Cripes, it’s already nearing the end of January.. so I thought I would catch up on the things I really liked in 2017…
Music wise, it was a good year. Much of it (for me) was on Bandcamp.. with some great synth / soundtrack music…
Spun out of Control had some cracking releases… Maine IV was another great album, loved Repeated Viewing’s Street Force 2, but perhaps my fave was Anomaly on Meadow Lane by Stefan Bachmeier (loved the art on that too). Reminded me slightly of Paddy Kingsland’s music for HHGTTG (where is that album!).
Gavino Moretti (who I interviewed for the Weekend of the Dead Programme) gave us the sublime The Satan Complex. Yet another great soundtrack and also a different vibe to his previous album.
OGRE continued to put out amazing music, lovely synth work, and as well as mopping up his back catalogue, I loved Murals, great music to work to.
Europaweite Aussichten had a busy year, releasing Magma, and The Engine of Ugly, I love the hard edge their music has, some nice hard synthwork.
Dissolved have a huge back catalogue, and it’s like listening to lots of unreleased Warp records music. Hallucino Attics got me hooked this year, also Paul’s artwork is always wonderful (as is he).
Last, but my no means least, The Southern Tenant released The Horror of the Right, which is a terrific (and political) album. The Sleeper Awakens holds a special place in my heart, as I saw them perform it live in Edinburgh before a screening of Prince of Darkness.
I would suggest anyone with a love of synthy / soundtracky music to give these guys a listen, and look them up on Twitter and Facebook…
Been a busy year otherwise, myself and Ash (Loydon) under the moniker Profondo Mondo had our first DJ / VJ gig at Cinexcess, where I also met Sergio Martino (as we screened Your Vice before the gig, which was great) and I am pleased to say we have a few more gigs lined up this year.
We also finally finished our Three Mothers book (albeit) a week ago…. but that was our big project in 2017. Plus we have a couple more fun things planned for this year.
I also had the pleasure of attending / helping with The Weekend of the Dead, meeting Tom Savini, Gaylen Ross, Lori Cardille amongst others. The WOD is a great show, run by a really nice bunch of people, if you are Romero fan, you need to check them out.
The official poster for WOD (as opposed to my temporary effort above) was done by the amazing Graham Humphreys, with whom I have had some great nights out (albeit with a shabby head the next morning). Graham’s work is just extraordinary (as it always has been) and his amazing Halloween print now hangs in my house. Just perfect.
On the book front.. well.. Christopher Fowler gave us another Bryant and May novel, The Wild Chamber.
I really loved this (I love them all truth be told) and he seems able to produce these interesting, warm, socially aware thrillers with no drop in quality or invention. Please keep it up Chris. I also recommend fillowing Chris on Twitter, always interesting and never tedious…
Kim Newman, gave us Video Dungeon (surely every film fan has bought this) and Anno Dracula 1899 and other stories. I LOVE a good short story, and this collection has plenty. If you haven’t read Newman’s fiction yet, dive in!
The Diogenes Club is a great place to start, and of course his excellent Anno Dracula novels. You have all read Nightmare Movies haven’t you?
On the subject of film books, Anne Billson, author of the essential ‘Billson Film Database‘ gave us the brilliant ‘Cats on Film‘ , and it is just that, if you are a cat lover who watches films, surely that’s all cat lovers, then you kind need this book…it is SO much fun, and informative!
I am not going to go into all the TV and Film I saw this year, as lots of people write lots of words about this, far better than I do.
I did catch up finally with Stranger Things (LOVED IT) and Stranger Things 2.. (liked it) and also X files Season 10.. which was a mixed bag (personally I thought Duchovny was great like a kind of laid back Matthau character) but the Darin Morgan Were-Monster episode.. was just… well more than wonderful.
Reports seem to say Season 11 is better and Morgan again scripted a killer episode, so we will see.. perhaps they can bring Krycek back..
In my day job, I got to go to some press junkets and premieres as a producer (including Star Wars The Last Jedi, which was great fun with Andy Serkis being particulary funny) which was kind of cool, but my cinema experiences mainly seemed to be taking my son…
On a personal note, whilst filming in Milan, I nipped to Turin and visited the Piazza C.L.N, my personal Graceland as a lover of Profondo Rosso, sitting there quietly, watching the world go by with Goblin on my ipod was a treat.
At the excellent TST gig in Edinburgh… I went dressed as Dr. Loomis .. and met Michael Myers.. chaos ensued.
So that’s my brief highlights, if any of this stuff appeals to you, look these peope up! I should probably make some effort to promote Cultzilla stuff.. but why ruin a good post!
