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Travel is the twenty-first album from the Australian jazz duo The Necks. It finds the project offering up four around twenty-minute tracks, which are all about repetition, subtle changes, and slowly unfolding/ developing themes. I’d say it’s certainly one of the project's most minimalistic, at times decidedly abstract release thus far. And I think it’s certainly fair to say it’s a release that needs the right frame of mind and more than a few plays to fully hit home/make an impact.
Normally the flute is one of the more distinctive sounding of the woodwind instruments, and really when it appears in compositions you can clearly define/ pick it out. Flutist Alessandra Rombolà is an improviser/ composer who very much like to push the flute out of its normal safe & distinct restraints, and with Out Of The Playground she offers up five pieces with four different collaborators- all pushing the flute down new & interesting sound paths.
Formed in 2008, the duo of Jon Wesseltoft and Lasse Marhaug started releasing long form experimental pieces as Tongues of Mount Meru. Their releases have been hypnotic and noisy, but highly evocative and engaging. Their latest, Kalpa, is no exception and another high mark for their expanding discography.
Sitting somewhere between flamboyant costume period drama, dark fairy tale, and gothic horror- Morgiana is a grim-to-acid-tinged slice of Czech new-wave cinema. The early 1970s film liberally flip-flops between melodrama, odd-angled to tripped-out folk tale, and demented-at-times psychodrama-fed horror. Here from Second Run- one of the key labels releasing Czech new wave films- is a recent Blu-Ray release of the film. Taking in a new HD transfer of the picture, a commentary track from a selection of Czech new wave/ genre experts, and an interview with the film's director.
Science Of The Gods Expanded is a four-CD set focusing on the late 90’s output from Uk’s Eat Static- a two-piece electronica project who blends psychedelic trance- with elements of techno, gabber, drum ‘n’ bass, breakbeat, and ethnic trance. More specifically the set focusing in on the years 1997- 98- bringing together two albums - Science Of The Gods, and B-World- as well as three EPs Hybrid, Inception, and Contact, plus remixes.
Trouble On The Big Street is around about the 30th or so album from Cleveland’s Pere Ubu. And it’s an often haphazard blend of rough blues rock, wavering electro-edged post-punk, and noirish jazz blues with Avant leanings- all finished off with David Thomas’s baying, wailing, at times spoken/semi-spoken vocals.
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.