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John Carpenter’s ‘Lost Themes II’ is a Delight (Review)

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Last year, John Carpenter stunned everyone when he announced that he was going to release Lost Themes, an album of all original music. The surprise wasn’t that Carpenter was recording music – after all, the director is also the composer on most of his films, sometimes with the help of Alan Howarth – but rather that he was releasing something. After all, it had been five years since The Ward, his last directorial effort.

Lost Themes received critical acclaim and adoration from fans and casual music listeners alike. After all, it was an album of brand new music that was deeply rooted in the cinematic electronic/synth movement that Carpenter basically created. To say that his work has been an influence on countless artists since is an understatement. The revival of “retrosynth” sees pretty much every artist citing Carpenter as a huge inspiration.

Today sees the release of Carpenters second solo album, which is aptly titled Lost Themes II. What comes from this 11-track collection are a series of songs that are everything you could want from Carpenter. Let your horror movie imagination flow as you listen to these tracks because you might find some gold.

The album opens with the groovy and thick “Distant Dreams”. I’m telling, you when that standard rock beat comes in during the last quarter of the song, it’s exceptionally hard to not feel like a badass. This is what Snake Plissken must listen to when he gets ready for some seemingly impossible mission that he will certainly overcome.

The album follows with “White Pulse”, a track that is almost schizophrenic in nature. The first half sounds like something one would hear in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Then, the second half breaks itself into two pieces, the first of which is an industrial nightmare that sounds like the music Trent Reznor would hear in his dreams. The track ends with a soft lullaby, almost like one has arisen and that the, “…morning sun has vanquished the horrible night”.

“Persia Rising” has a charm that I can’t quite put my finger on but I relish its mystery while “Angel’s Asylum” brings the energy back up, actually upping the “rock” aspect of the album. “Hofner Dawn” provides a simple yet pleasant interlude. There is something almost fantasy-esque about this track, as though one would hear it playing an SNES or PS1 J-RPG.

Meanwhile, “Dark Blues” is quite a mature offering, sounding like something you’d hear in a seedy strip club, one where the women are just as dangerous, if not more so, than the clients. “Bela Lugosi” calls to mind a haunted castle, lightning streaking across the rainy sky. Could this be because the name inspired me? Absolutely. But I’m totally okay with it.

The closing track, “Utopian Facade”, makes me wish Carpenter would return to the world of film and give us one more masterpiece. It’s an epic track that bears all the earmarks of the majesty he’s given us.

To say that Carpenter knows the world of electronica and synth is an understatement. As I mentioned above, the man practically created a genre, cultivating a sound that is undeniably him. All Lost Themes does is confirm this to anyone who might have had a doubt.

The Final Word: Lost Themes II is a delightful album that is as charming as anything the composer/director has released over the course of his career. My only complaint is that some of the songs aren’t memorable – even after spinning the album a few times, I heard some tracks as though it were the first time – and “Virtual Survivor” feels derivative of previous works. But that doesn’t stop this album from being something wonderful. If you’re a fan of John Carpenter, you would do well to add this to your collection.

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‘Lost Themes IV: Noir’ – John Carpenter Announces New Album & Releases New Music Video!

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Lost Themes IV
(l-r) Cody Carpenter, John Carpenter, Daniel Davies - Photo Credit: Sophie Gransard

John Carpenter has been teasing big news for a couple weeks now and all has been revealed this morning. Carpenter is back with Lost Themes IV: Noir from Sacred Bones Records!

Lost Themes IV: Noir is the latest installment in a series that sees Carpenter releasing new music for John Carpenter movies that don’t actually exist. The first Lost Themes was released in 2015, followed by Lost Themes II in 2016 and Lost Themes III: Alive After Death in 2021.

John Carpenter called the first Lost Themes album “a soundtrack for the movies in your mind.”

From John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies, Lost Themes IV: Noir is set for release on May 3 via Sacred Bones Records. The album pays tribute to Noir cinema!

In conjunction with the announcement, they’ve shared a music video for the album’s first single, “My Name Is Death”, a miniature noir film directed by Ambar Navarro, starring Natalie Mering (Weyes Blood), Staz Lindes (The Paranoyds) and Misha Lindes (SadGirl). “Noir is a uniquely American genre born in post-war cinema,” states Carpenter. “ We grew up loving Noir and were influenced by it for this new album. The video celebrates this style and our new song, My Name is Death.”

Sacred Bones previews, “The scene-setting new single marks new territory for Carpenter and his cohorts, propelled by a driving post-punk bassline that is embellished by washes of atmospheric synth, pulsing drum machine, and, at the song’s climax, a smoldering guitar solo.”

“Sandy [King, John’s wife and producer] had given John a book for Christmas, of pictures from noir films, all stills from that era,” Davies says of the lightbulb moment for Lost Themes IV. “I was looking through it, and I thought, ‘I like that imagery, and what those titles make me think of. What if we loosely based it around that? What if the titles were of some of John’s favorite noir films?’ Some of the music is heavy guitar riffs, which is not in old noir films. But somehow, it’s connected in an emotional way.”

Sacred Bones notes, “Like the film genre they were influenced by, what makes the songs on Lost Themes IV ‘noirish’ is sometimes slippery and hard to define, and not merely reducible to a collection of tropes. The scores for the great American noir pictures were largely orchestral, while the Carpenters and Davies work off a sturdy synth-and-guitar backbone. The noir quality, then, is something you understand instinctively when you hear it.”

“It’s been a decade since John Carpenter recorded the material that became the initial Lost Themes, his debut album of non-film music and the opening salvo in one of Hollywood’s great second acts,” the label explains. “Those vibrant, synth-driven songs, made in collaboration with his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies, kickstarted a musical renaissance for the pioneering composer and director. In the years since, Carpenter, Carpenter, and Davies have released close to a dozen musical projects, including a growing library of studio albums and the scores for David Gordon Green’s trilogy of Halloween reboots. It helped that they grew up in a musical environment. Daniel’s dad is The Kinks’ Dave Davies, and he would pop by the L.A. studio – the same one the Lost Themes records are made in today – to jam, or to perform at wrap parties for John’s films. That innate free-flowing chemistry helps Lost Themes IV: Noir run like a well-oiled machine—the 1951 Jaguar XK120 Roadster from Kiss Me Deadly, perhaps, or the 1958 Plymouth Fury from John’s own Christine. It’s a chemistry that’s helped power one of the most productive stretches of John’s creative life, and Noir proves that it’s nowhere near done yielding brilliant results.”

Here’s the full Lost Themes IV: Noir track list:

1. My Name is Death
2. Machine Fear
3. Last Rites
4. The Burning Door
5. He Walks By Night
6. Beyond The Gallows
7. Kiss The Blood Off My Fingers
8. Guillotine
9. The Demon’s Shadow
10. Shadows Have A Thousand Eyes

The following physical variants will be available:

  • Sacred Bones Exclusive Red on Clear Splatter vinyl w/ Screen Printed 7” bonus track “Black Cathedral”, a Silver Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • Sacred Bones Society Exclusive on Black and White Splatter on Clear w/ Screen Printed 7” bonus track “Black Cathedral”, a Silver Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • All retail Transparent Red, with a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • Indie Exclusive Tan and Black Marble, w/ Screen Printed 7” bonus track “Black Cathedral”, a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • Rough Trade Exclusive Oxblood Red and Black Splatter, w/ Screen Printed 7” bonus track “Black Cathedral”, a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • Shout Exclusive Black and Clear cloudy, w/ Screen Printed 7” bonus track “Black Cathedral”, a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • Black LP, with a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • CD
  • Tape

You can pre-save Lost Themes IV: Noir right now!

Lost Themes IV Noir

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