Emeralds "Geode" Video

Emeralds "Geode" by Raglani/Kannapell from joseph raglani on Vimeo.

This release (Emeralds S/T album) and several more are available for sale here at Hanson Records.

Coil - "Colour Sound Oblivion" DVD Box

In my world, the UK experimental group Coil is about as important as music gets. I first experienced the sounds of Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson and Jhonn Balance in the very early 1990's before I knew anything about experimental music. I hadn't even heard Throbbing Gristle yet. The song "Penetralia II" penetrated my brain and my life was never the same. I have been an avid fan ever since then.

Here's a quick Coil story for you... I went to their only American live performance in 2001 shortly before the tragic death of singer Jhonn Balance. I was at that show with my friend Don Poe, who shot video of the set with Coil's consent, so I was able to sit in on the soundcheck. Jhonn was doing some of his inimitable whooping and screaming while they were setting levels. When he came up to the sound booth afterwards, Coil's sound man said jokingly (in reference to the screaming) "You're not scaring anyone, you know?" Balance just dismissed him with a wave. I was standing right there and said "Well, you scared me a little if it makes you feel any better." Jhonn laughed at this and said something about the fact he was just playing around. It was a nice moment for this Coil fanboy.

Anyhow, the video of that very New York City show as well as MANY others are part of the huge Coil "Colour Sound Oblivion" DVD Box Set coming very soon from Threshold House. You can see several video clips and learn more over at thresholdhouse.com

Here's some photos of the box contents...





Many thanks to Sleazy for allowing me to use his photos. You should check out his blog at sleazybkk.blogspot.com as well as his non musical site sacred-profane.com

Gaspar Noé's "Enter the Void"

I am a big fan of Gaspar Noé's "I Stand Alone" and my brain was permanently scarred by his film "Irreversible." So, with a measure of fear, I am looking forward to seeing "Enter the Void." The trailer alone is one of the more interesting things I've seen recently.

Mister Fuckhead - "333"

Mister. Fuckhead is an experimental music artist working out of Chicago. His latest work is called "333." Here's more info on this release from the man himself...

I wrote the first beginning from this album at candlelight in 2003, while I was living in a 2nd floor closet, squatting in a rat-infested house that only had power in one outlet, all the way in the basement. This was for my first performance at a public venue. I have reworked these tracks over and over again, spending 15-20 hours at a time drinking fake absinthe doused with wormwood oil, to make individual pieces for each performance up until 2007. It took me some time to be completely happy with the whole album as a cohesive, perhaps timeless, breathing entity that takes on a life of its own, and the incredibly patient Clayton Counts mastered it in a stretch of about 5 8 hour long days, while we meticulously went over every detail. The 60 minutes of material culminates a series of compositions I made specifically for live performance, then spent a lot of time fine tuning or expanding afterwards. It is composed entirely from a Yamaha RM1x sequencer, utilizing various carefully crafted haywire anomalies that were featured in Dead Tech/Circuit Bending type of art gallery events, and much experience from performing with live bands or making beats for hip hop artists, among other things. The cassette is limited to an edition of 99, across 3 different color cassettes, with 3 different label designs, a 3 panel, two sided, full color insert, and a color transparency.

Here are three MP3 samples: Excerpt 1 / Excerpt 2 / Excerpt 3

You can buy this very special release for $9 in the US, and $12 elsewhere (paypal to misterfvckhead [at] yahoo [dot] com)

You can see and hear more from Mister Fuckhead at myspace.com/misterfuckhead

Scroll down past the image below for an expanded bio of Mister Fuckhead...



Located in Chicago, having lived in 25 different homes around the area by the time I was 23.

I was originally focused on visual art until a combination of events happened.

First, I went to Columbia College after high school in 1999, out of my own pocket with a job as a dishwasher and no financial aid, dropped out half way through the semester because my figure drawing teacher consistently told me that what I had been doing since I was 4 was entirely incorrect. I told him that if I wanted an opinion, I will get it from someone who didn't settle for a teaching job and walked out. The following summer I worked as an apprentice at a youth program called "Gallery 37", where my my preliminary sketches were sold for $500 a piece and I was told privately that I was the best in the group. I quit that when they wanted me to reproduce paintings on benches shown in magazine advertisements rather than the Dali, Van Gogh, or Aidan Hughes paintings I brought in as a suggestion. After that I looked at art as little more than an advertisement, and coincidentally focused more on the abstract. I'm very private with visual work that I do now, and almost any work I have done has been specifically for someone or incidentally given away to friends, or stolen. I have done a series of very obscure, crude, xerox zines, most of which I would put between the pages of random books I liked at book stores, on pages I find to be significant.

Some of that is up here.

I had been an untrained drummer in a theoretical band without a practice space, and at a certain point, they put the 3 components of the Elektribe series in front of me while I was on LSD for one of the first few times I did it. At that time, my understanding of experimental music did not reach far beyond Einsturzende Neubauten, Atari Teenage Riot, and Ministry. I spent 9 hours straight in front of these machines making completely otherworldly music and thinking somehow that it was more than remotely dancable even though it was completely inane and more organic than anything. I liken it to a hybrid of The Residents and Coil being made by a little kid.

I left my parents before I was 19, had been homeless twice, I have had 49 different jobs in my life, and at some point I bought a yamaha RM1x sequencer, which functioned well as a portable composition tool, and maybe a modern version of the broken down acoustic guitar. I would also spend a lot of time doing studio work at a friend and collaborator's studio, Nikola Vasilic. I've used my sequencer in punk bands, an "Electro Cabaret" band called the Walkie-Talkies, and Loto Ball Show, headed by the former singer of Phantom Limbs. I've also done very off kilter hip hop beats for Sharkula and Minotaur, but only until this spring have I learned anything substantial about music.

For more info on Mister Fuckhead check out his blog at nopartofit.blogspot.com

TAD - Busting Circuits and Ringing Ears

So, the song "Potlatch" from TAD's 1990 release "Salt Lick" came up on my iPod a few minutes ago. I love this EP and have since I first heard it back when it came out. So I asked myself "Self, what ever happened to TAD? Is Tad Doyle still alive?"

I poked around online and found out that he IS alive and his current band is called Brothers of the Sonic Cloth (click here for their MySpace). Even more exciting is that a documentary on TAD called "Busting Circuits and Ringing Ears" (trailer above) was made back in 2008. Even more exciting that THAT is that you can watch the whole thing on YouTube starting here.

In closing, here's the video that got me into TAD in the first place...

Admiral Angry

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A couple of years ago my girlfriend was in a record shop and heard the band Admiral Angry playing over the store stereo. She VERY WISELY bought the CD and introduced me to probably the best fucking heavy band I have heard in the last few years. I love my lady.

Yes, Admiral Angry's name is... disarming. That name is like a jolly looking old homeless guy in a sea captain's hat who suddenly jumps you and eats your face off. The band's monicker shrewdly conceals their crushingly heavy and distorted monster sound. The first comparison that leapt to mind when I heard them was the best moments of The Melvins mated with Dystopia.

Anyhow, this coming Monday, April 26th their new EP "A Fire To Burn Down the World" comes out (I already pre-ordered my 12" vinyl). One important note - as a tribute to their guitarist Daniel (who passed away at the way too young age of 22) the band is donating all proceeds from this new EP and their album "Buster" to cystic fibrosis charities. So, please don't be a dick and download their music.

Check out Admiral Angry over at myspace.com/admiralangry

Here's a interview over at The Quietus.

Most importantly you can buy "Buster" on CD and pre-order the vinyl or CD of "A Fire To Burn Down the World" over here at shelsmusic.com

Amer

My friend Jeff McGivney just told me about this film yesterday. He recently caught a museum screening in New York and said it's a great exercise in 70's Giallo worship. It looks amazing.

Check out the film's official website at amer-film.com



Thanks for the heads up on this Jeff (and for the amazing book)!

City of the Living Dead coming soon on Blu-ray

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Blue Underground is killing me. They keep releasing more and more CLASSIC horror titles on Blu-ray. One day they're going to break my will to resist forking over for the HD upgrade. But, for now, my old Panasonic tank of a TV will have to hold out a little while longer.

Coming to stores May 25, 2010 we have another excellent film by Lucio Fulci... "City of the Living Dead" (aka "Gates of Hell"). This is a weird one even by Italian gore standards. I didn't really get into it fully until I realized that the film functions on nightmare logic (much like Argento's very confusing classic "Inferno"). If love horror and can recall some of your own NyQuil-induced fever dreams you will enjoy this very much.

If you haven't seen this film, it contains two of Fulci's most shocking and memorable gore scenes as well as one of the most head scratching endings EVER (if you want me to spoil everything for you and tell the story behind the "City of the Living Dead" ending, just drop me an email).

But this is not just a couple of bloody set pieces and a weird ending. No my friend. This film has perhaps the creepiest atmosphere ever put on film. Grim, foggy, dripping, dirty atmosphere. I love it.

You can learn more, see/download the trailer, etc for the Blu-ray here and Regular DVD here.

MAYa - Helium Video

I found this excellent video thanks to Mark Solotroff's Bloodlust! Blog.

You can check out more of MAYa's music on her MySpace page.

And you can pick up her albums at discalcula.com

Triangle

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I just saw the movie "Triangle" (2009) a week or so ago. While it's not a perfect, five star feature I am recommending it because of it's intense twists and turns. There's a bit of dubious CG that marred the film a bit. If you can ignore that, it's really quite excellent.

If you haven't already heard of this movie, that's for the best. Any description of it is likely to give something away. I saw it knowing next to nothing and remained thoroughly entertained from start to finish.

So, if you like horror and/or violent thrillers, watch "Triangle."

Don't read a review.

Don't watch the trailer.

Don't talk to someone who has seen it.

Just watch it.

After experiencing "Triangle" I am eagerly awaiting the next film by writer / director Christopher Smith.

the [law-rah] collective

the [law-rah] collective is "a collective of persons and personalities from the center of Holland who are working on the auditive side of art." As you can see their work entails video and has even complemented a live dance performance.

If you like what you see/hear, I highly recommend you SUPPORT the [law-rah] collective by purchasing a CD or vinyl release from their official website darkambient.net (more videos are available to watch in the "audio & video" section of their website).

There is also an LP for sale here from the Force of Nature label.

[law-rah] also has an exclusive track on the free digital compilation "Forced Nature Volume One."





Late Addition - Bauke from the [law-rah] collective just sent me this video, check it out:

Matt Minter & R. Clint Colburn Art Show

Matt Minter's version of the announcement (Click images to view them larger)

Matt Minter and R. Clint Colburn
Skylab Gallery
57 East Gay Street, 5th Floor
Columbus, OH 43215

April 9th, 2010 - April 23rd, 2010

Opening reception:
Friday, April 9th, 7pm

Featured bands: Guilty Feelings (Lexington), Cross (Lexington), Trailblazer (Lexington), Jam Division (Columbus), Seabat (Columbus)

You can see much more work by each artist on their respective blogs:
mattminter.blogspot.com
rclintcolburn.blogspot.com


R. Clint Colburn's version of the announcement

Show News Release:

Matt Minter and R. Clint Colburn

For Matt Minter and R. Clint Colburn—currently two of Lexington, Kentucky’s more visionary artists—to exhibit their work side-by-side opens for us a portal into two extremely intense realms of vivid horror and terrible beauty. The chance to peer inside, daunting as it may seem, elicits as much excitement as it does fear, while we adjust our psychic balance to compensate for witnessing such striking imagery.

On April 9th, 2010, Skylab Gallery will host the opening reception for an exhibition of Minter and Colburn’s recent work. The reception includes a companion lineup of musical acts featuring Guilty Feelings, Jam Division, Cross, Seabat and Trailblazer. Doors will open at 7pm and the exhibition will run until April 23rd. Skylab Gallery is located at 57 East Gay Street in downtown Columbus, Ohio.

Minter, coalescing a lifetime’s interest in the macabre powers of ripping flesh, torn skulls, the many forms of decapitation and mutilation, fragile nudity and all the demons lurking behind the veil of human anatomy, carries out his work with the barest lines and the deepest shades. Though most of his compositions occur in black ink on white paper—reminiscent, too, of the hardcore works of Raymond Pettibon—he also creates highly detailed paintings in gesso that mimic the stills of forgotten horror films and/or their subsequent, sleepless unease. Within the devastating horrors of Minter’s work, however, a whisper of humor invites the viewer to at once examine any immediate nausea that may occur through the potential for laughter at its “just being a drawing.”

On the other side of the same room, Colburn has discovered an equally troublesome set of spirits. Where they occur, the spinning heads of children—dizzy on whole worlds of color and light—drift out beyond the periphery, where imaginary faces and figures take on the disturbed voices of vanished children asking innocent questions and trying to get back home. Within the cartoon turned spirit guide and the many stuffed-animal gangs born in the remnants of playground isolation, Colburn conjures up his ever-expanding universe in flaming tongues of pink, orange and yellow. The forgotten tracks his figures follow, while at once smiling and la-la-la-ing all the way, can immediately jolt a viewer at any moment along one of Colburn’s tender meanderings, heartened pondering and electric moments of sadness and joy.


Matt Minter - "Thing from Hell"


R. Clint Colburn - "Kaloomte"

Sensible Nectar - Free Download

I am proud to present the first ever Colors of the Dark exclusive music mix. Many thanks to Justin Marc Lloyd from Sensible Nectar for putting this together and allowing me to host it. He told me that this mix is "is all either unreleased material (that will be released soon) or material that is already on a split CDr or tape with another artist." This is over 90 minutes of free music!

Sensible Nectar is experimental music that ranges from ambient noise to power electronics. If that sounds like your cup of tea you can download the entire mix for FREE here.

You can learn all about Sensible Nectar and the corresponding label Rainbow Bridge at the following links:
hellorainbowbridge.com
facebook.com/pages/Rainbow-Bridge-Recordings/231801454900
myspace.com/rainbowbridgerecordings

Buddy Nestor opening tomorrow night in Philly!

BUDDY NESTOR "Every Girl Goes To Hell" Exhibition

Opening Reception Saturday April 3rd in Philadelphia @ Toothless Cat Gallery 6 - 10 pm

More info on the Toothless Cat Blog

I was in a HUGE group exhibition early last year and Nestor's work was the only stuff that really stood out from the pack.

You can see more of Buddy Nestor's artwork here at his official website.

Luasa Raelon

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Luasa Raelon is one of the dark ambient / experimental projects of David Reed (click here for my previous post on Mr. Reed).

The latest Luasa Raelon CD release "Vampyr: Light Of The Beast" is available now. Reed describes it as a "40 minute long journey inspired by the art of Bocklin, Caspar David Friedrich, Fulci, and classic black and white horror movies."

I have personally listened to this album several times and I have to say it's quite excellent. Each new Luasa Raelon release is better than the previous, and this is no exception. "Vampyr" is subtle, well crafted dark ambient that recalls many a dark and stormy night. Colors of the Dark approved.

The beautiful album cover (above) was done by Michele Mattiuz.

Check out a sample song from this release at myspace.com/davidnathanreed

You can get the "Vampyr: Light Of The Beast" CD directly from David Reed for $10 postpaid North America / $12 postpaid world. Paypal is accepted, via lupine447 [at] hotmail [dot] com

This is a limited edition of 500 and comes with a free 11x17 poster with each direct order while supplies last.