VOTD 5/15/2024

 Fred Myrow & Malcome Seagrave: Phantasm OST (Mondo)

Purchased mail order, I think

Here I am sitting up late, technically it's May 15, though really late night. The 15th is my wife's birthday, many happy returns. That has nothing to do with this record I have on; the late night part does.

I was thinking about writing the Gerry Hemingway blog post yesterday, and I sometimes bristle a little, maybe I'm just a bit conflicted. I've probably written previously about an old friend and bandmate, with whom I really only have Facebook contact now. When he decides to respond to someone, it's usually in the form of "Oh I met him in such-and-such year" or "I opened for that band" or "I drove that person around." I neither like nor feel comfortable with that much me-me-me.

And yet, unless there's some brilliant point or revelation for me to make, I'm writing here about my experiences. Because what else to I have to offer? There are probably artists for whom I would have loved to have read even their scattered, disorganized thoughts. 

Even writing all of that, it's about me again. Blech. And yet, a straight-forward record review doesn't seem all the interesting either, unless again I'm blessed with some particular insight. (I have listened to a lot of Sun Ra and own dozens of his recordings, so I'll give myself a pass on that one.)

So here's another horror movie soundtrack. A few years back (it was pre-pandemic) I was asked to assemble a Spotify playlist for walking through Homewood Cemetery. Contemplative walks. I put together a collection of jazz ballads, though ones that generally moved more. (Bill Evans playing "Blue in Green" was the slowest choice.) I had to ask though, what about an all horror movie theme soundtrack? The response was very clear: ABSOLUTELY NOT.

Aw shucks, it would been good, too. No Mike Oldfield excerpt for The Exorcist main title theme for me, though much of the music probably would have been in some way inspired by that work. Some of Fabio Frizzi's City of the Living Dead, Ennio Morricone's The Thing, definitely a track from Goblin's Suspiria, and the main title theme from this work. Woulda been great!

And note, putting together the list that I did was the most time I ever spent on Spotify. I don't generally approve of it, even though I have a little music on it with more to come. I know people love the convenience, but it just seems to me to be a way to make money off of creative people's hard work and returning almost nothing. Buying a band t-shirt or purchasing a download on Bandcamp does far, far more for an artist than 10,000 plays on Spotify. 

But don't let me tell you what to do.

Phantasm the movie is a wild ride. Not to be confused with a softcore sex movie from earlier in the decade, this 1979 film is a weird horror/sci-fi/arguably Lovecraftian hybrid. There's a funeral parlor and mausoleum, a mysterious character of the Tall Man, who is reanimating corpses as half-sized people who are his slaves. There's the "Boy" who discovers this bizarre situation. To speak nothing of the flying silver spheres which are deadly weapons. Also there's a dimensional portal. Yeah, it's great and very original, I'll give it that.

The film spawned four sequels, and I'll be damned if I can tell you what happened in any of them. Phantasm II was released eleven years later, so the Boy wasn't exactly a boy any longer. No. 5 was released 2016, a full 37 years after the first. The Tall Man has clearly aged, and he's no longer with us now anyway. I can only imagine what this might have been like if it was a planned trilogy, released in 1979-1981-1983. It might have been amazing. All speculation. Most horror/sci-fi franchises make too many films anyway.

The music is pretty good. The main title theme is memorable and not unlike Fabio Frizzi, keyboard-oriented light prog rock. It's a small studio band playing, keyboards (one or two players?), guitar, bass, drums. There's just enough inexactness to the playing, that I can hear it's not sequenced in any way. Analog sequencers existed at the time, but I'm thinking more of digital software sequencers and their ability to quantize rhythms exactly. Teaching those skills as I do, I find I notice the edges of inexactness on non-sequenced music more clearly now. I'm not saying I'm bothered, if anything I'm happy to hear it's not robots playing this music. 

I'm guessing this was recorded quickly, but the sound is fine and clear.

As with all complete soundtracks, it would be fine to trim a good half of the contents, but it's all good. Not as dark as the aforementioned The Thing  or City of the Living Dead, not as intense as most Goblin soundtracks, it's still a solid piece and worthy of one's time. 

"BOY!!!"