TENEBRAPHOBIA

Finally unleashed today, this five song EP is a project that Bowie (my incredibly multi-talented partner) and I have been working on for many months. At times, its creation has been a process as frustrating as it's been fun, but we're both really stoked with the end result.

TENEBRAPHOBIA is a tribute to the throbbing synth scores that are the defining signature of so many '70s and '80s Italian and North American horror films. Scores by the likes of Goblin, John Carpenter and Fabio Frizzi.

Bowie's take on the genre is gnarly. Horror synth as filtered through a punk attitude. These tunes rock.

All tracks/recording/mixing by Ms. Raffan. Concept/titles, logo/design, and grumpy muse: your's truly.

Enjoy, share, but whatever you do, turn it the fuck UP!

SENZA VOLTO

NO TOMORROW - A TURBO KID TALE

Do you crave more of TURBO KID's fun mix of Enzo Castellari, sugary feelgood humour and splattery gore? If so then you're in luck. A sequel has been announced, but in the meantime we get this awesome prequel short featuring the cutest android ever to roam the Wastelands. Yes, Apple is back (with Laurence Leboeuf reprising the role), and so is the cool post-apocalyptic style and eye-popping gore (there's a moment in this short that is legit disgusting).

François Simard, Anouk Whissell and Yoann-Karl Whissell (AKA Roadkill Superstars) are once again the maniacs behind the camera on this short, which is actually a music video for Le Matos' "No Tomorrow" (the version with vocals by PAWWS, which has grown on me since this post).

Check out the Roadkill Superstars Vimeo page for a ton of other rad stuff (DEMONITRON is hilarious). Stream or buy the whole 50 track TURBO KID OST here. And remember kids, EYES THROAT GENITALS!!

TURBO KILLER

Feast your eyes on this video for Carpenter Brut's "Turbo Killer". Another certified synthwave banger from the Frenchman, accompanied by some slicker-than-slick fetishistic imagery, courtesy of CG wizard Seth Ickerman. This is four minutes of 100% pure, neon Miami, cocaine-on-steroids, faux grindhouse insanity (a decade on and the cigarette burns and scratches aesthetic is still going strong. Robert Rodriguez, what hath thou wrought?)

However, you might want to check your moral compass at the door. Beautiful women, literally driven as muscle cars? Now THAT'S objectification!

Hit full screen 1080p, crank up your speakers, and enjoy some French sci-fi cheese served with a side of blasting horror-synth.

ZOMBI - Diffraction Zone

Here, have a tasty video for new Zombi track "Diffraction Zone", taken from their recently released Shape Shift LP. The vid was put together by uncle TNÜC and seems to have been custom made for me, as it features two of my favourite things: blob monsters and melt-movies. Enjoy some of the messier and randier moments from Creepshow 2 (The Raft), The Stuff, The Blob '88, Trick or Treat and Slumber Party Massacre II. 

The sounds of Astron-6's THE EDITOR

A couple of posts below this one I raved about Astron-6's The Editor, and now it's time to crank up the volume and dig into the film's gold mine of tasty giallo inspired synthwave. Adam Brooks and Matthew Kennedy obviously compiled The Editor's soundtrack with the same love and attention to detail afforded every other aspect of the film's production. The result is an assault of (literally) killer tracks from the likes of Carpenter Brut, Vercetti Technicolor, and Hook Lab.

The pick of the bunch is Carpenter Brut's "Le Perv", the French artist's best track by a long shot. The music video he released for it a while back (pictured above) is a stunner too, mashing the song up perfectly with clips from Lucio Fulci's Murder Rock. Although generally considered to be one of Fulci's lesser efforts and for completists only, I'm actually quite fond of it. A bizarre fusion of giallo with the previous year's box-office smash Flashdance, it makes up for its lack of gore with some stylish touches and acres of sensually gyrating, sweaty flesh.

So while we await the release of an official OST (Death Waltz? One Way Static? Waxwork? Giallo Disco?), here's the majority of The Editor's bangers (with a more atmospheric number thrown in at the end from Repeated Viewing) to stream in one handy spot. Enjoy, dance, and DIE.

Carpenter Brut - Le Perv from Silver Strain on Vimeo.

ZOMBI

Over the last year Steve Moore's name has cropped up a couple of times here at the EYE, as his killer retro synth scores are a standout feature of both Adam Wingard's The Guest and recent Belgian slasher Cub. The man who wrote his first scores for low budget gorefests The Redsin Tower and Gutterballs is now making a real name for himself as an electronic composer of the highest order. I'm dying to hear what he has in store for Joe Begos' upcoming Scanners homage, The Mind's Eye, as Moore is a perfect fit for the material). A choice cut from The Guest...

...and here's a beauty from Cub. The intro part of this track is reminiscent of Ennio Morricone's score for The Thing, after which it morphs into the more typical Carpenter sound that's a mainstay of Moore's work:

As everyone reading this is doubtless already aware, Moore is also the keyboard and bass half of ZOMBI, his longtime band with drummer Anthony Paterra. Over the years the duo (who hail from the same town where Romero shot Night, Dawn and Day) have surpassed their reputation as mere Goblin and Carpenter acolytes, and are now the reigning kings of the horror/sci-fi related prog/space rock and synthwave scene. As with bands like Goblin and Trans Am, the inclusion of live drumming and bass kicks things into overdrive, making their music noticeably more visceral and heavy than many of their synthwave brethren.

My favourite ZOMBI jam to date is the title track from 2009's Spirit Animal LP. Their music is very cinematic (obviously), but this 14 minute epic is so evocative that I can't listen to it without daydreaming about the images that might accompany it on screen. Split into three parts, "Spirit Animal" seems to be telling a story. As the track's anthemic opening segues into a beautiful giallo-esque melody, and finally into a transcendent crescendo, it's easy to imagine it as a powerful accompaniment to an extended sequence filmed as a dialogue-free visual narrative. Have a listen for yourself, you'll see what I mean:

After a four year hiatus, following 2011's pulse pounding Escape Velocity, ZOMBI are back next month with a new nine track LP called Shape Shift. If these new tracks - "Pillars of the Dawn" (which could be a lost track from Goblin's DOTD score) and "Mission Creep" (fuck Moore knows his way around a bass) - are any indication, we could be in for their best stuff yet.