Amoeba hollywood Staff
Bennett
Amoeba Hollywood
scalpygonzales1.bandcamp.com
Goes to Africa With Love (LP)
Southern University Jazz
This is absolutely incredible I've been looping and looping it. Unbelievably ripping university Big Band from 1971, spiritual jazz, intuitive and ascending. The soloists take these simple solos that just send you. The rhythms vamp and vamp. Totally incredible
Read more
Skinny Pimp Vol 1 (LP)
Skinny Pimp
So cool to see this re-released. It's so raw, it's so inspired. Far out and scary and funny. One of those albums that resets you to hear, sets your priorities right.
Read more
Blue Notes for Mongezi (LP)
The Blue Notes
A recent Peter Brotzmann biography has sent me down a fiendish Louis Moholo whirlpool and this one in particular I just keep coming back to. You would think there were 25 people playing instead of 4 but it's not maximalist or overwhelming. Just endlessly rich. Deep. They're just ripping so hard, punching way above their weight
Read more
From the Bank of Fragile Time (Cassette)
Bromp Treb
The pop music this world only half deserves! Utterly warped everything, utterly singular. It's way left field but never pretentious, never academic. Obnoxious in all the right ways. A small release so it'll be tough to find but some lucky few will be so in love with this
Read more
Derich Heath
Amoeba Hollywood
www.dheath.bandcamp.com
Check out my debut feature, Midnight Oil (2018) on YouTube and TromaNow!
The Candy Snatchers (BLU)
Very effective cult item is above-average in nearly every respect. The script is well-written, direction skillful, characters are developed and performances capable. Grim, misanthropic exploitation that tells a compelling, unpredictable story you won't forget.
Read more
Pennies From Heaven (DVD)
Alan Rudolph
A bleak, despairing R-rated musical about fucked up people living through the Great Depression and escaping into fantasy where they privately express their innermost feelings through popular songs of the time. It's a non-stop parade of visual invention bolstered by lush cinematography from Gordon Willis but I can't agree with those who dismiss the film as being coldly artificial and unapproachable; I thought the emotions of these characters were clearly communicated. The humanity shined through. Martin delivers an unusually sincere performance as a narcissistic asshole. Jessica Harper could have been given a little more to do. Her character deserved some fleshing out.
I'm no fan of musicals, movie or otherwise, but Pennies From Heaven is something very, very different and it's brilliant. As daring and experimental as big-budget studio filmmaking gets. You ought to watch this.
Read more
Just Before Dawn (BLU)
Jeff Lieberman
The creepiest, most atmospheric slasher film. I might even say it's the best genre exercise of that entire decade. It's more than enjoyable trash; this is an expertly assembled horror movie with believable characters, finely crafted suspense scenes, and an effective sense of realism. JBD is just a legitimately good film and (by far) the strongest from director Jeff Lieberman. It resides in the same section of town as Halloween and Black Christmas. Friday the 13th is amateurish dreck by comparison.
Deborah Benson's character is an all-timer in the final girl hall of fame. Unlike most female protagonists in movies like this, she simultaneously embraces her femininity AND steps up to kick some serious ass, rather than going all John Rambo-masculine on us (or simply surviving by the skin of her teeth). She gets to be both a warrior and a woman. It's a very clever and intelligent progression, most unusual for a dead teenager flick from 1981.
Read more
Hollywood 90028 (BLU)
This immediately caught my eye because the title is my zip code. It's a powerful drama in exploitation horror clothes that was damn near lost until recently, that tells the story of a shiftless Los Angeles porn cameraman who moonlights as a serial strangler, and his unexpected romantic relationship with an equally lost adult film actress. Deliberately paced and focused on character, the flick has a lot to say about the City of Angels and its voracious appetite for lonely, hungry souls. This has been receiving ecstatic praise since being rediscovered (Sean Baker and Buddy Giovinazzo, among others, are outspoken fans) and it's deserving. Like Under the Silver Lake and Jeff Burr's overlooked dark comedy Eddie Presley, it explores the shady corners of LA's dream factory with a knowing precision. Far from throwaway b-movie junk, it has a point and seriously sharp teeth - not to mention a really, really great score from Basil Poledouris. Plus it's a goldmine for old Los Angeles location footage, with one of the best final shots I've ever seen. No hyperbole. Didn't see that coming.
Read more
The Return of the Living Dead (BLU)
Dan O'Bannon
The Return of the Living Dead isn't just a perfect masterpiece and one of the greatest horror films ever made, it's also a low-key milestone in American pop culture. The movie is a gift. We're lucky it exists. Every single actor brings their absolute best. Don Calfa, Clu Culager, and James Karen give three of my favorite performances in film history. Gulager, in particular, is brilliant, playing Burt with a strong sense of grounded realism. He's just a very frustrated man dealing with a terrible situation as pragmatically as he can.
Read more
A Dog Called Vengeance (BLU)
The best killer dog movie ever made by a wide margin. Both a relentless action-thriller and an angry anti-fascist allegory, A Dog Called... Vengeance concerns itself with a political prisoner (Jason Miller, who spends an awful lot of screen time nude) in South America being pursued across the countryside by a bloodthirsty canine. It's a skillfully directed thrill-ride from start to finish, edge of your seat material with brains and balls in equal measure. Frantically paced and enhanced by a bold lead performance from Miller, there isn't one single thing about this film that isn't incredible. Go watch it right now.
Read more
Ecstasy (LP)
Torch Song
One of the most overlooked albums of the 80's. If you like moody new-wave synths, hop on it immediately. William Orbit's first notable project.
Read more