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What is techno if not a powerful conduit for energy? The movement of a sequence, the surge of an effects rush, the respondent reaction in every individual dancer and the moving mass of the crowd as a whole. Whether the frequencies transmit directly into the brain through the intimacy of a headphone reverie, reverberate through the architecture of a space or fill the formless void of the open air, techno’s potency to initiate and stimulate energetic events is profound. This is something Pfirter understands intimately, having spent more than 15 years exploring ways of manipulating the energy on a dancefloor.

Of course, energy is not just about volume and aggression. Tonality, spatial processing and composition can have just as profound an effect as the thump of the kick drum. On his new album Altered States, Pfirter proves that point by zeroing in on the cerebral, psychedelic elements of his craft across 10 incisive tracks. The Argentine producer consciously approached his second album (following 2019’s The Empty Space) with a minimal mindset, using a very focused set of drum machines and synths to achieve a consistency across the record. Captured over a short burst of creativity, it’s the sound of an artist pushing a limited array of tools as far as possible. Despite this concise palette, it’s not an album that repeats itself, but rather an extended trip that flows from one detailed, textured immersion to the next.

The dense, febrile waves of hard-oscillating ripples in ‘A Future In Chaos’ and the sparkling, off-key chimes adorning ‘Yearn’ all speak to Pfirter’s gift for extravagant, surrealist expression within his tracks. ‘Altered States’, by way of contrast, succeeds in its absolute immediacy – a piledriving statement of bleep-driven intent. ‘Boiler’ and ‘Convergence’ land somewhere in between, coiling around kinked rhythmic incantations which still push forwards with precision while offering a different angle from which to approach the dancefloor. Cementing the idea of the whole album as a listening experience, Altered States is bookended by ‘Venus’ and ‘Dissolution’, two minimal exercises in drone-oriented mood setting.

Pfirter understands the role of his music, and his own instincts as a performing artist. It’s crafted to be captivating for DJs as much as the attentive listener. Spanning linear rhythms and broken beats, moments of calm and writhing intensity, Altered States offers a multitude of energetic possibilities in the mix or as a standalone piece of music. Ultimately, it’s a masterful return from a leading light of the contemporary techno scene.

This is MindTrip!

The third instalment on O’Flynn’s club label Hundred Flowers is a collaboration between Spooky - J (Nihiloxica) and Ekhe.

Two high speed and energetic bangers in their rawest form, these are club weapons that can be used to spice up any set.

A distillation of dance floor energy, the record is the result of a live improvised performance over New Year’s Eve 2019/20.

Spooky - J: "We both enjoy jamming together and not planning too much ahead of time, so naturally it makes sense to improvise at live shows. It also leaves space for the music to go off on a tangent depending on what the crowd or we are feeling.”

Ekhe: “Live improv becomes a real antidote for my concerns about preparing music. Instead, you’re creating something in the moment, directly corresponding with the energy around you, which in turn is influenced by your sound. Getting caught up in that is unlike anything else."

Spooky - J is currently on tour with Nihiloxica and the pair have a gig planned for this NYE in Amsterdam.

It’s time to get high and live life (safely).

Six years on since his latest appearance on the label's main series, Stroboscopic Artefacts boss Luca Mortellaro, aka Lucy, returns with 'Dyscamupia' - an introspective, multisensory techno triptych revolving around the core sequence of Albert Camus' classic existentialist novel, 'The Stranger'. Also known as the 'killing of an arab', this pivotal moment in Camus' seminal book - which also inspired The Cure their song 'Killing An Arab' back in the day, is here evoked through three variedly intense, deep and hypnotic techno variations - flexing from 120 to 130, onto 140 BPM - each of them translating a particular step in the author's minute, focal-shifting depiction of the unknown man's murder on the beach.

Embodying Meursault for a minute, Jason Snell lends his voice to the narrator and his inner demons, casting a strange, ominous spell on the club and its crowd. Willing to explore and dig up further into the textural wealth and crucial warmth of organic sounds and synthetic treatments, Lucy made wise use of the binaural microphones technology during the vocals recording process, greatly enhancing the immersive force of his compositions to create thoughtful, dystopic narrative bubbles that stand in their own right.
The first number, ' Dyscamupia (Forward)', happens before and right until the actual killing - hence time flowing at a metronomic, heartbeat-like tempo; the second cut 'Dyscamupia (Pause)' takes place right after the nameless man's death, when the narrator enters a kind of existential 'pause' and a whole new flow of consciousness begins; the third sequence, 'Dyscamupia (Backward)', plumbs the depths of the action itself as played backwards, like an equally hazed-out and dizzying reminiscence of the sad encounter's mechanism. Don't let its seemingly conceptual framework fool you though, like most of his past output 'Dyscamupia' also aims to bring dancefloors to a steady simmer, whilst maintaining Lucy's ascending momentum towards an all-round genre-busting, thought-provoking apex.

Grace Cummings is an actor and musician from Melbourne, Australia. Grace
learned piano as a child and took up the guitar as a young adult, but only
began to write and perform music in 2018. She went from a debut gig at
Melbourne’s Old Bar to a breakthrough performance at Boogie Festival in the
space of six months, picking up support slots with J Mascis and Evan Dando
along the way.
 With buzz building around her powerhouse live show, Grace grabbed the
attention of Flightless Records (King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard), who
released her debut album, ‘Refuge Cove’, in late 2019. Refuge Cove won
praise from publications around the world, including Pitchfork and All Music,
and Grace was tapped for support slots with Weyes Blood, Cash Savage,
Teskey Brothers and Allah-Lahs.
 In 2020, Grace recorded the single ‘Sweet Matilda’ for Mexican Summer’s
‘Through the Looking Glass’ series before landing a worldwide deal with
indie powerhouse ATO Records (Alabama Shakes, My Morning Jacket, King
Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard). Her sophomore album, ‘Storm Queen’, is
now set for release.
 Available on CD and opaque white vinyl. (Once the coloured vinyl format has
sold out, a standard vinyl format - ATO0589LP - will be made available.)
 A graduate of the drama program at the Victorian College of the Arts, Grace
appeared in Elbow Room’s award-winning production ‘Prehistoric’, which
played to packed houses and widespread critical acclaim at the 2018
Edinburgh Fringe. In 2021, she made her debut with the Melbourne Theatre
Company in 2021, in Joanna Murray-Smith’s ‘Berlin’.
 “Cummings isn’t content to merely sing along to her melodies. She tears her
low, surging voice to shreds, braying like she’s beckoning you from the
opposite end of a crowded room. It adds an eerie, intense quality to her
music - a desperation behind the calm of her arrangements.” - Pitchfork
 “One of Melbourne’s hottest new talents... filled with raw power.” - Beat
Magazine
 “Cummings has a voice that demands to be heard, while her lyrics cut
through to the heart, leaving listeners gasping for air.” - Folk Radio UK
 “Like a combination of Sandy Denny, Odetta, Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen
and Marianne Faithfull... as the last piano chord ends, you are left wanting
more.” - Your Music Radar
 “There’s a striking androgyny in her tone, it brings the power needed for
these songs to make you stop and listen...Her wit is very sharp and it bites
back with cunning rhetoric.” - Stomp and Stammer
 “Take notice of Cummings as a fresh new Australian talent.” - X-Press Mag

Album focus track is "Fearless". Marketing Highlights -Previously appeared on NBC's The Masked Singer - Music Video release day and date w/ national press release - Tease of song pre-release on artist socials - Pre-Save/Pre Add push pre-release - Liners for all DSPs pushing to single to be posted on band socials - Cain's Ballroom live streams monthly with each single release - Instagram stickers for each single - VR filters created for each single pushing to video - $5k advertising budget across single releases pushing to: YouTube True View, Pivot link on social media, Google Search and display ads and Spotify Marquee Socials Facebook - 390k followers Instagram - 208k followers Twitter - 141.3k followers Spotify - 331k followers, 2.3m monthly listeners Previous Sales 130k average weekly streams Spotify 90k average weekly streams YouTube 35k average weekly streams Apple 12k average weekly streams Amazon Team Press - Ken Weinstein @ Big Hassle PR Digital Marketing - Crowd Surf Media

In 2020 Brooklyn's Holy Hive introduced us all to something we didn't know we needed. Homer Steinweiss' thickly pocketed drumming paired with Paul Spring's floaty falsetto vocal produces a sound that's like a salve. It's been dubbed Folk Soul and Holy Hive not only expertly overlay the more apparent musical aspects of folk and soul-but they also draw from the more profound: being able to pull traditions from the past and make them their own. When Homer wasn't playing drums for Lady Gaga or Adele or Bruno Mars, he'd produce Paul's solo folk records. Along with original bassist and frequent collaborator Joe Harrison, these sessions proved to be Holy Hive's foundation. And their fi rst record, Float Back to You, expertly combined what each musician does best: Paul's heady, reflective approach to folk with Homer's universal classic soul sound. With their new record released on Big Crown, Holy Hive's beautifully simple-and-sparse Folk Soul sound is back-but updated. With new influences and the challenge of creating and capturing music during a global pandemic, this new self-titled album, is more personal, more reflective. They describe three distinct phases when piecing together Holy Hive: this first stage was pre-pandemic in California while traveling as a group, then-like the rest of us-they were separated, creating together but apart, and lastly an explosion of output once they reunited in New York. There is a natural but subtle evolution for Holy Hive on this record. Homer and Paul drew from new and maybe more obscure-yet-honest influences. It's still very much Folk Soul-how could it not be. But, like all artists, they've taken in what they've made and how they've made it, only to push it into new places. We know of Holy Hive's ability to lyrically convey the abstract and complex in poetic and palatable ways. But where the first record was soulfully silver-tongued with chill songs about love and affection, Holy Hive widens the lens with these novel influences, reflecting the points both Homer and Paul are in their own lives.

LTD. CLEAR PINK & BLUE SPLATTER VINYL

In 2020 Brooklyn's Holy Hive introduced us all to something we didn't know we needed. Homer Steinweiss' thickly pocketed drumming paired with Paul Spring's floaty falsetto vocal produces a sound that's like a salve. It's been dubbed Folk Soul and Holy Hive not only expertly overlay the more apparent musical aspects of folk and soul-but they also draw from the more profound: being able to pull traditions from the past and make them their own. When Homer wasn't playing drums for Lady Gaga or Adele or Bruno Mars, he'd produce Paul's solo folk records. Along with original bassist and frequent collaborator Joe Harrison, these sessions proved to be Holy Hive's foundation. And their fi rst record, Float Back to You, expertly combined what each musician does best: Paul's heady, reflective approach to folk with Homer's universal classic soul sound. With their new record released on Big Crown, Holy Hive's beautifully simple-and-sparse Folk Soul sound is back-but updated. With new influences and the challenge of creating and capturing music during a global pandemic, this new self-titled album, is more personal, more reflective. They describe three distinct phases when piecing together Holy Hive: this first stage was pre-pandemic in California while traveling as a group, then-like the rest of us-they were separated, creating together but apart, and lastly an explosion of output once they reunited in New York. There is a natural but subtle evolution for Holy Hive on this record. Homer and Paul drew from new and maybe more obscure-yet-honest influences. It's still very much Folk Soul-how could it not be. But, like all artists, they've taken in what they've made and how they've made it, only to push it into new places. We know of Holy Hive's ability to lyrically convey the abstract and complex in poetic and palatable ways. But where the first record was soulfully silver-tongued with chill songs about love and affection, Holy Hive widens the lens with these novel influences, reflecting the points both Homer and Paul are in their own lives.

These recordings, made in 2001 in the weeks before September 11, constitute a unique historical document. They are spoken-word adaptations of scenes taken from Destroy All Monsters, the first book by acclaimed writer and 'pop culture alchemist' Ken Hollings. A multistranded postmodern epic, Destroy All Monsters offers a radical retelling of Desert Storm, America's military operation targeting Iraq, using imagery derived from MTV videos, CNN news reports, Japanese kaiju movies and anime, Hong Kong action flicks and tales of alien abduction. The book's entire narrative nervously unfolds in an unstable of world of terror monsters, wrecked cities and dangerously tall buildings: where an event like 9/11 is inevitable. The book was officially launched on September 13, but distribution in the United States was delayed when ports on the Eastern Seaboard were closed to shipping post 9/11, leaving copies of the book stranded in the Atlantic. 'Published the very week of the "attacks on America",' Toby Litt wrote at the time, 'Destroy All Monsters is genuinely, spookily prescient…as a progress report on Planet Earth, it seems to have timeslipped onto the front pages.' Lydia Lunch praised it as 'a hallucinogenic spiral into future nightmare', while The Scotsman called it 'mind bending reading.'

In the summer of 2001, Ken Hollings was approached by sound designer and electronic music composer Simon James, who wanted to create an audio adaptation of scenes from the novel to share with subscribers to a spoken word channel launched by totallyradio. The idea was to record Ken reading his own words and then embed them in a soundscape that evoked the fragmented complexity of the original text. Ken concentrated on a small handful of threads from the overall narrative, while Simon directed and engineered the final recording. This resulted in the two sequences of words, sounds and electronic tonalities contained on this audiocassette: an unsettling portrait of people about to be overtaken by events.

In October 2001, having just got married in London, Ken and Rachel Hollings went to New York for their honeymoon, just as they had originally planned. They spent an unforgettable week in a city struggling to recover from the seismic changes that had just taken place while a sudden wave of anthrax attacks on government and media offices filled the news cycles. Rachel took a photograph of Ken at Ground Zero, where crowds of onlookers continued to gather, and the air still smelled of burning.

Ken Hollings is a writer and broadcaster whose main concern is the relationship between culture and technology. He has written and presented numerous critically acclaimed features for BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4 and Resonance 104.4 FM His other books include Welcome to Mars, The Bright Labyrinth, The Space Oracle and Inferno all available from Strange Attractor/MIT Press. His latest book, Purgatory, is due from Strange Attractor in Spring 2022.

Simon James is a producer, musician and sound designer based in Brighton, UK, whose work combines electronic sources with field recording techniques and sound treatments, using sound to transport the listener to fantastical audio worlds. Simon's latest release, Electro Smog, collects electromagnetic field recordings from Shenzhen's electronic markets, recorded while he was in China at the invitation of Musicity and The British Council.

The Destroy All Monsters audio adaptations marked the first occasion Ken and Simon worked together – subsequently they collaborated on the 12-part series Welcome to Mars for Resonance 104.4 FM and Connecting, an audio portrait of the original 'phone phreaks', for BBC Radio 3. In 2021 they teamed up again to make Fast Forward, a six-part documentary series for Kasperksy Lab.

Wiseblood is one of the most well-known Corrosion of Conformity albums and was released in 1996 as the fifth studio album by the American heavy metal band. The album charted on the Billboard Top 200 Album Charts and peaked at #104. The history of Corrosion of Conformity in modern heavy music is highly significant, not least due to guitarist Pepper Keenan’s formation of all-star project Down, along with Pantera’s Philip Anselmo and members of Crowbar.

Wiseblood includes the tracks “Drowning in a Daydream”, which was nominated for Best Metal Performance at the 40th Grammy Awards, and “Man Or Ash”, on which Metallica’s James Hetfield provides backing vocals.

Wiseblood is available on black vinyl.

Massachusetts hardcore band Defeater have announced their new self-titled album. Defeater will be released May 10 on Epitaph. This is Defeater's fifth full-length release and their first in 4 years. The first new single, "Mothers' Sons" features blistering guitars that take the song into something chaotic and beautiful. Defeater was produced with Will Yip (Quicksand, La Dispute, Blacklisted, Ms. Lauryn Hill) whose enthusiasm and talent pushed the songs to their fullest potential. Defeater showcases the band at their most devastating and sonically arresting to date. It is as pummeling as it is atmospheric. Yet it's been a long journey to where the band is now. Years of touring took their toll on the friends that make up the current lineup of Derek Archambault (vocals), Jake Woodruff (guitar), Adam Crowe (guitar), Mike Poulin (bass) and Joe Longobardi (drums). Health, substance abuse issues, and ejecting a longtime member had made a touring hiatus necessary. After a few months at home, working and decompressing, the fire to write a new record caught everyone in a major way. The result of time off and the band's renewed energy, Defeater has created their most organic batch of songs yet. And in Defeater fashion, the instrumentation is complimented by a narrative approach. Archambault explores his own "Glass family" (an homage to the J.D. Salinger characters) from new perspectives.

Scottish DJ Ewan McVicar is tipped for big things, having found support in the likes of Annie Mac and Fatboy Slim. After a stellar year crowned with a release on the hallowed Nervous Records, he makes his debut on Shall Not Fade's "Basement Tracks" series with five explosive earworms.

Amnocairn EP collects the most classic sounds from the dancefloor and melts them together, styles blending throughout songs to keep listeners on their toes and dancing. The title track is a sweeping marriage of insistent house piano and washy dub techno synths, leading into the sugary, hardcore "1001 Freestyle" that calls back to early Lone tracks. Then one for the after hours crew, "Ha Mez", a syncopated 303 techno roller.

McVicar keeps the party atmosphere close across the B-side, flexing laser-cut synth arps with a dark, big-room edge on "Stu Boy", before crowning the EP with a gorgeous sun soaked party number "See U Thru My Eyes", jazzy inflected house with a 90s aesthetic. This EP has something for everyone, bringing together eclectic influences into a smooth festival-ready record.

'There is a sense of mirth rising within me as I riddle these notes down. I'm here at the Cube Cinema in Bristol with John Stevens from Qu Junktions in the garden talking music, while Rhodri Karim whizzes through setting up gear for Matana Roberts and Kelly Jayne Jones. They are in situ for three days for another playthecube.

All the while I lounge back and time-travel back to Dec '17, picturing the times we all shared with the musicians you hear in these
recordings. To slow things down a wee touch is such a powerful gesture, it feels. Ali and Jamie Lindsay (from the Cube) where so gentle in setting up the framework for Tartine de Clous and Neil to
join in and and spend five epic days and nights with us. Showing old and new films, talking, singing tight together around a table and then en masse with the Bristol Sacred Harp group, everything weaved around the Microplexian complex. The ad hoc series playthecube is inspired by olden-day folks stopping by settlements to sing, jest and make love for a hazy period, as well as urban fairytale jazz residencies and the desire to jig up the connections that frizzle between The Cube's curious volunteer workforce, visiting artists and our audiences when you have a little more time on your hands.

Over the two nights, Tartine de Clous, Alasdair Roberts and Neil McDermott entertained plenty. The computer capturing the music at the back of the auditorium and the exquisitely placed hanging mics, like flowers at a fête, all added to the recording angel ritual. On the first evening every breath, every track and each chair inch mattered; they shuffled things round and, on the second evening, the suite of song swept the crowd and the musicians together into a fine fettle.

To have this album and to hear these songs is to taste the stews we ate, the stories we swapped, the technology we manipulated and the people we touched. The cubic circles rippled and we all loosed a little, and the way I figure it, you can hear it.'

Originally released on cassette in 1993 and now for the first time on vinyl, this is an incredible document from a teenage Arrington de Dionyso. All the seeds of his 30+ career are engrained on these fully formed Tascam recordings. "Bobcatflamethroat" was originally released as "Pine Cone Alley Cassette #9" in August of 1993. The songs were recorded on a Tascam Porta-One 4 Track cassette studio inside a secret area in the basement of the College Activities Building at the Evergreen State College, known as "Happyland". This album has never before seen a digital release of any kind, however there is one song "Everything is Broken" which later became part of the original "canon" of Old Time Relijun after that band was formed in 1995. That song was re-recorded on the first Old Time Relijun album "Songbook Vol. I" released in 1997. I still dig most of the tunes on this one- these were all written and recorded while preparing to welcome a new young life into the world (my daughter Lucinda, born August 22, 1993). So while not specifically "Children's Music" per se, the tunes are wild, hopeful, optimistic yawps of playful abandon for all ages. There are a number of "inside jokes" that only would have made sense to the very tight knit inner circle hat I considered my "core" group of friends at that point in my life. I also think there are more than a few "hits" on here. I was 18 years old! Anyone who has followed the last thirty years of my musical career should find something of interest and delight on this album. For some reason I chose to record most of the guitar and bass parts "direct" without an amplifier- I'm not sure why I did that but it's a unique sound in retrospect. There's a decent dose of throatsinging and other odd vocal techniques, proving that I dove deep into this territory of vocal exploration at a very young age. Also plenty of mouth harps, flutes, kazoos, and clarinet, although this was just BEFORE I bought my first bass clarinet. The song "Kite Dragon Hypnosis" showcases the very first time I EVER recorded anything with a saxophone! The lyrics are reflective of my interests in the theories of "Ethnopoetics" as put forth by Jerome Rothenberg in many of his books such as "Shaking the Pumpkin" and "Technicians of the Sacred", as pathways to understanding the universality of myth and shamanism as connective threads through human poetic expression. And yes, if you know something about the Evergreen State College, I did indeed receive 16 credits for working on this album.

Killswitch Engage first shook the structure of heavy music upon climbing out of snowy industrialized Western Massachusetts in 2000. A musical outlier, the band pioneered a union of thrashed-out European guitar pyrotechnics, East Coast hardcore spirit, on-stage hijinks, and enlightened lyricism that set the pace for what the turn-of-the-century deemed heavy. 2002’s Alive Or Just Breathing became avowed as a definitive album, being named among “The Top 100 Greatest Metal Albums of the Decade” by Decibel and celebrated by everyone from Metal Hammer to Revolver. Not only did they bust open the floodgates for dozens to follow, but they also garnered two GRAMMY® Award nominations in the category of “Best Metal Performance” in 2005 and 2014, respectively, and gold certifications for The End of Heartache (2004) and As Daylight Days (2006). The group landed three consecutive Top 10 debuts on the Billboard Top 200 with Killswitch Engage (2009), Disarm The Descent (2013), and their career high best bow at #6 with Incarnate (2016). The latter two releases would also both capture #1 on the Top Rock Albums and Top Hard Rock Albums charts. Their total streams have exceeded half-a-billion to date. Along the way, the boys have shared stages with some of the biggest acts in the world and have sold out countless headline gigs in six continents across the globe.
In 2019 the quintet—Adam Dutkiewicz (lead guitar), Joel Stroetzel (rhythm guitar), Mike D’Antonio (bass), Justin Foley (drums), and Jesse Leach (vocals)—sharpened every side of this signature sound on their eighth full-length and first for Metal Blade, Atonement. The vision they shared two decades ago crystallizes like never before as evidenced by the first single “Unleashed,” “The Signal Fire” (feat. Howard Jones), “Crownless King” (feat. Chuck Billy), and “I Am Broken Too.”

White Light, White Heat, White Trash is the fifth album by American punk rock band Social Distortion, which was originally released in 1996. The album is produced by Michael Beinhorn.

This album received the highest chart position, entering the Billboard
200 Album Chart at #27. In the first week of its release, it sold over
30.000 copies. It includes the hits “I Was Wrong”, “Don’t Drag Me Down” and a praised cover version of the Stones’ “Under My Thumb”. Stylistically, the album is considered a return to their hardcore punk roots. Social Distortion is one of the best-selling punk rock bands and continue to receive worldwide respect and support.

White Light, White Heat, White Trash is available as a 25th Anniversary Limited Edition of 4000 individually numbered copies on silver & black marbled vinyl.

“And now for a gentleman who’s come all the way from Kingston, Jamaica and a place called Cling Cling Avenue. We present to you the one and only, the Originator, the Godfather, Daddy U Roy!”

U Roy had visited Brighton before but there was something special about that balmy night in August 2017, when he walked out on stage at the Komedia to a hero’s welcome and immediately got the crowd cheering and dancing. There was so much warmth and excitement generated that night, and it’s all captured on this final live album of the reggae superstar’s illustrious career.

U Roy wasn’t quite the originator, but he was the first Jamaican deejay to dominate the Top 3 places on both radio stations and turn his predecessors’ simple exhortations into an artform – one that evolved into a global phenomenon. It was his performances on King Tubby’s Hometown Hi-Fi that made him the talk of Jamaica and led him to Treasure Isle studio, where he voiced hits like Tide Is High and Wear You To The Ball. From then on his catchy, uplifting rhymes could be heard on radios and jukeboxes throughout the island, as well as from behind the control tower of his King Stur Gav sound-system, where MCs like Josey Wales, Brigadier Jerry and Charlie Chaplin learnt their craft. The veteran deejay, who died in February 2021, continued recording and touring into his late seventies, and without abandoning either his musical standards or Rastafarian beliefs. At his peak, U Roy voiced for Jamaica legends like Lee “Scratch” Perry, Bunny Lee and Channel One, in addition to several European labels. What most of his recordings have in common is a sense of hope and often joy, because even Get Up Stand Up is delivered with optimism. They are the qualities that come across on this life-affirming set, recorded in front of an appreciative audience, and backed by some of the UK’s finest reggae musicians.

Blood On Satan’s Claw – AKA Satan’s Skin in the USA, is a cult British horror movie from 1971. It’s a film from the golden age of British horror, and one that ticks most of the horror connoisseur’s boxes - it stars the Devil, Olde England, it has nudity, strange ritualism, a fair smattering of blood and of course, sublime music. Produced by cult masters Tigon, this film was the perfect companion piece to their earlier Witchfinder General (1968). Set in rural 17th century England, it tells the fine story of a small village that quickly falls under the devil’s spell. It’s brilliantly told and quite beautifully shot with a very fine cast of superb character actors.
Over many years the film has slowly gained a cultish reputation, and there are rumours that good old Tim Burton is a very big fan and used the movie as an influence for his “Sleepy Hollow” production.
The score was never released. Written by Marc Wilkinson, former director of music for the National Theatre, this cult soundtrack takes its lead from “The Devil’s Interval”, but more about that in the next paragraph. Musical appearances from the Ondes Martenot (the earliest electronic instrument) and Cimbalom add to the overall spookiness of this recording. And in 38 years the music has lost none of its depth or addictive, evil hooks. The first pressing sold out many years ago and commands high prices. A repress has been requested for many years.
Here’s Marc Wilkinson’s thoughts…
“The descending chromatic scale which features throughout the music omits the perfect fifth (the only true consonant in the chromatic scale) and therefore highlights the diminished fifth, which ever since the middle ages in Europe has been known as the Devil's Interval!!”
BRIEF ARTIST INFO: Marc Wilkinson was musical director of the National Theatre throughout the 1960s. He scored a number of films in the late 1960s and 1970s including “If” for Lindsay Anderson. Wilkinson currently lives in France.