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From the late 1980s, Faceless stands as one of the formally approachable, straight, no-nonsense examples of euro horror from Jess Franco- the highly prolific Spanish director, who often severs up a quirky-to-disturbing, at times experimental take on genre filmmaking. The film also stands as his most overtly and at times sadistically gory effort- which very much nods towards the likes of Lucio Fulci and Dario Argento- with the whole thing sunk deeply into later 80’s glamour, sleaze and camp. Here from Severin, the key label reissuing Franco’s back catalogue is a very much deserved double HD/Blu-Ray release of the film, featuring a commentary track from Jess Franco & Lina Romay, and a great selection of other features.
They Might Be Giants is an utterly charming and wholly engaging 1970s drama-comedy, which flickers with moments of both quirky spirit and fragile/ forlorn humanity. The New York-based film tells of middle-aged wealthy judge Justin Playfair (George C Scott)- whose life falls apart after the passing of his wife, and he starts to believe he is the great fictional English detective Sherlock Holmes. Here from Powerhouse is a recent Blu-Ray of the film- featuring two commentary tracks, and a few other new/ archive extras.
Two years after his foundational Frankenstein adaptation, James Whale’s 1933 film The Kiss Before The Mirror presents its viewers with a tale of dangerous adultery. When Walter Bernsdorf (Paul Lukas) murders his wife in a crime of passion, its up to his friend and attorney Paul Herd (Frank Morgan) to defend him in court. But Paul is disturbed by Walter’s recount of events, so much to the point that he begins to suspect his own wife Maria (Nancy Carroll) of seeing another man. He’s proven right but can he be stopped before he also finds himself on the wrong side of the law.
Ümlaut is the sonic output of Jeff Düngfelder, an experimental composer and sound artist, currently based in rural northern Connecticut, USA. Same But Different, the project’s newest album, is basically the artistic outcome of a recovery surgery, ignited after a meditative and healing process.
Legendary Italian experimental musician Maurizio Bianchi sees his nearly 43 year old project getting another treatment, this time via Verlag System. Computers S.P.A. was recorded in November 1980, and has MB taking a step away from concretism and working exclusively with synthesis on the Korg MS-20. While the sounds presented on this album are pretty commonplace in the experimental scene today, the composition/improvisation captured by MB in 1980 was groundbreaking and fascinating. For this latest version, German artist Pharmakustik has taken the original Computers S.P.A. improvisations and edited them to give us a new look at these legendary pieces of synthesis.
The Wall Bears Traces severs up two thick ‘n’ bone grindingly heavy takes on the walled noise from long-term UK creator & scenester James Shearman. With a total album runtime of just over seventy minutes.
They Live In The Digital Realm is a forty-six minute trip into dense & constricting walled noise. It’s a piledriving & unrelenting blend of tensely tight crunch, and slowly draining hiss- that once you’ve ventured into it seemingly locks you in numbing entrancement.
Teen Scene is a recently released wall-noise compilation themed around 1980’s slashers. The duel C60/ digital download features twenty tracks, bringing together material from both known/longer-running projects, with more recent additions to the scene.
The Hole: A Reading Soundtrack is the most welcome return of Texas Wall noise project Big Hole, which has really been dormant for the last five or six years, aside from the odd release. This C60/ digital release takes in two side-long examples of taut ‘n’ tense static texturing, that are alive with both variety and rewarding micro detail.
Within the field of soundtracks, it is stating the obvious but, some music just doesn't need film, or images. Puce Moment is the moniker of just such an enterprise, a duo who create musical accompaniment to a host of projects – dance, films, etc. – but Epic Ellipses, the duo's fourth album, is as autonomous as anything in the experimental electroacoustic, left field grab bag.
Sputnik!: The Launch Of The Space Race is another stellar 50’s-to-60’s Rock ‘n’ Roll/ easy listening compilation from the fine folks at Bear Family Records. The CD takes in twenty-nine tracks, and it’s a decidedly varied, quirky, and wholly entertaining collection- which as its title suggested is all themed around the launch of Sputnik by the Soviet Union in October 1957, and related satellite/space-bound fare.
Punished By My Future takes in two thirty-minute slabs of brain battering ‘n’ ear brutalizing HNW from ultra prolific California project Koobaatoo Asparagus. The digital release appears on the project's own label as a digital download.
From the late 1990’s Lovers Lane is a slasher-come-soapy small-town teen drama. And while it often plays up to the cliches-it has some effective moments chilling ‘n’ stalking, a fairly neat retelling of a classic urban legend, and some tension ‘n’ thrills in its last quarter. Here from Arrow Video- both in the UK & stateside- is a new Blu-ray release of the film, taking in a new 2k scan of the picture, a commentary track, and a few other extras.
Ed Gein: The Musical is a mix of ghoulish/pitch-black humour, low-budget period drama, and of course as its title suggests musical. The early 2010 film is a low-budget affair, though there is a real spirit, flare, and passion here with some neat parody of well-known songs, a few wavering ‘n’ wonky original tunes, and more than a few fake limbs. Here from SRS Cinema, one of the key low-budget/ SOV labels is a region-free DVD release of the film, taking in a commentary track & trailer as extras.
Here from the BFI is a rather wonderful collection of British children's films from between the 50s and the 70s, which were produced by The Children's Film Foundation (CFF). The CFF where a non-profit organization, who between the early 1950s & 1980's made one hundred and seventy-plus films, each running just under the hour mark. The three-DVD set, takes in nine films & six shorts- and really it's a lot of entertainment & fun from beginning to end.
Stemming from the fact that Western music is expressed in linear time, Peruvian artist Efraín Rozas created Still as a project to explore this as well as the deeper question of the human experience of non-linear time. Rozas' sound installation was hosted by The Kitchen at Queenslab during his residency there in April 2021. With this piece, he strove to challenge the traditional beliefs our society holds in regards to our existence based in linear time and the unsustainability of human life with our current trajectory. By utilizing sound and space, Rozas appeals to the audience to consider the more natural, biological, and emotional timing patterns found without human intervention, such as cyclical, pendular, and parallel times, to name a few. Is it possible for humans to remove themselves from the time construct that they have created solely for the procedural, self-imposed methods that control their daily lives.
Four Film Noir Classics Vol 2 is a recent boxset focusing on Universal studio-released noirs of the ’40s & 50s. The boxset is from Arrow Video, with each film getting its own disc, new scan, and a selection of commentaries & extras. With a fair & good selection of the different types of noir featured here- all making for largely a consistent box set.
Latin America is the birthplace of a considerable extreme metal legacy. Peru too was the soil upon which late ’80s, to early 90’s bands like Mortem, Kranium, Sepulcro etc flourished. Among them were Saram, who formed in Lima, in 1998
Here’s a four-CD/ forty-two track compilation bringing together soul, funk, and disco 12” from the 1970s & 1980s. It features more known fare from the likes of Chic, The Tramps, and Earth, Wind & Fire, with lesser heard-off/ more obscure tracks from People’s Choice, Midnight Star, Double Exposer, and Freeze. All making for an enjoyable, and fairly varied sonic trip back to the discos of the past.
Numerology be damned! And a lot of other things, too, apparently, like subtlety, listener expectation, and post-production decorum. The churchy overtones of the band's moniker make it perfectly clear what kind of browbeating will be championed at the quaint little parish known as Brooklyn. Like any good liturgical text, there is a precedent, that which came before, and the list is almost as long as the number of tracks woven to come up with 93696. I won't list them, and we would do well to acknowledge the inability of ever doing so. There is something deeply experimental and orchestral at the core of Liturgy, with modern composition and experimental musicianship abound....oh, and some Black metal too.
Here’s a Blu-ray reissue from Powerhouse of John Huston’s 1962 film Freud, a biopic of the famous psychologist. I’m reviewing a promo disc of the release, so I haven’t got the full package in front of me, which includes a 40-page booklet, however, as the satisfied owner of several splendid Powerhouse releases I’m completely confident as the the full product’s quality.
Playing with Fire is a decidedly different take on the cliched & overplayed rich- daughter-been-kidnapped genre. The mid 70’s film is absurdist sadomasochistic drama, that’s alive with surprise & surrealism- shifting easily between the playful & absurd, and sinister-to-subtly unsettling. Here from Cult Epics is a recent Blu-Ray release of the film- featuring a commentary track by respected film critic Tim Lucas, and a few other extras.
Coming to us from director Alain Cavalier, the 1975 film Fill ‘Er Up With Super (or Le Plein de Super if you want to use the French title) follows a pair of friends heading out on a road trip in an attempt to forget about their worries and woes. Along the way, they are joined by two younger men who initially make the trip a bit of a living hell, although they all eventually end up being in the same existential boat as their masculinity identity and attitudes are brought into question. At the time this was Cavalier’s first film in roughly seven years, following the director’s fourth feature film La Chamade which was released in 1968.
Driven is just shy of a fifty-minute improv set that shifts between thick free-jazz tangles, atmospheric pare backs, and weaving builds. It’s a release that grabs & takes the listener on a true sonic ride- from the densest highest to the moodier lows.