{"id":1784,"date":"2010-12-06T12:00:06","date_gmt":"2010-12-06T17:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=1784"},"modified":"2012-02-09T02:09:39","modified_gmt":"2012-02-09T07:09:39","slug":"1784","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=1784","title":{"rendered":"CD: Spikes (2010)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Soundtrack \u00a0Reviews<\/a> \/ <\/em>S<\/a><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Rating: Very Good<\/p>\n

Label: Phantom Records \/ Released: 2010<\/p>\n

Tracks & Album Length: 28 tracks \/ (45:35)<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

Special Notes: CDR release with colour booklet \/ Available from Phantom Soundtracks<\/a> (\u201cReal Music | Fake Films\u201d)<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

Composer: Darren Callahan<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

Review:<\/p>\n

You won\u2019t find an IMDB listing for the retro-slasher film Spikes<\/strong> because, well, it only exists insofar as a photo spread and soundtrack album, as conceived by the multi-faceted Darren Callahan.<\/p>\n

In terms of production design, the CD is totally convincing of the fake film\u2019s existence, right down to the retro cover art reminiscent of graphic yet low budget campaign art for a film that, like many vintage slashers, failed to deliver the extreme shocks expected by paying audiences.<\/p>\n

Callahan\u2019s album, though, is an amazing little evocation of vintage, all-synth, shock scores, except it\u2019s written with a lot more care and thematic development than what often ended up in a real slasher.<\/p>\n

The composer does more than emulate the sounds of the era, from John Carpenter keyboard pulses, and Tangerine Dream swathes of morphing tones, and early electronic sound filters that bend, flange, reverberate and fuzz notes and rhythmic patterns.<\/p>\n

The \u201cMain Titles\u201d offer an unsubtle salute to Carpenter\u2019s Halloween <\/strong>(1978), based around a 4-note motif, and layering it with multiple keyboard renditions, a fat bass chord, and brief pauses with high register beats before the short theme\u2019s reprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cWalking to School\u201d (later revisited in the more ethereal \u201cPlans with Steve\u201d) is deeply rooted in late seventies slasher scoring, with soft cymbal hits, ambient tones, and a keyboard riff of the main theme – beautifully capturing the standard montage of some twenty-something actress pretending to be a doe-eyed high schooler, unaware she\u2019s en route to a grisly demise. Her fate is immediately enacted in \u201cEarly Morning Killing,\u201d with a grungy, semi-industrial bass drone, and repeated pulses \u2013 the kind of minimalism that made Jay Chattaway\u2019s Maniac<\/strong> (1980) a love\/hate experience for its precise sonic minimalism, and tormenting emphasis on shrill metallic effects. (Overt nods to Chattaway\u2019s cult score are particularly present in the digitally abrasive \u201cThe Door! The Door!\u201d and \u201cKnots.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Unlike Maniac<\/strong>, Spikes<\/strong> is both longer and offers a deeper range of thematic material, and Callahan makes a point of emphasizing loss and vulnerable innocence in his brief character portraits, such as the semi-mournful \u201cAmanda,\u201d and the music box theme written for \u201cTracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The suspense and kill tracks are equally memorable for going beyond vintage mimicry: \u201cThe Drive to the Sticks\u201d is filled with increasing dread, and Callahan reconfigures his 4-note motif into something portentous of the upcoming kills. \u201cWeapon Retrieval\u201d delves into the circuitous, watery effects reminiscent of Italian shockers, minus the dated disco or Muzak design. (\u201cThe Metal Shop\u201d recreates a bit of Goblin with its steady bass pulse, and jazz improv on layered keyboards.)<\/p>\n

Running around 45 mins., Callahan\u2019s concept album feels like the \u2018unedited\u2019 and \u2018restored\u2019 composer\u2019s score for a long forgotten slasher that\u2019s disappeared out of neglect and a legal rights quagmire. It\u2019s like an artifact that, in addition to a handful of surviving stills, is the sole proof of a film\u2019s existence after it disappeared from a financially disappointing drive-in run.<\/p>\n

One can imagine the composer was a local musician who just landed in Los Angeles, and using a few contacts, scrambled together enough gear to write a debut score in less than a week on adrenaline and tequila; he never saw the finished film, and with indifference, locked up the master Ampex tapes in a locker, only to retrieve them 30 years later because his agent started forwarding letters from oddball fans wanting to track down the music they remember from the film\u2019s brief drive-in run, and history as a cult rental title in middle America video stores.<\/p>\n

Spikes<\/strong> is a surprisingly vivid, dead-on tribute to slasher scores, and while one never expects the music would\u2019ve saved the fictional no-budget film, there\u2019s a wish the composer had a few more forgotten scores buried in storage.<\/p>\n

According to Callahan, this is the first venture of what the composer hopes will be a series of concept albums (see the Notes section at Callahan\u2019s website for further info). It\u2019s a great first release, and is highly recommended to genre fans nostalgic for those warm, simple analogue scores that often showed more inventiveness than the physical movie.<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2010 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

Related links:<\/p>\n

CD: \u00a0Alien Terrain<\/a> <\/strong>(2011)<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

External References:<\/p>\n

IMDB <\/a>— Composer Website<\/a><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Soundtrack Reviews<\/a> <\/em>\/\u00a0S<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You won\u2019t find an IMDB listing for the retro-slasher film Spikes because, well, it only exists insofar as a photo spread and soundtrack album, as conceived by the multi-faceted Darren Callahan…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[196,197],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s8nuyW-1784","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1784"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1784"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4277,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1784\/revisions\/4277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}