The Residents — Animal Lover- Evolution Edition

First released in 2005, Animal Lover was the twenty-fifth album from those avant-pop/ prime sonic experimenters, The Residents. It featured fifteen tracks, been a concept album focusing on the relationship between human beings, industry, and nature. With a sound that mixed uneasy nursery rhymes melodies, off-Broadway musical sinisterness, tolling gamelan percussion with elements of searing to wonkily moody guitars, and off-kilter electronica. From Cherry Red/MVD Audio, here is the next in the 'Preserved Series'- which sees the definitive release of classic Residents albums- that features unreleased/rare bonus tracks and a new remastering.

Godstick — VOiD

Godsticks are a UK melodic progressive/alternative metal band that uses Eastern-sounding tonalities, powerful, clear melodic vocals, and repetitive, palm-muted, groove-oriented riffing, with occasional solos and shredding flourishes. I might compare it to Dream Theatre or the Karnivool album In Verses, which came out earlier this year. Though it is my first experience with the project, VOiD is their 7th album.

Mancunian low-budget Movie Mogul

Cliff Twemlow On Severin

One of last year’s real big surprises in the world of Blu-ray box sets was Bloody Legend: The Complete Twemlow Collection, as it was a wholly entertaining, fascinating, and at times heart-warming set. The Severin released boxset brought together the work of one of the UK’s unlikeliest movie moguls- Cliff Twemlow, a Mancunian bouncer/ body builder, who went on to write/star in/produce a series of low-budget/ largely SOV films in the early 80s to early 90s- these moved between action, thriller, sci-fi, and horror. His most notable/notorious film was 1983’s G.B.H., which landed on the video nasty list, though he was connected to other ten feature films, many of which got their first real full/proper release on the boxset. Opening up the set was the excellent 2023 documentary Mancunian Man: The Legendary Life of Cliff Twemlow, which really pulls you into the set. I caught up with Severn’s David Gregory and Jake West, director of Mancunian Man, to discuss the boxset and all things cliff.

Repetitious History - A Quick Trip Into The World Of The Fall

The Fall

MES( Mark E Smith- The Falls main creator) possessed the ability to cram phrases into impossible spaces - “I’m hunting and I’m trying to find” delivered as “hut’na tryna find”; the eight-syllable “mere pseud mag editor’s father” hastily squeezed into a manipulation of time and space, heralded by the prior line “twice each at least”, the latter naturally repeated thrice.