creators.
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.