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Horizons is a collaboration between two artists with whom I have no prior familiarity, Austin Williamson and Blanket Swimming, both from Kansas City, Missouri, with numerous releases on Bandcamp and many small experimental labels. This album consists of two longer pieces, 15-20 minutes each, alternated with a couple of shorter tracks, though the actual listening experience feels quite continuous.
Here’s an expansive history lesson in Polish animation, released by the ever-reliable Radiance; I’m reviewing promotional discs only, but the full package comes with a booklet of writings, and I guarantee there’ll be the immaculate presentation that Radiance always delivers. As the title suggests, the two discs collect up short animated Polish films, and the set covers a large time span and a large range of content. For those of you who take an interest in animation, this is all gold dust.
Eternal Life No End is a truly inspired sonic collusion between traditional Arabic instrumentation/ melody, and moody electronica. With traditional instrumentation and vocal chants moving alongside buzzing, juddering, and brooding electronics.
Afterlife Requiem is the second album from this post-classical dark drone project from Winnipeg, Manitoba. It’s a nine-track affair, which moves between lush yet mournful drifts. Murky-edged mournful simmers, and gloomily sweeping expanses darted by the odd bleak sample.
Insect Movements balances murky roll, with constantly punishing battering. The single-track wall noise release slides in at just under the half-hour mark and remains both full/ fixed throughout.
Yellow Noise Wall severs up a shot of rapidly rumbling ‘n’ tumbling walled- with a thick meaty bass centre, and an addictively churning flow.
Incremental Cemetery Decomposition shovels up two slabs of grimly battering and ghoulishly baying walled noise from this Indiana-based project. Each track hits dead on the twenty-minute mark, and each is as unrelenting/ bleakly horror-fed as the other.
From the early 1980’s, Excalibur is a cinematic retelling of the legend of King Arthur. It’s an epic, but always well-paced affair- blending atmospheric, at times bloody battles, sword and sorcery intrigue, and rousing-to-downbeat moodiness. Here from Arrow Video- both in the UK and stateside- is either a triple Blu-ray or UHD set. Taking in a new 4k scan, three commentary tracks- two new, and a blend of new and archive extras
Helter Skelter (Herutâ sukerutâ) is an early 2010 Japanese film that has decidedly Jing & Jang quality. It blends lush, grand, and multi-coloured visuals with cruelty, manipulation, and deprivation. The film focuses on a top fashion star/ actress, at the height of fame, and her steady decline/ unfurling. The film sits somewhere between pitch-black satire, drama, and psychological thriller, with touches of body horror, crime investigation, and glitzy arthouse. Here from 88 Films is a Blu-ray release of the film, taking in an HD scan, a new commentary track, and a few other extras.
Wicked Games is a Blu-ray box set bringing together three films helmed by Paris-born actor-turned-director Robert Hossein. The films date from between the late 50's and early 60's- moving from a prison drama/ escape thriller/noir. Onto mystery-centred noir, with a femme fatale focus, and ahead of its time, moody western. Each picture receives a 2k scan, a commentary track from highly respected genre commentator Tim Lucas, and a selection of other extras- be they new or old.
Franco Nero and Martin Balsam headline the curiously titled Confessions of a Police Captain, an Italian crime drama which earned acclaim on release in 1971. Now, 55 years on, a new 2K restoration from Radiance brings Damiano Damiani's compelling, thought-provoking thriller into high definition.
Italian trio Owls Over Oaks hit Argonauta with their virtually self-titled debut, O.O.O. Composed of members of the Turin metal scene (Enisum, Amethista, Nihili Locus, and Nerocapra), Owls seek to bring about an immersive, 'extreme drone doom' experience to the masses.
Creepy Images is an all-colour-cult horror magazine that began life in 2009. As you'd imagine, its early issues are now long out-of-print, so to make these collector's items available again, here is a book reissuing issues 4 to 6. As well as providing the original text in English (as with the original releases), they have included a German translation for the first time too.
Here’s a terminally raw, grimly worn, at points searing ‘n’ drilling wall noise split. It brings together Frances Pit Of Despair and Illinois Woods Mattress- each party offers up around half an hour wall. The first is fairly fixed, while the second is mostly fixed, though later on, we do get some rewarding deviation.
Color Noise Wall brings together three around ten-minute walls from this Czech project. As its title suggests, there is textual variety between each track.
Equal parts ethnographic research and percussive exploration, Simon Berz‘s Tectonic is proof of an enduring intelligence within sound and its contexts and histories as marshalled by an accomplished musician and researcher.
Parallel Disalignment sits somewhere between more polished/pristine harsh noise and dartingly seared electro-acoustics. It’s the second release from this project, which is the solo venture of Malaysian electronic artist, Y’ng-Yin Siew (Reverse Image).
The Battlefield Is Everywhere is a very difficult album to pigeonhole, as it not only often switches between sonically ambient, noisy, and dense. It also liberally blends 'n' blurs genres such as synth drone, prog/ post-rock, shoegaze, noise, and dense/droned-out singer-songwriter fare.
Here we have the first release in quite some time from this Scottish droning & baying guitar-based project. Quakes is a CDR release- featuring seven tracks over its two-disc run. There is a decent shift in both tone and feel from track-to-track.
Now here’s an extremely sleazy, bad taste, and wholly unwholesome take on 1970’s sexploitation comedy form. The film regards three escaped criminally insane sex addicts heading to a girls' school during a vacation, where only a handful of students- played by large-breasted actresses- are left. The film is highly misogynistic, homophobic, and racist- with the rape/ nasty sleaze often present with playful comic music. It’s a picture that is truly wrong on every level, with the viewer's jaw dropping further and further as the whole thing unfolds. Here from VCI Entertainment’s The Psychotronica Collection is a dual DVD & Blu Ray release of the film, including an archive commentary track, and a few trailers/ shorts
Play Dead (2025) is an Argentine survival horror slasher from director Carlos Goitia (Nightmare Radio: The Night Stalker and The 100 Candles Game: The Last Possession). Written by Gonzalo Mellid and Camilo Zaffora, it stars Paula Brasca (What the Waters Left Behind and Focus) alongside a largely unknown cast including Damian Castillo, Catalina Motto, and Marta Quarleri. The film premiered at the 47th Moscow International Film Festival and follows a woman who wakes up in a basement surrounded by corpses and must play dead to survive a masked killer's ritualistic game.
Coven of the Black Cube is a 2024 film that blends threads of witchcraft curses, queer romance, metalhead drama, and horror. It’s a SOV affair, very much paying tribute to the 1990’s- with moments of glitching to psychedelic static, a genre-shifting soundtrack which moves between eerie ambience, different varieties of heavy metal, indie rock/ pop, and uneasy pagan folk. Here, Blood Sick Promotions is a region-free Blu-ray of the film, taking in a commentary track and behind-the-scenes footage.
Cape Cod Cthulhu is somewhat of a bizarro mix of slasher & dread-filled cosmic horror, with light & lo-fi CGI touches of weather-focused disaster, giant monster action, and postmodern satire. This film is helmed by Mark Polonia, one of the most prolific figures in US low-budget horror/ sci-fi. This was his seventh and final film of 2025. Here from SRS Cinema is a Blu-ray release of the picture, taking in as always, with a Polonia release, a most interesting & informative commentary.
Walls Towards Nothingness offers up six twenty-minute blocks of walled noise from this Mexico City project. All six tracks are fairly dense, unrelenting, and brutal examples of the genre, fitting the release's title.