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My guess is that someone who runs a label for experimentalism and improvisation has a pretty keen sense of what constitutes a bad choice, musically speaking, anyway. Enter GAŁGAŁ, the alias of Abstand label co-founder, Michał Krajczok, who crafted his first album of electronic improvisatory music by throwing all of this learnedness out the window. Admittedly inspired by the twin attractors of John Cage’s nothingness on one side and infinite failure on the other, the results on Ich schwöre ich hab Angst (I swear I”m scared) are anything but nothing. Instead, Krajczok opts for a horror vacui of sorts, filling nearly every passing second with bleats and arrhythmically layered sounds. It’s kind of like the electronica version of Accelerationism – go faster than any system of signification could ever hope to catch up with. This means that although superficial, textural similarities abound with Autechre and other glitchy bricoleurs, there is no decorum when it comes to putting it all together. It is the medium that is haunted, running on empty, devouring everything in its wake, more so than any sonic signature. We hear said medium more than any recognizable song structure precisely because the amalgam fails to deliver one. That is the rub.
Fleshvessel is a band from Chicago, USA that is often described as progressive or avant-garde death metal. Yearning: Promethean Fates Sealed is their first full-length album, following an EP in 2020. It features four central songs, each longer than ten minutes, in addition to three short interlude tracks.
This Is What I Hear When You Talk is a Florida wall-noise-based project, which has been active since 2019. Releasing an impressive nine hundred plus releases to date- I’ve popped in & out of the projects discography over the years- reviewing the odd release here & there. Loneliness Texture XXXIII is a digital released- taking in a single thirty-five-minute track.
III by closing. arrives from Modern Tapes on a purple cassette in a smart printed cardboard box, along with a tiny inlay, a card advertising upcoming Modern Tapes releases, a sticker, and a download code. The album has three tracks, all blending eerie drones with lo-fi field recordings; a focused sound but a good one.
Here we have a new Blu- ray release of Luigi Comencini’s well-regarded 1970’s comedy thriller, ‘The Sunday Woman’ from the fine folks at Radiance Films. Featuring a new 2k scan of the picture, as well as a good selection of extras to boot.
From BGO Records here is another double CD reissue of Ramsey Lewis releases- bringing together three early-to-late 1980 albums from this very versatile and prolific Chicago-based pianist & composer. With the sound over the albums going jazzy piano to light funk-based instrumental easy-listening music. Onto 80’s R&B, jazz, and soul-pop crossbreeds with an electronic/ sample edge.
Dark Zone Thirteen is a 2019 horror anthology written, conceived, and co-directed by Oregon’s Joe Sherlock (Odd Noggins, Channel 99, Drifter, etc). It’s a six-tale affair with a fair & varied selection of different stories, as well as Mr Sherlock’s classic tropes- bizarre chatty dialogue & self-referential moments. Showering, often tattooed, larger ladies. Lo-fi-at-points- wacky effects, and genuine passion for pulpy horror & sci-fi tropes. And most amazingly it was all filmed, edited, and put together into a finished one-hour and twenty-minute film in just four months- to have its premiere at that year's Seattle Crypticon.
After the rewardingly enough- if-slight piece meal/ jumping from genre-to- genre of 2019’s Leaving Meaning. The Beggar seems a more focused/ generally affecting affair- which neatly splits itself into halves. With the first CD taking in nine tracks, and its second just two- with the longer forty-three-minute track nodding back towards the sound-scaping vibes of Micheal Gira’s The Body Lovers / The Body Haters project, but within a Swans setting.
Adding to its already extensive discography, The Hafler Trio (now just solo) enlisted the help of Wire's Bruce Gilbert for their latest, Idiots. Grim and far reaching, this 2XLP moves at its own pace and draws the listener in with its slow, dark amble. Channeling both the natural and industrial worlds, Idiots hits many chords during its runtime, although probably not many actual chords. Laughing matter, indeed!.
Cosa Nostra is a Blu-Ray and book boxset looking at three films that respected Italian actor Franco Nero, and Italian director Damiano Damian collaborated on. Each of the films has a Mafia theme running through them, and each is a skilfully made and wonderfully acted example of cinema- with a focus on the more thought-provoking and socially conscious side of things.
As the chorus from Starship’s 1985 “We Built This City” attempts to make its way through what sounds like a tape deck eating the cassingle version of the erstwhile hit, the laws governing simulacra are front and centre, even if the mix isn’t. Starship was of course the 80s reanimation of Jefferson Starship, itself a 70s repackaging of the original Jefferson Airplane. Whether there is any use to me knowing this is a moot point. Bad things come in threes, and Noisepoetnobody (aka Casey Jones) is no stranger to the forces of evil. This City, despite its intentionally parodic opening, is a rough affair, do not be confused. In just short of thirty minutes, Jones pounds hardcore, minimalist electronic beats to the kind of source material one is more likely to find in a dungeon than in what passes for a club these days. Is that the rub, then? The city we built is a shitty tape player giving us garbage that no one ever took seriously, because, well, even the band couldn’t be bothered to?
BYDL is a Vienna-based noise project- which has seemingly been active since the turn of the 2020’s. Untitled VI And V is it’s first venture into wall noise- with the two tracks here we have a very primal/ organic nature-based ANW- which rather brought to mind a less simplistic take on the type of thing Lungwash dis in the early to mid-2010s.
Earwig is a decidedly glum, extremely slow-paced, and often visually half-lit drama- with touches of horror & macabre fantasy in a dour art house tone. The 2021 film is a UK, French, and Belgium production which regards a middle-aged man looking after a ten-year-old girl for his 'masters'- the girl has ice for teeth, which have to be replaced several times per day. From those seekers of cinematic curios Anti-World Releasing- here’s a Blu-Ray release of the film- featuring on the disc a good selection of extras, and a glossy inlay booklet.
Netherworld is a southern gothic fantasy horror from the early 1990s. It follows a twenty-something man returning to the mansion of his estranged & dead father- uncovering a whole host of mystery, magic, and species-shifting shenanigans. The film is a glossy & lightly arty affair that blends fantasy & horror tropes- with moments of bizarre intriguing, and a few occasions of fairly brutal gore. All been a generally entertaining- if slightly hammy/ wacky ride. Here from Full Moon Futures is a recent Blu-Ray release of the film.
Norwegian musician and producer, Magnus Nergaard, once again teams up with Motvind Records, although this time in a different mode. Having recorded/mixed seven of the label's releases, Nergaard now has some of his own material released, this spring's Hibernacle. Based around improvisations utilizing various sources (a broken Korg X911, a fiddle, and SP 404, among others), Nergaard's release is a tough one to pin down, but definitely captures the fun and improvisational moments that he was looking for, and many of the songs' beautiful vibes warrant repeated listens.
After a deathly slumber of fourteen years To Be Cruel is the first new album of material from Khanate- the truly crawling & deeply harrowing Us doom metal collective. And I think it’s fair to say this four-track/ just over hour-long LP- sees the band focusing their sound to its most pared back, hope ‘n’ sanity battering, and at points punishingly experimental.
Since being fired from Megadeth in May 2021, Dave Ellefson has been a busy man. In 2021 he formed the band Lucid with Mike Heller (Fear Factory), Drew Fortier (Bang Tango) and Vinnie Drombski (Sponge). The following year in 2022 he formed the death metal band, Dieth with Guilherme Miranda on guitar and vocals and Michał Łysejko on drums, as well as putting together Kings of Thrash with former Megadeth bandmate Jeff Young. The band undertook a tour of the US with another former Megadeth guitarist, Chris Poland, swelling their ranks alongside drummer Fred Aching (Power-Flo and Bullet Boys) and vocalist/ guitarist, Chaz Leon (formerly of Absolution).
From the early 1980’s Swamp Thing is the big screen adaption of the DC comic strip, which told of a scientist who gets changed into a half-human/half-plant creature by mistake. It was directed by horror maestro Wes Craven, and it’s a decidedly pulpy affair, which very much nods back towards the sci-fi action films of the 1950s. The film features the likes of Adrienne Barbeau (The Fog & Escape From New York), Ray Wise (Twin Peaks) and David Hess (Last House on The Left). And while it’s certainly not up there with Craven’s best work- it’s an entertaining enough swamp-bound romp- with a devious & rich baddie, a selection of henchmen, swamp-bound action, light horror elements, and a lead character that has a rather lost & melancholic quality to him.
When it was first released in 1988 God In Three Persons, was a decidedly different kind of album from The Residents. It was the most serious, sonically classy, and at times troubling album the project had released to date- with the largely spoken word vocals over a grand & dramatic mix of synth horn pomp, stabbing piano to darting electro jazz elements and organ work- with a blend of tuneful, atmospheric, to darkly cinematic backings. It always seemed like an album that was crying out for a stage show/ theatrical presentation. And in April 2019, this finally become a reality for a one-off show in France- which in 2020 was followed by two shows at the Museum of Modern Art in New York-followed by a selection of shows in the US. And this Blu-ray takes in one of these shows.
Les Métanuits is a release that sits between the worlds of jazz and classical music. It pairs together French soprano saxophonist Emile Parisien with Italian pianist Roberto Negro- for an eleven-track album inspired by György Ligeti's String Quartet No. 1 "Métamorphoses nocturnes". And it’s certainly a release that's at the more elegant and moody side of the improv form.
Appearing in the late 1980’s Drowning By Numbers was the fourth feature-length film from British Auteur Peter Greenway – a director/ writer with an eye for arty & detailed visual elegance, and a darkly puzzling to morbidly playful tone to his work. The film is a wonderfully weird & darkly quirky blend of British-toned comedy-drama, number-obsessed art house, and bizarre murder mystery. Here from the fine folks at Severin is a new dual disc release of the film- taking in both UHD & Blu-Ray discs. With it featuring a new 4k scan of the picture, directors’ commentary, a new director’s interview & a few other things.
Operation Napoleon: Frozen Conspiracy is the third feature film from Icelandic director Óskar Thór Axelsson (Black’s Game, I Remember You) and follows lawyer Kristin (Vivian Ólafsdóttir) as she is pulled into a global conspiracy after her brother stumbles across a lost Nazi aircraft trapped in the snow. With only old friend Steve (Jack Fox) to turn to for safety, Kristin must evade the pursuit of CIA Director William Carr (Iain Glenn) and German agent Simon (Wotan Wilke Möhring). She has to unravel a conspiracy that dates all the way back to the second world war, or die trying.
Here’s a rope bondage-themed wall noise split bringing together mysterious/ unknown location project Worship, and Poland’s Sado Rituals. Each project presents us with two tracks a piece- these have runtimes between twenty-two and thirty minutes- the split offers up nearly two hours of noise.
Sawt Out's Black Current is an LP of surreal soundscape and collage, which immediately recalled the darkly dreamlike energy of Nurse WIth Wound. It is their 3rd album since debuting in 2018.