A further instalment in the MONSTER series with themes, incidental music, bridging songs, interludes, creaks and groans created as imaginary soundtracks for imaginary horror films. Musical interpretations on a ‘horrific’ theme influenced by such maestros as Donald Rubinstein, John Carpenter, Fabio Frizzi and Ennio Morricone. The tracks cover a vast amount of ground including austere orchestral pieces, voodoo drums, torture porn, possession, cheesy 80’s soundtracks, Giallo, 70’s synths, mellotrons, flutes, piano and much much more.
Italian narration and translation courtesy of Simona Dalla Valle. Japanese narration and translation courtesy of Tomomi Kojo-Robertson. Russian narration and translation courtesy of Ksenia Nefedova. All other voices Melon Liles.
The amazing front cover comes from Graham Humphreys (the revered British designer and illustrator responsible for some of the best film posters of the 1980’s including Evil Dead, Nightmare on Elm Street and album covers for The Cramps and The Lords of the New Church).
THE MALEFICENT MONSTER… is also released in a deluxe 3 CD box set go here to see more details – SNUFF BOX
NOTE: The LP version does not come with the CD set.
The LP is released in an edition of 500 in UV gloss finished sleeve, and pressed on 180 gram vinyl. It is available in two colours.
BLACK GLOVE & SILVER BLADE SWIRL
Edition of 150, 180 gram black glove and silver blade swirl vinyl, exclusively available from Blackest Rainbow and Andrew Liles.
and
SLIME GREEN & BLOOD SPLATTER
Edition of 350, 180 gram slime green vinyl with blood splatter effect.
The music on both pressings is exactly the same. 30 copies of the LP include a signed postcard. A signed ‘certificate’ was placed in record sleeves randomly – it is down to luck and ONLY luck if you got one.
To stream a mix of many of the songs that influenced this recording please go here – MIXCLOUD.
Reviews:
VITAL WEEKLY
Like any good horror soundtrack, this album opens with a fine thunder storm and creepy ‘Rosemary’s baby’ piano. Add heartbeats and eerie voices before the whole things transfers into what sounds like an Italian gangster soundtrack score and you have all you need for a good nights’ chilling. And that’s only the first track. Liles likes his monsters, and it shows on this splatter vinyl (what else?) album. With no track separation, the album feels like a 45 minute roller coaster that moves from mood to mood, with vocals in various existing and non-existing languages, courtesy of Ksenia Nefedova, Melon Liles, Tomomi Kojo-Robertson and Simona Della Valla. Sometimes the music gets moody and even depressing, but then the atmosphere lifts and we’re back in high gear piano chasing them zombies bones back into them graves. Sometimes orchestral touches are added to the music (and screaming of course), which is very professionally recorded and performed. All hail also to the cover, where we find Mr Liles with a number of decaptivated heads in his hands accompanied by a hellish cat in the picture. There are of course appropriately silly zombie titles like “Burn the Witch”, “Cadaver Collector”, “Zombie Rock” and “Escape from Haunted Island”, but don’t let the playfulness of this put you off this album: musically this works really well as a soundtrack to an imaginary, but very good, late night horror movie. With Liles you’re never quite sure what to expect, as his music varies so much. The Maleficent Monster is another very worthwhile addition to his already large catalogue. Hell, if Disney had known about it they could have used it for their million-selling movie Maleficent (FK).
NORMAN RECORDS
The relentlessly prolific Andrew Liles takes time off his Nurse With Wound and Current 93 side-projects this week to bring us another headlining effort on this schizophrenic 22-tracker which boasts some awesomely creepy artwork from titan of terror Graham Humphreys.
The sounds on the LP are also heavily inspired by horror movies, but approached from Liles’s own restlessly kinetic cut’n’paste angle – “austere orchestral pieces, voodoo drums, torture porn, possession, cheesy ‘80s soundtracks, Giallo, ‘70s synths, mellotrons, flutes, piano and much much more“ brags the press release, and deservedly so. This is a slightly maddening hotchpotch of horror tropes all squeezed into miniature vignettes of creepy speeding-up synth loops, stabbing organs, chopped’n’processed sound effects, pounding tribalistic rhythms and creepy vocal growls. Baffling horror themed weirdness that never sits still long enough to properly get a grip on it.
