Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Disco Undead



It's not Halloween without John Carpenter. These next few songs are all about THE MAN. Carpenter's early movies wouldn't have been nearly as impressive if it hadn't been for his impeccable use of analog synthesizers to create the mood and tone. As an avid soundtrack collector and electro enthusiast, I always find myself coming back to his material. It's truly original, raw, and inspiring. Of all his movies, the title sequence to Halloween 3 stands out for me.

I recently tripped upon this amazing video of a guy repairing an old Prophet analog keyboard. The guy happens to be J-Vibe from the seminal group VSF, who released the underground electro classic "Velocity, Speed, and Force"(but that's another post). Well, anyways, this video shows him laboring over technical repairs to the aging keyboard, all the while playing John Carpenter's "Season of the Witch OST". It's just a fun trip, watching a guy repair the machine that created most of the early soundtracks JC produced. Check it out:



And here's the title track to Halloween III for your listening pleasure

John Carpenter - Halloween III Season of the Witch



It seems that I am not alone in my admiration of Mr. Carpenter. For the past decade, there has been at least one release per year that mentions, rereleases, remixes, or reworks a carpenter classic. This next track came from the "Disco Undead" compilation from 2003, which presented superb interpretations of the main themes to Zombie Flesheaters, The Beyond, Profondo Rosso, Suspiria, and Cannibal Holocaust by some of the leading members in the 3rd Wave, italo-electro revival. This next track is a unique and interesting take on the original and classic, Halloween theme


Tobe Hooker - Haddonfield Fear Factory




Finally, one of my favorite albums w/ the Carpenter stamp has to be from the Individus Analogues label. It's called "European Tribute To John Carpenter" and from what I understand, copies are scarce. I was fortunate to see Le Syndicat Electronique in NYC back in 04 and picked up a copy of this album. It's interesting that at the same time his label was heavily focused on this minimal wave exploration of horror inspired soundtracks, stateside bands like Zombi were exploring the same sounds but with more of a focus on the prog-like components of Goblin and the like. I find the parallels intriguing. This is one of the best from that release, a rework of the Escape From New York theme

Porn.Darsteller - Le Serpent

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

in other news, a// from le syndicat electronique went crazy.... sold all his records and moved out into the french countryside to work on his magnum opus of anti-semitism. tenative working title is mein kampft deux.

that's a joke, but, no, really alexander went crazy.....i started trading him books on freemasonry for the entire invasion planete backcatalogue....after that, he shut down his website (probably because of the anti-semitic rants; supposedly illegal in france, and shit-talking directed towards bunker, viewlexx, etc)

anyhow, IP was such a great label, despite the fact it got all neo-folky at the end.

tip!

-j. calero
www.myspace.com/drcalero

tommy boy said...

You've confirmed the much talked about rumors about the founder of Invasion Planete. It's a little unfortunate he had to go that route, his label was growing in prominence and talent. I think if any person or label should be given credit for reinventing coldwave and minimal electro, it should be them. They seemed for a time the only people doing the method right, and now we're seeing a major influx of new bands embracing these same sounds, sans the anti-semitism.

Also, can someone who knows please explain to me how PFFR came to be released on this label. They really stood out as an odd addtion to the IP catalog.

If you've seen Wonder Showzen or Xavier:Renegade Angel, you'll know what I mean.