Disco Horror

We make no secret of our burning passion for horror films here at Disco HORROR, and a recent viewing of Sam Raimi’s new genre-flick ‘Drag Me To Hell’ did nothing but add fuel to those flames. Another in the style of the ‘Evil Dead’ series or ‘Army of Darkness,’ the film further explores the director’s signature blend of out-of-nowhere thrills and gross out comedy. Needless to say, it’s a must-see for any horror aficionado, and it re-awakened my thirst for on-screen blood.

To further appease my inner demons, I recently acquiured a copy of Gianni Rossi‘s score for the 2008 bowling-themed slasher flick ‘Gutterballs,’ released last week on Permanent Vacation. Rossi is somewhat of a mysterious fellow; we know that he comes from Italy, and from the evidence here we know that his compositions are more than worthy of comparisons to horror-score legends like Claudio Simonetti and John Carpenter. For a few days I was legitimately under the impression that this was a reissue of some long-lost film score, so complete is Rossi’s devotion to the craft of building suspense with minimal, repetitive synth stabs. Steve Moore of Zombi, whose recent work is another good point of reference for the sounds on this album, was even enlisted to design the cover. I took the liberty of transferring my favorite cut on the record from vinyl- it’s called “Death by 69,” and is every bit as awesome as the title would lead you to believe.

Gianni Rossi – Death By 69

If that wasn’t enough to lure you into the shady depths of the discohorror.com company lair, I’ve decided to throw in a couple enticing bonus offerings of classic horror-score tunes. First is a record made by a German group known as The Splash Band, who released an album of dance-oriented covers of compositions from John Carpenter movies on italo-powerhouse label ZYX Records in the ’80s. This track is a cover of Ennio Morricone’s theme for ‘The Thing,’ a mysterious thriller that ranks among Carpenter’s best films. The cover adds some synthetic punch to the low end and some italo glitz to the suspense, tricks that work predictably in The Splash Band’s favor.

The Splash Band – Das Ding

Also of note is a recent $3 acquisition of the ‘Cat People’ motion picture soundtrack by Giorgio Moroder, which also features David Bowie on the title track! From what I can tell ‘Cat People’, which is currently in my Netflix queue, is supposedly a bizarre and amazing horror movie featuring, well, cat people. What I know firsthand is that it has a great score; I don’t need to tell you that Moroder is the king of soundtrack synths, but his talents for arranging intricate and seductive sound-sequences are perfectly complementary to the tensions and danger present in a good thriller. “Leopard Tree Dream” is a down-tempo cosmic number complete with floating bubbles of synth-bass and dreamy yet imposing melodic flourishes. Enjoy, but don’t get too close or ya might get clawed.

Giorgio Moroder – Leopard Tree Dream

Tags: ennio morricone, gianni rossi, giorgio moroder, slasher soundtracks, the splash band

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 7th, 2009 at 7:59 pm and is filed under Horror Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.