[Mateo Sanboval]

First ever Terje Rypdal reference at STBC!!

[ScoJo]

@Scojo what a cast in that friggin movie!

I love it. Always double bill it with Romeo is Bleeding, so will dig out the digi files for that next ;)

[static14]

@Scojo 65 grand. Feed the hole.

[Mateo Sanboval]

So I have to confess to never having seen Equinox. In fact, I'm fairly certain I have no memory of it's existence at all. Mostly I was just thrilled with a Terje blast, but comparing it to Romeo Is Bleeding has piqued my interest. Now it is in my posession. Static, ScoJo, other goodly folks of STBC, please shoot me some recommendations of other 80s/90s/neo noir/pulp/whatever flicks that are in a similar vein(s).

[ScoJo]

.

[ScoJo]

So I have to confess to never having seen Equinox. In fact, I'm fairly certain I have no memory of it's existence at all. Mostly I was just thrilled with a Terje blast, but comparing it to Romeo Is Bleeding has piqued my interest. Now it is in my posession. Static, ScoJo, other goodly folks of STBC, please shoot me some recommendations of other 80s/90s/neo noir/pulp/whatever flicks that are in a similar vein(s).

There really is nothing quite like Equinox. But yeah, whenever I listen to the ost, I always follow with Romeo to keep the doomy vibe going...

Anyway, a few personal 80s/90s doomy neo noir faves...all with good scores too:

One False Move
After Dark, My Sweet
The Dead Can't Lie
This World, Then The Fireworks
Liebestraum
Red Rock West
The Kill-off

[Mateo Sanboval]

ScoJ, great list. And two that I've never even seen. Many thanks. I'll try to track them down. If you, (or anyone else) think of any others, please don't be shy.

[ScoJo]

ScoJ, great list. And two that I've never even seen. Many thanks. I'll try to track them down. If you, (or anyone else) think of any others, please don't be shy.

You're welcome pard. Btw, The Dead Cant Lie also goes under the moniker of Gotham in the US of A I believe ;)

I'mma take a guess that it's possibly The Kill-off and Liebestraum which have so far escaped your transom. Both are treasures of downbeat, gloomy noir, and the latter has always been a major SJ fave (I interviewed Mike Figgis about it back in the early 90s, when I managed an arts cinema...he was at the time feeling his oats with success of Leaving Las Vegas, and seemed pretty down on the earlier film. Been a while so I may have to revisit and see if it holds up fully.)

(And The Kill-off is Jim Thompson, a female director, is fucking amazing and about as bleak as it gets! I used to own this UK quad...)

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[Mateo Sanboval]

The list on unknowns would've been three deep if The Dead Can't Lie hadn't turned out to be Gotham. You nailed the other two. I'm particularly surprised I don't remember the Kill-Off as I worked at an "art cinema" and rental store in the late-mid 90s and was a decent Jim Thompson fan at one point. Either way, they're on the list.

[ScoJo]

...as I worked at an "art cinema" and rental store in the late-mid 90s...

Course ya did.

*fist bump*

[ScoJo]

Had a little run from one tune to another on the Youtubes....here's my stream of consciousness (running from bottom to top):

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And now I'm blasting Tron:Legacy without mercy...and all is right with the world.

[Mateo Sanboval]

Killing Zoe. What a score. I used to listen to that CD at lift off every time I was on a flight. Great memories.

PS - Big greasy bonus points for Arvo Part. His ECM records are some of the finest in my collection.

[Spun out of control]

Possibly one of the best so-called synth wave albums ever... puts other acts who deploy that term in the shade.

Didn't seem to get that wide a release either - had to resort to Discogs for my copy. A bit of a gem that slipped between the cracks...

[reddye6]

Possibly one of the best so-called synth wave albums ever... puts other acts who deploy that term in the shade.

Didn't seem to get that wide a release either - had to resort to Discogs for my copy. A bit of a gem that slipped between the cracks...

You can still get the 2-LP version and the CD version from Music Fear Satan. Vinyl has a bonus track.

http://musicfearsatan.com/artiste/double-dragon/

[reddye6]

Just got a package from Japan, and I'll be giving these some attention over the next few days.

* Ryuichi Sakamoto "Silk." This came out about a decade ago, but I'm finally getting around to it now.
* Gary Ashiya "Ulam's Spiral." This is the one that I've been most looking forward to out of the group. Ashiya did some of the scores to Kiyoshi Kurosawa's older horror films. I have one of these scores on CD ("Loft"), but as far as I can tell, and I've been searching for a while, the others haven't been released. This CD has some of those older cues, such as from "Cure." From sound clips that I hear, there are a few cutesy tracks on this release, but there is also some great, stark, minimalist pieces on here as well. I only just discovered that this CD existed a few weeks ago, and I snagged it as soon as I could.
* "Siren" video game soundtrack. Gary Ashiya is one of two main composers for the score (Hitomi Shimizu being the other), and it sounds like another solid dark ambient score.
* Keiichi Sugimoto "Watashitachi no Ie" ("Our House"). Sugimoto has a bunch of electronic/ambient release out there. For instance, he has released music on the 12k label under Fourcolor. Anyway, this was relatively cheap on CD Japan ($14), so I took a look. The movie is directed by Yui Kiyohara, who studied under Kiyoshi Kurosawa, and it supposedly has some of the dread and atmospherics that are reflected in his films. The sound clips that I had again had a mix of some light-hearted pieces and some unsettling ones.

My favorite so far is the Gary Ashiya. There are a few different flavors on this release. One is on the noisier side, almost like something that would be on a Tetsuo the Iron Man soundtrack. Percussive, aggressive. There are also a few tracks that are in the vein of abstract electronica -- stuff that you might have heard from Nobukazu Takemura in the late '90s/early '00s. The CD also has some killer minimalist stuff. The track "Evangelist" is my favorite. It's this unsettling ambience from the film "Cure." I have a feeling that it's a cut toward the end of the film when the cop and killer confront each other, and it's the music that let me to search this guy out in the first place. I didn't find the cuts between different music types to be off-putting.

The Sugimoto is good -- more pastoral in feel. It's also only an EP, hence why it is cheaper. Some of it had a more quaint feel, but other tracks were more quiet and lonely feeling.

Siren was more tribal/dark ambient. Vocals also play a bit role in this release, but vocals that are featureless (vocals as sounds rather than as words). At times they even bordered on Diamanda Galas shrieking.

[Mateo Sanboval]

Our first ever Nobukazu Takemura reference!!

PS - Now I'm going to drive to my storage, dig out my CD copy of 10th, and listen to Falls Lake on repeat.

[tim28212]

currently spinning (digitally) at work

[static14]

Somebody please press this!

[Mateo Sanboval]

Somebody please press this!

We've been whistling the same tune for years. How about a proper BD transfer while we're at it? No? Okay, good. As you were.

[deafmetal]

[ScoJo]

Playing digitally...

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[ChrisMcQueen007]

Playing digitally...

eos01cd-hiroshi-yoshimura.jpg

This is a fantastic album. Recently re-issued on vinyl along with Pier & Loft which also is sublime.

[ScoJo]

Playing digitally...

eos01cd-hiroshi-yoshimura.jpg

This is a fantastic album. Recently re-issued on vinyl along with Pier & Loft which also is sublime.

Re-issued on vinyl?? WhaaaaaH??!

Chris, way to casually drop the bomb on me! Thank you sir!

[ChrisMcQueen007]

You‘re welcome, ScoJo. :)
But be aware that they supposedly ran into some issue with the second pressing of the Nine Postcards reissue. Several people complained about constant surface noise on the album which of course is especially annoying given the very quiet nature of the music. I read that not the entire batch is affected, though. They have a replacement program but it might anyway make sense to buy from somewhere where it‘s easy to return the LP if necessary. I ordered from hhv, the second one I got sounds great.
Pier & Loft (which was re-issued by another label than Postcards) is among the best sounding pressings I own.

[Mateo Sanboval]

Great records.