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Originally released in the year 1971 Twice As Nice & Half The Price was the second album from Uk Maidenhead based folk-rock band Heron. The band took an unpolished, at times slightly wavering take on the genre- and this twenty-one track album saw them blending in mellow singsong writer elements, and even dives into raucous keys lead pub rock. Here from Talking Elephant Records is a CD reissue of the album.
Drum legend Clive Bunker has been around the block and pretty much done it all in a career spanning more than 50 years at the top of his field. He has worked with Steve Howe, Steve Hackett, Generation X, Uli Jon Roth, Blodwyn Pig and Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, however it is as the drummer in Jethro Tull that he made his name and is most recognized for. During his time with The Tull he appeared on some of their most respected albums Living in the Past, Aqualung, Benefit, Stand Up and This Was, and has spent much of those years touring the world in various guises, however, it wasn’t until 1998 that he decided to write and record a solo album, Awakening appears to have been borne out of his desire to release something of his own, featuring the myriad of ideas he had written down over the years. The album has become difficult to track down since its release, so this new remaster and release from Talking Elephant is a welcome addition to their catalogue.
From the early 1980s, Contraband is brutally gory, at points nastily sleazed euro crime thriller. The Naples-based film features genre star Fabio Testi, as cigarette smugger/ family man- who finds someone trying to ruin his operation- first messing up drops, before quickly escalating the torture and death to all those he loves and cherishes. Here from Cauldron Films is a region-free/ fully uncut Blu-Ray release, taking in a new print of the picture, a commentary track, and a good selection of new/ archive interviews.
Based in the labyrinth of space, time, and parallel universes, Caldon Glover's Labyrintia creates a vast soundscape for the listener to transcend their own reality and explore those alternate timelines beyond the realm of consciousness. Utilizing both acoustic and electronic sound sources, the intermingling of time and energy constructs a deep and highly evocative atmosphere that links not only the past, the present, and the future, but also this current universe with those which may or may not exist. Teamed up with large and expressive artwork by Nihil, Labyrintia is a fantastic journey for those looking to explore as far as their mind can wander.
Christmas Cruelty! is a film that liberally flip-flops between the deeply troubling and the humorous. As its title suggests this Norwegian film is set around the festive period, and it charts the preparations for the big day for a middle-aged, tubby and balding serial killer, and his next carefully selected victim. The film often juxtaposes its more extreme moments, with bright or laid-back music that both unsettles more profoundly, as well as giving one or two coal-black chuckles. So, if you're looking for seriously tonally unbalanced/ wonky genre film making this is certainly one of the prime modern examples. Here from Unearthed Films, those hunters of worldwide extreme film is a DVD release of the picture.
I Never Metaguitar 6 is an eighteen-track CD compilation focusing in on the more experimental/ outer edges of guitar music. It’s a decidedly varied release, which moves between the seared ‘n’ jagged, angular ‘n’ odd, moody ‘n’ strange, and daring ‘n’ brain scrambling.
This self-titled release is the next in Klanggalerie’s CD reissue series of albums by Bourbonese Qualk- a UK-based anarchistic and experimental music collective, that existed on-off between the early 1980s and the early 2000s. Originally released in 1987 it was the collective's ninth album, and it saw a move to slightly more coherent 80’s electronica meets electro-industrial sound, though there are still shifts into more experimental waters, as well as very electro-punk vibe present throughout.
Another Contact Mic Recording is the welcome return of Stockholm-based Rien, who creates sparsely realized, yet always engaging textured noise craft. This recent(ish) pro CDR appears on USA’s Abhorrent After Death, and features a single track that comes in at just over the forty-two-minute mark.
Listening To My Future presents the listener with ninety minutes of thick ‘n’ crushing walled noise from the long-running Californian HNW project Koobaatoo Asparagus. The digital download album features two forty-five-minute ‘walls’, and each is as brutally engaging/ encasing as the other.
The London-based trio, To Move, offers a new assortment of well-worn ideas, repackaged and reproduced for those with little background in the world of tape-warbled, piano-driven ambience. At least, this is my best guess as to the audience for whom their album is ultimately intended. Think of the hushed hammering of Nils Frahm's piano (he is a label mate on Sonic Pieces), washed over with tape degeneration a la William Basinski.
Hailing from Finland, Black Beast formed in 2002, and they have a handful of releases in its belt; an EP, a split album with their native Bloodhammer, a full-length, and Arctic Darkness, their latest offering.
Originally released in 1998, and out of print for a few years, Obscura was the third album of Canadian four-piece Gorguts- which is seen as an important record in both technical and Avant grade death metal circles. It’s one of a hell of brutal-to-jarringly discordant, brain-scrambling, at points densely deranged ride of an album- which still remains impactful and sonically visceral twenty-four years after its release. Here we have a very much-needed CD release of the album on Punishment 18 Records.
From the mid 70’s Massacre At Central High is a high school drama that deals with bullying and revenge. It’s a tonally unbalancing film that shifts between TV movie mawkishness/ hamming it-up acting, and cruel at points intense torment/ violence. Here from Synapse Films is a recent Blu-Ray release of the film, taking in a new HD scan, commentary track, a new making-of documentary, and more.
Black Lace And Voodoo Drums is the next in the seemingly unending 'Lux and Ivy' series of compilations from Righteous. It once again finds respected music journalist Dave Henderson compiling together rare, campy, and wacky 45s from the 1950s and 1960s. And for this thirty-track and sixty-nine-minute release the focus is crude to novelty bound Rock ‘n’ Roll, a few quirky genre curios, oh and as its title promises some Voodoo drums too.
Mixing home-built machines, prepared acoustic instruments, and self-written code, Danish sound artist and composer, Valdemar Kristensen (here as Ekkoflok), has come up with an intriguing and varied electronic composition with his latest LP, Mosaik. Traversing the wide space between subtle, minimal electronics and crunching, abrasive noise, Ekkoflok brings together a world of sound that upon first glance seems to be quite disparate, but in his deft hands becomes a wonderful whole built from the sum of its parts. A mosaic worthy of the album title, this latest release is a quick, sonic excursion into the heart and soul of machines and the very essence of electronic sound.
Dersu Uzala is a Siberian wildness set adventure-come-moving drama focusing on a rugged-yet-kindly and wise Asian hunter, who befriends a Russian army explorer in the early 1900s. The beautiful shot and wonderfully realized mid-1970s film highlights the wonders and dangers of nature, as well as keen and deep human friendship. Here from Australia Imprint- is a very wholly needed & very deserved Blu-Ray reissue of this enchanting and moving masterpiece. With the disc taking in a new HD print of the film, a new audio commentary, and a selection of extras.
One of the most iconic movies of the silent age finally makes its way to Blu-ray through Eureka and boy was it worth the wait. The 1923 edition of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, directed by Wallace Worsley (Ace of Hearts, A Blind Bargain and The Penalty) and starring the legendary Lon Chaney Snr (The Phantom of the Opera, The Monster and He Who Gets Slapped) as Quasimodo, the disfigured bell ringer who is mocked and abused by all and sundry for his appearance. Chaney’s makeup is quite stunning for the time, and this coupled with his performance are two reasons that people keep returning to this film, however, they are not the only reasons. The film looks gorgeous, every scene is beautifully framed and it is so skilfully lit to create the perfect atmosphere in every scene. Worsley’s direction is outstanding, especially in those scenes where the large cast are pictured in the square and those darker interior sequences where Quasimodo and Esmerelda (Patsy Ruth Miller, Hell-bent for Heaven, Fools in the Dark and So Long, Letty!) are alone together.
K2 aka Kusafuka Kimihide is a true aural landmark within the Japanese (and worldwide) noise scene. Since the project's 1983 debut Student Apathy- it’s unleashed one hundred and fifty-three albums and twenty-four, forming an impressive body of noise assaults.
Alpha Hunt is the first blacked and grimly low-hanging sonic fruit from Unfyros. They are a Finish two-piece black metal project, which features in its ranks one of the founding members of the ritual ambient collective Aural Hypnox. The six-track CD album focuses on slowed-to-mid-paced BM craft, which at points touches on general dark metal tropes- with the whole thing being very much centred on moody and blacked repetition.
Jak Tar is a free/ improv jazz album that slips ‘n’ slides between fierily intense, angularly detailed, and moodily haunting. The ten-track CD/ digital album really is a sonic trip in the best possible way- keeping you nicely on your toes throughout.
Everything Is Always At Once is the latest trip into brain warping ‘n’ ear-melting electronic improv from UK’s Richard Scott. It’s an eight-track CD/ digital download album, which finds Scott pull ‘n’ pushing his set-up through all manner of electro sound crafting & texturing.
Andrew Oda's Back to the Body is a lush modern classical ambient opus with a thoughtful, deeply emotional energy. It recalls the soothing, yet pained music of Stars of the Lid or Kyle Bobby Dunn, utilizing manipulated orchestral timbres, but is perhaps more active and complex in its melodic developments than either one, and more vividly psychedelic and modern, with fascinating synthesis work to compliment the traditional instruments.
Born For Hell is a terminal grim, at points downright troubling to nasty character study–come-psycho thriller set during the Northern Ireland troubles of the 70s. It charts the steady descent into madness and violence of a Vietnam veteran who comes ashore in Dublin. The film has a gritty fly-on-wall quality, and as it progresses it slow-but-surely edges up the intensity and feeling of sweaty unease, with jarring moments of misogynist & sexualized violence. The film was a re-telling of the Richard Speck case- where in 1961, the acne-scared loner killed eight nurses in Chicago. Here from Severin is a Blu-Ray release of film, with a new 2k scan of the film, and a selection of extras.
Like a good painting, the best ambient compositions manage to forge a balance between the sharpness of individual details and the feel of the overall picture. But unlike painting, however, the overall in music is not a final image but a development in time, its duration and ever-changing paths. I listened several times to Brad E. Rose's Annular Silhouettes without ever being able to tell exactly where things began, and where they ended – except for the actual start and end of the single track of this beautiful release – and even less, how things changed from one point to the next.