Soundtrack Spotlight: Inferno - Keith Emerson

Argento's follow up to his near-instant classic, Suspiria, was never going to be easy, and like many viewers, it took me a long time to warm to Inferno. When I first saw it in the late 90's, it felt like a watered down version of the earlier film, lacking many of the spectacular set pieces, nasty violence and sheer bonkers nature that set the original apart from the rest of the crowd. I kept coming back to it though, and by around the 3rd viewing it finally clicked with me, and I saw the film for the flawed beauty that it was. It had an incredible visual style that was signature Argento, and the dream logic he was pushing hard in his films never seemed to work quite as well as it did here. Those set pieces were there; they just didn't revolve around bloody murders and instead worked to slowly chip away at the reality surrounding the characters.

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Soundtrack Spotlight: To Live and Die in LA - Wang Chung

"What they recorded has not only enhanced the film - it has given it a deeper, more powerful dimension." - William Friedkin

By the time I had gotten around to watching Friedkin's 'To Live and Die in LA', it was probably some time around the late 90's or early 2000's, at a time when The Exorcist was having a serious dose of re-assessment due to it finally getting a release in the UK on home video. My initial feeling  was one of being less than impressed - it just all seemed a bit 'pedestrian' for Friedkin, the man had, after all, directed one of the best 'rogue cop' movies ever, in the shape of The French Connection - and the film faded from my memory. 

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Under Your Bed.Org - A horror Podcast featuring me as the 33rd guest.

Yesterday I spent a few hours recording the latest podcast for Under Your Bed - the podcast all about horror. The format is fairly straight forward - guests bring three films for discussion, and they dig as deep as they care to over a few beers of their choice. The pacing is fast and the tone jovial enough, and I think we did a good job at getting to the core of these films. My choices? Carnival of Souls, Re-Animator and Lovely Molly from 2011. We drank some of my home brew, which went down a treat (Bren has a good poker face).

If you feel like kicking back and listening in, please do! Seeing as this was my first time doing something like this, forgive my nervousness and the (most likely) dozens of mistakes I made. And yes, that is me dressed as Coffin Joe from Halloween a few years back.

Enjoy!

click here to go to the Podcast.

When You Don't See Me - The Sisters of Mercy

If you've been to a party in this house over the years, chances are you've had to listen to your fair share of The Sisters of Mercy. They were a band I got into around the same time as I was first listening to Joy Division, so it's no surprise they played a huge part in the formative years. And even though I was late enough to the goth-rock party, The Sisters second release, Floodland, is a definite Top Ten album for me. Bold words, for sure! We managed to catch them at Vicar St during the week, and as always, they put on a great show, despite the fact that it's hard to actually see them when they play...

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Soundtrack Spotlight: The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue (1974)

Last week I received a mystery package from my good chum-pal Bill over at Spartak Mixtapes, and when this beauty popped out I was suitably blown away. Bill introduced me to Death Waltz Records last year, when he was showing off his lovely edition of Halloween III's incredible score. Since then they've been high on my radar, but I had yet to thrown down for any of their releases. So thanks Bill, for busting my Death Waltz cherry!

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Soundtrack Spotlight: Klaus Schulze - Angst (1983)

Directed by Gerald Kargl, Angst is one of those rare cinematic oddities in which the soundtrack is more well known than the film itself. This is most likely due to the fact that when it came out, Angst struggled to find a distributor due to the extreme nature of the picture, no doubt any potential buyers saw nothing but censorship headaches and lost money. In many ways they probably weren't wrong; the film is still yet to really find its audience, and cinema only really caught up to Kargl's vision with the release of Gasper Noe's I Stand Alone - no doubt heavily inspired by the earlier film.

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Movie Soundtracks : Theme Songs - Part One

It's one thing I definitely miss when watching a modern comedy or action film; a glorious, title-dropping theme song. I guess tastes have changed somewhat over the last 30 years or so, and having a hit single tied to the film might not be top priority for producers anymore. Luckily enough, there are plenty from the 80's that many of us know and love, that are well worth dusting off and adding to your party mixtape.

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Goodsell Type TL Record PLayer

Sadly, we don't get as much time to listen to music as we used to in this house. These days, checking out new albums is done on MP3 players whilst out walking or travelling on the bus; all on headphones. When we have people over for parties or social gatherings, all our music comes through a player into our surround sound, making our CD player pretty much obsolete. Which is a terrible thing, really, as I love music and have hundreds, if not thousands of CD's.


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