Six years ago, John Carpenter released an album called Anthology: Movie Themes 1974–1998, on which he teamed up with his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies to re-record music from his films In the Mouth of Madness, Assault on Precinct 13, The Fog, Prince of Darkness, Vampires, Escape from New York, Halloween, Big Trouble in Little China, They Live, The Thing, Starman, Dark Star, and Christine. (A limited edition version also contained tracks from Village of the Damned and Body Bags.) Now Sacred Bones has announced they’ll be releasing a new album from Carpenter and his cohorts that’s called Anthology II: Movie Themes 1976-1988! The release date is October 6th, and you can listen to the first track – a re-recording of “Chariots of Pumpkins” from Halloween III: Season of the Witch – in the embed at the bottom of this article.
John Carpenter had this to say about “Chariots of Pumpkins”: “This piece was made for someone else’s movie, the Tommy Lee Wallace directed Halloween III. I don’t remember what his specific direction for me was for the main titles, but I wanted to reflect a kind of science fiction feel. The sound has been updated and it was fun to redo this song. The three of us using modern and updated sounds and production has influenced the overall feel of the song.“
Here’s the track list for Anthology II: Movie Themes 1976-1988:
Side A
Chariots of Pumpkins (Halloween III)
69th St. Bridge (Escape From New York)
The Alley (War) (Big Trouble in Little China)
Wake Up (They Live)
Julie’s Dead (Assault on Precinct 13)
The Shape Enters Laurie’s Room (Halloween II)
Season of the Witch (Halloween III)
Side B
Love at a Distance (Prince of Darkness)
The Shape Stalks Again (Halloween II)
Burn it (The Thing)
Fuchs (The Thing)
To Mac’s Shack (The Thing)
Walk to the Lighthouse (The Fog)
Laurie’s Theme (Halloween)
A special note on those The Thing tracks, from a press release (via Paste Magazine): “Among Anthology II: Movie Themes 1976-1988‘s highlights are the three lost cues from The Thing, previously unreleased and now re-recorded. Upon receiving Morricone’s score Carpenter felt that the film would benefit from the inclusion of additional music and took the initiative to record and insert multiple synth driven cues.“
Anthology II: Movie Themes 1976-1988 can be pre-ordered from multiple sources at THIS LINK.
Are you a fan of John Carpenter’s music, and will you be picking up a copy of Anthology II: Movie Themes 1976-1988? Let us know by leaving a comment below.