Lost Themes II Exclusive LP (Raspberry)

A Newbury Comics exclusive color vinyl pressing.

John Carpenter has been responsible for much of the horror genres most striking soundtrack work in the fifteen movies hes both directed and scored. The themes that drive them can be stripped to a few coldly repeating notes, take on the electrifying thunder of a rock concert, or submerge themselves into exotic, unholy miasmas. Its work that instantly floods his fans musical memory with imagery of a menacing shape stalking a babysitter, a relentless wall of ghost-filled fog, lightning-fisted kung fu fighters, or a mirror holding the gateway to hell.

The son of a music professor, Carpenter attended the University of Southern California when the sounds of progressive, synthesizer-driven rock were on the horizon. It was with the minimal, iconic music of Halloween where Carpenter truly broke through as a major director – and film musician. Composers before him had used minimalism to create terror, whether it was two piano notes for a killer shark or the stabbing strings of a mother-obsessed psychopath, but it was Halloweens brilliantly interwoven synth melodies that truly took genre scoring to a new, more sinister level.

The musical world of Lost Themes II is also a wider one than that of its predecessor. More electric and acoustic guitar help flesh out the songs, still driven by Carpenter’s trademark minimal synth. This manifests itself brilliantly in songs like lead single “Distant Dream,” which hitches a familiar Carpenterian beat to an expressive drum performance and rides it to a thrilling conclusion. The eerie “Angels Asylum” lets an ethereal synth line command the first three-quarters of the song, before turning over the melody to an acoustic guitar, and “Virtual Survivor” delivers a blast of the sci-fi menace that characterized his great scores for films like Assault on Precinct 13 and They Live. Lost Themes II delivers eleven compelling new tracks for which fans can continue to score the movies in their minds.

Album includes a digital download.