John Carpenter – Lost Themes III: Alive After Death (Sacred Bones)The Horror Master still knows his way around sinister synth music on this third helping of soundtrack music for the "movies in your mind"
John Carpenter is a master genre filmmaker, having written and directed such classics as Halloween , The Thing, Escape from New York, They Live, Assault from Precinct 13 , and many more. These days, though, he may be just as influential in music. The synthy scores to his films, which he composed himself, have inspired everything from the scores for Drive and Stranger Things to artists like Cold Cave, Chromatics and The Weeknd, to many metal & metal-adjacent artists too. While Carpenter hasn't directed a film since 2010's The Ward , he has been very active musically. Working with his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies , John composed the score for David Gordon Green's Halloween sequel, played live shows around the world, rerecorded some of his classic themes, and has released new records of "lost themes" he says are for the "movies in your mind."
Alive After Death is Carpenter's third volume of Lost Themes . John, Cody and Daniel know what we want, sticking to the '80s-ish sounds of his classic scores. “We begin with a theme, a bass line, a pad, something that sounds good and will lead us to the next layer,” says John of the trio's process. “We then just keep adding on from there. We understand each other's strengths and weaknesses, how to communicate without words, and the process is easier now than it was in the beginning. We’ve matured.”
With the advances in recording and synth technology, it's a lot easier to make music like this than it was in 1978, and it's easier to make it sound "better" too, but Carpenter wisely mostly keeps it old school, and knows that a cheesy guitar solo is sometimes just what a track needs. The atmospheric pieces in general fare better than the more "rock" oriented themes, but sometimes everything comes together perfectly, like on the eerie jam "Skeleton," which makes you wish Carpenter did have a new movie for this score.
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Peace Chord - Peace Chord (Unheard of Hope)Crack Cloud's Daniel Roberson brings a haunting stillness to his solo debut
When not working as part Vancouver post-punk collective Crack Cloud , Daniel Roberson makes eerily chill music as Peace Chord , using almost exclusively piano, ambient synths and layers of harmony. He made Peace Chord's debut album during the same time Crack Cloud were making last year's awesome Pain Olympics , recording in a shed behind the communal house where the whole band live. "In that ramshackle space I found stillness for the first time after three years of oscillation; between harm-reduction work in overdose prevention sites and low-barrier shelters, and tour with Crack Cloud," Roberson says. "In the stillness of that space, I was afforded time to reflect on the thoughts and experiences that had gone unseen: Loss of love. The dying of my grandfather. The dying of friends to overdose. Seeing new countries. Bearing witness to celebration and trauma."
Peace Chord is an apt name for the project and the record, exuding a welcoming tranquility that at times is a little haunted too. "Spectral Processor," which features a Buchla synth Roberson built himself, loops ghostly layers of voices that slowly decay, recalling William Basinski or The Caretaker. "Juno" is a simple piano figure, named for his family's dog and soaked in reverb, that is nonetheless quietly disarming. There are more song-like tracks on the album as well, such as the choral "Empty in this House," and the gorgeous "Memo" which was inspired by a visit to Berlin's Weißensee Cemetery. The record is clearly a personal one but its still beauty may bring peace to you too.
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A 15-SONG THE FALL PRIMER
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