Sanja Ilic & Slobodan Markovic - Dark Echoes

[1977]

Fabulous score to a Yugoslavian horror movie set in Austria. Highly innovative synthetic film scoring from this duo from Belgrade. Put in synth score context it was recorded in the same year as Goblin's Suspiria, Tangerine Dream's movie debut Sorcerer and a year before John Carpenter's Halloween. This is the sound of synth and electronics in horror before it became formulaic. There's a real sense of pioneering freshness here as they utilise an array of textures, sounds and fx to capture all sorts of strange and dark flavours. A Dark Echoes soundtrack has never been released and this eight and a half minute snippet of the score's audio is all that can be found on youtube. 

Peter Bernstein & Mark Goldenberg - Silent Rage ost

[1982]

The best 80s electronic movie theme tune. There's just something about it. An intangible essense of the groovy yet haunted variety. A meticulously crafted tenebrous synth score yet somehow also jaunty. An uncanny pop triumph. 

Haunty-ology fans (Do they still exist?) take note, this could be a blueprint for several Ghostbox artists. 

A Silent Rage soundtrack cd was finally released just last year by Dragon's Domain Records.

Drew King & Peter Jermyn - Siege OST

[1983]

On this low budget Canuxploitation cult movie's score we get great thick synthetic textures of dystopian sound then The Closing Theme at 2.55 is delightfully dire dark death-disco. The real futuristic bad vibes. 

This is not a lost future. It's the sound of a future they didn't cancel, our current deranged state of affairs: The militarised police shooting protestors in Melbourne, going to prison for stickers, the UN proclaiming trans lesbians are lesbians, getting arrested for tweets, the national guard patrolling the NYC subway, politicised intelligence agencies, de-banking citizens for wrong-think, getting attacked/murdered by illegal aliens, endless war, mass surveillance, football clubs banning life-long members for incorrect views, robo-dogs, continuous emergency powers, obscene wealth tranfers during C****, the general criminalisation of the normal law abiding population (farmers, truckers, you, me) etc. etc. You will comply. You will submit. You will eat ze bugs!

Jonathan Newton - Unhinged OST

[1982]

Surely the holy grail of never released horror synth scores. This 1982 score is post-Carpenter synthetic slasher-core with haunting wonky pitched radiophonic synths, ultra menacing pulsations, ominous drones, unhinged analogue cues and stings.

That melancholic glinting modulating analogue sound so beloved by The Radiophonic Workshop, Aphex Twin and Boards of Canada as well as their haunty-logical offspring Belbury Poly, Advisory Circle etc. is used here to perfection.

Since the dawn of the sharing mp3 files via blogs thing in the 00s, fans have been putting together their own versions of the Unhinged soundtrack. It's a mystery that the cult Unhinged score has never been commercially released. 

Jonathan Newton aka Jon Newton only ever did a handful of scores... he went on to be a music professor teaching at Portland Uni. 

Just Before Dawn - Brad Fiedel

Getting a bit more esoteric here in the electronic horror film scoring. Fiedel would later become famous for his Terminator score a few years later. On this 1981 score for Just Before Dawn the synth action is just one aspect alongside industrial, new age, field recording, pre-hypnagogic sleazoid funky glam and whatever else.  

Blood Rage - Richard Einhorn

More 80s synth horror soundtrack goodness. Richard Einhorn is an award winning symphonic record producer but is known around my house for composing legendary electronic horror scores to Don't Go In The House (1980) and Shock Waves (1977) amongst others. The 1983 Blood Rage score however has never been released.

[Added Entry 9/3/24]

A longer and better sounding selection of music from Blood Rage. 

Theme from C.H.U.D. - Cooper Hughes

(1984)

More 80s synth-y soundtrack goodness. Back in the 00s you could only get like a 13 minute fan-made mp3 download of this soundtrack but a few years back it got the deluxe trendy coloured vinyl reissue  treatment. Theme From C.H.U.D. is an absolute peak of very tasty post Tangerine Dream/John Carpenter synthetic film scoring. What a cracking tone they create here. Cooper Hughes wasn't one dude it was two dudes: Martin Cooper and David A Hughes who If I recall correctly were both in OMD's live line-up for a while. 

Code of Silence - David Michael Frank

More great 80s sumptuous (or is that sickly) synth-y soundtrack gold from films I've never seen. This is another score that I can't believe hasn't been reissued by one of these trendy coloured vinyl reissue soundtrack labels.  The evocative synthetic sound of David Michael Frank conjures the grain of vhs and the seedy strangeness of straight to video movies with this suspenseful vaguely oriental jam with tropical overtones. This atmospheric lament even becomes anthemic in the last couple of minutes when the funky bass and drums arrive with a fine string arrangement to top things off. Nice.

Bloodsport Soundtrack - Finals - Paul Hertzog

More synth-y soundtracking from the films I've never seen. This mysterious Paul Hertzog fella only did a handful of scores. 1988's Bloodsport was his second after the legendary My Chauffeur in 1986. Who knows what he did after the early 90s. I'm guessing since this synth-y style of soundtracking became unfashionable he probably ended up in education like the rest of us. Still you'd think some of these 21st century directors with a penchant for 80s sounds would have tracked him down to give their retro movie that authentic 80s feel but it seems after his excellent 1991 score for Breathing Fire he disappeared completely from the music and film industry.  

Eye for an Eye Theme · William Goldstein

Futuristic saxophone synth-y goodness with added fretless bass. Many of the best soundtracks are for movies you don't know or care about.