JOHN CARPENTER

Anthology: Movie theMes 1974-1998 Sacred Bones

For many, John Carpenter’s name is a high point of 70s and 80s cinema as he directed movies such as Assault On Precinct 13, Halloween, Escape From New York and The Thing. He created the music for the majority of them too, blending dark sequential synthesiser patterns with ominous chord progressions and thick rock guitar riffs. For this new 13-track album (third release in just a few years), he teams up with his son Cody and guitarist Daniel Davies (son of The Kinks’ Dave Davies) to re-record his famous themes which were the central appeal to his very successful tour last year. To have all his top themes on one album as a cohesive whole is quite something. Opener, In The Mouth Of Madness is an uptempo rocker with plenty of crunchy rhythm and melodic fuzz guitar action whereas the ominous synth throb of Escape From New York (one of his biggest films) is enhanced with harmony guitars and pounding rhythms. Porkchop Express (from Big Trouble In Little China) is a blues-rock stomper, crammed with chugging guitars and an infectious ‘Eagles meets Van Halen’ groove. Similarly, the main theme from 1983’s Christine is quite more-ish in its blend of ZZ Top-like four-on-the-floor drums, palmmuted rhythm guitars and a big main melody. There is a ton of 70s and 80s styled synth arrangements throughout (chill to the insistent Halloween theme once again!) but Daniel sure deals up his share of rich guitar parts.