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Danger: Diabolik is a camp, cool, and often groovy slice of 60’s supervillain action. Helmed by Mario Bava- it features, as you’d expect a great eye for colour, amazing set design, and clever shot composition. There’s a moody/ doesn’t say a lot supervillain, with futurist underground hideout, and some great suspenseful set-ups, going from high up in the sky, to deep down in the ocean. Here from Eureka is dual disc UHD/ Blu Ray release of the film. It takes in a 4k scan, three commentary tracks, and some most instresting extras.
Topographie Parisienne is four CD box collection featuring some truly stealler improv/ avant jazz from three masters of the genre- guitarist Derek Bailey, saxophonist Evan Parker, and percussionist/ other instruments Han Bennink. The set takes in three nights worth of live recordings captured in April 1981 at in Paris.
Here’s a CD compilation focusing on the Jamaica dub out put out by independent label Burning Sounds- who formed in the late 80’s. As its title suggests it features twenty tracks- with a fairy varied mix of different types of dub.
It’s fair to say that along with both Jaws and Star Wars, The French Connection is one of the most influential pictures of the 1970’s. The Amsterdam Kill is one of the many pictures inspired/ informed by the film. It regards a Amsterdam/ Hong Kong Heroin ring, were a Ex-DEA agent- played by ageing Hollywood star/ tough guy Robert Mitchen,is brought into try uncovering the ring with the help of a informant. The late 70’s film also features Leslie Nielsen in a supporting role, and is for the most part a engaging enough/ twist ‘n’ turning plotted crime drama, with touches of action and a few WTH moment. Here from 88 Films is a Blu Ray release of the film, taking in a 2k scan, a commentary track, a interview with one of the films actors.
From last year, The Space Rodent is a low-budget mix of comedy, sci-fi, and horror- really in that order. Set-in small-town America, on Halloween day/ night- it focuses on two thirtysomethings couples, and their encounters with jabbering, red eyed wolf aliens. It’s a fairly gore-less affair, the alien creature effects bring to mind a very cheap mix of the invaders from Attack The Block and Critters. Though the space effects are neat, and we get a few moments of tension/ fear, but really the most rewarding element here is the character interaction/ humour. Here from SRS Cinema is a Blu Ray release of film.
Earth's surface is roughly seventy-one percent water, and with our bodies being a little shy of that percentage as well, one can see why water is such a frequent source of artistic inspiration. Werner Dafeldecker and Lawrence English team up for their third release together, Fathom Tides, to investigate and explore costal environments, tides, and the cyclical changes found all over our vast world with the question in mind: "What impact do we have on the world we inhabit?" The seven pieces on Fathom Tides were all born from coastal field recordings by English which where then treated by Dafeldecker, along with his addition of some further electronics.
His Motorbike, Her Island is a 1986 romantic drama from director Nobuhiko Obayashi (Hausu, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Labyrinth of Cinema) and based on the 1977 novel by Yoshio Kataoka. The film stars Kiwako Harada (Godzilla Vs King Ghidora, Yuwakusha and Hana’s Miso Soup), Noriko Watanabe (Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Godzilla Tokyo S.O.S. and Tsumiki kuzushi), Riki Takeuchi (Dead or Alive, Battle Royale II: Requiem and Blood), Ryoichi Takayanagi (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Legend of the Eight Samurai and Bullet Train Explosion) and Takahiro Tamura (Tora! Tora! Tora!, Hoodlum Soldier and Seisaku’s Wife).
Released in the early 1990’s, Voices From Beyond was the penultimate film from Italian director Lucio Fulci. It was his 52nd feature film, and it found him returning to the more macabre, dream-focused and surreal feel of his early 80s pictures. with some very memorable set pieces, and moments of ffectively shocking gore. The film is a blend of how/who-done-it mystery, beyond-the-grave horror, and bickering/back-stabbing soapy 90’s drama. Here from those swell folks at Severin is a three-disc reissue of the film. Taking in a UHD, Blu-ray, and CD. It features a new 4k scan, over an hour of extras, and the film's soundtrack.
Shogun’s Samurai is an epic addition to Eureka’s Master of Cinema series. Released in 1978, director and co-writer Kinji Fukasaku’s chanbara epic is packed with clashing samurai and rōnin swords and deadly intrigue that might well leave viewers feeling they’ve watched a dynasty rise and fall over its 130-minute runtime.
Nicolas Leirtrø's Action Now is a quartet which I immediately noticed includes one of my favorite modern free jazz performers, saxophonist Mats Gustafsson. Their lineup also includes Kit Downes on organ, Veslemøy Narvesen on drumset and Nicolas Leirtrø handling double bass and compositional duties. These are all musicians who hail from the Scandinavian or larger European jazz scene, which has been a rich vein of forward thinking music over the years. Entrance is their first album as a group, an hour long recording with eight tracks.
If you’re into sharp parodies, Oonagh Haines’ debut release, Not Not Pretending, might be right up your alley. Do you drive a Ford Focus? Are you liable to torch said Ford by creating a candlelight ambience inside it to impress a love interest? These are just some of the comical scenes sketched over minimalist beats and heavily-pitched vocals, in the Queen’s— what else! Despite the parasitic nature of Haines’ stylings, some of the rudimentary beatmaking is actually pretty listenable, if that were the aim here, though I suspect it’s not.
Naturstudium III is an eleven-track journey in the jagged, unpredictable, and at times uneasy world of Baschet sound sculpture, which utilises elements of metal, glass, and wood- oscillating between instrument and architecture. This is a CD release on Austria’s Kairos Music
RE:Wilding collects together five works from German-based Chinese modern composer Ying Wang. Her work often blends and blurs both formal instrumentation and electronics, as well as different genres, to an often dizzying effect.
Scream Therapy (2023) is a horror comedy written and directed by Cassie Keet in her feature directorial debut, produced by The Knights Young Productions and Treehouse Productions. Five friends, each carrying their own baggage, head to the desert for a weekend of restorative scream therapy after Avery's devastating breakup. What starts as therapeutic bonding quickly spirals into chaos when they cross paths with a misogynistic cult on a pressing human sacrifice deadline.
A Blow for Me, a Toot To You was the first album from this Parliament-Funkadelic spin-off group. Released in the late 70’s, the six-track album served up a very horn-heavy funk/ jazz/soul sound- with, of course, the normal P-Funk vibes and wackness running through it. Here from Ace Records is a recent(ish) CD reissue of the album.
The Angel Guts box is a Blu-Ray set that collects together five films based on the cult/controversial manga of the same name, which follows the sexual trials and tribulations of a female protagonist Nami, who shifts characters over the manga/ films. The films featured date from between the late 70’s and the early 90’s. They all sit in the Roman Porno genre, being originally released on Nikkatsu studios, focusing on troubling sleaze and tragedy, with an often arty/ creative spin. All the films have been given new HD remasters, with commentary tracks, and a small selection of new/ archive extras. The set appears on Third Window Films, who are one of the main labels in the West focusing on releasing Japanese film.
The Nightcomers is a mix of elegant period drama and uneasy psychological thriller- staring Malon Brando and Stephanie Beacham. The early 70’sBritish film blends a lush score, splendid costumes, and elegant countryside locations- with moments of physical & mental cruelty, sinister intentions, murder, and some rather troubling elements- which do sour the film somewhat, though this is a Michael Winner film, and his films have always been problematic. Here from Studiocanal’s Cult Classics is a new release of the film, coming as either a UHD or Blu-ray disc
Spinning Desolus' Dwellers of the Twilight Void without any knowledge of the band, one would think this is a reissue of a thirty-plus-year-old thrash album. However, this is the now four-piece's soon-to-be-released sophomore LP and follow-up to their acclaimed 2024 debut, System Shock. If one's old battle vest and bullet belt could form a band, there's a very good chance it would sound and look like Desolus. And while Dwellers of the Twilight Void may not break any new ground or end nuclear war, it's a fun thirty-six minutes of metal thrashing madness.
The Beast and the Vixens (aka The Beauties and the Beast, and Desperately Seeking Yeti) is a 1974 erotic/ comedy/ bigfoot horror movie from director Ray Nadeau (producer of Snakes, Ride the Hot Wind and The Midnight Graduate), The Beast and the Vixens remains his only directorial effort. The cast includes Jacqueline Giroux (To Live and Die in LA, American Sunset and The Sexcapades of Don Diego), Russ Meyer alumni, Uschi Digard (Beneath the Valley of the Ultravixens, Supervixens and Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks), Marius Mazmanian (The Vanishing, Wham Bam Thank You Spaceman and Video Vixens) and Susan Westcott (Drop Out, Blood of Ghastly Horror and Hollywood Babylon)
Black Square finds this Izmir, Türkiye-based project presenting us with a slice of bleakly churning ‘n’ cluttering walled noise. Featured here is a single, around twenty-minute track, which manages to be both void-numbing and low-key choppy.
Tear Of Fire severs up a continuous rolling ‘n’ roasting mass of walled noise from this Polish project. The single ‘wall’ comes in at just under the twenty-minute mark- remaining firm and focused, with its constantly flaming flow throughout.
Nothingdreamer is a Russian wall noise project that focuses all of its releases around spiders. This three-track album is themed around Dolomedes- a species of spiders that live on water. They detect their prey via ripples, running across the surface to subdue using their foremost legs, which are tipped with small claws; then, they inject venom with their hollow chelicerae to kill and digest the prey.
Here’s a new two-track digital album from this respected and talented Cincinnati-based wall noise project. Each track hits around the fifteen-minute mark- the first is a decidedly textural, detailed affair. The second is more of a searing & layered take on the ‘wall form.
This is a good, albeit niche, set from Second Run, with two Blu-ray discs and a booklet with lengthy, in-depth writings on Zimmerman and their works. It’s a lot to take in, but those of you interested in video art, and indeed art itself, will find much here to mull on. The set has a few long films and then smaller pieces, all produced between 2009 and 2023, bound together by the numerous common threads and themes to be found in them.