John Carpenter’s clas­sic film themes are being released on vinyl

A pio­neer of the slash­er genre, John Carpenter’s break-out film from 1978, Hal­loween, remains one of the most prof­itable inde­pen­dent films of all time – so cul­tur­al­ly sig­nif­i­cant that in 2006 it was select­ed for preser­va­tion by the Unit­ed States Nation­al Film Reg­istry. The first film to attribute a theme tune to the killer, Hal­loween became known for its ground­break­ing sound­track, com­posed by Car­pen­ter, who went on to score 13 out of his 18 the­atri­cal­ly released features.

Carpenter’s music has been issued by a num­ber of record labels over the years, but it’s Sacred Bones Records who are enjoy­ing the boun­ty of the director’s most recent out­put. In 2015 Car­pen­ter record­ed his first stand-alone stu­dio albums, ​‘Lost Themes’ and ​‘Lost Themes II’, with his son Cody and godson/​composer Daniel Davies. Now, the label is releas­ing Carpenter’s most beloved movie themes on spe­cial edi­tion 12” vinyl. New­ly record­ed by Car­pen­ter and his Lost Themes group, the dou­ble A‑side pic­ture discs Halloween/​Escape from New York and Assault on Precinct 13/​The Fog are avail­able in deluxe lim­it­ed edi­tion Mylar mir­ror-board sleeves.

The flat, impas­sive tick of Halloween’s main theme, over­laid with a ⁵⁄₄ piano melody and sin­is­ter synth, first struck ter­ror into cin­ema­go­ers in 1978. Still lurk­ing in the hearts of hor­ror fans every­where, the updat­ed Hal­loween theme sounds crisper than ever. Draw­ing from Goblin’s Sus­piria theme and Mike Oldfield’s ​‘Tubu­lar Bells’, Carpenter’s theme for Hal­loween – out of finan­cial neces­si­ty and a lack of tech­ni­cal prowess – dropped inven­tive instru­men­ta­tion and com­plex polypho­ny in favour of an uncom­pli­cat­ed but decid­ed­ly more men­ac­ing result. Despite the com­po­si­tion­al sim­plic­i­ty and homoge­nous use of syn­the­sis­er, it was these qual­i­ties that ensured Carpenter’s suc­cess both with­in the hor­ror genre and in a wider cul­tur­al and musi­cal context.

For 1981’s Escape from New York, Carpenter’s dystopi­an response to Water­gate, the direc­tor enlist­ed the help of sound designer/​composer Alan Howarth. The for­mer Weath­er Report mem­ber remem­bers get­ting his hands on one of the first drum machines (Lin­nDrum) used on the sound­track – straight from Roger Linn’s garage. Cre­at­ed from pre­dom­i­nant­ly impro­vised ses­sions, Car­pen­ter drew inspi­ra­tion from Tan­ger­ine Dream and The Police, as evi­dent in the rever­ber­at­ing, futur­is­tic sound­scape of the score. With a stark beat and melody that’s more hero­ic than creepy, Escape from New York is rem­i­nis­cent of the theme from Assault on Precinct 13, only less hopeful.

An urban homage to Howard Hawks’ Rio Bra­vo and George A Romero’s Night of the Liv­ing Dead, exploita­tion clas­sic Assault on Precinct 13 was the first fea­ture Car­pen­ter made out of film school. The theme, part­ly inspired by Lalo Schifrin’s work on Dirty Har­ry and Led Zeppelin’s ​‘Immi­grant Song’, is a syn­the­sised syn­er­gy of pow­er­ful bass line and pound­ing bass drum. The tick­ing hi-hat and glassy strings com­bine to ele­vate the indeli­ble sense of doom and ten­sion present in so many of Carpenter’s films.

The score for 198^o’s The Fog is con­sid­ered one of his best and most unnerv­ing sound­tracks. While the min­i­mal­ist, mono­chrome approach is sub­tle enough, the theme itself, at least in the con­text of this release, feels lack­ing and repet­i­tive; as if the hor­ror mae­stro ran out of ideas. Hark­ing back to ​‘Tubu­lar Bells’, Car­pen­ter not only bor­rows heav­i­ly from the melody but also Oldfield’s spe­cif­ic com­bi­na­tion of piano and organ synth sounds. Hav­ing removed the orig­i­nal elec­tro beat – which is strik­ing­ly sim­i­lar to the Hal­loween theme – and done away with the heav­ier church organ intro, Car­pen­ter deliv­ers a ver­sion that is arguably a lit­tle too clean, los­ing the lo-fi qual­i­ty that is such a huge part of his appeal.

Car­pen­ter is a true pio­neer of his craft. His gift for cre­at­ing evoca­tive themes that cap­ture the essence of his unique brand of hor­ror has seen him con­tin­ue to gar­ner respect from genre fans and audio­philes alike. These 12” hor­ror sin­gles are a curi­ous and col­lectible release. Tan­ta­lis­ing the lis­ten­er with a sin­gle track from each film, they per­haps serve bet­ter as a link between cult icon’s past and present than as a com­plete lis­ten­ing experience.

John Carpenter’s ​‘Clas­sic Themes Redux’ is released 17 June via sacred​bones​records​.com