Friday The 13th

Any excuse to play another tune off John Carpenter's brilliant Lost Themes album. This is so epic. Carpenter out Goblins Goblin on this one. I think Carpenter admits to the massive influence that Suspiria, the film and the OST, has had on his own film making, scoring and career. I have a very authoritative book on American Film in the 70s worth like $200 called Lost Illusions: American Cinema In The Shadow Of Watergate & Vietnam 1970-1979 published by Charles Scribner's Sons (Macmillan Library Reference USA) but it always makes me chuckle because they call Goblin 'a Japanese keyboard group.' So they weren't too authoritative on Italian synth prog Horror bands. Somewhere else in the book Goblin are referred to as The Goblins. Sounds like a great 60's garage rock band though doesn't it - The Goblins! There probably was a band called that from the mid-west of America who released one 7" of teen angst in 1965.

Speaking of The Goblins here's one of the best bits of the soundtrack to the 1977 Italian cult movie Suspiria. Now those are some of the greatest soundz ever to come out of a synth ever aren't they? It doesn't get any better than this for soundtrack gold. That percussion too...mmm...almost a gamelan vibe albeit a tres creepy and demented one. Debt is owed by everyone on this post to the nightmarish vision of the great Goblin. Great Japanese keyboard band that they are.

From the first movie? Named differently on some releases I think? I can't find the track Mrs Voorhees which has the subliminal kill kill kill thing in it. Maybe it's called something else as well on other releases. Who Knows?

This is from the original 1982 pressing of the Friday The 13th LP on Gramavision which contained 4 tracks. So I think this is like a megamix of Friday The 13th parts 1, 2 & 3 or as the composer's like to say 'a suite'. Penderecki and Herrmann loom large here don't they? The full version of the first Friday The 13th's OST didn't see light of day until 2012 as far as I can gather. Then last year Waxwork Records re-issued it. Correct me if I'm wrong though. Maybe there was a 1980 pressing of the full version but it's not listed on discogs. Anyway I'm confused but happy Friday The 13th everybody!

I know it's a snippet but it's very cool because it's like a classic movie trailer not an annoying soundcloud thing. Actually why the hell not post the full 27 minutes of much awesomeness? Go ahead press play it'll be the best 27 minutes of your week I guarantee it or your money back.

More 80s horror for your Friday The 13th. Chuck is one of my favorite film composers What about those drum soundz and that quintessential 80s guitar lick. I could listen to this shit all day....oh...that's what I've been doing.

Alright this is the last one and it's pure horror gold. Recently re-issued on Terror Records Co. for the first time since 1980, only took 35 years for that to happen. In the interim the OST gained much notoriety and a massive cult audience who had to put up with dodgy mp3s for many years or fork out the big bucks for this rare and much coveted item. More synth horror awesomenessss. Never seen The Boogey Man. Maybe I'll try and watch it somehow. I suspect it won't be on my T-box. Then again Philip Brophy's Body Melt was on there as was Sorority House Massacre 2 (with a terrific score from good ole Chuck Cirino). So who knows?

Horror Movie Right There On Me Stereo

It's been a daily bonanza in the last few years for lovers of soundtracks with a vinyl fetish. Before that we already had the Trunk and Finders Keepers record labels releasing soundtrack esoterica for over ten years. More recently a bunch of new record labels have popped up to satiate your cult film score needs mainly in the vinyl format. Odd, obscure, cult and classic soundtracks are all getting the reissue treatment. What's incredible is how much of it is great stuff. Horror and electronic scores are getting some much deserved attention from labels such as Death Waltz, Waxwork and the new Belgian label One Way Static. These labels have definitely found a niche market for horror buffs who also love their vinyl. Bloggers (Inferno Music Vault, Digital Meltdown, Sleazy Listening, and, well the list goes on & on) are probably most responsible for the rise in interest in these sounds. Such blogs have been passionate about bringing classic and little heard, some even unreleased, horror scores into the public spotlight for many years. Of course many of these links are now dead as these new small labels are now reissuing the music. These labels are set up with a ready made audience wanting their product thanks to the enthusiasm and effort put in by the blogging fraternity. The ongoing cults of Morricone, Goblin and Carpenter have led to a trickle down effect for other lesser known but equally excellent film composers Bruno Nicolai, Giuliano Sorgini, Riz Ortolani, Nico Fidenco, Fabio Frizzi, Richard Band etc. The OSTs to Argento and Carpenter directed films have been exhaustively reissued. Its now the time for another bunch of directors films to get a look in: Fulci, Lenzi, Girolami, Ferrara, Deodato, Craven etc.

I've been searching for the Day Of The Dead (1985) soundtrack ever since I re-watched it 5 or 6 years ago. I couldn't find it in mp3 form, let alone a physical copy. Waxwork re-released it and I bloody missed out but now I think the MP3 is on sale so I guess I'll have to make do with John Harrison's classic 80s synth zombie score in diminished audio. If they get around to releasing Harrison's masterpiece Creepshow I will not be missing out on that! Waxwork were also responsible for one one of my favourite reissues of the 2013, Re-Animator by Richard Band from 1985 as well as the perennially creepy Rosemary's Baby by Krzysztof Komeda.

Death Waltz have covered the obvious ie Goblin and many titles from John Carpenter and Alan Howarth. But new or recent (read post '80's) scores aren't out of the question for their catalogue. Donnie Darko and Room 237 have been issued. Remake scores get a look in as well. Who even knew they remade Maniac or Evil Dead let alone had soundtracks worthy enough to be issued by such a quality label? A reissue of the scores to the original movies of those two wouldn't be unwelcome either. Death Waltz's three most exciting reissues for me have been House By The Cemetery by Walter Rizzati, The Living Dead At The Manchester Morgue by Giuliano Sorgini and De Masi's New York Ripper. Now they are set to reissue two of my all time favourite unheralded scores. I only have a crappy mp3 of Ralph Jones' soundtrack to Slumber Party Massacre so I'm looking forward to hearing this in its original glory. This is an exceptional score of melodic pulsating synthy creepiness and minimal mayhem. The other is possibly the cultiest soundtrack item of them all Susan Justin's electronic score to Forbidden World. This has been unavailable since its original release in 1982. Never seen the film (possibly not even strictly a horror flick) but love the soundtrack. '80's new wave synth disco, space age tones, squeaks, squelches, eerie melodies and even mini slices of power electronics make this one of the most unique and best soundtracks of the '80's if not the best. Some of it sounds like it was recorded yesterday and released on Spectrum Spools.

80s Masterpiece

One Way Static have twigged my interest with the imminent release of Roberto Donati's OST to Cannibal Ferox from 1981 although this was only released less than 2 years ago in digital. This is a classic funky disco psych gem with swathes of intense horror synth. One of Italy's great soundtracks. One Way Static's other releases have been two seventies Wes Craven titles, The Last House On The Left with a soundtrack from David Alexander Hess and Don Peak's score to The Hills Have Eyes.

On the more arthouse tip was last years sublime synthesiser score from Eduard Artemiev for the 1972 Andrei Tarkovsky film Solaris, which made it into my reissues of 2013 list. This was released on Superior Viaduct not really a Soundtrack label but worth a mention as Artimiev's scores have never been released for the western market before. This year the label plan on releasing two more of Artemiev's Tarkovsky soundtracks, the scores to the 1979 Russian cult movie Stalker and The Mirror (1975) will get a release. I recall Stalker having some of the most extraordinary and haunting drones I'd ever heard on celluloid.

There is so much happening in this little sector of the music world I don't know if I can keep up. I'm assuming somewhere along the line Wayne Bell & Tobe Hooper's experimental score to 1974's Texas Chainsaw Massacre will get a release as well as Joe Delia's bizarre soundtrack to Abel Ferarra's Driller Killer (Delia's score to Ferarra's Ms.45 was issued by Death Waltz recently). My wish list would include 3 horror soundtracks I've never been able to track down before. Madeleine-Anitomia Di Un Incubo (1974) composed by Maurizio Vandetti, Chopping Mall (1986) by Chuck Cirino and 1980's Roberto Donati score for Umberto Lenzi's Mangiati Vivi! (Eaten Alive). Oh and what about Tim Krog's fabulous Boogey Man score last issued in its year of release 1980? Finally, surely there is a bidding war going on now to see who gets the vinyl release for the (un)holy grail of Italian horror soundtracks Cannibal Holocaust. I've got that on cd though, so who cares?! What do you think I am, some kind of vinyl snob?

This was released on California's other SST label in 1980.

*Previous post here on Slumber Party Massacre and one here on The Living Dead At The Manchester Morgue.

Slumber Party Massacre

I was brought up a strict Catholic and it wasn't until late 1987 that we got a VCR.  So I basically missed the whole VHS horror thing. 1982s  Slumber Party Massacre is a classic of the slasher genre and along with the teenage kicks you get a feminist message.  Amy Jones was one of the few female T & A slasher directors and she makes the most of it. Way before Scream et al. she made a mockery of the entire genre.  Chicks win in the end and guys come off second best. This movie would have been great if you were a girl in the 80s havin a sleep over. I think it was Bitch Blog who led me to this film. The soundtrack is awesome too. Since watching the film and trying to track down the score I've become aware that this is a much admired item, you know, going for ridiculous amounts of doe on e-bay. Indeed Ralph Jones' soundtrack is up there with the best of the post-Carpenter school like Jay Chataway's Maniac or Tim Krog's The Boogey Man. Minimal and restrained eerie synth soundz for the psychopathic 80s.

Minimal synth tones to be stalked by