John Carpenter: S/D

Well, his "Theme from Hallowe'en" is pretty well known, famous enough to have been covered by several performers, including my heroes MX-80 Sound. As spooky-film music, I'd say it's pretty effective - not as good as Herrmann's theme from "Psycho", but better than Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells" main theme. (Which WASN'T written with "The Exorcist" in mind, of course.)

I used to watch "Escape From New York" and "Assault on Precinct 13" often back in the early '80s mainly for the music, back when I had an infatuation with synthesized film scores. (Tangerine Dream and Vangelis as well as Carpenter.) Haven't heard 'em in years. (They're kinda repetitive, aren't they?)

"Dark Star", "The Thing", "Starman", I only saw once apiece, and can't recall the music at all, assuming he scored those too.

Dunno who Angelo Badalamenti is, sorry.

I used to watch "Escape From New York" and "Assault on Precinct 13" often back in the early '80s mainly for the music, back when I had an infatuation with synthesized film scores. (Tangerine Dream and Vangelis as well as Carpenter.) Haven't heard 'em in years. (They're kinda repetitive, aren't they?)

OTM.

Escape just got reissued and it's ill. I wish Assault was on CD :(

Classic for the first three Halloween soundtracks, Escape from New York and Assault on Precinct 13. Dark Star sucks as a bought soundtrack coz it has all the dialogue over the music--like you'd taped it direct from the telly.

The Thing was Morricone, but a v Carpenter sounding Morricone.

(Did Air only reissue Assault on vinyl? That's what I have).

Search: Afrika Bambaataa - "Bambaataa's Theme (Assault On Precinct 13)"

(based on the film's title score, as should be obvious)

i thought Strange Life reissued Assault on CD but their shit seems to disappear quick so maybe they've run out already..

Carpenter fans, check out Unit Black Flight..

I've been digging into EfNY and AoP13 of late -- both are pretty great.

Haven't these become trendy? I saw some M83 interview where the guy said he used some plugin to get "my John Carpenter sounds."

some of the recent earth stuff reminded me of carpenter... "miami morning coming down" off of hibernaculum

whoa really?

x-post

I think he's always been a fairly vital influence on many noise, drone, ambient and even certain techno artists.

BTW, the last Neil Marshall flick, Doomsday, is one long homage to Carpenter in terms of film and sound.

x-postx2

whoa really?

yeah, played on gtrs. will leonardo.

Christine is so fucking epic.

music has the right to children has a few carpenter-ish tracks.

early optimo sets featured some carpenter tracks in the mix IIRC.

the christine 12" i have is even released on ZXY Records, which i think does mostly italo like releases?

http://wizardishungry.wordpress.com/2006/11/30/the-disco-career-of-director-john-carpenter/

John Carpenter is one of the coolest American artists of the last half -century! (Sorry for the hyperbole -- I worship the guy.)

QuantumNoise OTM - listening to Escape From New York tonight. This is really great stuff.

It seems likely that he has influenced people like Oneohtrix Point Never, which I have been listening to a lot recently.

The Assault on Precinct 13 soundtrack is the best late-night grocery shopping music ever, oddly enough.

I heard a version of the main theme from EFNY played on acoustic guitar at a gig a few weeks ago, anyone know who did that perchance? I also saw Blondie open up with it once, weirdly.

Any good compilations still in print (or whatever the term is for records/CDs)?

raw patrick mentioned the first 3 halloween soundtracks but i wanna rep hard for halloween 3 soundtrack and this here trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHDjAeRIIUU

The Halloween 3 soundtrack is great, just like the unjustly maligned movie.

As for Carpenter compilations, I think the only one still in print right now is the Silva Screen one, but if I remember well most of it doesn't contain the original versions.

holloween 3 is the best

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoGIyAtCJ-k

carpenter, cronenberg and landis talk shop in '88

oh wait this is an ilm thread...

Keeping it ILM-relevant, the label Silva Screen has just released a 2CD complete version of his amazing music for The Fog...

this should also help drag this thread back onto ILM ground.

http://specialfeatures.podbean.com/2012/09/19/special-features-mixtape-carpenter-colossus/

that's not from '88

Downloading the Christine score right now but kinda wish the soundtrack was literally all the music from the film, droney synth score interspersed with echoey fragments of 1950s pop songs.

Halloween III is maybe his best overall soundtrack.

this was on telly the other night, not great but the music, especially the end credits, is incredible.

Halloween III is maybe his best overall soundtrack.

yes

I used to listen to that soundtrack while driving around in my car -- and then my two year-old told me to play the "London Bridge" one where the clown or whatever is trying to get all the kids to come to the factory to kill them again and again. She literally used to make me sing her to sleep with it.

rocking escape this morning. will probably move onto halloween iii next.

Ha, I watched Halloween 3 the other night. What a ridiculous movie.

yeah, it's completely ridiculous:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJa8WtoSWVE

I love the sleazy tom atkins character and how his family doesn't seem to respect him. the opening credits are really awesome too.

and yeah, halloween iii score might be his most consistent but I really love some of the funkier cowbell-heavy stuff on escape from new york.

probably like the soundtracks to both of em better than the movies themselves now that I think about it.

Christine score better than the movie itself, and The Thing score is at least as good.

assault on precinct 13 is a tough call because the movie and the soundtrack both totally rule

Christine score better than the movie itself, and The Thing score is at least as good.

The studio wouldn't let JC do his own score, so he hired the best replacement possible!

"lets have some music in here boiler."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zonF3Wpxkyk

aw hell yeah

Just picked up a beautiful new re-issue of The Fog double LP with a cover by Dinos Chapman; "What I saw when I looked into the fog"

It is rocking my world today but Why are records so expensive these days?

Isn't that on a boutique label on heavy (or colored) vinyl?

Yeah, if that's the Death Waltz reissue, all of their stuff is $$$

You can order a bunch of these soundtracks direct (on CD, no vinyl option) from Alan Howart's site as well.

http://www.alanhowarth.com/

Go forth and minimally synth.

followed a link from there and now i'm a believer in RA's "Natural Frequency Music" ®

all the music i've enjoyed all my life? bogus. it's man-made-frequency TRASH.

http://pitchfork.com/news/58020-horror-icon-john-carpenter-shares-new-track-night/

more like john (toilet) crapenter

Fun interview on Gawker

http://defamer.gawker.com/john-carpenter-makes-music-likes-taylor-swift-wants-t-1682846136

i'm surprised that he recorded the album and then sent it to labels, it's cool though. i was sure that some label came to him with the idea, since so many analog gearheads are doing Carpenter soundtrack-revivalism.

Could be but he professes a relative ignorance:

Are you aware that there is an entire strain of European modern disco producers who idolize you as a composer, like Legowelt for example?

No, I'm not aware of it, but that's great. Maybe they'll share in their residuals with me.

i guess it's kinda both (from Pitchfork):

And he's not kidding. Carpenter didn't make music with the idea of releasing it to the world—it was just something he did during ritual hang sessions with his 30-year-old son Cody, a musician who makes prog records under the name Ludrium. "He'd come over to my place, and we'd play video games for a couple hours, and then we'd go downstairs to my Logic Pro setup and improvise music for a couple hours, and then back to video games, and then back to music," the elder Carpenter explains. "This album developed out of that."

An inquiry came from Sacred Bones founder Caleb Braaten. "I was curious if there were some things he had tinkered with in the past that didn't make the cut to a film," Braaten writes in an email. He was pleasantly surprised when Carpenter's lawyer told him that the director had, indeed, been working on new music. "When I heard it I thought, 'Jesus, these could be the themes to lost Carpenter films.'" As they planned the album, Carpenter worked on some additional material with his godson Daniel Davies; Lost Themes truly is a family record.

It'll be interesting to hear what they do with it, but I am intrigued by the roster of remixers

of course he loved Let the Right One In

cool dad!!

otm

so is Lost Themes not actually outtakes/deletions from old film scores then? But new stuff that sounds as if it could be?

yes

ultimate cool dad, for sure

this reminds me of brian eno's music for films. another great album of fictional soundtracks. this kind of pure soundtrack to me seems more fascinating than any real film music with an underlying movie. it is so much more open and full of possibilities. you have to imagine the film yourself. by the way the slightly dark, tuneful synthesizer music is excellent.

I wanted to like the album more than I did; came away feeling like Perturbator (http://perturbator.bandcamp.com) is beating Carpenter at his own game.

Xpost this is true of regular film music too though! It's so often better/deeper than the film it was written for that you have to synthesize your own mental film for it.

agree
esp true for horror soundtracks
best to listen to while walking around residential neighborhoods

btw his Brooklyn retro includes stuff he selected for the music, eg Forbidden Planet

That Perturbator stuff is much higher in octane level than Carpenters stuff, reminds me more of Alex Moulton. Carpenter is slow and moody and way more spacious.

Nick Pinkerton on his music and filmography:

http://artforum.com/film/id=50143

Listening to this now. He hasn't missed a beat.

Have said this elsewhere but the Splash Band's The Music of John Carpenter is an outstanding Italo covers album of his stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipa8cKXa3xw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipa8cKXa3xw

Whoops. Had a little hiccup with the new app and my old phone.

Listening to this again now on my commute home. I think part of the reason "Carpenter-influenced" things like Perturbator don't really sound like Carpenter is that people misread why Carpenter's stuff was distinctive. Everyone is focusing on the fact that his son is involved and that the arrangements are more modern. But he did almost all his previous work collaboratively (I'm assuming because he had minimal technical prowess on old synths). And his 80s scores are hardly analog – They Live and Big Trouble have tons of guitars, drum machines and digital synths. And they still sound exactly like John Carpenter.

That's because what made him different was that he wrote unique little melodies and tunes.

"Obsidian" (the second track on Lost Themes) is a great example. The arrangement could be straight out of any mid- to late-period film of his – the pounding toms and organ chords. But that's not why it sounds like Carpenter. It sounds like Carpenter because that main guitar melody is just uniquely him. And its recapitulation at the end is positively epic. "Fallen"'s too.

Pitchfork commented that the suite nature of these tunes made it feel a bit like Goblin. I agree, but that's not a bad thing by any means.

I'm enjoying this.

This is a cool interview. John Carpenter seems like a good dude.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyUwvNGsKV4

is it heretical to say The Fog is beautiful but kind of a snooze

Agreed

oh fuck this is the music thread

well the score DID rule

There's a subset of Carpenter movies that seem custom made for playing on a weekend afternoon while lying on the couch and drifting in and out of consciousness. So I don't think 'a snooze' is even necessarily pejorative in this case.

yeah it does seem like a superlative nap movie

i always fall asleep to the fog, it rules

I love The Fog. I love its pace, even with the more horror movie friendly inserts he had to add. It's a ghost story about spooky smoke, it's supposed to be slow.

(checks to make sure this is on the ILM thread side)

I mean, even knowing this stuff is like catnip to me, the new one (Lost Themes III) is just so good.

Opening few tracks on the third volume of his new-but-sounds-old records (Lost Themes III: Alive After Death) is hitting the spot. God bless this man.

I guess there’s one way to verify that you’ve been killfiled.

Stoked to get this. Love cinematic music while driving, like Murcof's Remembranza or the first G!YBE. His first two are great for nighttime road trips.

Played it again this morning and I think it’s better than II and maybe on par with the first one, but “Vampire’s Touch” may just be the best non-score song he’s put out yet.

co-sign, this is another fantastic and fun listen.

Few things make me smile as much as artists in their seventh or eighth decades doing peak-caliber work.

Anyone heard the Halloween Kills soundtrack yet? I liked the 2018 soundtrack since it was the same lineup as his other new albums, but I'm imagining this one might be hitting diminishing returns and largely similar (also haven't seen the movie yet since we don't have that particular streaming service).

the soundtrack is dope, better than the '18 film imo

That's what I was hoping to hear, I'll definitely be picking this one up too then.

Freak Zone Playlist (available for a month)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0010y8g

"Director and composer John Carpenter picks 60 minutes of his favourite Horror and Sci-Fi scores. Featuring music from Jaws, Psycho, The Thing, Forbidden Planet and The Exorcist."

no really deep dives in there, but it was a fun listen

Fog fans, stick with this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C-GLYNOjGY