The Fog; John Carpenter, dir. 1980

 

After Disaster Amnesiac's Halloween ritual of playing spooky chords upon an old, questionably tuned upright piano with the front door of the house open, the missus and I had some time to spend, and we figured a spooky movie would be appropriate. A quick perusal of Kanopy had us viewing John Carpenter's brilliant 1980 film The Fog. I may have seen it during the adolescent years, but that time is quite long gone, and the memories of it were vague at best. This was a good thing, as viewing it again for the first time revealed a fantastic experience. Lovely shots of western Marin County in Spring, clearly after a good rainy season, with the fields showing a shimmering green. Incredible exterior shots of Point Bonita and its lighthouse. Very creative set design and lighting. Excellent soundtrack work from Carpenter, wide shots that approached Minimalist paintings. Adrienne Barbeau giving a quite subtle performance, using her vocal inflections as much as her fine physical looks. Hal Holbrook as a man aware of his impending doom and reckoning with that. Use of horror motifs not as the principal concern but as ways in which to enhance the full spectrum of human experience. Seriously, if you've not watched The Fog for a bit, it's absolutely worth its concise one hour and twenty eight minute running time.

Chester Hawkins-Semisolids; Intangible Arts, 2014

 

Pretty ominous vials of some poison type of injected substance on that cover art for Chester Hawkins's Semisolids, no? The sounds of this 2014 release match quite well with it, too. Brooding electronics are pushed from various electronic sources, all of them captured with clarity and precision. Hawkins is not haphazard with his productions, as Disaster Amnesiac has gleaned from this one and Nil 1, reviewed a few weeks back. These tracks run the gamut from spooky, non-pulsed clashes such as iodine to more rhythmic areas on slender loris and malattia del sonno, the former even utilizing synthetic percussion and the later that would not sound misplaced within a John Carpenter film. the brood crushes the synapses with odd cyber sounds and proximity fuze might make an obsessive type do some cyber stalking of Cosey Fanni-Tutti and Christ Carter. Dramatic zones infuse isle of dogs and from away as Hawkins turns weird knobs on his devices; these zones will surely be pleasing for any fan of well crafted Industrial/Noise/Drone. nematode might very well get that butt out of its chair, with that repeated phrase, in order to perform some kind of improvised dance routine. As Burroughs so succinctly put it: "...dance around in your BONES..." That's been the case for this listener, anyway. Speaking of William S., the liner notes of Semisolids appear to utilize some kind of variation upon the Cut-Up Method. I tried to read them later in the day and found much bewilderment, which is probably at least one element of the intended effect of their screed. The album feels like a kind of concept statement, with that concept being presented in an oblique form that renders it fascinating. What was Hawkins obsessing upon during the production of these tracks? Grab a copy for yourself and attempt to decipher these deeply personal messages from this Tucson Sound Artist of high refinement aesthetics.