NEW PERTURBATOR!!!

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...

 

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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. 

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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

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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.

Isolation: Day 144 - New Mastodon

Well, maybe not exactly new Mastodon, as the forthcoming Medium Rarities, out September 11th, is, as the title suggests, a rarities collection, and not a full-blown new album. Either way, I'm excited. It's been three years since Emperor of Sand, and I am fully ready for new music from these guys.

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Last night, it was with great fervor that I rented Amy Seimetz's new film She Dies Tomorrow. Wow. This is one I'll be mulling over for months to come. It's not that there's necessarily something deeper than what's on the screen, but the film is an interesting idea - and extrapolation of linguistic, sociological, and psychological idea already out there - executed by Semitz's unique and confident voice. It's a voice that is wholly her own, although you'll be able to make some comparisons when it comes to tempo and restraint. It's the confidence I'm smitten with here; this is not going to be a popular film, but the writer/director doesn't care. And she shouldn't. That's the point.

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Playlist:

Poe - Hello

Exhalants - Bang (pre-release single)

Moaning - Uneasy Laughter

Contours - 20th Century Masters

Mastodon - Emperor of Sand

Mastodon - Fallen Torches (pre-release single)

Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers - L.A.M.F.

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Card:

 I did a spread today, to see if A) the recently omnipotent Hierophant would rear his head and, B) if so, might I find a little clarity. No V, but I think I may have found some clarification. 

I've recently finished The Secret Life of Murder, which I'm alternately thinking of as A Beast of its Own Momentum, although that title will most likely go to something else. Once finished, though, I decided instead of simply publishing the novel through my The Horror Vision Press, I would try to shop it. That meant buying a Writer's Market - thank god for Kindle, so no phone book sized tome laying around, waiting to be discarded in a few months. It also meant figuring out a way to make the book slightly different. The version I'm shopping has a different title - a far simpler title, and not necessarily one that I approve of. The idea here is to try and use this to my advantage, to usher in a larger audience and paycheck. Selling out? Who cares - that's an argument for a younger man. As the world unwinds, I find that all I really want to do is be able to buy a piece of land somewhere in Washington state - somewhere away from major cities - and have my little enclave. This is the first step on that experiment.My plan also means sending query letters, something I used to find distasteful, but which I now recognize that I am 100% terrified of. I find this near-paralyzing fear confounding, but its there alright. So for the better part of a week I sat twiddling my thumbs, making excuses of why I wasn't ready to do that yet. Until the first of the three draws of V The Hierophant recently, which basically says this is the dogma you left behind, but for the moment, face it head-on. This new spread then, tells me I have to put in the work doing this, and it will pay off and change my world.

Isolation: Day 136

It was a real disappointment to learn that Shane Carruth - whose films Primer and Upstream Color are among the best films made in the last twenty years - is not a very cool person. I won't go into everything, but aside from numerous accounts of his assholery to everyday people, it appears that he may have made public certain aspects of his estranged relationship with director Amy Seimetz in a weird attempt to sabotage the release of her new film, She Dies Tomorrow. I'm not sure this is exactly what's going on, but regardless, I wanted to see this film before all this happened, now I'll be making it my Friday night watch next week when it drops on the 8th, just to help bump the film's numbers. Looks awesome, and seeing Jane Adams and Tunde Adebimpe from TVOTR is just too good to be true.

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K and I caught up to the current episode of HBO's I'll Be Gone in the Dark last night. This show is a powerhouse of emotion and terror, and although I usually don't have the stomach or nerve for true crime - I prefer my horror to have at least a dash of supernatural so it doesn't color the world around me any darker than I already perceive it - this is one I would recommend to everyone. I've loved most of what Michelle McNamara's husband Patton Oswalt has done since someone turned me onto Feelin' Kinda Patton in the mid-00s. To see this side of his life, and the lengths Michelle McNamara went to hunting a decades-old killer, it's inspiring.



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Playlist:

Primus - Frizzle Fry
Count Raven - Storm Warning
Angel Witch - '82 Revisited
Testament - Titans of Creation
Low Cut Connie - Hi Honey

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Card:

Another pull from my beautiful new Raven Deck:

So I'll be paying more attention to my intuition.