Loading
El Mar La Mar (translated to The Sea The Sea) is a 2017 arthouse documentary set in the Sonoran Desert, which is located on the US-Mexican border. The film blends disorienting at times unnerving & haunting footage of the desert, with voiced-over personal accounts of border crossing & unsettling encounters, day-to-night landscape shots, staking through the desert shooting, and more troubling to cryptic snapshots/ imagery- all set in a polyphonic soundtrack, which utilizes field records, landscape sounds, and subtle formal music use. Here from Second Run- the celebrated arthouse/ world film label is a most welcome region free Blu ray release, of this rather captivating & engaging doc, which is both equally hauntingly & subtly unsettling.
Gravitsapa hail from the battle-beaten soil of Ukraine. And in its seventeen years of existence, this duo has taken a decidedly varied sonic path. Initially, they engaged with Christian alternative rock, moving to the more experimental sound of math-rock, followed by post-metal and currently, to an experimental hybrid, leaning heavily to avant-garde and minimalism, with a pronounced ambient leaning.
The title of ambient pioneer Steve Roach's latest masterpiece, Rest of Life, is a dead giveaway for what awaits listeners to this epic, slow-moving work, which clocks in at over two hours.
The Subject, from director Lanie Zipoy and writer Chisa Hutchinson, follows failing documentary filmmaker Phil Waterhouse (American Pie’s Jason Biggs) as his life is slowly drawn into a cycle of decay as a stalker chases him, his relationship with his girlfriend dies and the ethical weight of his last film sitting on his shoulders like a tonne of bricks. Originally shown on the festival circuit all the way back in 2020 before some small runs of American television the following year, The Subject is now out for worldwide digital purchase. However I’m going to say this upfront, from the small bit of premise I’ve given you, I guarantee you can watch the film via the mind’s eye without having missed much.
Laying Demons To Rest is an accomplished & skilful example of the improv form that brings together English guitarist Fred Frith & Portuguese trumpeter Susana Santos Silva. The single forty-one-minute track effortlessly shifts from the fiery ‘n’ angular to the moody ‘n’ atmospheric,
The Night Of The Following Day is a taut-yet glum kidnap thriller from the late 1960s. It details the snatching and ransoming of an eighteen-year-old heiress by a rag-tag group of criminals, many of who have their own demons & kinks. The film is very much a slow-but-stead burn ‘n’ build, which is edged with moments of uneasy tension & jarring violence. Here from Powerhouse films is a new Blu-Ray release of the film- featuring a selection new & archive extras
Cutter’s Way is an intriguing, often compellingly potent blend of drama, character study, and murder mystery. The film is from the early 1980s and features an accomplished cast, moments of dark humour, and a tangible feeling of tragedy coming from its cast of broken & troubled folk. Here from Radiance Films, as part of their Fun City Editions sublabel- is a new region B release of the film, taking in a new scan of the picture, and a nice selection of new & archive extras.
This two cd set compiles an interesting and eclectic mix of bands that formed part of the West German Kosmische or Krautrock scene that exploded in the early 1970s. Whilst it was renowned for bringing the likes of Tangerine Dream, Can, Kraftwerk and Amon Düül to the world’s attention, the kosmische scene was responsible for hundreds of bands, many of whom only ever recorded one single or album. This rather lavishly produced two-CD set focuses on some of those less well-known artists, shining a light on some of the fantastic music that was made under the kosmische banner.
Attack Force Z is WW2 set men-on-a-mission action film from Australia. The early 80’s film is a nicely pacy affair, featuring effective gunplay, a fair bit of stealth stalking, a smattering of martial arts, oh & an early appearance from two later-to-be huge stars- Mel Gibson & Sam Neil. Here from Severin is a new Blu-Ray release of the film, taking in a bold & bright 2k scan, and a few extras.
The Psychotic Monks are a noisy, dissonant post-punk band from Paris, France. And 2023 sees them release of their third album, Pink Colour Surgery, on FatCat Records.
Clear and Hazy Moons is the debut album from young Berlin-born modern classical composer Eden Lonsdale. It’s a CD release on the always excellent Sheffield-based label Another Timbre, which features four-length dwells in moodily simmering & haunting composition.
Borderland Melodies features three modern clamber works from Swiss composer and clarinettist Jürg Frey. All the compositions feature a pared back, slowed, at times fraught toned & paced work- making this very much an album to slowly sink into its largely sombre depths.
I’ve been following the work of German sound artist Sicker Man (aka Tobias Vethake) since I reviewed his 2022 collaboration with Kiki Bohemia Waiting For Wood- I was very much taken by it's momentous and highly abstract take on experimental music. Havoc is his new collaboration, this time with German singer, sound / visual artist and owner of Loft Editions, Manuel Klotz. This is the third time this pair have worked together- the others been collab album 2020's Cherish the Chants (Loftparty Records), and the 2021 Sicker Man album Dialog (Blankrecords).
Bible Bashers is a three-CD set bringing together the last three albums released by satanic-fuelled Florida Death Metal crew Deicide on Roadrunner Records. The set takes in two studio albums Insineratehymn (2000) & In Torment in Hell (2001), and a live album When Satan Lives (1998).
The operations of musique concrète are by now a cauterized field of their own, owing in part to their historical weight (post factum) and the institutionalization of the studios from which they originally emerged (now known as the GRM in Paris). European genealogies of electronic music often move through institutions, and musique concrète is exemplary in this regard, though the "true" origin of the practice of manipulating pre-recorded material belongs to Halim El-Dabh, but that's another story altogether. In the relatively porous landscape of electroacoustic experimentation, nearly every artist who uses field recordings is de facto acknowledging a debt to the origins of this practice, regardless of the specific transformations in recording and playback technologies. Emmanuel Mieville cut his teeth in the very studios where musique concrète was born, and his latest release, Four Towers and a Bridge, is a direct outcome of this technical heritage.
The Final Programme is a decidedly unbalancing ‘n’ unpredictable 1970s Sci-fi film. It’s based on a Michael Moorcock novel, and plays like an acid-soaked take on The Avengers, via the cryptic thoughtfulness of The Prisoner. Here from Studiocanal is a new Blu-Ray release of the film- featuring a new scan of the picture, and a few extras.
Things 666 is an anthology Horror/ Sci-fi film from Oregon-based Joe Sherlock- who makes decidedly distinctive low-budget fare, that blend typical genre tropes/themes, with hammy drama, recurring jokes/ elements, and larger ladies taking showers.
Now here’s a most welcome release- a new full-length from the US walled noise project See Through Buildings. The digital release features two half an hour tracks, which are both densely weaved-yet- creatively textured wall craft.
Krampus takes in just over half an hour of crude ‘n’ numbing ANW. The release is themed around/ takes its name from the horned anti-Santa of Central and Eastern Alpine folklore, with the wall having a fitting undercurrent of Icey uneasiness under its barren & unforgiving flow.
Alyx Star is a recent two-track release from ultra prolific US wall noise project Koobattoo Asparagus. The release takes its name/ influence from US adult porn actress, who is also rather prolific featuring in fifty films/ shorts since she started making films at the age of 21 in 2019.
Originally released in 1974, Violent Streets is a Japanese crime drama directed by Hideo Gosha (Goyokin, Onimasa and Yôkirô). The film stars Noboru Andô (Violent Fraternity, Yakuza Hijoshi: Mushyo Kyodai and Blood and the Law) as Egawa, Akira Kobayashi (Haru Kuru Oni, Tokyo Mighty Guy and Rising Dragon’s Iron Fist) as Yazaki, Isao Natsuyagi (Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion, Hunter in the Dark and Emperor) as Hama and Bunta Sugawara (Spirited Away, Tales of Earthsea and The Man Who Stole the Sun) as Gizagoro’s Dragon
Here’s a Blu-Ray set bringing together three films from Polish director Andrzej Wajda focusing on the Polish Resistance movement during World War II and just after it. The films are all from the 1950s, and remain both powerful and decidedly affecting today - featured are A Generation (Pokolenie), Kanał, Ashes and Diamonds (Popiół i diament).
It’s hardly surprising that the Covid pandemic should have given rise to its own horror movie subgenre. The sense of isolation, containment and uncertainty with the awareness of human loss in the background evokes the emotional triggers which form the basis of horror media; fear, suspense, the possibility of imminent mortality.
Here’s another trip back in the past- with a selection of rough, ready, and quirky 45’s from Righteous- all compiled by respected music journalist Dave Henderson. This twenty-nine-track collection largely focuses on tracks from the late 50s/ early 60s- with a leaning towards more crude ‘n’ raw rock ‘n’ roll fare- though there still are a few darts into the quirky & bizarre.