Soundtrack Saturday

In 1981 the film Escape From New York depicted a nightmare dystopia where Manhattan had been turned into a maximum security prison for the USA's most dangerous criminals. The film was set in the future- 1997 to be exact. Air Force One had been hijacked by anti- governments fighters and crashed the presidential jet into the borough taking the president down with them. Former special forces agent and current felon Snake Plisken is recruited and promised a pardon if he would go into Manhattan and rescue the president in just 24 hours. 

At one point Plisken, played by Kurt Russell, when bargaining about the terms of the deal snarls, 'I don't give a fuck about... your president'. Which, you know, is how many of us feel today. John Carpenter wrote and directed the film,a  reaction  in some ways to the 1970s and Watergate, a criminal president in the White House and trust in leaders at a low. And well, you know, again, that is how many of us feel today. 

The soundtrack was also composed and performed by Carpenter along with Alan Howarth using ARP and Prophet- 5 synths and a Linn drum, as well as more traditional instruments, to get what was in 1981 a futuristic sounding score to go with the visuals and all star cast (not just Kurt Russell but also Ernest Borgnine, Lee van Cleef, Donald Pleasance, Isaac Hayes and Harry Dean Stanton). It gets regular late night repeat showings and I always enjoy it, it stands up well, good fun, gritty and anarchic despite looking a little dated. The soundtrack is early 80s synth heaven. 

Escape From New York Main Title

In 2014 Maurice and Charles released a 12" called I, Carpenter, which made liberal use of the vocal samples from the film set to a ALFOS friendly eight minute chug with guitar that sounds like it's come directly from one of Talking Heads early 80s albums- a funky dystopic joy. 

I, Carpenter

Monday Mix

A few weeks ago I got a message from Tak Tent Radio, an internet radio station broadcasting out of Edinburgh, asking if I'd like to do an hour long mix for them. I was flattered, obviously, and said yes. Ali said musically Tak Tent is a total 'free for all so play whatever you like'. If you have a dig around on their website you'll see that it is with everything from Italo and electro to gospel and Scots folk, ragas and psyche- pop and Aiden Moffatt to Richard Youngs playing Hawkwind and Flux Of Pink Indians. In the end I put together an hour of music that follows in some kind of line from the Isolation mixes I was doing in the spring and summer, ambient and tracks with found sounds, drones and noise, some Durutti Column, some Two Lone Swordsmen and some clattering, spooked out Eno/ Byrne style stuff. The samples in Maurice And Charles's I, Carpenter and the voice of Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken gave me a title and a reference to the ongoing horror show/ political reality TV show that is going on in the USA. It went out yesterday morning  and you can find my Find The President mix to stream at Mixcloud here. 

I almost titled it after Snake's line in this clip... 

Tracklist

• A Man Called Adam: Easter Song Gospel Oak FX/ Speaking In Tongues 
• Daniel Avery and Alessandro Cortini: Interrupted By The Cloud of Light
• Glok: Pulsing (Citadel Ambient Version)
• Jan van den Broeke: Memories
• Jan van den Broeke: Who Is Still Dreaming?
• Steven Legget: Still
• Richard Norris: Water
• Rick Cuevas: The Birds
• Durutti Column: Bordeaux Sequence
• Calexico: Untitled (Two Lone Swordsmen Virus Style Mix)
• Brian Eno and David Byrne: The Jezebel Spirit
• Maurice & Charles: I, Carpenter
• Two Lone Swordsmen: Smokebelch (For Ali)
• Daniel Avery: TBW17

I Don't Give A Fuck About Your War... Or Your President

I was channel surfing the other night and discovered the Sy Fy channel, somewhere I don't think I'd been before. I became distracted by Escape From New York, already about 45 minutes in, but the combination of John Carpenter's synth score and Snake Plissken's mission to find the President in Manhattan, a walled in maximum security prison in the year 1997,  kept me from switching over for a while. Escape From New York is always a joy. It occurred to me that if real life had intervened Snake would have been rescuing Bill Clinton.

It put me in mind of this 2014 release by Maurice and Charles, a chunky, moody, acid funk track peppered with dialogue from the film along with some very Byrne-Eno guitar riffs and rhythms.

I, Carpenter

Carpenter

I took a punt on this recently in the ALFOS section in Piccadilly Records, a four track 12" by Maurice and Charles. Released at the end of last year, the A-side is a trippy, bleepy electronic chugger called Sofa Love plus a remix. The B-side is this tribute to John Carpenter, mixing a dirty bassline, some Eno-Byrne My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts style sounds and some vocal samples from Escape From New York. A moody, funky groove you'll want to play all over again as soon as it finishes.



In 2011 Maurice and Charles put this out, a sort of acidic disco tribute to Giorgio Moroder.

Moroder In Milan (Original Mix)