A whole ten spins around the sun have whizzed by since John Carpenter, Hollywood’s foremost horror renaissance man with a penchant for creating eerie atmospheric soundscapes to accompany his films, hunkered down with his son Cody and godson Daniel Davies to cook up what would eventually bubble over as the first Lost Themes. This was Carpenter’s grand entrance into the world of non-film tunes, marking the start of a second act so spectacular it could only befit a man who’s made a career out of keeping us on the edge of our seats. With those pulsating, synth-soaked tracks, the trio laid down the groovy groundwork for what’s turned into an epic encore in Carpenter’s storied career, proving the maestro of the macabre can make magic happen not only on screen, but in the sound booth, too.
Through the winding, wild years, the Carpenter-Davies trio has been churning out tunes like there’s no tomorrow, dropping a cool dozen sonic bombs that range from full-blown studio masterpieces to the spine-tingling scores of David Gordon Green’s Halloween reboots. The gang’s got music in their marrow – Daniel’s father is Dave Davies of The Kinks. For years he has dropped by the Carpenters’ L.A. beat factory to riff with the fam or take the stage at one of John’s legendary movie wrap shindigs. It’s this kind of kismet that makes Lost Themes IV: Noir glide smoother than a greased-up DeLorean. The trio hit the creative jackpot, and Noir is the proof in the pudding.
Lost Themes IV: Noir is hitting the shelves and streaming platforms this May 3rd, courtesy Sacred Bones Records. To whip up a frenzy, the trio dropped a killer music video for My Name Is Death, the album’s lead single – which doubles as a bite-sized noir thriller, all thanks to the directorial genius of Ambar Navarro.
“Noir is a uniquely American genre born in post-war cinema,” states John Carpenter. “ We grew up loving Noir and were influenced by it for this new album. The video celebrates this style and our new song, My Name is Death.”
This track is a whole new playground for Carpenter and the gang, riding in on a wave of post-punk bass that’s as relentless as Chandler’s Philip Marlowe himself. The atmosphere’s thick with synths, the drum machine’s got a heartbeat of its own, and just when you think it can’t get any hotter, in comes a guitar solo that sets the whole scene ablaze. The clip a classic mystery with a twist, featuring a lineup of faces you might just recognize, including Natalie Mering (Weyes Blood), Staz Lindes (The Paranoyds), and Misha Lindes (SadGirl) for bringing the drama. Buckle up, because My Name Is Death is about to take you on a wild ride.
Watch below:
“Sandy [King, John’s wife and producer] had given John a book for Christmas, of pictures from noir films, all stills from that era,” Davies says of the lightbulb moment for Lost Themes IV. “I was looking through it, and I thought, ‘I like that imagery, and what those titles make me think of. What if we loosely based it around that? What if the titles were of some of John’s favorite noir films?’” Like the film genre they were influenced by, what makes the songs on Lost Themes IV “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 noir quality, then, is something you understand instinctively when you hear it. “Some of the music is heavy guitar riffs, which is not in old noir films,” Davies notes. “But somehow, it’s connected in an emotional way.”
Pre-order Lost Themes IV: Noir here in the following formats:
- Sacred Bones Exclusive Red on Clear Splatter vinyl w/ Screen Printed 7” bonus track “Black Cathedral”, a Silver Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
- Sacred Bones Society Exclusive on Black and White Splatter on Clear w/ Screen Printed 7” bonus track “Black Cathedral”, a Silver Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
- All retail Transparent Red, with a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
- Indie Exclusive Tan and Black Marble, w/ Screen Printed 7” bonus track “Black Cathedral”, a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
- Rough Trade Exclusive Oxblood Red and Black Splatter, w/ Screen Printed 7” bonus track “Black Cathedral”, a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
- Shout Exclusive Black and Clear cloudy, w/ Screen Printed 7” bonus track “Black Cathedral”, a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
- Black LP, with a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
- CD
- Tape
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