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Köln is a thirty-two slice of fidgety ‘n’ shifting electro-acoustic improv featuring one of the masters of the form New York-born Jason Kahn on electronics. With French-Japanese on Frantz Loriot on Volin, and Switzerlands' Christian Wolfarth on percussion.
In its simplest form, Clearcut regards the kidnapping of two white middle-class men by a native Canadian Indian- but there is way more to the film than that. The early 1990s film is a mix of environmental-focused drama & thriller- with touches of supernatural & folk horror. It’s a (largely) well-acted film, set in the grand & awe-inspiring nature of the Canadian wildness - with a feeling of building tension- edged with touches of jarring violence/ gore. Here from Severin is a Blu-Ray release of the film- taking in a new 4k scan, and a selection of new & archive
Vomiting Corpses is a four-CD set that brings together all the 1990s studio output / plus a few live tracks from Spanish death metal band Avulsed. The set highlights the project's ability to pen memorable & relatively varied DM craft; as well as its tendency to experiment/ take fairly big risks- a prime example of this is the second album here 1998’s Cybergore- which was an attempt to blend two very distant genres DM & techno.
Lucid Dreams is a two-track release from California's Harsh wall noise project Koobaatoo Asparagus. This self-released digital album takes in two dead-on twenty-minute tracks- with each being decidedly dense & punishing.
Here’s a rather gnarly ‘n’ nastily themed walled noise release from Norway’s Coffin Vomit. The C60/ digital release features two around thirty-minute tracks- which both nicely lock down into grimy ‘n’ grim wall texturing.
Australian-born Julia Reidy is not only an accomplished guitarist and composer, but the architect of elaborate and extraordinary acoustic soundscapes. Dispensing with standard song structure, Reidy favours episodic fragments of music that in their words embrace ‘unstable harmonic territories, rhythmic elasticity and abstract narrative.’ Where earlier albums including 2019’s Real Life and 2020’s Vanish, centred on electronically-manipulated fingerpicking to create a wholly immersive sonic experience, their last recording, World In World, introduced more space into the music - the intensity dialled down substantially. It’s this musical transition that explains Reidy’s recent move towards a more experimental ambient aesthetic and her gravitation towards working with Berlin quartet, The Pitch.
Prolific as jazz pianist Matthew Shipp may be, the ongoing reissue of his early back catalogue by ESP-Disk is one that is truly welcomed. Originally released in 1992 on the tiny and now-defunct Quinton label (not to be confused with the very much alive Austrian label) and reissued four years later (again only on CD), Circular Temple by the Matthew Shipp Trio is now available for the first time on vinyl.
Once again firing up his Electronic Valve Instrument for Kranky, Justin Walter returns with his latest work, Destroyer. Otherworldly but highly accessible, this album moves between somewhat soft, ambient pieces to quick, vibrant, and bubbling soundscapes, all the while keeping an evocative overall tone, elevating Destroyer with each successive track. Covering many emotions and approaches of its eleven tracks, Walter's latest is a gorgeous testament to the three years of work spent crafting, recording, and reworking Destroyer's being.
Hi-Death is a 2018 anthology taking in five tales from underground horror directors. From the known such as Tim Ritter (Truth Or Dare, Killing Spree), Todd Sheets (Moonchild, Dead Things) and Brad Sykes (Camp Blood 1 & 2). To the lesser known Anthony Catanese & Amanda Payton. It’s a consistent collection of tales- with a good mix of chills, gore, and macabre wackness. Here from Wild Eyes' Raw & Extreme series is a DVD release of the film- taking in producer & director commentaries, and a making of.
Journey Into The Beyond (aka Reise ins Jenseits - Die Welt des Übernatürlichen) is a mid-70s West German-produced Mondo documentary. It takes in narration from John Carradine- and features psychic surgery, exorcism, a levitation witch doctor, and more. Here from VCI Entertainment is a Blu-Ray release of the film.
White Pongo is a cheap and cheerful jungle movie, originally released in 1945, and directed by legendary B-movie director Sam Newfield (Racing Luck, Go Get ‘Em Hains and Adventure Island). The film stars Richard Fraser (The Picture of Dorian Gray, Bedlam and The Cobra Strikes), Maris Wrixon (The Ape, The Case of the Black Parrot and The Master Key), Lionel Royce (Road to Zanzibar, Crown of Thorns and Victory) and Al Eben (Hawaii 5-0, Hold That Line and Lightnin’ in the Forest).
SKI is the solo project of Damian Kowalski and KRE his first release under the moniker. Kowalski is a drummer by trade and this inaugural work, spread over seven tracks, definitely puts the emphasis on rhythm, with extremes at the upper and lower reaches of the frequency spectrum placed in the mix.
Blazing Magnum aka Strange Shadows in An Empty Room is a 1976 crime thriller or poliziotteschi directed by Alberto De Martino (The Killer is on the Phone, The Antichrist and Formula for A Murder). The film stars genre favourite John Saxon (Tenebre, Cannibal Apocalypse and Enter the Dragon), Stuart Whitman (Night of the Lepus, The Longest Day and The Comancheros), Martin Landau (Space 1999, Ed Wood and North by Northwest), and Mia Farrow’s sister, Tisa Farrow (Zombie Flesheaters, Manhattan and Anthropophagus the Beast).
Cosmos In Cosmos marks the first release by Fabio D'Onofrio after many highly regarded and awarded soundtracks. This first outing, a five song EP on Iter Research, shows the composer and multi-instrumentalist blurring the lines between electro-pop and soundtrack, building quite an impressive base of sound and emotion in such a short amount of time. While his solo, non soundtrack career is just starting, his talents in composing for theater and films bolsters his ideas and drive, marking Cosmos In Cosmos as the start of a fantastic new phase in an already celebrated musical career.
Interrogation (aka Przesluchanie) is a decidedly gritty, grim and at times deeply troubling prison drama/ thriller set in the 1950s during the Stalinist regime. The Polish film was made in the early 80’s- but banned in its country of origin for many years- though it thrived on the underground VHS market. Here from Second Run- is a very well-deserved region-free Blu-Ray release of the picture- featuring a new 2k scan of the film, an interview with the film's director, and a forty-page inlay booklet taking in new writing about the film/more.
The Antichrist (aka L'anticristo) is a wonderfully realized, at points totally over the top, and highly camp example of Euro-Possession horror. The early 1970s Italian film has all you want from the genre- filthy toughed ‘n’ gruffly toned dialogue, sweaty priests, furniture & body levitation, and all manner of devil-loving shenanigans. Here as part of Studiocanal’s Cult Classic series is a Blu-Ray release of the film- taking in both new & archive extras.
First released in 2019 as a digital download Massage & Spa presents/ sells itself as a straight new age/ meditation record. However there is something deeper/ below the surface going on here- as it lightly mocks/sends up the genre in both its sound use, the track naming & the general presentation. And I’d say there is most certainly an ambient/easy listening Vaporwave vibe going on here.
After releasing five cassette-based albums, a few digital EP’s, and one release under the THAA banner- with Thor Harris( Swans, Xiu Xiu, etc.). Vagrancies is the first CD album from Portland Oregan’s sound scraper Andrew Anderson. It’s an eight-track affair- which blends 'n' blurs lightly modified field recordings, lulling-to-moody electro texturing, subtle piano touches, and drone matter. It’s an album which sonically paints a series of mysterious, moody, at points lightly surreal sound worlds.
Split into two sides (literally and thematically), Transtilla III, by the eponymously named Dutch duo, covers a range of moods and emotions as it takes the listener on a pretty gnarly journey through drone and dark ambience, all made with some form of guitars.
Here’s a lavish package from Arash Akbari on Farpoint Recordings: a small book containing a CD of tracks by Akbari, accompanied by poems by Christopher Doherty-Ingram. Each track has a corresponding poem, displayed opposite a visualisation of data pertaining to the same theme, for example: ‘Economic inequality - Gini index, 1946-2016’; so it’s an ambitious project which, if not all-encompassing, certainly works to cover a lot of ground and material.
Avant-garde jazz composer John Zorn continues his ongoing series "The Bagatelles", in which different ensembles play interpretations of pieces chosen from a book of 300 total compositions, the "Book of Bagatelles". Despite being a Zorn fan, this 16th volume is my introduction to the series. For this recording, the arrangements are handled by Sam Eastmond and his ensemble of twelve total players, resulting in a fuller, denser sound than is heard on most recordings to Zorn's name. With eight tracks with running time between seven and eleven minutes in length, this is an epic affair.
From acclaimed director Robert Altman (The Player, Gosford Park, M*A*S*H, McCabe & Mrs Miller) comes Thieves Like Us, based on the 1937 novel of the same name by author Edward Anderson. After escaping from prison in 1930s Mississippi, criminals Bowie (Keith Carradine), T-Dub (Bert Remsen) and Chicamaw (John Schuck) go on the run from the law and hide out at the house of T-Dub’s sister-in-law. Soon Bowie begins to fall for garage worker Keechie (Shelley Duvall), but Bowie can’t find it in him to turn his back on this whirlwind life of crime. A life which is all about to fall apart.
Terror At The Red Wolf Inn (aka Terror House) sits somewhere between mystery, low-key horror, pitch-black comedy, and proto-slasher. The early 1970s film features a selection of quirky to low-key sinister characters, a feeling of building unease/ foreboding, and some neat moments of creepiness/ darting terror. Here from Cheezy Movies is a recent bare-bones region free DVD of the film.
The Iron Prefect is a crime drama directed by Pasquale Squitieri (Gli Invisibili, L’Arma and Claretta) in 1977. The film stars Giuliano Gemma (Tenebre, The Leopard and Day of Anger), Claudia Cardinale (Once Upon A Time in the West, Federico Fellini’s 8 ½ and The Pink Panther), Stefano Satta Flores (Salon Kitty, The Girl with a Pistol and Four Flies on Grey Velvet), and Massimo Mollica (No Alla Violenza, Napoli, Palermo, New York – Il Triangolo della Camorra and Joe Petrosino).