I feel like I've been waiting for the new Perturbator album forever, and now we finally have the first single. I don't love the video, but the track is cool. As usual, though, I'll be holding out for the full album to hear it again. Need that context.
Watch:
Here's a new Irish Folk Horror flick I do not remember hearing about before this past weekend when it popped up on Shudder. You know I love me some Irish Folk Horror; this is well-timed, as Lorcan Finnegan has a new film out and in buying tickets for that tomorrow night, I've already got a hankering to rewatch Without Name, which is possibly my favorite of the Irish Folk Horror genre.
This is Writer/Director Aislinn Clarke's second feature-length film. Their first, The Devil's Doorway, is on a list I have somewhere and is currently streaming on AMC+ (But not their Horror subsidiary Shudder, fuckyouverymuch AMC+), so I'm adding both of these films to my watch list with hopes to have a nice, spooky double or triple feature soon.
This particular track is old now - dropped way earlier in the year. That said, I think it's the most recent release from James Kent under his Perturbator moniker. Recently, I went through a big jab on Kent's music and got to thinking that, damn, it's been a minute. Lustful Sacraments dropped in 2021 and Final Light in 2022, so we're due. Then I saw this:
I immediately checked the Blood Music website and found it is down for updates, so that tells me the new record is coming SOON! Perturbator is by far their biggest name - not to take anything away from the other wonderful artists on Blood Music - and it makes sense they would reconfigure the site to accommodate a drop this big. So I'm checking daily and wanted to pass the tip along.
NCBD:
This week's pull is on Thursday, and it's the biggest one in a while:
New book. Not sure I'm picking this up until I hold it in my hands, but I dig the concept and the art. Here's the solicitation blurb from League of Comic Geeks:
"A tormented Oklahoma sheriff and a scrappy photojournalist hunt a serial killer at the height of the dust-choked Great Depression.
In the darkest days of the Great Depression, death stalks the Dust Bowl. As towering dust storms blast the parched Oklahoma panhandle, farmers try to flee the failing town of New Hope, but no one gets far. Battling his own demons, Sheriff Meadows teams up with Sarah, a traveling photojournalist, in a desperate fight to stop a serial killer on the loose — the Death that rides the Dusters."
I'm not going to lie; part of my interest in this one stems from its similarities to a project I previously worked on with Jonathan Grimm. Our never really caught hold of our creative energies, but I'm curious as hell to see someone else work with the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression. Scott Snyder and Attila Futaki kind of took this road with Severed - which is excellent - but the setting in that one wasn't quite the character it sounds like here.
Being that DC books come out on Tuesday, I actually messaged Rick's to see if this came out and it did! Great excuse to re-read the first two and hopefully prep for the fourth and final book, which, as of now, has no solicitation date.
Things are heating up in the Battle for Springfield. We have mutated Cobra Vipers of all varieties, ninjas, robots - after avoiding the absurd for so long, Larry Hama has embraced the SciFi potential of this property with open arms without sacrificing his real-world military background, and it works!
Issue one was pretty cool, so I'm in on this Norwegian Black Metal Horror/Thriller. We've got a dad female fan/photographer, a nefarious band, and a whole lot of Vengeance coming down through the woods.
I think I said the same thing last month, but what the hell - HOT ROD! I felt a little guilty not putting Void Rivals in my Top Ten Comics of 2024 list, but Transformers and Cobra Commander won out on what is at least a partial nostalgic advantage. Still, this book is probably my favorite of the Energon Universe, and it just keeps getting better as those properties we love are enmeshed in Kirkman's new addition.
Watch:
Tonight! All my dodging and weaving to avoid Robert Egger's Nosferatu trailer pays off when I plop my arse in the theatre and watch it for the first time (pretty sure there will be a return engagement):
My excitement for this one is not super high, not because I think it will be anything short of extraordinary, I'm still just a little baffled Eggers chose to follow The Northman with a remake. That said, my guess is Eggers's version will be less a remake and more his own thing.
Playlist:
Steve Moore - Christmas Bloody Christmas OST
Windhand - Eternal Return
Windhand - Eponymous
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Mr. Bungle - Raging Wraith of the Easter Bunny
Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley
Dreamkid - Daggers
Perturbator - Bloodlust (single)
Health - DISCO4 :: Part 1
Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments
Cult of Luna - Vertikal I & II
Final Light - Eponymous
Rodney Crowell - Christmas Everywhere
Calexico - Seasonal Shift
Steve Moore - Mind's Eye OST
Steve Moore - VFW OST
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
Love the way this deck looks under different lighting.
This spread is basically a cautionary tale - watch out for dogmatic principles and false prophets who appeal to emotion.
I had no idea this existed until just now. Love it (even if I'm not interested in reading the series; I'd rather just re-read the novel for the fifth or sixth time). Still, I applaud Sumerian for using their record label chops to strengthen their publishing ventures.
Watch:
Two weeks ago, I watched Quentin Dupieux's Deerskin. This movie instantly became an all-time favorite film.
I'd not seen Rubber, even though I'd heard good things. I posted the trailer to Wrong back in 2013 but never ended up seeing it. Now, I'm kind of obsessed with seeing all Dupieux's films. We did an Elements of Horror episode that just went up, a deep-dive into Deerskin and talking about it just made me love it more. Unfortunately, there is no standard-issue U.S. Blu-Ray; however, if you have a region-free player, there's a Region B on Amazon right now for a little over $10. TOTALLY worth it.
Read:
After finishing Cassandra Khaw's Nothing But Blackened Teeth, I took a small detour from my next intended book and began re-reading the short stories in James Joyce's Dubliners.
I like the idea of having a book of short stories I can go to here and there, and this is perfect for that. I'd never read all of these; this is a picture I found online of the edition I've had since sometime in late HS or early College, when I'm fairly certain volume-closing "The Dead" was assigned reading. I've been picking at these over the last few days, and will no doubt set it down soon to read my final book of the year, but while I'm on it, I'm loving the elegant prose and snapshot style, especially in "Eveline."
Playlist:
Moderat - II
Steve Moore - Christmas Bloody Christmas OST
Perturbator (Feat. Kabbel) - Dangerous (single)
Carpenter Brut - Blood Machines OST
Amigo the Devil - Everything is Fine
Opeth - Deliverance
Cocteau Twins - Garlands
Baroness - Stone
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Five of Pentacles (Disks) - Earthly Conflict/Struggle
• Eight of Pentacles (Disks) - Earthly Transformation
• Ace of Swords - A breakthrough of intellect
This is one of the more mundane discussions I've had "with the cards," but I'm reading today's Pull as a definite nod to the conflict that always permeates our household between K's mother and myself. It's the age-old story of the mother-in-law syndrome, and I hate to fall into these kinds of "Life Tropes," however, the struggle is real, brothers and sisters. The message imparted here would seem to be "use your brain, not your anger," as I tend to steam for a while and then verbally lash out. Nothing too untoward, but arguments occur and maybe this year they don't have to.
Despite loving this song, I had never seen this video before yesterday, when I stumbled on it randomly. There is something so ethereal, so perfect about Greta Link's voice when paired with James Kent's music; she literally puts me in the world he's created just by having such a human, sensual voice.
Watch:
I watched the first 28 seconds of this trailer and knew I wouldn't be watching even a second more. Sold! Can't wait to see this, hopefully in the theatre:
If this really does go wide, we're in a pretty damn great for Horror fans in 2023. Flicks like Terrifier 2, Skinamarink and The Outwaters may not be everyone's jam, but they've helped carve a space for low-budget Horror flicks in big box theatres. What's more, The Boogeyman, Evil Dead Rise, Malum and Renfield have helped remind everyone that Horror makes money. As long as I'm within reasonable driving distance of a theatre playing it, I'll be supporting Cobweb in a theatrical setting.
Read:
As an admittedly rather late NCBD Addendum, I went into Rick's Comic City over the weekend to pick up my copy of the new Brubaker and Phillips Hard Cover Graphic Novel, Night Fever, which came in a bit late on Wednesday, and while I had 100% forgotten about:
The first non-Reckless book this team has done in two years, I have to say, I think this is my favorite story I've read by them. That might just be post-first read embellishment because - Night Fever is a fantastic read - however, the way Brubaker and the Phillips Boys portray and use the dark streets of Paris, 1978 - a location I know nothing about - really captured me. The story is just strange enough to feel a bit "Weird," while still being recognizably this team's own signature style. No one does this the way they do, and I have grown to love it very much. I can't wait for the next Reckless, however, anytime they want to take time off to release something new, I'll be happy with that, too.
Playlist:
Almost everything I listened to on this list was on vinyl; that's normally hard for me to do. Trapping myself in the house to write has its advantages, for sure.
Turquoise Moon - The Sunset City
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Final Light - Eponymous
Witchfinder - Forgotten Mansion
Yeruselem - The Sublime
Blut Aus Nord - Disharmonium I: Undreamable Abysses
The Obsessed - Lunar Womb
Godflesh - Purge
Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat
Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue
Steve Moore - Christmas, Bloody Christmas OST
Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley
Tangerine Dream - Sorcerer OST Richard Einhorn - Shockwaves OST
Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vitusta I: Fathers of the Icy Age
Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou - May Out Chambers Be Full
Joseph Bishara - Malignant OST
Theory/Practice:
Changing the section heading because I'm going to start chronicling different aspects of my Practice, which is nowhere as robust as it used to be, but has been creeping back in around the edges of late. Part of that will be dream journaling because I found writing about the 'blood dream' the other night helped considerably.
All Major Arcana, eh? Universal forces at work:
• 0: The Fool - picking up from his appearance two days ago, this is something beginning...
• XII: The Hanged Man - typically I see this as a very broad-stroke signifier of "Sacrifice," however, it's good to remember that this shows the Pentacle the way I wear mine - one Point over four. From the grimoire: "Dreams are brought Low by Modern Rationality." I no longer remember where I cribbed that from, but I find it interesting that it pops up here after I just mentioned dreams.
• VII: The Chariot - Gathering strength before moving to the next step.
My read on this is jumbled and not all that easy to put into a paragraph or two. I think it has a lot to say about what I consider my "Practice" now, which is my life. When I got into The Occult, it was after being wooed by big, bombastic workings by Grant Morrison, tales of Jack Parson's in the desert, and of course, Aleister "I'll fuck anything that moves" Crowley. Back then, my Practice was more hands-on, occurring in self-made liminal spaces. As the fervor for drawing sigils and reading every text available cooled, as I stopped semi-regular iterations of the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram and the like, I can look at the last ten or so years as my Practice waning, or, perhaps what this Pull reminds me, I can look at it as I simply massaged Magick into my daily life in a way that has seen me succeed in almost everything I've tried, in some way or another. Not always the success I want, but success is tiered in the overly complicated modern world. Certainly getting out of L.A. when I did has shown itself a success, and it's with that mindset that I must carry forth into the next "journey," whatever that may be.
Whereas last year, I had moments that suggested I may not be able to cull ten new records for a list, this year I had no similar problems. LOTS of new music in 2022. What follows is the list of my ten favorite albums released in 2022.
Top Ten Albums 2022:
10) Beach House - Once Twice Melody
I've been a bit slow on the uptake with Beach House. While I've been partaking in their music for probably close to ten years, I always kept them at arm's length. In fact, it wasn't until two or so years ago that my cousin Charles recommended I give the track "Elegy to the Void" my undivided attention. That song, from the band's 2015 album Thank Your Lucky Stars, proved to be the track that opened an entirely new dimension to the band's music for me. Since then, every album that drops plays a slightly more important role in my year, culminating with this year's double album, Once Twice Melody, which, like Mastodon's Hushed and Grim last year and another 2022 album higher on this list, is a double album with NO fat. Every track is perfect, the order is essential, and it all builds into a fitting snapshot of the quieter moments of my 2022.
9) H6LLB6ND6R - Side A
Here's a first - H6LLB6ND6R is made up of the Addams family, who also have a film in my top ten films this year! The movie is likewise titled Hellbender, and just like this record, it's a really fresh take on what a stripped-down, independent project can accomplish. If this is bedroom-producing, I want more. Every track has a hook, and yet, the sludgy, pummeling goodness still hits hard. Add in an early Jucifer-vibe to the doubled vocals, and I just couldn't put this one down.
8) Greg Puciato - Mirrorcell
Everything Greg Puciato does moves the needle well into the red with me. Mirrorcell is no different. That first single, "Lowered" with Reba Meyers from Code Orange is a massive track, and really helped to define my year. The rest of the album takes the slightly fractured feeling of Puciato's first solo record, Child Soldier, and smooths it into a more coherent whole. I miss the f*ck out of DEP, but I can't really complain when their singer is giving us albums of this calibre.
7) Carpenter Brut - Leather Terror
Until Leather Terror, Carpenter Brut's records always felt like they were half-there to me. I dig several of them to varying degrees, and the OST to Blood Machines is fantastic (but that's a score, and thus, something a bit different than an album), but there's always been a... I don't know, call it a whimsy that sneaks into the vibe and leaves me a bit cold. But that's just me. I also think my regard for CB may have suffered by my being such a fan of Perturbator- anyone else working in that realm of "Synthwave" or whatever you want to call it felt a few notches behind.
But as I said, ALL of that is my own baggage, and should not be misconstrued as judgment against the extremely accomplished musician known as Carpenter Brut, who proves me 100% full of shit on this new album. This one SLAMS, the guest vocalists all do fantastic work, and the one-two of tracks "Day Stalker" and "Night Prowler" is something to behold.
Baggage ejected; can't wait for the next record!!!
6) The Mysterines - Reeling
My elevator pitch for this band is meant to evoke honor, and yet I realize it essentially sells the Mysterines short. "PJ Harvey singing for BRMC" is enough to convince folks to give this band a chance, but having listened to the record countless times and seen them live (my first post-vaccination show), a comparison like that does nothing to convey the raw gifts on display in Reeling's perfectly tight 13 songs. This is Rock n' Roll that lives and breathes with a confidence and cool that places it right up there in the lexicon of bands that will live forever - Iggy, Bowie, the aforementioned PJ and Motorcycle Club. A lot of that is owed to singer/guitarist Lia Metcalfe, who emotes a conjuration somewhere between Nick Cave's mystic knowledge and PJ's "Fuck U" attitude.
5) Final Light - Final Light
Brutal, majestic, mysterious: take the neon pentagram glow of Perturbator's music and wash it in the medieval blood of the north often associated with Black Metal and you still can't quite get close to capturing the sonic environment of this record. One thing's for sure though: It's a storm!
I've spent A LOT of time this year using Lustmord's various instrumental music as a soundtrack to my writing because of the doorways his musical manipulations open. Maybe more than anything else on this list, Final Light provides a very similar experience. There are dark places herein, but they're inspiring and beautiful and, if you catch them just right, they'll take you places you won't be expecting.
4) Sylvaine - Nova
I'd never heard of Sylvaine until I saw them open for another band on this list, and live they absolutely blew me away. When I fired up this year's Nova album I found that, just like that live show, this band's studio mastery creates an all-encompassing experience that is visceral and beautiful and at times, sad and scary. That's pretty much exactly what I want from my Post-Black-Metal-Folk-bands, and Nova shot to the top of that list the moment I hit play on this one.
3) Zeal and Ardor - Eponymous
To quote my good friend Keller as we stood in L.A.'s Echoplex this past October watching Z&A tear through 80% of the new, eponymous record, "These guys are truly post-genre." Yep. Every album just gets bigger and better. Can't wait for the next.
2) Ghost - Impera
I was not a super fan of Ghost's previous record, Prequelle, and while I've never stopped recognizing Tobias Forge's genius, his work doesn't always align with my taste or what I perceive as the promise whispered by those first two-and-a-half Ghost albums. So in the run-up to the release of this year's Impera, I had assumed this would be another quasi-disappointment.
Wrong. This is easily my favorite Ghost album behind Infestissumam. Something about the arranging and songwriting on this one - I'm not sure if it's because I'm at a place where I have reassessed and embraced so much 80s Hard Rock I once detested, but I feel elements of a lot of that here, only transmogrified into something sleek and modern. Side A closing tracking "Watcher in the Sky" is my favorite song by the band behind "Year Zero," as well as my second favorite song of the year, and it carries a lot of weight here. That said, every single track moves me and gets stuck in my heart, even the mellowest ones, because they all fit together into this beautiful puzzle called Impera and make for a thrilling snapshot of an artist who has still yet to tap into his reserves.
1) Orville Peck - Bronco
It is a rare breed, the musician who can follow up a widely praised - and deservedly so - debut album with an even better sophomore record, let alone one that is a double album. Orville Peck, however, knocked this one so far out of the park, Pony seems like it came out a decade ago. Bronco is thrilling, with every track outshining the previous in lyrics, melody, and above all instrumentation. Like Impera, Bronco takes what has come before and influenced it - in this case the pomp and circumstance of 70s country instrumentation - and weaves it into a beautiful portrait of the years that preceded the album and those yet to come. Also, like Impera, one of the songs on the A Side - in this case, "Out of Time" - is my favorite of the year. What a perfect fit to my exodus from California and my move to Tennessee.
Perturbator and Cult of Luna's Johannes Persson have a new project called Final Light and the first track is F*&king awesome! Imagine Dangerous Days with deep, guttural vocals and you'll have entered the ballpark. I anticipate great things from this one. You can pre-order the album from Red Creek HERE.
Watch:
I saw Robert Eggers' The Northman this past Saturday. I was sober, however, as my cohost Ray and I discuss with Seattle University's Professor of Film John Trafton on the newest episode of The Horror Vision Horror Podcast, the film produced in me a pretty intense altered state. Because of this, I went back yesterday and saw it again, this time stoned AF.
I can't even begin to explain the hallucinatory effect Robert Eggers' films have on me, and this one really ratchets that up. I know some of you aren't ready to hit a theatre just yet, and I don't blame you. That's not going to stop me from suggesting if you're at all on the fence for returning to the big screen, this would be a pretty great film to do it for.
NCBD:
Here's this week's haul for NCBD:
Yes, I am a glutton. There is a new Amazing Spider-Man and I am going to read it, even though it is probably going to come out 9 times a month.
I know nothing about this, but the title caught my eye, so I'll give the first issue a whirl.
Finally! The now long-awaited finale of the Miller-esque dystopian near-fture TMNT saga!
I've largely missed the boat on Chip Zdarsky, but I'm glad I've gotten in on Newburn from the jump. This collaboration with Jacob Phillips has so far, been a fantastic, terse crime comic.
Still not sure how I feel about Frank Castle becoming The Hand's new "murder messiah" or whatever the hell, but I didn't hate the first issue, so I'm coming back for #2.
Saga! 'Nuff said!
I'm going out on a limb here. When I saw the words "Industrial Horror" on the solicitation for this, the 12 issue of a 16 issue run for the current Swamp Thing iteration, I put it on my list. I'll need to (hopefully) pick up issue 11 as well, as from what I see online, this is the second part of a story called "Jericho's Rose." I know nothing about this current ST title, but again, that cover above combined with those words... I have to give it a chance.
Aaaaannndddd... it appears I've become a pretty big Donny Cates fan and am continuing on with his Thor, especially after reading that, A) this month's issue has Odin's funeral and a Beta Ray Bill story, and B) next month this and Cates' fantastic Hulk series SMASH together.
Playlist:
Blut Aus Nord - Deus Salutis Meae
Negativeland - DisPepsi
Calexico - El Mirador
David Bowie - A Reality Tour
Alice in Chains - Sap
Orville Peck - Bronco
Judas Priest - Firepower
Judas Priest - Screaming for Vengeance
Card:
Poignant. I've been thinking A LOT about how much I love the woman I'm with, and how, despite the delays, I am looking forward to starting a new life with her OUTSIDE of LaLaLand. It's a push/pull - I'm going to miss a bunch of stuff here, but not enough to stand up against what we have planned for our home.
2021 was a weird year for music. I spent A LOT of time on albums that came out in previous years. So much so, I wasn't entirely certain I could pick ten records that had a huge impact on me. Some of these have ended up here despite my having not fully ingested them yet. That's okay, I always know the special ones the moment I hear them (for the most part).
Here then, are my ten favorite records released this year:
Jerry Cantrell - Brighten: This is the album I've been waiting for Jerry Cantrell to make for years, and its arrival serves as the beginning of a new role for him in relation to popular music. Cantrell has always been a sage, but previously he's been reluctant about it. Brighten shows him aging into this new position in a way so as to best take advantage of the role as a songwriter and musician. Brighten is big and filled with living reflections, a man looking behind him to better inform his path into the future. The songs hit hard, because, despite a decade between us, I can completely relate. Aging is rough, but you have to take what you can from it, use your mistakes and triumphs to make the future better.
Also, bringing Greg Puciato into the fold earns JC enormous goodwill in my book.
Sleaford Mods - Spare Ribs: Spare Ribs hit at exactly the right time, in my opinion, to make it both extremely poignant socially and serve as the most idealized presentation of Sleaford Mods' sound to date (I say that at the risk of having Williamson dismiss my assessment as 'cuntish'). These guys have a social perspective that previously made their minimalist approach to songwriting feel a lot bigger than it might have seemed at first glance. With Spare Ribs, the music has caught up.
Ministry: Moral Hygiene: I'm not entirely sure when the last time a Ministry album made it onto one of my year-end lists. Maybe 2007's The Last Sucker, because, while I've liked most of the band's releases, I haven't loved any since Sucker. Moral Hygiene, however, is a return to form for Uncle Al and his cohorts. This makes perfect sense, as who else could you expect to chronicle the shitstorm of the last two years into pulse-pounding, cynical Industrial Metal that perfectly represents where we are in relation to our planet and technology?
Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments: How so many fans turned their backs on James Kent for this album blows my mind because to me, Lustful Sacraments is an evolution for him as an artist that makes 100% perfect sense. It's deep, layered with nuance and knows when to take huge swings - all of which land. Incorporating more traditional "band" elements is no doubt a turn-off to some old-school fans who want another Dangerous Days. For myself, I'm happy to go wherever Kent's artistic wanderlust takes him.
Mastodon - Hushed and Grim: Double albums almost never work, yet they remain a rite of passage for bands. Hushed and Grim is probably the most solid of the like to come out in three decades. There's no excess here, nothing is superfluous. Each of the songs helps to expand Mastodon's sound, while as an overall cycle, all fifteen tracks form a solid, coherent whole. Not a feat easily mastered, but then, Mastodon has become one of the best bands around.
Odonis Odonis - Spectrums: After 2016's Post Plague ranked as my number one album that year, I've not even really liked anything Odonis Odonis has done since. Spectrums is a return to form for the group, running the line between industrial and electro in a way that feels unique to this particular band, thrilling and a little crazy.
Adam Egypt Mortimer - The Obelisk: Filmmaker Adam Egypt Mortimer conjures another dimension with The Obelisk. This is unlike anything else I've ever heard, and for that reason alone, it garners my praise. But moving beyond the stunning adventure of the album's occult soundscapes, everything about the textures AEM uses to construct this fit into my favorite types of music. Sparse beats, analog synth, brooding overtones and flitting, ghostly flourishes of voices and who knows what the hell else. This is another one of those records that opens a door I feel as though I've been waiting my entire life to step through.
Eldovar: A Story of Darkness and Light: I stumbled across this record by the combined talents of Elder and Kadavar with no previous knowledge of either band's work. I think I may have listened to an Elder album at some point, but I remember nothing about that previous engagement with them. This then was a complete surprise. From the opening notes of the record, an immediate comparison to Led Zeppelin came to me. Not because of the sound of the music, per se, but because of the timeless aesthetic applied here. I believe this is what some folks took to calling "Proto Metal" back in the 2010s, and despite a certain lack of clarity in that as a descriptor, I get it. There's also a healthy dose of Acid Rock. But the emphasis on melody, specifically intertwining vocal melodies, gives this one an ephemeral quality that is not nearly as important to rock musicians today as it was in the afterglow of the 60s. Eldovar seems to have learned the lesson of that far-gone era and transported it to the present day with this album.
King Woman - Celestial Blues: King Woman has always been about balancing Doom aesthetics with a certain Post-Metal reserve, and on Celestial Blues, they perfect it. As brutal as it is reflective, this one drones, beats, cuts, and soars in a way that I defy anyone to put a definitive genre tag on. The haunting overtures that ebb and flow throughout the course of the album's nine tracks show songwriting on a level that bodes great things from this band in the future.
Nun Gun - Mondo Decay: A last-minute HOLY FUCK moment thanks to Heaven is an Incubator's 2021 list, it makes perfect sense this would hit me as hard as it did seeing as Algiers owned both my 2015 and 2017 with their first two albums. Mondo Decay is a strange, sick record that's filled with sonic homage while still playing as an extremely new, unique sound. When I listen to this, I feel like I'm honing in on it from between white noise transmissions, like Harlan and Maxx finding the pirate transmissions in Video Drome. This is clandestine and important, and a little scary in the best possible ways.
LOVING the new album from James Kent, AKA Perturbator. Apparently, there are those out there who find his new direction uncool, but I say you can't make the same album over and over forever. Here's a current favorite selection.
Watch:
Well, after hating part two, I went into The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It with probably as low of expectations as possible. Turns out, I dug it. Not as good as the first, and Hollywood Horror is almost always going to take a backseat to the indie stuff, but this one was good. The lighting and camera work especially stand out, and I really dig Vera Farmiga in everything, even if these movies are starting to treat her a bit like Jean Grey with her psychic ability.
You can hear more of my thoughts on The Conjuring 3, as well as that of my cohosts, on the newest episode of The Horror Vision.
Interesting side note, I wandered into the Comic Bug this afternoon and found out this had come out:
Two stories, both cool. The second a stand-alone and penned by Scott Snyder, the first the opening installment in a larger tale. The Warrens are not on hand, but I'm assuming they will be eventually.
Playlist:
Perturbator
Lindsey Buckingham - Gift of Screws EP
Harakiri for the Sky - Maere
Blur - Parklife
QOTSA - ... Like Clockwork
QOTSA - Villains
Goatsnake - Black Age Blues
Various - Twin Peaks: Music from the Limited Event Series
Calexico - The Black Light
Card:
Yes, this is exactly the right card at the moment. Solitary introspection that nearly drives me mad.
It's hard to believe it's been five years since 2016's The Uncanny Valley, the last album from Perturbator. It seems a lot longer. Sure, there's been an EP and two B-sides/remix discs, but to me, James Kent's Perturbator lives and breathes in the album format. Now, here's the first track of forth-coming Lustful Sacraments, out May 28th on CD and digital, June 25th on Vinyl. You can pre-order those from Blood Music HERE; I was lucky enough to catch one of only 125 of the picture discs!
Let's talk about the new track. I'm reminded of old Nitzer Ebb a bit, early 00s Miss Kitten and the Hacker, and of course, that danger-soaked, percolating blood percussion we all know and love from Kent's previous Perturbator releases, although here there's an underlying wash of 80s dark sparkle and seething industrial menace. In other words, as he promised, this record sounds like it most definitely will be unlike the others.
Good. Let's push things forward...
Watch:
I caught Natasha Kermani and Brea Grant's new film on Shudder yesterday afternoon. Very good. Would make a good double-feature with Amy Seimetz's She Dies Tomorrow.
I won't lie, there's a part of this new wave of existential Horror that makes me a little suspicious. The musings of films like She Dies and now Lucky reminds me a bit of those Existential comedies of the late 90s/early 00s. You know, that loose sub-genre or movement that began with Being John Malkovich - a film I can't say a bad word about - and continuing on into Michel Gondry's films and the wake of films that tried for the same tone. That particular movement reminds me a lot of new-age spiritualism, as it's more about the packaging than the actual philosophy. In other words, it's fun to look like we're contemplating philosophical conundrums and the like, but we're not really going through the work of actually contemplating them. I'd wager I'm probably wrong about Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind because, despite the fact that I did not explicitly mention that film by name here, it springs to mind as the actual start of this Cosmetic Existential Genre, so to speak (I always give anything with Jim Carey a bad rap, just because I don't like Jim Carey).
But I've really shifted from my original point, haven't I?
Lucky is a unique take on a Slasher flick, and I dig the mechanics of what Grant (writer/star) and Kermani (director) have set up for the film. It's a skosh reminiscent of the first Happy Death Day, but not in any way that feels uncouth. However, it's this how the filmmakers dress these mechanics and where it actually goes in the end that felt a little 'huh?' to me. Perhaps I am primarily preoccupied with trying to discern if the point of the film was all men are rapists/abusers. I hate that my mind went there immediately upon completion of the viewing, and it may not even be the film's fault, but that's definitely something that's still in the air, and it troubles me because, you know, I'm neither of those things. Nor are my male friends.
Anyway, you can see by my train of thought that Lucky did exactly what a good film should do, and that's make you think. So hats off to Lucky, and really, between this and 12 Hour Shift, Brea Grant is definitely becoming one of my favorite new filmmakers.
Playlist:
David Bowie - Heroes
David Bowie - Hunky Dory
Opeth - Blackwater Park
PM Dawn - Set Adrift on Memory Bliss (single)
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Bayou Country
The Cure - Pornography
Blanck Mass - In Ferneaux
Card:
Listen to what those who know more about things are trying to tell you, a reminder we can all use from time to time.
As the wait for the next Perturbator records near neigh interminable lengths, and the knowledge that James Kent is leaving his former 'genre' behind, I've begun to clamor for more dark, brooding synthwave. Bandcamp remains a fantastic place to find what I'm looking for. Case in point, this week's Sunday Bandcamp spotlight on Dance With The Dead. I haven't made it very deep into their discography, but after absorbing Near Dark yesterday, I intend to do so in the very near future.
There's a bunch of new music I could post, but I've been re-infatuated with Dangerous Days as we - hopefully - edge closer to a new Perturbator record. One that, according to the man himself, will not sound like this. I'm cool with that. Can't wait.
**
I inadvertently began a Phantasm series rewatch yesterday. I've been working shortened hours, 6-12, so I get home and put a flick on the tube, something I've seen before so if I nod out during it won't be a big deal. I went with the 2018 Joe Bob Briggs Christmas presentation of Phantasm yesterday. This was a marathon of all the movies but Part Two, which JBB boycotts due to the destruction of a Hemi Cuda during the making of. I'm not a car guy, but fine. Anyway, I slept through some of Phantasm, which was actually pretty cool, as the film's creepy dream logic bored into my REM and made for an almost interactive napping experience. I woke for the end, immediately threw on my disc of Part Two, then made it most of the way through Three - which if I've ever seen I forgot most of - and intend on finishing the rest today. Before the return of Joe Bob tonight on Shudder! I'm not super psyched about the first movie or the co-host, but hopefully the second film he picks will be a winner, and hell, it's Joe Bob!
BTW - I absolutely ADORE Phantastm II and III.
**
Playlist:
Brand New - Daisy
Brand New - God and the Devil are Raging Inside Me
The Temptations - Cloud Nine
Various - Motown Deep Cuts (Apple Music Playlist)
Zombi - Shape Shift
Code Orange - Underneath
White Lung - Paradise
Steve Moore - VFW OST
Spotlights - We Are All Atomic EP
Doves - Lost Sides
Doves - Lost Souls
Lustmord - Things That Were 1980-1983
Pigface - Fook
My Morning Jacket - Z
Diana Ross and the Supremes - Love Child
Allegaeon - Apoptosis
Perturbator - Night Driving Avenger EP
Friendly Fires - Pala
Jawbox - For Your Own Special Sweetheart
Deftones - White Pony
Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh
Brand New - Science Fiction
John Zorn - Taboo and Exile
Perturbator - Dangerous Days
Card:
Last three days (because I pull every day, even if I don't post):
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Today:
I've had a lot of major influence over the last few weeks. A lot of Arcana and Court cards. Makes perfect sense, especially combined with the 7 of Swords Futility here, as being moved around by forces beyond our control can either make us feel manipulated and frustrated or empowered and ecstatic. And of late, we are all caught up in some pretty heavy, Macro shit that forces us to do or not do things based on variables we cannot control.
Mindful Habitation: Don't know what to believe anymore? The increasingly Orwellian nature of our Reality - where the State defines Reality - is the most frustrating and downright terrifying thing I have ever experienced. Don't know who or what to believe? Unplug the major News outlets and follow the impartial Science.
New track from Perturbator, who had previously stated he was done with the synth wave thing. This is definitely something different, and I'm hoping only one facet of what will be a widely different adventure for the musician, who is perhaps just as equally ambitious as he is talented. A good thing, for sure.
As for pre-orders, there's nothing listed on either the Perturbator or Blood Music bandcamps yet, but when I find something, I'll be sure to post it here.
Back in 2006, Scottish write Alan Campbell messaged me on myspace - remember that? - and, having noticed I talked about the work of China Mieville a lot, asked if I'd heard of his debut novel, Scar Night. Set in a city that hangs on massive chains above a bottomless pit, I really didn't need to read any more than that to seek the book out. Thus, my love of Campbell's Deepgate Codex series was seeded. Four books and five years later, I saw an announcement for a new novel and series go up, Sea of Ghosts: the Gravedigger Chronicles, Book One. Only problem was, for years I could not seem to get the book in the U.S.
At some point Sea of Ghosts fell off my radar, and remained obscured to me for some time. Now, a few weeks ago, I finally ordered a copy and, having received it yesterday, began reading it. It's good to be swaddled in Campbell's lush, fantastical prose again.
There's not a lot of fantasy I like, primarily because, from my experience, most of the genre is made up of authors who love Tolkien and want only to write inside his tropes. Hence, no matter how many people I drive mad with my resolve, I will never read or watch Game of Thrones. I'm sure they are excellent, but Knights and Dragons are most assuredly not my thing. It's been done to death. Mieville's take on fantasy - where everything is his own creation - is more my taste, and I'd add Campbell and Peter V. Brett as similar contemporaries. Campbell's Deepgate Codex plays with the textures and aesthetics of Steampunk, for example, but never feels the need to limit itself by those aesthetics, preferring instead to incorporate them into the author's own unique world-building ideologies. And with his undermining explorations of the tenants of religion, political power, and military intelligence, Alan Campbell's aesthetics always engage and expand my own imagination, and quite often make me smile. I'm excited as pie to be back in one of his worlds again.
Playlist from 2/16:
David Bowie - Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)
David Bowie - Station to Station
Beastmilk - Climax
Jozef Van Wissem & Jim Jarmusch - An Attempt to Draw Aside the Veil
Red Rider - As Far As Siam
Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Welcome to the Pleasuredome
Pink Floyd - Animals
Frankie Goes to Hollywood? You mean, like Relax? Yep. How did that happen? Well...
Two nights ago K and I watched Body Double for the first time. I LOVED this flick; possibly my favorite De Palma film, or at least right behind Carlito's Way. Body Double is early, macabre thriller De Palma, and its tone is compelling and unapologetic for turning the camera's eye on a protagonist that is as seedy as he is well-intentioned. In the film, there's a sequence that utilizes pretty much the entire track Relax, and seeing it I remembered encountering the LP Welcome to the Pleasuredome on the shelves of a thrift store back in the oughts. The album art and design was involved, and I remember thinking it looked as though this band I only knew the one track by - a track I liked very much - may have had ambitions on a level similar to groups like early Genesis, or Pink Floyd. I'm not sure why I didn't buy the record that day in the thrift, but I'd always meant to get around to listening to a full album by Frankie, partially just because I don't know that I've ever spoken to anyone else who had.
So, spurred on by Body Double - a film I really can't say enough good things about - I used the good ol' Apple Music to listen to Pleasuredome yesterday. Verdict? Hmmm... not sure. Ambitious? Yes. Nobly so? Maybe not. Bloated with its own regard? Probably.
I may get back around to re-engaging with Frankie Goes to Hollywood's Welcome to the Pleasuredome some day, but in the meantime I'll still crank Relax whenever I hear it. Like now:
Card of the day:
I'm hoping this points to being back to all cylinders, and not the fact that in order to finally extricate this damnable flu, I need the help of a trained professional. I'll know by the end of the day, I'm sure.
I'm doing Thursday's post on Wednesday night because I'm up and off to LAX early in the morning to fly to Chicago! Yay!
A couple months ago I posted about Perturbator's side project, L'Enfant De La Fôret. Well, that record fell right the heck off my radar, and it wasn't until I saw Heaven Is An Incubator post this GORGEOUS track that I remembered how much I'd been looking forward to it. And Tommy hit the nail right on the head - this track reeks of Lynch/Badalamenti, which, of course, immediately endears it to me. I can't wait to ingest this entire record during my trip. Name your price and buy it HERE.
Playlist from 12/05:
The Veils - Total Depravity
Grimes - Art Angels
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Hallelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!
The Body - I Have Fought Against It, But I Can't Any Longer.
Gil Scott Heron - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (Single)
Scroobious Pip vs. Dan Le Sac - Thou Shalt Always Kill (Single)
Algiers - Eponymous
Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy OST
David Lynch & Alan Splatt - Eraserhead OST
Card of the day:
"Insatiable hunger for life and endless, powerful energies." Well, that definitely is the standard definition for how I roll in Chicago. It'll be interesting to see if this year is any different? Well, I've hit a point where I just don't have the energy I previously had. I knock out during movies at home ALL the time now on weekends. I feel a general, low-grade exhaustion on a daily basis. Part of it is I'm 42, and part of it is my first alarm rings at 4:07 AM, five days a week. Normally, I hit Chicago and hook up with my lifelong friends and I can hang out all night, drinking beer and talking music, movies, comics, whatever. Will that be the case with this trip? Well, the card seems to imply it will, so we'll see.
Whoah. I had ear-marked this Perturbator collaboration with LA-based Health sometime a week or so ago and then promptly forgot about it. Listening to it last night while writing, it made a strong impression. Which led to me checking out Health's 2015 album Death Magic (great title). Fantastic stuff. Reminiscent of Crystal Castles at times, very melodic and killer electronics.
31 Days of Horror rounded the final lap last night with attempts to watch two other movies as well. The first was Beetlejuice, which I rented from Amazon and which dropped out and sent me back to the start twice before I gave up. The second was Tod Browning's 1931 Dracula with Bela Lugosi, but by then it was pass out time, so I only made it 2/3 of the way through. Ugh.
31 Days of Horror
10/01) Summer of 84
10/02) Rope
10/03) Dreams in the Witch House
10/04) Crash
10/05) The Fly
10/06) Re-animator
10/07) Night of the Demons
10/08) Species
10/09) The Roost
10/10) The Convent
10/11) Killer Klowns from Outer Space
10/12) George A. Romero's Day of the Dead
10/13) George A. Romero's Land of the Dead
10/14) The Apostle
10/15) Phantom of the Paradise
10/16) Candyman
10/17) Ghoulies
10/18) John Carpenter's Halloween
10/24) Halloween III: Season of the Witch
10/25) Ghost Stories
10/26) John Carpenter's The Fog
10/27) Suspiria (2018)
10/28) Suspiria (1977)
Playlist from 10/28:
Various Artists - Halloween playlist
Skeletal Family - Singles Plus One
Health/Perturbator - Body/Prison
Health - Death Magic
Ennio Morricone - Black Belly of the Tarantula
