Various – ‘Analog 2025’ – Unexplained Sounds Group ‘Analog 2025’ arrives with tape flutter, slow pitch wobble, spring reverb that sounds like a corridor, and the soft, humanised clipping that turns a tone into an animated corpse. It’s not nostalgic in the cosy sense; it’s in the same world as hauntology, a catalogue of misremembered […]
Various – So High I’ve Been: A European Rock Anthology 1967–1973 3CD Set – Cherry Red For decades, the story of rock music has been told as if it were a transatlantic conversation between Britain and America. The mythology is familiar: London and Liverpool, San Francisco and Los Angeles, New York and Detroit. Yet while […]
The R.I.P Man – Dir. Jamie Langlands The Terrifier franchise, three films which range from surprisingly good to not surprising, has reminded filmmakers that there is always room for a new horror icon. Just now, I have come up with Seagull Man, a deranged psychopath who ‘pecks’ out the eyes of holidaymakers to compensate for […]
Martina Testen / Simon Šerc – ‘Nokturno’ – Pharmafabrik Recordings Some field‑recording projects try to soothe you- those old hat/New Age faffing about that convinced those who lived on the muesli belt that a groaning whale was good for your aura. Others are more fun, though often feel unconvincing – cannibal tribes supposedly mid-ritual, but […]
Always the same – you wait oodles of years and two Headcoat/Headcoatee albums come along at once. In fairness, it makes a wallet-relieving change from them releasing an album every other week. Thee Headcoatees – ‘Man-Trap’ – Damaged Goods Longest out of action, by a long chalk, are Thee Headcoatees, but the full headcoat count […]
Nerthus – ‘Love Songs via Echlon’ – Eighth Tower Records Echelon was the codename for a global surveillance network developed during the Cold War by the Five Eyes alliance – the likely suspects of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, and the US. Originally designed to monitor Soviet military and diplomatic communications, it evolved into […]
Various Artists – ‘Codex of Pleasure and Pain – A Sonic Tribute to Clive Barker’s Hellraiser’ – Eighth Tower Records Given the somewhat torturous history of the actual Hellraiser score, offering another perspective seems entirely reasonable. As much as Cenobites remix flesh, these 11 artists from across Europe dig their hooks into their chosen chunk […]
Jonathan Sothcott: The English Charles Band; Albion’s Dino de Laurentiis; The Big Smoke’s William Castle; The Nation’s Jason Blum. Whichever your choice, the UK’s Gangster Flick Don has now shifted firmly across to where he began – horror – and that can only be a good thing. I started jotting down the different films that […]
VA – You’re No Big Deal – Grunge, The U.S. Underground and Beyond 1984-1994 – Cherry Red Records. Well, let’s get the griping out of the way – the word ‘grunge’ may be used. It’s in the title; it’s used by people ‘on purpose’; I have very little control over history, despite my best efforts, […]
Capricorni Pneumatici – ‘Ix Tab’, Eighth Tower Records I don’t often start reviews like this, but I think the accompanying text with this release speaks (in tongues) for itself: Ix Tab is an album dedicated to the mysterious Mayan deity, goddess of ropes and snares, and patroness of those who hang themselves. Originally released on […]
