Music

[Album Review] The Birthday Massacre ‘Hide And Seek’

Published

12 years ago

October 5, 2012

The Birthday Massacre is that band that fits well into so many different situations. Whether it be wanting to jump up and dance around your room or laying back on your couch staring out the window on a rainy day, their music seems to encompass all those emotions and then some. They’re a band that I know I can fall back on and enjoy thoroughly. But does their latest album Hide And Seek offer me the same? Find out below!

The album opens up with “Leaving Tonight”, a toe-tapper that put a smile on my face almost right away. Something about this song sounds so triumphant, as though you’re supposed to jubilantly raise your fists into the sky. We then go into “Down”, the heaviest track of the album and one that had me bobbing my head, just shy of full blown headbanging. After the slower beauty of “Play With Fire”, “Need” picks up the pace again with some incredibly catchy melodies.

From a production standpoint, this album sounds beautiful. Crisp, polished and rich with textures, it avoids sounding cold and mechanical. Chibi’s voice shines, ranging from coy, demure and breathy on “Play With Fire” to vicious, almost snarly on “Down” and everything in between on the rest of the tracks. She also pulls off some sneaky vocal harmonies that can easily be missed under all the musical layers.

Mixing melancholic beauty with impossibly hooking passages, my only complaint with Hide And Seek is that it ended too early and I found myself wanting more. Even though I truly enjoyed what I was given, the 36 minute album felt more like an appetizer than a full meal.

The Final Word: Even though Hide And Seek is criminally short, it’s a catchy, addictive album that I found myself spinning over and over again without caring that I’d already heard the tracks before. Actually, I found myself enjoying them more with each repeat. With no doubt in my mind, I can say that The Birthday Massacre has released another winner.

Got any thoughts/questions/concerns for Jonathan Barkan? Shoot him a message on Twitter or on Bloody-Disgusting!

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Music

John Carpenter’s New Album ‘Lost Themes IV: Noir’ NOW AVAILABLE!

Published

2 days ago

May 3, 2024

John Squires

John Carpenter, Daniel Davies and Cody Carpenter are back with Lost Themes IV: Noir, a brand new album from Sacred Bones Records that was released today, May 3.

Lost Themes IV: Noir is the latest installment in a series that sees Carpenter releasing new music for John Carpenter movies that don’t actually exist. The first Lost Themes was released in 2015, followed by Lost Themes II in 2016 and Lost Themes III: Alive After Death in 2021.

The new ten song collection was loosely inspired by the noir genre and marks new territory for John Carpenter and his cohorts, imbibing their trademark synth hooks and pulsing drum machine with propulsive post punk basslines and smoldering guitar solos.

Here’s the full Lost Themes IV: Noir track list:

My Name is Death (video below)
Machine Fear
Last Rites
The Burning Door
He Walks By Night (video below)
Beyond The Gallows
Kiss The Blood Off My Fingers
Guillotine
The Demon’s Shadow
Shadows Have A Thousand Eyes

Sacred Bones previews, “It’s been a decade since John Carpenter recorded the material that would become Lost Themes, his debut album of non-film music and the opening salvo in one of Hollywood’s great second acts. Those vibrant, synth-driven songs, made in collaboration with his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies, kickstarted a musical renaissance for the pioneering composer and director. With Lost Themes IV: Noir, they’ve struck gold again, this time mining the rich history of the film noir genre for inspiration.

“Since the first Lost Themes, John has referred to these compositions as “soundtracks for the movies in your mind.” On the fourth installment in the series, those movies are noirs. Like the film genre they were influenced by, what makes these songs “noirish” is sometimes slippery and hard to define, and not merely reducible to a collection of tropes. The scores for the great American noir pictures were largely orchestral, while the Carpenters and Davies work off a sturdy synth-and-guitar backbone.

“The trio’s free-flowing chemistry means Lost Themes IV: Noir runs like a well-oiled machine—the 1951 Jaguar XK120 Roadster from Kiss Me Deadly, perhaps, or the 1958 Plymouth Fury from John’s own Christine. It’s a chemistry that’s helped power one of the most productive stretches of John’s creative life, and Noir proves that it’s nowhere near done yielding brilliant results.”

You can listen to Lost Themes IV: Noir right now!