Thursday, September 8, 2011

Assault

Assault on Precinct 13 may not be my first pick for best John Carpenter film, but it does have his most compelling soundtrack work. Carpenter's minimalist compositions, dated synths, and general creepiness would sit quite comfortably alongside these new-fangled electro-hipster bands. Get this now before it is repackaged as the cool new Gatekeeper release.

12 comments:

NO BEAST SO FIERCE said...

interesting. I do believe Im sold good sir.

bob said...

its genuinly my favourite of his soundtracks, theyre all great but fuck man, THAT main theme, so fucking cool, eerie and DOOMY, a synth riff so good I dont care that he just keeps repeating it every few tracks, its welcome every time.
Its the exact kind of atmosphere black metal bands aim for when they do ambient stuff, but better.
I still stick this on at least once a week, never gets old.

Aylmer said...

Agreed, this and EFNY are Carp's best scores.

philbrick said...

This, escape from new york, and the theme song for big trouble in little china are my carpenter favorites.

Tom said...

The one from The Thing is pretty sweet too. I always thought it was cool that John Carpenter did his own scores, I can't think of any other directors who do that. He is very creative and having control over both of those factors make his films unique and aesthetically successful.

MotorcycleBoyReigns said...

I know you gotta smoke.

JottEff said...

I´ll be damned...
Ever listened to the "Beat the Bastards" album by The Exploited? The track "Don´t blame me" is nothing but the main theme of this soundtrack!
What a rip off...

Brother Supremo said...

Check out The Fog score, it scares the shit outta me.

And Tom, John Carpenter let Ennio Morricone score the Thing. Just sayin.

The Bone Reader said...

For all of you who engage in synth trivia, that's be tha KORG EX-8000 for yo' fonky azz! ...on "EFNY", for sure. Brilliant machine.

Tom said...

Haha whoops I forgot about that! Regardless, that one and this are both pretty sweet.

MarkPhillips said...

Always been torn between this and Escape from NY. Obviously Escape is the better of the two films, but they both offer some of Carpenter's best soundtrack work. I've searched soundtrack sections high and low trying to find this on vinyl; it's the missing link in my Carpenter collection. Thanks

martin billheimer said...

Hi There,

I love the Hearse. Brilliant!
I wonder if you have heard 'Hangahar' soundtrack to an imaginary film made by Pete Shelley of Buzzcocks and Sally Timms of Mekons in 1980?
This is a severe, jolting and spook masterpiece, recently re-released after spending decades as a rare legend.
Anyway, I thought of this while going through your fine list of actual soundtracks and thought maybe an imaginary soundtrack suggestion might be a fine addition.
Anyway, it's a great record. I think it's right up the Hearse's alley.
Thanks again for all the great music!

Martin