Odds And Sods

The House On The Edge Of The Park (1980) REVIEW

2010-08-06T21:59:00.001+01:00

At least it has good artwork...

La Casa Sperduta Nel Parco presents a minor slap in your humble reviewer's face, and to that extent, probably the majority of people that have watched it and actually thought about what they've seen. However, it's also a fairly difficult film to analyse.

With the UK DVD release of the film 'boasting' a ludicrous 11:43mins of BBFC censorship cuts, you've got to expect this piece, directed by the same chap who brought us Cannibal Holocaust no less, to be more or less on par with said film in terms of graphic visuals. Unfortunately, it's a far tamer semi-rape-and-extended-revenge affair, by which I refer to the way in which the initial rape victim's family and friends take revenge on Alex (our memorable friend, David Hess). However, in doing so, they reveal themselves to be the most incompetent revengers ever to grace the sleaze-screen!

The aforementioned slap in the face comes in the form of the film's ending. After about eighty minutes of me screaming at the group to escape whilst Alex is preoccupied, and wondering why and how on earth any of these idiots are still alive, the ending (quite cleverly) ties up every strand of uselessness that the characters portrayed and promptly laughs in the viewer's face! Now, don't get me wrong, I quite enjoyed the ending, the twist is subtle (or perhaps obvious to some), but it did put a smile on my face. The way the film practically says: "Yeah, I just made you sit through ninety minutes of poorly acted rape, just so as I could pull the rug from under your feet" didn't offend me in the slightest!

Speaking of offence, need I remind you of the near twelve minutes of cuts that this film suffered at the hands of the BBFC. Before watching House I'd read a little bit about it and, whilst I wasn't entirely sure of what to expect, I was anticipating a pretty gory rape and revenge sleazefest. I was fortunate enough to view the very well presented (in terms of AV quality) EC Entertainment 'Remastered Collector's Edition' which is completely uncut. To be honest, I found it difficult to locate eleven minutes of cuttable footage. The BBFC give the following reason for all the cuts:

Cuts required to several sequences of sexual violence, humiliating depictions of female nudity and gross violence, in accordance with BBFC Policy and Guidelines.

I haven't seen the cut print so I can't say what is cut, however according to Wikipedia "almost all of the rape and violence [is] either replaced or removed entirely", of which I'm fairly certain the abuse and humiliation of Cindy must have hit the BBFC's floor, along with the first rape of the film. Personally, I found the other scenes of sexual violence to be fairly... easy to ingest, in that they certainly aren't as nasty as the rape scenes of Last House On The Left, or I Spit On Your Grave. If anything, the bouncing breasts, beautiful actresses, and ludicrous fashion styles, combine to portray a fairly camp atmosphere. This is perhaps bolstered by the on (and off) screen chemistry between David Hess and Annie Belle (Lisa), which made it hard to figure out whether their sex scene is or isn't a rape.

It's a tricky question. There is plenty of female humiliation in the film, (there is also male humiliation) and the first rape, along with the treatment of Cindy, is fairly harsh. Whether or not it is worthy of censorship I'm not sure. It could in fact be argued that the majority of the character's humiliation turns out to be consensual considering the film's ending. Not sure if Cindy's in on it. Thus, assuming more scenes than just the opening and Cindy's are cut, one wonders why, given the fact that they seem to be aware of Alex's past and carry on with it for so long.

Let's move on. What sort of genre does House belong to? The trailer makes it out to be a moderately fast paced thriller with rape/revenge and stalk/slash elements, but in actual fact it's a fairly slow burning piece of sexploitation with a few horror aspects chucked in (i.e. Alex's razor combined with some very dodgy blood effects). However, said aspects take a back seat when propped up against all the nudity and rape. I wouldn't call it a strict rape and revenge flick as the initial victim doesn't get her revenge, instead this is carried out by a third party. From this perspective it makes for an interesting twist on the genre, but perhaps it would have been better if we had been aware for longer that the revenge was actually taking place, instead of the film let us believe that all the characters are incompetent, and I really mean all of them! The kidnappers can't keep their eyes on all the hostages, and the hostages had countless opportunities to escape! As said earlier, this is all fixed with the long awaited twist, and a second viewing would definitely lead me to see House in a different light.

The acting is pretty dire and the majority of the rape scenes don't evoke the same emotion that other r n' r films do. The ending just about redeems this let down.

5/10.

Spider Labyrinth (1988) REVIEW)

2010-07-30T14:41:00.002+01:00

AKA: Il Nido Del Ragno / The Spider's Nest

With a name like Spider Labyrinth (quite possibly the coolest title I've heard in a while); the promise of an ancient tablet, spider gods, religious cults; and a mixture of Giallo and the supernatural, I was very much looking forward to sinking my teeth into this obscure Italian horror from the late eighties. The fact that it hasn't been released on DVD, and that the easiest way to get hold of it is from bit torrent (sourced from a VHS with Japanese subtitles no less!) only added to my anticipation and the hope that I'd be sitting here today asking why on earth this gem hasn't received a cracking DVD release from the likes of Shameless or Blue Underground!

Unfortunately, this isn't the case.

Spider Labyrinth was in fact so disappointing that, whilst watching it, I felt as if there must be something wrong with me for not thoroughly enjoying the thing. Sure, all the cool bits about tablets and spider cults are there. They're just not very good. Despite the immense jump cut that sends our protagonist, Professor Alan Whitmore (aka: the unwanted child of Andrew Eldritch and George Michael) from Washington to Budapest in the space of one scene, the beginning of the film is pretty slow. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind a bit of pacing, and there's a fair amount of mystery in these slow scenes. Unfortunately, though, they don't seem to amount to anything. We're left not really caring why our protagonist should leave town immediately, or who Prof. Roth's mysterious wife is. This is mainly due to the fact that all of this is revealed halfway through the film!

Wake me up, before you go-go!

After twenty-five minutes the film gives up trying to be mysterious and (finally) gives us its first murder. The poor professor has hung himself, after we saw a small black ball roll into the room in the earlier scene. Could the black ball have something to do with the murder?

After the murder the police are suspicious of Whitmore, so he goes for dinner in the hotel that he's staying at with the film's token hottie.

Brr!

Then, after having decided earlier that it doesn't want to be a mystery film, Spider Labyrinth decides that it no longer wishes to be a Giallo, so it becomes Suspiria! All of sudden the hotel maid is in a room full of white sheets and green lights being chased by a witch who wants to stab her in the head (thus giving away the films ending). Despite the event resulting in a fairly cool death scene, I'm sitting there wondering if it's really necessary. It's so out of place that it just looks wrong. The film hasn't given us enough of the supernatural in order to warrant such a scene. In fact, it's as if the director couldn't decide whether or not to do a Suspiria rip off, or do a Giallo with a twist. Personally I think keeping it more at the Giallo end of the spectrum with the added Spider cult theme would've been more successful than what it eventually becomes (a seesaw between two ideas that do not gel well).

Then Whitmore goes to the pool.

Then he goes in search of something but can't find it, why would the hottie give him the wrong directions?

Then he looks a lot like George Michael.

Then he has sex with the token babe (I forget her name) but she drools all over him for some reason.

Then it all turns out to be something to do with a jelly baby.

I'm alive!!!

THE END!

...

In all seriousness though, Spider Labyrinth was a major let down. I want to watch it again to see if it can redeem itself, but for something which sounded so promising I was left feeling annoyed at it's lack of direction and don't get me started on it's god awful special effects!

5.5/10.

The Collector (2009) REVIEW

2010-07-01T11:50:00.001+01:00

The Collector is a 2009 American horror film written by Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton and directed by Marcus Dunstan. It has already had it's theatrical and DVD release in America, however it has only recently hit UK cinemas.

I went to see it at the cinema expecting a Saw rip-off. If you've read the IMDB reviews you too would probably expect a Saw rip-off, and a mediocre one at that. This is definitely not a Saw rip-off, if anything it far surpasses Saw (in terms of suspense) and any horror film I've seen lately.

The action takes place inside a house which Josh Stewart is trying to burgle so he can pay off his annoying wife's debts. Unfortunately Stewart gets stopped in his tracks by 'The Collector', who's character style is an obvious homage to Gunnar Hansen's Leatherface - ie, relentless psychopath with more than a hint of mental illness. Personally I find creaky houses and masked intruders the most scariest, and the tension built up during the brilliant 15 minute chase between Stewart and The Collector around the house really got my adrenaline going. Unfortunately the tension was slightly ruined by the over-the-top murder scenes. I'm a big fan of gore, but it seems of late that many directors think gore = scary, this is not the case. As a result the violence (and there's a lot of it), whilst pretty wince-inducing, broke the suspense that had been building.

The film takes an interesting stand point in that it forces the audience to sympathise with Stewart, a character who, for the first 20 minutes of the film, is built up to be the bad guy. A person who is going to burgle the property of a family who, early on in the film, pay him extra for some extermination work that he carried out for them in order for him to help is wife and daughter. It is the aforementioned 'chase around the house' scene that ultimately switches our sympathies and places Stewart in an odd kind of limbo between The Collector and the other hostages who turn up hidden in cupboards around the house.

The film has a couple of throwaway characters who die some pretty incredible deaths and, in my opinion, the ending was very well done. A lot of people have called for the death of The Collector, some even calling him an annoying villain. The ending leaves the film open for a sequel and if the same team are behind it then it should be a pretty good one.

A quick mention goes to the soundtrack. It's an intriguing mix of electronic/industrial and Bauhaus' Bela Lugosi's Dead. Being a Bauhaus fan I was pleasantly surprised at how well it was used in the film. The huge synthesiser soundtrack that dominates the majority of the film is truly scary and very well placed.

If you're a fan of horror then I highly recommend seeing this film as it is one of the best modern examples out there.

8/10.

Pontypool (2009) REVIEW

2010-06-24T21:38:00.001+01:00

Finally, a crack at breathing life and semi-intelligence into a zombie genre that is looking a bit tired at the moment. Pontypool is a 2009 Canadian horror film directed by Bruce McDonald and adapted by Tony Burgess from Burgess' novel Pontypool Changes Everything. It tells the story of a radio show team, stuck in their studio whilst a "riot" takes place outside in the small town of Pontypool. Little do they know, the "riot" is in fact an infected bunch of zombies. The interesting point is the fact that these creatures are not infected through blood, but rather through hearing (and understanding) certain words that have become infected.

The film presents the idea: how can one deliberately misunderstand a word that they already know the meaning of?

In the film, certain terms of endearment, such as "sweetheart", have become infected. If a victim should hear these words from the mouth of someone who is infected they will too become infected.

At Rue Morgue's 2008 Festival of Fear expo, director Bruce McDonald stressed the victims of the virus detailed in the film were not zombies and called them "conversationalists". He described the stages of the disease:

There are three stages to this virus. The first stage is you might begin to repeat a word. Something gets stuck. And usually it's words that are terms of endearment like sweetheart or honey. The second stage is your language becomes scrambled and you can't express yourself properly. The third stage you become so distraught at your condition that the only way out of the situation you feel, as an infected person, is to try and chew your way through the mouth of another person.

Unfortunately the film doesn't quite grasp the concept and perhaps could have benefited from a more scholarly writing team that could properly investigate such an interesting idea (apparently the novel suffers from the same problem), but the groundwork is there that perhaps another film maker could capitalise on. The idea that words are infected is very interesting and the film should be applauded for introducing such an innovative concept into the zombie genre. The fact that they were able to pull the whole thing off within the confines of just one location is also incredible.

The performances by the three lead actors, Stephen McHattie in particular, are all first rate. The special effects are used sparingly but are convincing and not too "realistic" as we saw in La Horde. True, the film is no masterpiece, but it certainly kept the brain ticking over, and was pretty suspenseful at times. Definitely worth watching.

7/10.

La Horde (2009) REVIEW

2010-06-24T13:20:00.000+01:00

The Horde is France's first zombie film, directed by Yannick Dahan and Benjamin Rocher, it stars Jean-Pierre Martins, Eriq Ebouaney and Doudou Masta.

The film opens at a funeral. Now, excuse me for being a cliche-craver, but I was half expecting, half hoping, for a bloody great fist to smash through the coffin and for the entire funeral party to be partly devoured, resulting in a good old fashioned zombie horde! Unfortunately this was not be, we leave the funeral and witness a detective (I think) beating up someone who supposedly killed the bloke in the coffin. Then for some reason the main characters - who no-one cares about because we don't know anything about them apart from the fact that two are brothers, one of which enjoys contemplating zombie-rape - find themselves at the top of a building, only to realise that the place is swarming with LA HORDE! ... er, zombies.

The zombies are pretty average 'modern day looking'. By this I mean, imagine the image difference between Zombie Flesh Eaters' zombies, and Land Of The Dead's zombies. In my opinion modern zombies are pretty crap looking. In a way, the make-up is too convincing, give me blue and mouldy any day!

To me the most intriguing part of the film was when the brothers were contemplating the rape of an injured zombie. Finally, I thought, a concept rarely (if at all) seen in zombie films. Could a rape shift audience sympathies from the civilians to the zombies? Unfortunately it seems the directors only used the scene (which didn't result in a rape) as filler. The character considers it for a few seconds, before being swept off to the next uninteresting scene.

I think it's good to stop here and say that, whilst I didn't find the film particularly exhilarating I didn't completely dislike it. There was one very good scene involving a character who has become trapped on top of a car that is surrounded by zombies. Queue some awesome hacking shots, with tongue-in-cheek violence similar to the post-exploitation fight scenes of Bitch Slap. Unfortunately, this is about as "original" as it gets, and the ending just happens without any real thought or impact.

La Horde could have been so much more, even if it had gone down the super-cliche route of a graveyard full of flesh munching zombies I think it would have been more enjoyable. Instead we got a cobbled together story, characters who we don't know anything about and thus do not care about, and an ending which leaves it open to a sequel that hopefully will never get made.

5/10.

More on 7zip

2009-05-22T10:28:00.000+01:00

You can also get Linux and Mac versions of 7zip from : http://www.7-zip.org/download.html

The Sisters Of Mercy - Wake (Remastered Audio)

2009-05-14T15:01:00.001+01:00

"Wake" was a video recording of The Sisters Of Mercy's "last" concert at The Royal Albert Hall, June 18, 1985. It was also released on Laserdisc in Japan.

A few years ago a copy of the Laserdisc was recorded onto PC, remastered and then shared. Here is the remastered audio from that.

Wake [Remastered] (1985)

First And Last And Always
Body And Soul
Marian
No Time To Cry
Walk Away
Possession
Emma
Amphetamine Logic
A Rock And A Hard Place
Floorshow
Alice
Fix
Knockin' On Heaven's Door

Download.

Red Lorry Yellow Lorry - Paint Your Wagon

2009-05-14T12:15:00.003+01:00

Red Lorry Yellow Lorry is a rock band that was formed in Leeds, England in early 1981.

The band was formed by guitarist/songwriter Chris Reed and vocalist Mark Sweeney, along with bassist Steve Smith and drummer Mick Brown (who would later join The Mission). Sweeney left the band in late 1981 and Reed permanently took over as vocalist, with Martin Fagan joining as a second guitarist. The group's sound, featuring a numbing guitar drone, powerfully throbbing drums, and Reed's cavernous vocal tones, caused the Lorries (as their fans came to call them) to be quickly lumped into the then-developing gothic rock scene by pop journalists, although the band themselves preferred to cite Wire as an influence.

Paint Your Wagon, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry's second album, was released in 1986 in the UK on Red Rhino, an independent music record label. It would be the band's final original LP release on the label (excepting a singles collection, Smashed Hits, the following year) before signing to major label Situation Two in 1987. Like the Lorries' debut album (Talk about the Weather), Paint Your Wagon had a very short running time, coming in at under 30 minutes. Two of the tracks, "Mescal Dance" and "Blitz", were instrumentals. Cassette and CD releases/reissues have featured various additional bonus tracks.

This download is taken from my own vinyl copy of Paint Your Wagon, transferred to the computer using a USB turntable. The LP is in near-mint condition, and the recording is fantastic!

Paint Your Wagon (REDLP 65 1986)

Walking On Your Hands
Jipp
Last Train
Head All Fire
Mescal Dance
Shout At The Sky
Which Side
Tear Me Up
Save My Soul
Blitz

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Manuskript - I Can't Believe It's Not Goth!

2009-05-14T11:59:00.002+01:00

Manuskript are a mid-90s UK Goth band consisting of Christian Tonkin, Michael Uwins, Paul Morris, Tim Chandler, Tom Quick.
This, their self financed début EP, was limited to approximately 500 copies and originally only available at their gigs. The remaining copies were distributed through Resurrection Records. This rip is from the original (non Resurrection) batch.

I Can't Believe It's Not Goth EP (MTSKR 12 1995)

Chase
Prince Of Fools
Flies In The Marzipan
Faking Lies

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James Rays Gangwar - Dios Esta De Nuestro Lado

2009-05-14T11:20:00.005+01:00

James Ray is a rock singer and band-leader, best known as a member of Andrew Eldritch's side-project The Sisterhood.

He was a founding member of "James Ray And The Performance", a rock band with ties to goth rock. James Ray has also formed the bands "James Ray's Gangwar", "The MK Ultra", and his current band "4080peru".

After James Ray And The Performance, Ray formed James Ray's Gangwar. The band were still contracted to Merciful Release for an album, so the band recorded the Dios Esta De Nuestro Lado LP, a more aggressive sounding album, still with the southern American influence, and a cover of Alvin Stardust's "[My] Coo Ca Choo" closing the album. The opening track, Rev Rev Lowrider was released as a single. Other non-album tracks were released as singles, "Fuel", "Another Million Dollars" and "Without Conscience".

After this, Gangwar released the Third Generation LP on Surgery Records, a much more techno-based album, with fewer guitars, and a more trance-like feel. The song "Fuelled Up" draws heavily from the earlier song "Fuel," which in turn borrows heavily from the melody of Knock on Wood.

The final Gangwar album was 'Psychodalek'.

In recent years, Gangwar have reformed, to play a handful of concerts, such as Wave-Gotik-Treffen.

Dios Está De Nuestro Lado (MRAY 341CD 1992)

Rev Rev Lowrider
Heart Surgery
35 Thousand Times
Badlands
Hardwar
Cadillac Coming
Bad Gin
Santa Susana
Coo Ca Choo

Download.

7-Zip

2009-05-14T10:59:00.002+01:00

7-Zip is an open source file archiver designed originally for Microsoft Windows. 7-Zip operates primarily with the 7z archive format, as well as being able to read and write to several other archive formats. A user can use the command line interface, graphical user interface, or Windows shell integration. 7-Zip began in 2000 and is actively developed by Igor Pavlov. It is related to a cross-platform port, p7zip.

Unlike WinZip and WinRAR programs, which are distributed under proprietary licenses, 7-Zip is distributed under the GNU Lesser General Public License. 7-Zip was the winner of the SourceForge.net 2007 community choice awards for "Technical Design" and for "Best Project".

7-Zip is free to use and is useful in that it can handle a variety of compressed folder formats. It can also create split archives. Most of my uploads will be less than 100mb and therefore will not need to be split (to comply with Mediafire's rules) but those that do will be created using 7-Zip. As a result it is advised that you download the software to extract some of the albums that I'll be posting. The software is free.

Download.

Children On Stun - Mondo Weird

2009-05-14T10:16:00.006+01:00

Children On Stun is the name of a Gothic rock band from England. Formed in 1991, the original line-up consisted of Neil Ash, Simon Manning, Simon Treen and Pete Finnemore.

1996 saw the band begin to record their new album, Mondo Weird, which was not released until 1997.

Members:

Pete Finnemore - Guitar (1991-1995)
Simon Manning - Bass (1991 - 1998)
Neil Ash - Vocals (1991 - 1998)
Simon Treen - Drums (1991)
Kyle Whipp - Bass (1995-1998)

Mondo Weird is a slight departure from the more traditional style of earlier Stun releases as the band discovered computers that go "bleep" sometime before its recording, but it remains a strong a vastly overlooked album.

Mondo Weird (1997)

Mondo Weird
Building Boxes
Flech
Style Police
Singles And Doubles
Twisted
Strange Days
Outrageous, Outlawed, Outspoken
Scum
Aunty Crystal Thieves
Whiskey A Go-Go
Demonica Beatnik

Download.

N.B. Due to Mediafire's upload size limit this download has been split into 3 archives. You will need the free programme 7-Zip to extract them.

Eyes Of The Nightmare Jungle - Pressure

2009-05-14T00:49:00.002+01:00

Eyes Of The Nightmare Jungle are a 90s Gothic Rock band (think The Merry Thoughts). Here is one of their singles which contains a cracking re-working of their club hit, "Shadow Dance".

Pressure (SPV 055-61693 CDS 1994)

Pressure (Radio Version)
Pressure (Extended Version)
Shadow Dance (Remix '94)

Download.

The Sisterhood - Gift (CD Rip)

2009-05-13T13:27:00.000+01:00

The Sisterhood was a short-lived English musical project, consisting of Andrew Eldritch (writer and producer), drum machine "Doktor Avalanche" and the "Chorus of Vengeance" consisting of Lucas Fox (drums), Patricia Morrison (bass and vocals), James Ray (guitar and vocals) and Alan Vega (synthesizer and vocals). Eldritch does not sing lead vocals on the record officially, though does sing Colours & Giving Ground unofficially.

The band was formed by Eldritch after the 1985 breakup of his band The Sisters of Mercy. There had supposedly been an agreement among Eldritch and the ones leaving the band that Eldritch would retain the rights to the songs and the names, while the ex-Sisters would play their old songs under the name of Sisterhood. Eldritch would not accept this close a name, especially with them breaking the agreement by playing songs they weren't allowed to.

Eldritch quickly formed "The Sisterhood" to force the old band members out of the game. Enlisting the helping hand of Patricia Morrison, formerly of The Gun Club and soon-to-be member of the reformed Sisters, and Alan Vega of the New York outfit Suicide.

Their first release was a single, featuring two versions of the song, "Giving Ground".

The Sisterhood released one LP, Gift, in 1986 on Eldritch's own Merciful Release label, which includes "Giving Ground" and four other songs. Not named after the English word but rather the German word for poison, Gift is quite simple with its long, droning rhythms and ill sentiment ("what you have lost can never be found" and "trust lies broken, and the truth is drowned") towards the former Sisters members, especially Wayne Hussey.

On "Jihad" Patricia Morrison recites the numbers 2-5-0-0-0 several times. According to rumours this is a reference to the amount of money that Eldritch won from The Mission in the civil courts after suing them over the ownership of the name "The Sisterhood".

A version of "Colours" with Eldritch singing was later included as a b-side of "This Corrosion" and then a bonus track on the CD of The Sisters of Mercy album Floodland.

On "Finland Red, Egypt White", Lucas Fox reads the technical specifications of an AK-47 rifle to several minutes of sheer repetition.

The hit single "This Corrosion" that appeared on "Floodland" was originally planned for the Gift album, harboring the same vitriol towards the betrayers of Eldritch's trust.

Sure enough, the release copyrighted the name of the band, forcing the other Sisterhood to initiate a name change. Changing to The Mission, supposedly taking the name from the next Sisters LP that had been planned, "Left On Mission And Revenge", the band quickly started a life of its own.

Gift was released on both vinyl and CD. The CD version is quite hard to come by (I only physically have it on vinyl) but a CD rip has been shared on SoulSeek and other P2P sites. Whilst I'm not 100% certain that this download is a CD copy it does sound remarkably clean and CD-like in comparison to my own and other people's vinyl rips.

Gift (SIS 020-CD 1986)

Jihad
Colours
Giving Ground
Finland Red, Egypt White
Rain From Heaven

Download.

The Wood Children - Happens Everyday 12"

2009-05-13T13:10:00.001+01:00

The Wood Children were an indie rock band who (to my surprise when researching this post) have more than one release! Until now I thought this wonderful 12" was there only output, but it turns out they did in fact release a few more things in the late 80s and early 90s.

I haven't been able to find any information about them online, but here is (what I believe to be) their début release.

Happens Everyday 12" (A B B05T 1987)

Happens Everyday
Two Red Buses
Can Of Worms

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The Mumbles - The Wire EP

2009-05-13T13:03:00.002+01:00

My first post will be one of shameless self-promotion. I am in a keyboard-driven rock n' roll band called The Mumbles and last year (2008) we released an EP for free online.

Here it is for your full enjoyment.

The Wire EP (BH0802 2008)

Prelude
The Machine
Dream Of Mirrors
Martell
Twenty-Two

Download.

Welcome

2009-05-13T12:54:00.000+01:00

Hello and welcome to the Odds And Sods blog. This blog will contain various bits and pieces, including: short writings, ideas, videos and, most importantly, will be a place for you to download music by long lost bands.

I'm a fan of obscure 80s Gothic Rock and Post-Punk so if you are too, expect to see some useful downloads in the future.