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Tobe Hooper’s iconic backwoods horror classic gets yet another reissue, this time from Second Sight Films who were also responsible for the rather splendid Dawn of the Dead box set a couple of years ago. So, when I was asked to review this release, it was a bit of a no-brainer.
You Ungodly Warlock is the second release from L’Aldilà- the new(ish) walled noise project from respected US Noise maker Sean E. Ramirez-Matzus( theNIGHTproduct, Thewhitehorse, Thin Mountain, [Untitled], Black Leather Jesus). It comes in the form of C60 on Stockholm’s Ominous Recordings- with the same two around fifteen-minute tracks playing on the first & second sides.
Summer Of Our Discontent is a new three-track release from Berlin’s Sebastain Tomb- who have been making waves in the walled/ textured noise scene of late. I’ve already reviewed a two-track release from last year (Whatever Exists Preys), and a recent short split they did with Sado Rituals( Ostara)- I'd enjoyed both of these…so I was keen to hear this release, which is been sold as their first full length.
Control features two half-an-hour examples of densely numbing & greyly battering walled noise from US project Impulse Kill. The release appears as either a C60 or digital download on Fort Worth’s Hot Fuzz- I’m reviewing the latter on these two.
The Desert Dictionary is not what one might expect of a dictionary: a compendium of terms, explained, defined, referenced, etc. Instead, Boris Baltschun has focused on a particular area in present-day South Africa, using a mixture of field recordings and voices to narrate a meditation on a desert that ties differing landscapes to a kind of open-ended ethnology of place. I say ethnology because the nature of the recorded voices has that quasi-documentary feel to it – earnest without much effect or feeling – and it is no surprise that some of the source material that finds its way onto Desert Dictionary was initially commissioned for radio. The question is, I guess, why the normal, radio-friendly delivery of Baltschun’s various narrators was not then radically altered to suit the context of a more experimental release? This seems to me a missed opportunity, at the very least to acknowledge in some material way the displacement of one context by the other.
Kvad is a one-man black metal band hailing from Oslo, Norway, consisting of Peregrinus (Darkest Bethlehem, Praefuro, Solus Grief, Unholy Craft). Back in 2022, Kvad were a duo, with Palisade (Darkest Bethlehe) on drums, but currently, Peregrinus goes solo. So Old is the band's second album
Re-Flesh is a low-budget sci-fi horror anthology film from 2022. It features some rewarding splatter-bound gore, a decent mix of types of stories going from the more playful to sinisterly abstract, and an effective score/ soundtrack- which blends together stripped-back sci-fi electronica, brooding glitch bound ambience, and even darts into greyly pressing noise matter. Here from SRS Cinema’s Nightmare Fuel series is a region-free DVD release of the film.
Alien From The Abyss is a highly entertaining slice of euro-exploitation pie. The late 1980s film moves sinister-big-corporation-up-to-no-good thriller meet’s jungle adventure. Onto a face ripping ‘n’ gut ripping creature feature in its last half. With more than a few cheesy lines, gunplay, snakes, and a crab-clawed ‘n’ towering intergalactic monster. Here from those fine folks at Severin is a region A release of the film- featuring a new scan of the picture, a few interviews, and an archive doc regarding the film’s director.
Dancing Like Dust brings together highly respected & inventive British guitarist Fred Frith, with contemporary percussionist/ improviser Núria Andorrà. It’s an eleven-track CD album, which sees the pair creating a wonderfully varied selection of avant to atmospheric soundscapes.
Here’s a four-track CD Ep from former Residents' lead songwriter Hardy Fox. As its title suggests it features a cover of the Eagles track, as well as three trips into off-kilter & avant skewed electronica, that is often overhung by Hardy’s wavery and weak vocals.
Transcodex is an eleven-track album that finds low-key dub bound-to-moody beat scapes touched by atmospheric jazz horn wails and subtle surreal ethnic electronica. All topped with a mix of spoken to semi-sung ( largely in French-tongued) vocals
Active since the mid-1990s Monoid is the abstract industrial/ noise-edged electronica project of Germany’s Martin Steinebach (Compest, Conscientia Peccati, EM1V, StillStand). Satisfaction Shift is the project's 11th full-length album- it appears as a pro-pressed CDR on Oxidation.
Synapsensturm takes in two nineteen-minute examples of dense & shifting soundscaping. It mixes together harsh noise sears ‘n’ sweeps, electro tone simmers, mangled muzak, and all manner of sonic flotsam & Jetsam. It’s certainly an overloading- yet eventfully enjoyable trip into sound in two parts- which most certainly does reward repeat plays.
Clearly inspired by the Italian genre film soundtracks of the late 70's/early 80's (including the Luigi Cozzi film of the same name), Contaminazione delivers the synthy, prog-rock goodness we've grown to love from the classic films of this era. Their debut album, Pericolo Di Morte, draws influence from genre heavyweights Goblin, Il Roveschio della Medaglia, and Fabio Frizzi. With bands like Zombi evolving into a different direction, the vacuum left in this Italo retro-prog genre is nicely filled by Contaminazione. For those that have wished to hear what an alternate timeline in Italian film would have sounded like, Pericolo Di Morte is an excellent view through this Swedish trio's lens.
The Beta Test blends satire, dark ‘n awkward comedy, and mystery- with light touches of horror, drama & suspense. The 2021 film features a great lead in the form of Jim Cummings, as smug & always trying to (figurative) dodge the bullet Hollywood agent. With a well-placed supporting cast, and a good eye for both uncomfortable & up close, as well as the broodingly moody city shooting. Here from Arrow Video UK is a recent double Blu-ray release of the film- taking in a commentary track, a few other extras, and a second disc of shorts by the same directors.
Sefer Yetzirah (The Book of Creation) is another journey in highly creative/ adventurous harsh noise sound crafting from Pittsburgh-based Alyx II. It’s a C60/ digital release, which sees the trans-gendered noise-maker/ Jeweller creator blending in elements of traditional Jewish chants, synth ‘n’ subtle beat craft, and guttural-to-wailing vocal elements into her sound for a wonderfully unpredictable and extremely re-playable release- which is not something you can often say about noise as a genre.
Dead Form is a recent long-form example of morphing textured noise/ walled noise craft from Russia’s Sergey Pakhomov. The digital release features a single 90-minute track- which over its length features three distinct phases, as well as moments of subtle adjustment.
‘The Man on the Roof,’ Swedish director Bo Widerberg’s Scandinavian Noir cinema milestone from 1975 is made available here as a hi-def restoration on Blu-ray from the Radiance label. It's an adaptation of the seventh novel of the acclaimed Martin Beck series, and the film deserves its stellar reputation.
In She Dies Tomorrow, her second feature film, Amy Seimetz tells us the story of Amy. Amy (Kate Lyn Sheil) has just moved into a brand spanking new house with the hope of beginning her life afresh after a series of traumatic events, However she is soon struck with a sudden and irrational fear that today is her last day on Earth and that come the morning she will die, a belief that slowly becomes more and more infectious by the minute. With friends visiting, parties being crashed and doctors being visited it becomes a matter of time before everyone believes they have one final night to live.
Is it a law of diminishing returns that is referred to in the band’s name, the new project from Lane Oliver and Dave Brenner? The first album by this duo features all of the moody darkness one would expect from these two musicians, including the titles of The Unnamable’s nine tracks – “The Rats I’ve Fed”, “Barren Harvest”, “The Culmination of Years of Self-Abuse” – the list goes on. Pestilence is leading the horsemen here, and with more brow-beating evil conjurers out there than one can wave a scepter at, Diminishing manage to carve something more furtive than fecund here, as if the economics of paucity had informed their very means of production and compositional strategies. Diminishing returns for sure.
Here we have a four-CD boxset bringing together all of the late 70’s to early 80’s albums from eight-piece New York band Of Skyy, who blended together funk, disco, R&B, soul and boogie in a foot-tapping, finger-snapping & flare-shaking experience. In all the boxset takes in seven full albums- plus a selection of bonus tracks.
Norwegian musicians Mats Gustafsson (saxophone) and Andreas Røysum (clarinet) have joined forces for this freeform improvisational recording, Vindögæ. While I'm hitherto unfamiliar with Røysum, Gustaffson ranks among my favorite modern jazz players, someone truly capable of elevating the free jazz form into something consistently expressive and interesting, with his semi-melodic, heavily textural and harmonic-laden performances. The album is a typical LP length of forty minutes, split into sides A and B.
Here’s the 18th release in Dark Force Entertainment's Drive-In-Double Feature series. The Blu-Ray takes in two films from the 1970s. We have The Weekend Murders- a crossbred between an Agatha Christie mystery and gialli. And Whose Child Am I?- which awkwardly sits between trouble conceiving drama and softcore porn. Both films get a new scan, and we also get a few extras.
From the late 1970’s The Haunting Of Julia is a mix of drama, low-key mystery, and very slow-burn horror. It’s a film that often drifts with a feeling of unease & subtle dread- with a few moments of jarring shock, be they visual or plot revelation-wise. Here from Australia’s Imprint is a double disc release of the film- taking in a Blu-ray of the film, and a good selection of extras. And a CD featuring the film's soundtrack, including never-released material. It comes presented in lenticular slip, with a forty-four-page booklet.