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Blue Car is an early 2000s high school drama detailing the relationship between a troubled female teen and her 50-something English teacher. It features two well-placed and believable leads, and some interesting observations regarding men/ male parents. Here from Imprint is a new Blu-Ray of the film- taking in an HD scan, as well as a few extras.
From the fine folks at Arrow Video- both in the UK and stateside- here’s Blood Money: Four Western Classics Vol. 2. It's a recent Blu-ray boxset bringing together four euro westerns/ Spaghetti westerns from between the late 1960s and the early ’70s. Each film gets a classy & crisp HD scan, as well as a new commentary track, and a good selection of extras. Plus an inlay booklet with new writing, a double-sided poster, and reversible sleeves for each film.
Quick, varied, and fun, the duo of Dirty Electronics and Oliver Torr have finally released their first album together, piu hiway. Experimental through and through, this mix of eclectic electronics and noise is a short and sweet look into the collaboration between not just the two musicians above, but also many guest artists. Often quiet and sparse, piu hiway still hammers home some intriguing noisy bits, keeping the listener guessing and replaying as soon as the final song ends.
Schicke, Führs & Fröhling, or SFF were a three-piece German project that dabbled in a mix of Prog, symphonic rock, grand-to-moody synth scaping, and jazz-rock/ fusion. The band existed between 1975 & 1978 impressively releasing three studio albums & one live album over this period- Symphonic Pictures (1976), Sunburst (1977), and Ticket To Everywhere (1978) with the live album Live 1975 appearing in 2002. Here on the MIG label is a three-CD set that brings together the band's full output.
Broken Mirrors (Gebroken Spiegels) is an early 1980’s Dutch film- which attempts to bring together brothel-set drama with the low-key serial killer thriller. It’s a decidedly lopsided affair with it largely focusing on the drama side of things- and you do start to wonder how the two elements will connect. It’s certainly a well-acted film, with the mainly female cast really selling their roles- highlighting both the comradery and the grim frankness of the sex trade- without ever getting too flesh/ exploitative…though the serial killer elements are a little more mixed/ less satisfying. Here from Cult Epics is a new region-free release of the film- taking in a nicely crisp scan, a commentary track, and a few other extras.
From the mid-1970s Man At The Door is somewhat of a mysterious/ seemingly long-lost slice of grimy ‘n’ rough grindhouse sleaze. It blends together roughie elements with straight hardcore. And while the latter is a little vanilla/ dull- the more unpleasant/ degrading elements are fairly effective/ tense. Here from Impulse Pictures- Synapse Films' sleazy grindhouse sublabel- here’s a bare-bones region region-free release of the film.
Recorded live at the Royal Festival Hall in 2022, this concert celebrating the 50th anniversary of the original Tubular Bells was recorded over 3 nights featuring music, dance and acrobatics by the Circa Contemporary Circus. Arranged by Robin Smith, the performance features music from Mike Oldfield’s groundbreaking original album, tracks from its follow-ups, alongside his hit single, Moonlight Shadow. This is a two-disc Blu-Ray release of the performance from Cleopatra/ MVD.
Starting in the early 2000’s Space Machine is the spaced-out synth ‘n’ electronics project of Maso Yamazaki- who is most known for Masonna, which along with Merzbow is one of the key celebrated projects within the Japanoise genre. Space Tunning is a boxset bringing together all the projects output to date- 2001’s Cosmos From Diode Ladder Filter, 2002’s 2, 2003’s 3, as well as a collection of mini CD tracks.
What differentiates one abstract work of sound composition from another today is largely a question of approach, what in some circles used to be called method or methodology. The term is painfully unsexy, so no reason to try to resuscitate it, just to note that for someone like Jo Montgomerie, I think it helpful to move away from the usual interpretative circles surrounding what many of us call “music”. Fragments of Something is quite a bit more, and by extension, also quite a bit less, than composed, prepared music, and this is very much willed on Montgomerie’s part. On a superficial, aesthetic level, the album, spread over four tracks (two of the short-form variety and two of the long), bears some family resemblance to drone, amorphous, atonal composition, with a decidedly sinister vibe. Montgomerie’s tact, however, is in making the source material gather like an impending tornado, accumulating slowly, until the sonic pressure makes its presence felt, a vice grip of textural violence
Here’s another pro-pressed, professional-looking CD release from Karo Productions, with nine tracks of burning harsh noise from Armenia - the work of Leonardo Sabatto from Ecuador. Omnis Anima Malus operates in a similar territory to the Amplex album I reviewed recently, which is not surprising since Sabatto was also involved in that release; so we get lots of brute harsh noise which relies on force and texture, not technical cut-ups, or processing that reaches toward electroacoustic music.
Morvern Callar is a decidedly strange if highly spell-biding drama that unfolds in an odd dream-like manner. It’s a film that features an understated yet troubled female lead, whose mundane life unfolds after the suicide of her boyfriend. It features startling uses of poignant, troubling, to subtle unsettling imagery throughout, with a creatively drifting /merging use of soundtracking. It’s a film that is extremely difficult to try & tie down, or wholly define in a few words- but I’ll try. Think a glummer, low-key British take on Muriel's Wedding, fed through with dreamy & at points surreal artiness. Here from Fun City Editions is a recent/first-ever Blu-Ray release of the film- taking in an HD scan of the film, and a few extras.
August Underground is an early 2000s film- which presents itself as the video recordings of two twenty-something American serial killers. The film features deliberately damaged and amateurish found footage to sell its authenticity. It takes in prolonged degradement and torture, moments gut retching gore, blended with darts into day-to-day mundaneness, with a highly volatile/ unpredictable lead. All making for a film that is uncomfortable as it is unpredictable. Here from Unearthed Films- those seekers of worldwide extreme film is a very highly deserved dual DVD and Blu-Ray release of this highly troubling underground horror classic. With the new release taking in a host of new and achieved extras.
Delving deeply below the surface of our visible world, sound artist Patrick Quinn returns with his industrial geophones to share with the world his low and intriguing field recordings. deep_map Volume 2 presents the listener with deep and distant field recordings of the seismic activity of the US and beyond, but prepared and modified to not only make them audible, but to show all of their beauty and majesty; turning the motion and movement of the Earth into subtle motions and movements of sound. Naturally focused heavily on the low end, deep_map Volume 2 is an album that needs to be felt as well as heard, much like the massive body that fueled its sonic sources.
Greetings From Death Row is the next in the open-ended ‘As Dug By Lux And Ivy’ series- which sees respected music journalist Dave Henderson crate driving for 45’s from the 50’s and 60’s. And this is another worthy twenty-eight-track compilation- though it has a rather misleading title- as the first half of the comp doesn’t really have a death row or even crime theme. In reality, it’s more of a collection of quirky one-hit wonders & bizarre/ surreal storytelling tracks- with the focus very much on the rock ‘n’ roll, rockabilly, wonky novelty pop etc. side of things.
Every Mistake Imaginable- The Complete Frilly Pink Years 1987-1988 is a two-disc CD set compiling together the two albums put out by UK comedy/ parody heavy metal band Bad News. The band featured prominent UK comedians/ actors Ade Edmondson( The Young Ones, Johnthan Creek, Eastenders) and Rik Mayall( The Young Ones, Drop Dead Fred, The New Stateman, Man Down). The release appears HNE Recordings- Cherry Red’s sub-label for rock & heavy metal reissues- though quite a lot of what’s found on these two discs is going more towards the parody/ spoken comedy side of things.
Originally released in 2007 on Sweden’s Harsh Head Ritual Documents 1, 2 is an important release in the development of the harsh wall noise form, as well a fine example of wallish harsh noise. The Wall Riders project had somewhat of a shifting/mysterious membership- with each recording featuring different players- though it’s confirmed that likes of The Rita, Richard Ramirez, and Taskmaster were involved. Here from Ominous Recordings is a CD reissue of the album.
Enoch is wall noise split bringing together two thirty-minute examples of the form from two Portland-based projects. One track is cumbersome & weathered, while the second is manically detailed & densely pelting.
From director Gakuryu Ishii (formerly Sogo Ishii of Panic High School and Crazy Thunder Road fame) comes Punk Samurai (Slash Down), an adaptation of the allegedly unfilmable novel of the same name from author Ko Machida. Junoshin Kake (Go Ayano) is a wandering ronin who mistakenly murders an innocent man he comes across on his travels. In an effort to get off with the crime he concocts a story about the man being a member of the Bellyshaker Party, a vicious cult which has been a blight on the clan of Lord Kuroae (Masahiro Higashide). Teaming up with a spy (Kiyohiko Shibukawa), a psychic moron (Ryuya Wakaba) and a nervous negotiator (Shota Sometani), Kake plans to use this as a chance to rise up the clan ranks. However, nothing is ever as simple as it sounds.
Punk rock documentary filmmaker, Danny Garcia (Stiv, Sad Vacation and The Rise and Fall of the Clash) returned in 2022 with Nightclubbing, an 85-minute documentary about the rise of the celebrated punk rock club, Max’s Kansas City and its place in the birth and rise of the New York punk movement that would spawn The Ramones, Blondie, Patti Smith, New York Dolls and Wayne/ Jayne County to name but a few.
Is pastiche something learned, or is it evidence of learning’s failure? It might be an odd question to ask, but there is no avoiding the “p” word when it comes to Ori Barel’s sweeping historical mash-up (is the moniker already old hat?), Alkaline River, in which literally every formal device and source material from the world of electroacoustic music from the last thirty years makes an appearance. From early synths to field recordings and even sitars on the aptly named “Butterflies”, all is readily available and is put to use, whether that is good use or not depends on your relation to the curtain of irony behind which Barel seems intent on playing.
Ambient jazz pianist Richard Sears is based out of Brooklyn, NY. He has self-released a couple of recordings in recent years. I haven't heard these albums, but it would appear they have a full band line-up, whereas this new recording, Appear to Fade, is a solo ambient affair for piano and electronics, more specifically tape loops. The album's eight tracks average at five minutes in length.
Alone at Night is a new horror film directed by Jimmy Giannopoulos. The Signature Entertainment release is currently streaming on digital platforms.
French euro cult director Jean Rollin is most known for his arty, at times macabrely tripped out vampire-focused exotic horror films of the late 60s to 70’s. A few of his releases step out of this template, and one such film was The Night Of The Hunted. The early 1980s film is a stark ‘n’ cold (largely) tower block set horror thriller- regarding the escape of one the patients of a secret clinic. It mixes paranoid thriller and medical horror tropes- with a fair bit of female flesh, fleeting gore, and unsettling sexualized violence. Here from the fine folks at Powerhouse Films is a very well-deserved new release of this lesser-seen/ known Rollin picture. The release comes as either a Blu-Ray or UHD disc- taking in a classy new 4k scan, both new and archive commentary tracks, as well as a good selection of extras, and an eighty-page inlay booklet.
No Title is a twenty-minute slice of machine churn ‘n’ slicing sear bound walled noise from this Warsaw-based project. As with much of the scene’s output this comes in the form of digital download.