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Theorist and noise artist David Wallraf combines his two interests deftly on his latest, The Commune of Nightmares. The Hamburg-based artist focuses the somewhat Jungian collective symbology of dreams, but examines the nightmare aspect, espousing that this is something we all share as a response to "capitalist realism." A very interesting take on how these archetypes and primal symbols evolve with our species as a whole to help our subconscious better understand the current capitalist hellscape in which we all dwell. While it may sound horribly negative and dystopian, Wallraf uses noise, tape loops, and found material to back this grim vision, and this sonic output helps to bring us back together and show that we're not alone; we are not individuals adrift, but part of a community that is going through these experiences together, albeit through our own, personal lens.
Impossible Object is a late 70’s romantic drama, where fact and fantasy shift ‘n’ slide. The film is artily edged, with a decidedly darting structure- though there is charm, flair and passion here- both in the filmmaking and the acting. From Powerhouse here’s a Blu-Ray reissue taking two versions of the film, a new commentary track, and both new & archive extras.
Santa Swings…The Windup is a twenty-seven-track compilation focusing on Swing- which mainly dates from between the 1930s and 1950s. The CD release is another compilation from the fine folks at German’s Bear Family Records- so of course we find a varied, well-curated and presented collection.
Here we have a just under forty-minute example of the walled noise from Michigan-based noisehz. The sound here is of the more textured & layered side of the genre, and as its title suggests there is rather a snowbound vibe to the proceedings.
Fitting its BDSM title this two-track wall noise release is enclosing, thickly pressing, at points almost suffocating. It’s another release from super prolific California Koobaatoo Asparagus- with each track coming in at the thirty-minute mark- all making for an hour-long trip into dense & completely overwhelming wall matter.
On The Line is the directorial debut of Oliver Pearn. It's a 1960s-set thriller where we follow lonely switchboard operator Agnes (Victoria Lucie) who spends her days connecting calls and passing time by eavesdropping on conversations. However, one call proves unsettling for Agnes, drawing her into the kidnapping of dementia suffer Shirley (Dame Harriet Walter). But the crime isn’t as simple as Agnes thinks, and she soon finds herself drawn ever deeper into the investigation.
UK imprint Whitelabelrecs’ fourth installment of their sleeplaboratory series continues to build on the founding formula of compiling mostly label acts in service of a kind of sonic sleep aid. As the title indicates, the ambient offerings are meant to soothe as opposed to jar, a formula consistent with the wider genre of non-threatening ambient electronic music. The 14 tracks on sleeplaboratory4.0 lean heavily toward an aesthetic of lo-fi fuzziness and tape-saturated warmth. Many of the individual songs are indistinguishable from one another, or rather, transition without any great pronouncement, clearly a desired effect of trying to put listeners to sleep. I must confess that after repeated listens, I did not succumb to the laboratory’s wishes, though that is no slight on the part of the compilation. There is simply too much textural breadth on sleeplaboratory4.0 to send the act of listening into an unconscious drift.
A Moment of Romance is a 1990 action/ romance movie directed by Benny Chan (New Police Story, Raging Fire and The White Storm) and starring Andy Lau (Internal Affairs, House of Flying Daggers and The Warlords), Chien-Lien Wu (Eat Drink Man Woman, The Phantom Lover and Dragon Town Story), Man-Tat Ng (Shaolin Soccer, Fight Back to School and God of Gamblers Part 3: Back to Shanghai) and Kwong-Leung Wong ( The Killer, City on Fire and Prison on Fire).
Between 1979 and 1980 Italian horror cinema exploded in an orgy of blood, guts, gore and depravity. Two iconic films in particular were deemed to be responsible for this explosion of splatter, Lucio Fulci’s Zombie Flesheaters (1979) and Ruggero Deodato’s Cannibal Holocaust (1980) took the Italian horror blueprint of stylishly violent chillers and ramped up the grand guignol to 11 to create a new breed of gruesome and gory movies that pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable on screen.
From the early 80’s The Inconfessable Orgies of Emmanuelle is a hedonistic softcore drama from prolific euro cult director Jess Franco. The film's fleshy unfold is often set within an air of vapid disquiet- with some wonderfully nuanced acting, moodily arty shot choice, and a soundtrack that seesaws between wavering off-key synth scaping/ easy listening & pared back Spanish guitar music to rather impactful results. Here from Severin is a Blu-Ray release of the film- taking in a new HD print of the film, interviews with both Franco expert Stephen Thrower & the director himself, and the next chapter in the ongoing In The Land Of Franco series- which finds Mr Thrower touring film sites.
From the early 1950’s Devil Girl From Mars is a British slice of low-budget Sci-Fi. It regards a decidedly stern & black leather glad humanoid Martian landing near an isolated Scottish inn, with a plan to invade London to gather human males to breed with. Here from Studiocanal's Cult classic series is a new Blu-Ray release- with a new commentary track, interview, and art cards.
Defleshed Exhumation is the third full length in four years from the Romania death outfit, Necrotum. In addition to slamming out three heavy, vile full lengths, the band has also released a number of shorter length releases, proving that they came here to punish ears and destroy speakers. This newest from Momento Mori sees nine brutal and heavy tracks blasted forth in an inspired continuation of late 90's death, picking up where legendary acts left off.
The Definitive Solar Collection is a three-CD set bringing together the cream of the crop from Lakeside’s late 70’s/ 80’s output. They are a nine-piece funk, soul, R&B project from Dayton, Ohio - who have been active( in one form or another) since 1969, and apparently do still pop up for reunions from time to time. As you’d hope/ expect this is a very groovy, buoyant, and at points decidedly cheesy collection- which is guaranteed to get your feet tapping, and your hips swinging.
Swiss-Philippine Annie Aries is a true musician; one who is not afraid to play with diverse genres as she shifts effortlessly between dance, minimalist techno and just plain minimalist. Her approach to music is textural, enhanced by a focus on live performance and guided by her instrument of choice, a custom-made modular synth that underscores her construction of multi-layered soundscapes currently sitting at the core of her latest release, It’s Not Quiet in the Void.
The Man Who Had Power Over Women is an early 70’s drama set in the morally corrupted world of music management. It focuses on a middle-aged agent, who breaks up with his wife & has a midlife crisis. The film's drama is lightly touched with elements of humour & female flesh- though equally there are some dark/ more cynical edges too. Here from Powerhouse is a recent Blu-Ray of the film- taking in a 4k scan, a new interview with the film's screenwriter, and a few archive extras including a lengthy interview with the director, and a few of his early shorts.
Café OTO is a double CD set that brings together two fifty-minute sets from Japan’s master of noise Merzbow. The recordings date back to 2016- when the japanoise artist played at London’s Café OTO.
The Woods is a recent nine-track album from Satøri aka UK’s Dave Kirby. It mixes moody & foreboding synth scaping, with searing ‘n’ fizzing harsh noise & ambient industrial- all topped with moments of shouty to atmospheric vocals. Making for an album that often shifts from the uneasy/ shadowy to the intense/ roasting.
The Insignificance Of Human Life is a German noise split- bringing together Power electronics project Scatmother, and noise/ PE project Chaos Cascade. With the CD taking in seven tracks, and around thirty-five minutes of noise.
The Fifth Thoracic Vertebra is a heady, at times strangely haunting mix of creature feature, body horror, and urbane set fantasy. The early 2020 South Korean film regards a mattress that grows a strange mold-bound creature in its springy depths- which feeds/ grows from removing Vertebra from its human prey. So it’s a film that brings true horror to a place where you should be feeling comfy & relaxed. Here from Indiepix Film is a region-free DVD of the film.
The harmonium is a thing of beauty: simple, hand (or foot) operated, coaxing pure lamentation out of the reeds of its pre-electronic guts. Left-field, microtonal pioneer and theorist, Alois Hába (1892–1973) thought to create a version of this plaintive unit based on a sixth-tone scale, which probably requires some explanation, but that is well beyond my area of competence. Suffice it to say that the sixth-tone is a fraction of a fraction of something otherwise understood to be whole. In other words, it’s a microtonalist’s dream. Fast forward to the year 2021 when new pieces were written for this idiosyncratic instrument and we get two works written by Ian Mikyska & Fredrik Rasten respectively, performed and collected here on Music for Sixth-tone Harmonium.
Here’s a pro release from Rural Isolation Project featuring two tracks, amounting to just over half an hour, from Boredom Knife. The digipak is decorated with abstract images suggesting rust and deterioration, and features the barest of information - as in, next to nothing. Epidermis Sessions I straddles several noise genres, mashing them up to create something that’s pleasingly old-fashioned to my ears.
Vipassi's Lightless has a rather primitivist presentation, ritualistic-sounding titles and a cover featuring a circle of naked women dancing around a fire in the dark. I am hitherto unfamiliar with the band; they released one prior album in 2016 Śūnyatā, also released on Season of Mist. Based on the presentation, I expected some kind of tribal soundscape or esoteric doom metal. And what I got is indeed metal, with a kind of nocturnal, esoteric air, but it’s significantly more progressive and melodic than I was expected.
Punch is a UK slasher film set in a rundown seaside town. It mixes sweary drama, with moody shots of both the sea & the town's decline, a neat killer, a few effective gory kills, and rewarding moments of uneasiness/ creepiness. Here from Miracle Media is a digital release of this 2023 film.
Making music out of an inaudible source sounds like something out of The Onion, but Point of Memory has managed to make this possible on their their latest, Void Pusher. By sending inaudible bass frequencies through a room filled with acoustic instruments, they were able to capture the bass frequencies' interaction with the instruments and record the resulting vibrations and reactions. And when even this was inaudible, they ran the recorded results through amplifiers and discovered the hidden sounds within. Mixing and editing this source material with the audible results led to a fantastic and intriguing album in Void Pusher. Much like the infinite series of numbers between each and every number, this approach to composition serves to remind us that silence doesn't really exist, outside of locally. What is perceived as silence is full of frequencies outside of the range of the listener and this is realized due to the work of artists like Point of Memory. It is interesting to think of how this approach would revitalize works like "4'33," as the subtle vibrations from the pianist, the room, the crowd, etc, would cause some movement of the strings or get captured inside the piano body itself. To amplify this in such a way as Void Pusher would reveal an entirely hidden world.