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Snapshot (aka The Day After Halloween) is a late 70’s Australian drama featuring light touches of thriller and horror genres. It regards a naive & hen-pecked twenty-something hairdresser- who gets pushed into topless modelling and is been stalked by an ice cream van-driving ex. It’s an engaging enough drama- that’s well enough acted, with the other genre touches adding a few surprises to the mix- though in no way is this a fully realized horror film or thriller, as its other title may suggest. Here from Powerhouse as either a UHD or Blu-Ray, is a recent release of film- featuring two 4k versions of the picture, and a good selection of largely archive-bound extras.
Black Flies, also known as Asphalt City in some territories, is the latest medical thriller from director Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire (Johnny Mad Dog and A Prayer Before Dawn). Fresh from the world of medical college, rookie paramedic Ollie Cross (Tye Sheridan) finds himself paired with hard-faced veteran Gene Rutkovsky (Sean Penn) as they trawl the streets of New York City helping where they can, despite their own prejudices. But how long can Ollie keep a strong exterior? How long can his mind hold up against the stress?
Maniera is the debut album from Italian Contemporary classical composer Marco Baldini. It features seven chamber pieces for strings played by the respected modern ensemble Apartment House. The album's tone moves from the forlornly rising, onto the soberingly grand & harmonically touched, to the shimmeringly & earthily droning.
Originally released in 1991 Psycho Savant was the third and to date final album from Nashville, Tennessee Thrash band Intruder. It’s an eight-track affair which sits on the technical and harmonic side of the genre. And if I were to compare their sound to anyone- it would be Anthrax, with maybe a few Death Angel touches- but with more soloing/ technical leanings.
Hot Spur is an extremely mean-spirited and nastily misogynistic late 1960’s US Western. It’s full to the brim with sleaze and abused female flesh, with more than a few touches of bloody ‘n’ whipping brutality. Here from the fine folks at Severin is the first ever fully uncut release of this true blue & nasty western roughie. With a new 4k scan of the film, and a few bloodily juicy extras.
Happy End (aka Šťastný Konec) is a late 60’s Czech dark comedy regarding a man's life moving backwards from his execution. It’s a wonderfully unbalancing, at points witty & clever film- which really gets the grey matter going, both in its structure and spell-binding use of backwards filming. Here from Second Run is a new region-free Blu-Ray release of the film- featuring a 4k scan of the picture, a commentary track, and a few other things.
Electronic rock? Electronic roll? However you'd like to categorize it, Electronicat's Saturation sees this French artist (aka Fred Bigot) continuing his journey to bring together noise, pop, rock, and easy listening into one vibrant, electronic soup, fit for modern robotic consumption. Mixing comfortability with surprising and jarring gruffer elements, the album keeps the listener on their toes and awaiting the next curveball to come. Refreshing to hear, Saturation comes at a perfect time when the Northern Hemisphere is starting to come out of its cold slumber and for that brief period when we forget what birds sounded like, Electronicat can start our days off right.
German imprint Dunkelheit Produktionen presents Me Dais Mucho Asco by Soma. This is my first foray into this Spanish sound artist who evidently has been around the block for a while producing several releases on such imprints as MARBE NEGRE and L. White.
Onna-musha severs up two slabs of wall noise brutality from this long-running & prolific California-based project. The release takes its name/ theme from Onna-musha (女武者) which refers to female warriors in pre-modern Japan, who fought in battle alongside male samurai's.
This rather lengthily titled release takes in a fourteen-and-a-half minute-long example of layered/ detailed walled noise with decidedly industrial leanings.
Ours is a moment of unbridled optimization – of our bodies, careers, relationships, the list goes on. Experimental music is largely ambivalent when it comes to the performative demands of a well-tempered subject, gloriously free of the strictures of representation, imageless, some might even argue, obsolete. With this in mind, enter Andrea Taeggi’s latest release, Nattdett, which squats quite contentedly in obsolescence, at least in terms of its source material. Sounds culled and coaxed from bygone eras of electronics – including instruments that were never, strictly speaking, destined for musical uses – Nattdett is a percussive exploration, with an intentionally reduced palette. Over six long tracks, Taeggi sequences his outdated technology into mostly cyclical patterns, a grid of repetition that allows the subtlest variations to be experienced.
Seedpeople is a 90’s take on when aliens invade small-town America. The film mixes sci-fi & horror tropes- with some neat enough creature effects, a little bit of bloody/ spurting gore, and a fairly bland/ bad soap-like cast. Here from Full Moon Features, we have a recent Blu-Ray release of the film.
Here’s a track CD that sits 'n' drifts between atmospheric rock-based improv, piano / Moog-based improv, and general improv-fired ambience ‘n’ wondering jam. The release covers a fair few moods & tones, making for a decidedly eventful & varied ride.
Elegant Beast aka The Graceful Brute is a 1962 comedy/ thriller from director Yuzo Kawamashima (The Temple of Wild Geese, Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate and The Balloon), adapted from his own stage play by acclaimed writer/director Kaneto Shindo (Onibaba, Kuroneko and Children of Hiroshima) and starring Ayako Wakao (Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo, Seiasku’s Wife and A Wife Confesses), Yunosuke Ito (Sanjuro, Ikiru and Ninja, A Band of Assassins) and Yuko Hamada (The Snake Girl and the Silver-Haired Witch, Baby Cart to Hades and Zatoichi the Outlaw).
Oakland-based musician Zachary James Watkins has learnt from the very best. His Mills College education brought him into contact with the likes of Fred Frith, Pauline Oliveros and Alvin Curran - setting him up rather nicely for a career in the world of the avant-garde. A bit of a polymath when it comes to musical styles, Watkins is as comfortable with heavy noise as he is with subtle electronic experimentation, currently motivated by the healing power of high-vibration resonance. As he himself says, “the conscious investigation of harmonic tunings, acoustic resonance as well as social relationships can yield powerful experiences.”
Dark and brooding, the second release from Ulvtharm (Jouni Ollila, co-founder of Mz.412) descends with intensity and gravity, forcing the listener to focus on every beat, squeal, and syllable. 7 Uthras presents itself mostly through a martial industrial guise, though Ulvtharm's touches expand this into more realms, making the album the engaging piece gracing one's turntable. Mixing noisy synths, different rhythms, and oppressive vocals, 7 Uthras plays like the soundtrack to an alien invasion, and our new overlords aren't very happy
‘The Bad Shepherd’, a new suspense horror thriller directed by Geo Santini debuts in the UK on 22nd April.
From the early 1970s Impulse is drama come low-key thriller, with some psycho horror undertones, and a fair bit of soapy melodrama/ 70’s camp. It features in its lead Willam Shatner, as a charming-to-unbalanced playboy. Here from Grindhouse Releasing is a double disc Blu-Ray release of the film- taking in two bonus films, and a truly hefty selection of extras.
Collaged from the texts of phishing emails, Jan Jelinek has produced something so contemporary that it struggles to be interesting, which, I guess, is maybe the point. Much of the text is in English, but there are fragments in German as well, in case any of us happened to be unaware of the boundless reach of the global. This sounds dismissive, but, really, there is no lingua franca when it comes to attempts to con us out of money, access, whatever. In a sense, these emails are as geared as almost anything to a specific market or audience. The voices are ones that we’ve become accustomed to – robots, though that sounds hopelessly nostalgic – made to sound like humans, and the failure to do so is certainly rife with sonic potential. Jelinek repeats or cuts the texts of said emails, and puts them to mostly agreeable soundtracks, though nothing that feels intentionally musical.
Zwosch, Zwosch & Zwosch is an improv release that wonderfully swings between the manic and seared, to the more moody and atmospheric. It’s an album/ release that truly keeps the listener firmly on their toes throughout its nearing thirty-three-minute run.
The Borderlands is an early 2010 British-made found footage film that regards a group of Vatican investigators being sent to a countryside church, to find out whether a claimed miracle is real or faked. The film is creepy and eerie, at points downright horrific- with a well-conceived story/ concept, and a believable cast, who manage to balance drama & subtle humour well. All making this not only the best example of British found footage, but one of the greats of the genre. Here from Second Sight is a most welcome new release of the film.
Here’s a recent(ish) C30/ digital release from Rien- the highly minimalistic textured/ walled noise project of Sweden’s Johan Strömvall Hammarstedt (Gamiani, J S H, J.S.H., Marsh Croft Coven, The Man Who Drove The Hearse, Ominous Recordings). It takes in two side-long tracks of ultra-minimal noise making.
Thoughts is a recent four-track release from the rather mysterious Worship project, which started out as a straight-walled noise venture- but recently has pushed more drone/ experimental elements. And that’s where this release sits, between wall & drone.
Directed by Kurando Mitsutake (Maniac Driver, Karate Kill and Samurai Avenger: The Blind Wolf) Lion-Girl is a 2023 sci-fi/superhero/ action movie based on characters created by manga legend Go Nagai, of Devilman and Mazinger Z fame. The film, which was largely shot in LA and partly funded by iconic Japanese studio Tohei stars Tori Griffith (Wake Up, Glass Darkly and the upcoming Bau, Artist at War) in the title role, Derek Mears (Swamp Thing, Alita: Battle Angel and the Friday the 13th remake) as Kaisei Kishi, David Sakurai (Fantastic Beasts, Man in the High Castle and Avatar: The Last Airbender TV series) and Damian Toofeek Raven (Chadwick Journals, Dexter and Zane’s Sex Chronicles)