So what happened in the genre to so alter the course of horror film and usher in the age of 'Video Nasties'. 1968 seems to have been a pivotal year, director Roman Polanski's 'Rosemary's Baby' and George A. Romero's 'Night of the Living Dead' made their cinema debuts. 'Rosemary's Baby' with its running thread of latent supernatural dread, compounded by Mia Farrow's character increasingly being accused of paranoia due to her fears about her neighbours.
Be prepared to lose yourself in the maze of Smith's 'cosmic' mind, as he takes you on a journey to far off lands, distant planetary systems and to future possible worlds. Ready yourself to smile at the preposterous, to be panicked by the bizarre, to be fearful of the terrifying, to wonder at the order and chaos of Smith's poetic form, a cure all for the world weary and jaded heart. There is more here than found in the dreams of mortals, so play your copy of 'The Muse of Hyperborea'.
This is the 5th release by Cadabra Records, and the second album by Cadabra devoted to the short fiction of Howard Philips Lovecraft. In the gloom of your living room, intermittently illuminated by splinters of lightning revealing momentarily the hell behind nights dormant peeling epidermis, place the stylus in the groove of your copy of 'The Lurking Fear', then drape yourself across the green velvet couch, bedecked in your white marbled gown and prepare for the forbidden pleasures contained within.
An earthquake from a scientific/geographic perspective is a natural phenomenon caused by shifting tectonic plates. The comic’s artist Neal Adams [Born 1941] has a theory that the Earth is literally growing and gravity is increasing with the size of the planet, hence the ability of large dinosaurs to move about unimpeded by gravitational force, the world in the prehistoric age was smaller. The supposed 'lunatic fringe' have a great many interesting although often completely insane ideas, (not sure who first coined the term 'lunatic fringe' but it has become an establishment consignment for all that is not acceptable to 'reasonable' people).
Pino Donaggio's [Born 1941] first work for film. As the story goes, one of the film's Italian producers Ugo Mariotti spotted Donaggio on a Vaporetto on the Grand Canal in Venice and took it for a "sign", contacted him, reluctant at first because he had no experience in the field, he decided to accept. The London based producers didn't want an inexperienced composer but they were overruled by the films financiers. Not a particularly good pianist by his own admission he plays 'Laura's Theme' on the soundtrack with childlike naivety, Donaggio also plays flute on the love scene, and is an accomplished flautist, the results are stunning
With this music the roller-coaster dips into the carnival below, beyond the disfigured faces behind the masquerade. "I am everyone and no one. Everywhere. Nowhere. Call me... Darkman" Side A - Begins with 'Main Title', darkly ominous kettle drum and horn section augmented by flute flourishes, segues into 'Woe, The Darkman Woe', dark and sweet, makes me think of a whirley-gig smashing through a ceiling and landing in calm waters, softening horns and strings break and the piece ends in harp. 'Rebuilding/Failure', strings dominate and set a tender mood. 'Julie Transforms' is woodwind and ends with bells.
