Here from the BFI is the fifth in the CFF bumper boxset series, which collects together British children's films from between the 40s and the 70s. All the films here were produced by The Children's Film Foundation (CFF)- a non-profit organisation- that between the late 1940s & 1980s made one hundred and seventy-plus films, each running just under the hour mark. This three-DVD set brings together nine films & six shorts, and once again it’s an entertaining, fun, and varied set.

Tarantula Heart is the 27th studio album from The Melvins. It sees the four-piece US rock band birthing one of the more unpredictable and at points downright experimental albums to date.

In his feature film debut, Mortiz Mohr bring us the rip-roaring action romp Boy Kills World. After his family is murdered by the totalitarian heads of state, Boy (Bill Skarsgard, with the voice of H J Benjamin) seeks his vicious revenge on those who organised the annual “Culling” event which saw his family killed. His years of training come to good use as he rips and tears his way through the upper crust of the society which has held him down. After all, revenge is a dish best served bloody.

The Great Alligator ( aka Il Fiume Del Grande Caimano) is a late 70’s Italian exploitation film which blends together stalking killer creature fare, with light cannibal natives & disaster tropes. The film's wonderful shot, with a thrilling & pacing flow.  Here from Severin is a new duel UHD & Blu-Ray release of the picture- taking in a 4k scan of the film, and over two hours’ worth of extras.

Native to the Andean regions of South America, the ronroco is a baritone variant of the more well-known charango and is the primary source material for OdNu’s (aka Michel Mazza) latest release, Ronroco Rococo Memories. Mazza, a native of Argentina, takes the stringed instrument and processes it through various guitar effects, such as the Chase Bliss Audio Blooper and Empress Effects Zoia, both of which feature looping programs as well as a host of on board effects. What can be heard throughout the 11 tracks is pitch shifting and reverse delay above all else, with backing tracks of slow baselines and shimmery synth textures to round out the sonic palette. We get rare glimpses of the ronroco on its own, in the introductory phrases of “Under the Igloo”, for example, though the organic is routinely swallowed by waves of digital signal processing.

Cunts or Cnts (as their album cover proclaims them) are a hardcore punk band from Los Angeles who burst onto the LA punk scene in early 2018 before releasing their self-titled debut album on Ipecac Recordings in 2019. Things went quiet for the next few years as the band disbanded, however by the time 2023 arrived they had reformed, hit the road and released a couple of new singles.

Mansion Of The Doomed is a taut, at times grim & unsettling mad-doctor horror/ thriller from the mid-1970s. The Charles Band  produced film regards a well-dressed & seemingly charming ophthalmologist who is trying to cure his daughters blindness, with his basement rapidly filling up with eyeless and desperate prisoners. Here from 101 Films is a UK release of the film- taking in a new scan of the picture, and a few extras including a new documentary on Mr Band.

‘Allonsanfan’ is a period epic directed by the Taviani brothers in the year 1974. Here from Radiance Films is a recent limited edition Blu-ray (single pressing of 3000 copies) release of the film. Featuring a 2K restoration from the original negative, and a selection of extras

Here we have a split between two US wall-noise creators- with each offering up a single-length track, and then one shorter collab between them. With the tone moving between the battering ‘n’ buffering, to the more textured/ entrancing.

Bereavement is just over a twenty-five-minute 'wall' from this UK project. It’s both crudely rumbling, yet rapidly cascading in its intent. It feels akin to being slowly buried in a landslide full of muddy clumps of turf, coarse boulders, and sandy stinging earthy grit.

Cold and dark, MoonBladder (Jason Walton - Agalloch and others) creeps forth from the world's speakers with his latest, Dark Sky Equilibrium. Engaging and entrancing, this 23-minute composition moves back and forth through the sonic landscape presented to the listener, all the while growing and expanding into various terrains to compile its final, dark form. The compilation of sounds weave together to define and describe a bleak atmosphere that wonderfully causes discomfort and disquiet.

Alive in the Forest of Odd arrives in a nice little fold-out cardboard wallet, with - importantly - a big enough space that the CD slides in and out easily, even with its accompanying plastic wallet! This might sound superficial, but the amount of times I’ve had to fight to get a CD out of one of these things… The wallet has some suitably arboreal imagery, and liner notes guiding you through the album by Theo May. May describes the influence of European folk-jazz, and specifically Bulgarian folk music, and makes clear his desire to blend classical and jazz musicians, and idioms. The album has ten tracks, with the shortest just over five minutes, and the longest just shy of eight minutes.