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Here’s a walled noise split that shows a few different sides of the genre- we have the tight & compact, the droned-out, and the churningly bleak. This release, as with much of the scenes output, is a digital-only release- which appears on UK’s Death To Dynamics.
On sigla, sone, scattered among the otherwise unrecognizable sounds of field recordings, is that much-maligned of all source materials: the human voice. Infant’s latest release is nothing if not a study in when, and how, to insert the immediately familiar within a border tapestry of that which is abstract or foreign or both. Over 9 tracks, sigla, sone curries restraint, with carefully selected snippets thrown into a larger pot, organic and thoroughly alive. Within the genre of field recordings/ambient synthesis, the true in one’s listeners can be a slippery, and like any good journey (Infant’s sources are clearly close to home), we are moving, somewhere, whether we want to or not.
Peruvian avant-garde percussionist Manongo Mujica is a veteran of various musical scenes since playing in the psychedelic rock band Los Mad's in the 70's. His newest recordings combine intricate primitivist orchestrations of various percussion instruments combined with elements of dark ambient and folk music.
When Powerhouse announced this boxset I was very excited, and also - without sounding patronising - pleased for Powerhouse: whilst they have released any number of great films, of recent they’ve been putting out some real ‘deep cuts’ so to speak, e.g. the incredible and very recommended Michael Murphy boxset, several great Mexican horrors, the Pemini Organisation boxset - and of course the lush new Rollin editions. They’ve now added to this with the Ormond boxset, and we might well ask how they are going to top all these in the future…
Exotica Absolute is a two-CD set bringing together four Les Baxter albums from the 1950s. The release is part of the open-ended ‘As Dug By Lux And Ivy’ series- which was set up/ curated by respected music journalist Dave Henderson- releasing both standard compilations and album collections such as this.
We Can't Reach Her Or Hear Her Voice is a two-track journey into thick & atmospheric walled noise from Thin Mountain- one of the projects of respected US noisemaker Sean E. Matzus (theNIGHTproduct, Black Leather Jesus, last Rape, Thewhitehorse). The release appears as either a Ltd run tape( not sure of the numbers), or a digital download- I’m reviewing the latter.
Texas trio Baring Teeth return with The Path Narrows, their fourth full length and first on I, Voidhanger. Eight songs of intricate and dissonant death metal, this latest release delights all the senses in both expected and unexpected ways. Like an album that slips in between dimensions while playing, the passing through borders releases atonal blasts that bring The Path Narrows to intriguing and vibrant heights. Well crafted and expertly played, Baring Teeth have released a fantastic death metal record.
World Burn takes in two slabs of battering, baying, and brutalizing walled noise. Each track sits around the half-hour mark, and each is as unrelenting/ unforgiving as the next.
Prophecies is a new two-track release from Poland’s His Haunted Humming- which is one of the more recent projects from the mind behind the Sado Rituals project/ Gates Of Hypnos. Each track here comes in/ around the quarter of an hour mark, and each an example of buzzing ‘n’ droning bound walled noise.
Lips Of Blood was the 11th film made by French director Jean Rollin. The mid-1970s feature takes in some of the more generally creepy & haunting moments from the director’s filmography- with it being a vampiric-tipped thriller/ mystery set in then-present-day France. Here from Powerhouse, as part of their ongoing series of reissues of the directors back catalogue is a reissue of the film- either coming as a UHD or Blu-Ray set- featuring a new 4k scan & commentary, as well as a few archive extras.
Isolation Colours is a new seven-track CD/ digital download release from Swedish electronica project Jarl( aka Erik Jarl). As its title suggests each of the tracks here focuses on creating an electro-audio presentation of a certain colour(or lack of it) utilizing only analogue synths. The track's tone moving from pulsing & building, to more subdued and moodily looping.
From The Longest Winter is a collaboration between Poland’s Fomalhaut and Italy’s Nimh. It’s a seven-track ambient/ drone album with subtle industrial touches and guitar washed atmospherics. It moves between the broodingly simmering, to the brightly tolling & windswept, through to murkily driving & uneasy.
It’s been 20 years since the whip-smart duo known as General Magic released a full-length album. Need one ponder over what exactly took them so long, or all of the world-historical, not to mention personal, changes that have taken place over the preceding two decades? I hope not, and there is nothing in the 9 tracks that make up this release to suggest that General Magic, or us listeners, would be rewarded for waxing nostalgic. Instead, something more macabre and perverse is at stake here, which has more to do with a kind of vampiric blood-sucking of the present via its past, including the group’s own. It would be easy to herald such musical reappearances as a second coming, but not so fast. The end of history is also the near-claustrophobic proximity to death, and the magic that this duo spin is something only those who once cut their teeth on the heady, self-congratulatory gestures of the postmodern could translate to the laudenum of our age.
Written and directed by Ali Abbasi (Border, Shelley and The Last of Us), Holy Spider is a 2022 crime thriller shot in Jordan. Abbasi’s previous movie, Border was Oscar-nominated and the director is starting to build a reputation as one to watch. Holy Spider itself was also nominated as the Danish entry at the 95th Oscar ceremony in the Best International Feature Film category. The film stars Alice Rahimi (The Salt of Tears, Balthazar and Narvalo), Soraya Helli (Axing, Sometimes Virtual and Khodahafez Refigh), Mehdi Bajestani (Tatami, Sweet Taste of Imagination and There Are Things You Don’t Know), Zar Amir Ebrahimi (Tatami, Shayda and White Paradise) and first-time actor Diana Al Hussen.
come, Memory: fieldwork is a true labour of love dedicated to the landscape and the interface between the omniscient ancient and what today we recognise as culture. Katrina Niebergal and Bergur Anderson, both interdisciplinary artists, spent two years visiting sacred and, in most cases, Neolithic European sites across Malta, Greece and the UK and as they travelled, not only did they chronicle their trip visually, but they collected accompanying audio recordings. Together these formed the basis of three experimental short films and the scenographic installation come, Memory that was presented in Rotterdam earlier this year.
Appearing a year after Vol 1 here’s A Sight For Sore Eyes Vol 2- which follows on the visual story of The Residents- those great American Avant pop/ satirical genre shifters who are into their 51st year of activity. The hefty coffee table picks up where the first ended in the year 1983 and finishes off in 2004- and once again we get a fascinating blend of imagery & quotes from those who worked with/ respect the project.
Formed in the late 60’s High Tide where a British band, which brewed up a rough ‘n’ ready at times heady mix of heavy psych rock. proto-metal, & prog-rock. Here we have a three-CD boxset bringing together their first two albums- 1969 Sea Shanties, their 1970’s self-titled, and a demo/ studio session disc.
From Wisdom to Hate appeared in 2001, three years after Gorguts daring- at times demented technical/avant-garde death metal masterpiece Obscura. And while the eight-track album wasn’t quite as brutally mind-melting- it melds the sound of Obscura, with the band's first two more formally focused DM albums- for a more easily consumable/ less sanity-twisting ride. Here from MDD Records is a new CD reissue of the album.
Destination Desert is a recent thirty-three-track compilation from the swell folks at Germans Bear Family Records. It focuses on 50’s to 60’s rock and roll/ rockabilly/ related genres with eastern exotic desert instrumental themes & lyrics. And as always with a Bear Family compilation- it’s another wonderful curated & realized collection.
Journey to the Centre of the Earth is a late 70’s Spanish retake on the classic Jules Verne story. It’s a largely charming, and pacy family sci-fi action – with a likeable cast, slightly different twists of the original story, battling sea monsters, a giant gorilla, and a few other encounters. Here is the first release in some time from Severin’s weird & wacky family-focused sub-label Severin Kids- with the region-free Blu-Ray taking in a new scan of the picture, and a few extras.
Traditionally one of the more difficult-to-find giallo classics, 1975s Footprints aka L’Orme, directed by Luigi Bazzoni (The Possessed, The Fifth Cord and Brothers Blue) remains one of the unsung gems of Italian cinema. So it is really good news that Severin have given us what may well be the definitive release of this underappreciated genre classic. The film stars the legendary Florinda Balkan (A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin, Flavia the Heretic and Investigation of A Citizen Above Suspicion), Peter McEnery (Beat Girl, Tales That Witness Madness and Negatives), Nicoletta Elmi (Deep Red, Demons and Bay of Blood), Lila Kedrova (The Tenant, Zorba the Greek and The Night Child) and Klaus Kinski (Nosferatu the Vampyre, Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Death Smiles on A Murderer).
Although no stranger to the scene, Takashi Watanabe released his first album as an artist this November with one. Cutting his teeth with dance music in the London acid house scene, Watanabe worked on hundreds of releases as a sound engineer. After returning to Japan, he began to produce more dance acts before expanding into writing songs and playing his own instruments. This all leads us to 2023 where Watanabe's paean to his new home in Nagano, it's comfort, hospitality, and environment, come to play on a lush, ambient, electronic slab of joy.
Rider is a new two-track release from the long-running US noise collective Black Leather Jesus- which has among its membership names like Richard Ramirez, Sean Matzus, Scott Kindberg. The release comes as either a c60 or digital download- with the sound focus very much on painfully warbling & searingly droned-out noise craft.
A History of Musical Pitch is a three-track journey into very lulling & softly drifting modern classic sonic waters from Amsterdam-based composer Seamus Cater. As the release title suggests all the pieces here revolve around slowly shifting & gently altering pitches.