John Carpenter: S/D

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