The Giallo Pages

There were a number of pivotal moments which led to my love affair with scary movies, the crux being the moment my dad bought our first video player, a VHS top-loader by Fisher. In 1983 front loaders had begun to swamp the market but he assured us they were a gimmick and the top-loader would remain an industry standard, fortunately misjudged foresight didn’t phase my brother from picking out our first brace of films, Rocky III, Hercules In New York, both pillars of this improbable new world we’d discovered but the first which really grabbed me was Escape from New York. I could bang on all day about why I love it so but this brief soliloquy should suffice; during a music class in middle school, we were asked to sing a section of our favourite songs of the time, I imagine there were a few renditions of Karma Chameleon and Candy Girl but when it finally came to my turn, I sat stunned for a moment then launched into John Carpenter’s title music “DUUUM DUUUM DUM DUM” followed by a shady attempt at imitating a drum machine at the end of each bar. I was cut short almost instantly but it remains a proud defiant moment to this day. So this was it, big budgets and sweeping string sections were all well and good but muffled synths sound-tracking movies I’d have no chance of seeing at the cinema were something else entirely.

My mum turning a blind eye to a 9 year old watching an 18 rated film outlined the final watershed moment. Children of the Corn was instantly forgettable and not remotely scary but led to a slew of slasher/zombie/melt/demonoid gore-fests rolling over our Fisher’s ever dirty heads and onto our faux-mahogany covered TV. Bizarrely it was Christine where my mum finally drew the line which led to one of my greatest cinematic let downs, having spent about 4 years convinced it must be one of the most frightening films of all time. Inconsequentially Barefoot in the park remains my most chilling film experience simply because i watched it whilst riddled with flu and fell asleep half way through only to dream that it went from a timeless romcom to satanic bloodfeast in a matter of minutes; I still can’t look at robert redford without thinking of slain goats. I digress but it’s safe to say that without realising it I’d already been turned onto the work of Fabio Frizzi, Simonetti & Goblin before I’d even reached the tender age of 10 (check our featured video this week for some classic Frizzi/Fulci zombie synth action).

So why am I telling you all this? Well had you listened into to our previous show you’d have heard a snippet of the forthcoming “Euro Slash EP” by the horror obsessed Giallo’s Flame who’s name is more than a fleeting nod to the world of blood splattered Italian cinematic treats. Aside the fact that it’s simply a great record, it’s also comforting to know that fellow synthophiles and gore lovers are out there, probably with a similar experience to bore the rest of the world with. I’ve often been skeptical over the wealth of prefabricated tributes to yesteryear but there’s not a negative word I could apply to this slice of spine chilling aural terror which led me to invent a new dance known as “the cower behind the sofa.” The ever evolving 2600 recordings will be releasing this audio nasty on the world in April so until then check out the Giallo’s Flame myspace and keep repeating “IT’S ONLY A HOMAGE, IT’S ONLY A HOMAGE…

Click to download “Ancient Intro”