I'm going to get back to my top 11 film list, but I'm interrupting it for the standout music of 2012, which was really a bunch of reissues of stuff that wasn't so readily available before (and because most of these reissues are limited, the music will continue to be not readily available in a few years).


The recent interest in the cinema of Andrzej Żuławski is a joke, but as far as it goes, Possession is probably this halfwit auteur's pretentious masterpiece, a risible prime example of Eurotrash art horror. Although the film oeuvre deserves to stay forgotten, Korzyński's electo-orchestral score is brilliant, and certainly the best argument for the director's faddish resurgence.

One of the top 5 horror scores of all time. It doesn't get any better than the choral cues on this record.

Forget how shitty the movie is and how disappointed you were upon first seeing it; this is the best score Carpenter ever did. With Howarth as his co-composer this time around.

Really, the whole line of GRM electronic reissues should be on here, but my favorite so far is Schaeffer's first and only fully synthesized album. At a proper volume, his tones will turn your skeletal structure to warm honey. The sound quality of these LPs is as good as you'll ever hear.

Dockstader's never made a bad album. He's one of the best electronic composers, always creating a full aural environment. Here he proves himself to be one the best composers of library music, too.

We just got copies of these awesome LP soundtrack reissues from Death Waltz Recording Co.!

The Soundtracks for Escape From New York, Zombi 2 & Let The Right One In have all been reissued with new artwork!

Death Waltz Recording Co. was founded by Spencer Hickman manager of Rough Trade East in London. They will concentrate on delivering high end collectors vinyl that will include extensive liner notes from composers and directors as well as brand new and exclusive artwork from a variety of fine artists.

these 3 LPs are all available now at amoeba and amoeba.com...

Zombi 2

CAT NO DW001 LP
The first time this classic soundtrack to the notorious Lucio Fulci video nasty has ever been made available on vinyl to collectors. This soundtrack is one of the holy grails of Italian cinema with the maestro Fabio Frizzi delivering a dizzyingly brilliant soundtrack that can hold it’s own with anything released by John Carpenter or Goblin.Cover art by legendary UK poster artist Graham Humphreys who was responsible for the original cinema posters for the Evil Dead, Nightmare On Elm Street 1-5 and Return Of The Living Dead.
Exclusive sleeve notes from composer Fabio Frizzi, renowned Italian horror expert Stephen Thrower and artist Graham Humphreys.

Remember that band called Stereolab? Yes, they are still making great albums. They never really stopped, you just may have forgotten about them. They have a new album out this week called Chemical Chords. I think it might be like their 20th album by now. They were on a major label for a long while, but they are back on the indie label 4AD now. They had that EP collection out last year, but this is a real new album. I have not had a chance to listen to it yet, but I can't really wait. They are one of those bands that I got really obsessed with when they first came out. I had lost a bit of interest over the last 5 or 6 years, but I feel ready to be a Stereolab fan again. I just hope the album is as good as I want it to be. I like the song that I have heard from the album. I don't really see how you can't like a Stereolab album. They are always so fun and catchy. I am just glad there are some releases out this week that I actually want to bother listening to.

The Dandy Warhols also have a new album out this week. I have had sort of a love/hate relationship with the Dandy Warhols. I still don't really know how I feel about this new album. I am going to give it one more listen before I make up my mind. I also have been listening to that new album by The Uglysuit. It is slowly growing on me but I doubt it will turn into one of my favorites. There is also the debut album from Uh Huh Her. I have not heard this one yet either-- however, I do love Leisha Hailey. She plays Alice Pieszecki on The L Word. She is the funniest thing about The L Word and the only reason that I watch it. Many years ago she was in the Murmurs, so it's not like this is her first time making music. There are also some great other albums that are coming out this week that I just fell in love with.

I have been obsessed with Halloween and the Halloween movies for as long as I can remember. This holiday and the original 1978 film will forever be intertwined together in my memory. John Carpenter is absolutely without a doubt a genius. He created the most successful independent film of all time with his original Halloween. This movies remains brilliant to this day and still manages to be scary. It really reinvented the horror movie and sort of set up the rules for the horror movies of the 80's. The second Halloween film was almost as good but the following sequels became worse as time went on. I saw every one and quickly realized the franchise was getting ridiculous with the last couple films. I remained loyal but it was really time for the series to be reinvented. They needed to go back and start all over again. But before the original even started. Similar things have been happening with other film franchises lately. Both the Batman and Superman movies had become ridiculous. Really only the first couple of both were good. Both Batman and Superman were reinvented in the last couple years. It worked amazingly well with the Batman franchise and "Batman Begins." The film gave a completely new look to the series with a great new storyline. It kept what was good about the story and just built on that. This did not work so well for "Superman Returns." I am still waiting for the deluxe version of the entire Halloween series to be released on DVD like they did with Nightmare On Elm Street and Friday the 13th. There is a box available as an import but nothing yet domestically.

Many horror films have also been remade in the last couple years. It seems to never work. These original films, The Omen, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Wax Museum, etc., hold such importance in our eyes as horror movie fans. We grew up with these films and have every detail about them memorized. It is a hard task for a director to go into such sacred ground and try and update and reinterpret these original films. Horror movies have never been the same lately. Never as good. Never as scary as they once were. So when I heard that Halloween was getting remade this year, I was very excited but also very worried. I thought Rob Zombie was the perfect director to try and reinterpret this brilliant original film. But I was also worried for him and the response he would get from those crazy dedicated horror fans. The movie opened over labor day weekend as the most successful movie for that weekend ever. But of course many fans are really upset that Rob Zombie has ruined their Halloween. But I wonder how many of these people have actually seen the movie. I saw it on Monday and I was more than impressed. And it was scarier than anything I have seen in the theater in a long while.