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Album Review: Night Of The Living Heads OST Plus FREE DOWNLOAD

Published

14 years ago

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So, I don’t smoke weed anymore, but back when I did, I would get pretty blazed. No, scratch that. I would get TORN UP! I’m talking unable to move, everything was chill and I could barely see three feet in front of me due to the amount of smoke. Yeah, it was good times. So even though I’ve quite pot, I still remember the times and the experiences associated with it. This was the approach I took in reviewing the soundtrack to ‘Night of the Living Heads’ (NOTLH). I put myself back in those days and thought of how I would feel listening to the music whilst stoned off my ass. Check after the jump to see if I’m having a good or a bad experience!

First things first: I can’t review this like a normal CD as a soundtrack inherently has multiple artists and, often, multiple styles. This is definitely the case with the NOTLH OST and as a result, I’ll be talking more about the atmosphere of the soundtrack and how well I think it deals with the subject matter: weed and horror. 
The first half of the CD is split almost evenly between two artists, Zombies Unlimited, and 400 Lonely Things. There is a Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble track snuck in between. The Zombies Unlimited tracks are completely, scored by BD’s own John Marrone! The thing I noticed immediately about those tracks is that you can tell they were composed with the loving touch of a horror fanatic: They’re creepy, ambient and not something you listen to when you want to relax. ‘Cursed Crops’ has a very hip-hop inspired bass line mixed with tribal drumming that gives way to eerie, ominous strings. ‘ZTHC’ starts with an arpeggiated synth sound that is oddly reminiscent of a water bong being hit. To add to that idea, later in the song are samples of a person coughing, as though they just took a hit.
The 400 Lonely Things tracks are off of their ‘Tonight of the Living Dead’ album, where they took samples of music from ‘Night of The Living Dead’ and remixed it. These tracks conjure up the images and scenes from NOTLD, which give a great sense of vintage analog warmth to the soundtrack. 
The second half of the CD is a mixture of hip-hop, punk rock and acoustic songs interspersed with some dark ambient tracks. It’s almost as if to say, ‘Yeah, you can have fun. Just know you’re going to be eaten soon.’ The Cloud 9 track, ‘Exhale’, is very catchy and high-energy. ‘For A While’ by Mojave is a pleasant, melancholic acoustic track with very pretty female vocals. 
The NOTLH theme song, ‘The Voodoo’ by John Skiiz Valour, starts with a menacing laugh and warm keyboard patches. Atmospherically, it encapsulates the feeling of the movie perfectly: It’s creepy with some violent lyrics, yet makes you want to lie back and smoke a blunt. 
Overall, the NOTLH OST is a great soundtrack for horror fans to listen to while getting high. You’ll relish the creepy atmosphere and probably go into a long discussion on how to best survive the impending zombie apocalypse. My only complaint is that the second half of the CD doesn’t flow as well as I would’ve liked. Some song transitions are a bit jarring. 
4 out of 5 skulls
You can check out more about Night of the Living Heads at the following links:
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Music

“He Walks By Night” – Listen to a Brand New John Carpenter Song NOW!

Published

1 week ago

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April 9, 2024

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John Carpenter music

It’s a new day, and you’ve got new John Carpenter to listen to. John Carpenter, Daniel Davies and Cody Carpenter have released the new track He Walks By Night this morning, the second single off their upcoming album Lost Themes IV: Noir, out May 3 on 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.

Sacred Bones previews, “It’s been a decade since John Carpenter recorded the material that would become Lost Themes, his debut album of non-film music and the opening salvo in one of Hollywood’s great second acts. 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. With Lost Themes IV: Noir, they’ve struck gold again, this time mining the rich history of the film noir genre for inspiration.

“Since the first Lost Themes, John has referred to these compositions as “soundtracks for the movies in your mind.” On the fourth installment in the series, those movies are noirs. Like the film genre they were influenced by, what makes these songs “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 trio’s free-flowing chemistry means Lost Themes IV: Noir runs 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.”

You can pre-save Lost Themes IV: Noir right now! And listen to the new track below…

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