Dreamkid - Street Lights

 

I have to say, while holding Dreamkid's retro 80s synthwave sound at arm's length for well over a year, I think I've finally succumbed to full-on fan. Yes, there's definitely a chessiness at play here, but it doesn't matter. Dreamkid's music has a very genuine soul, which is weird to say about something with so much facade, but that's part of music, right? A ton of Metal is facade, so why not neon and glitter instead of Satan and blood?

From last year's Daggers album, which I've been listening to in late-night writing sessions for a few days now.

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Watch:

In the past seven days, K and I have watched two and a half seasons of Apple TV's Slow Horses. This is a show based on Mick Herron's Slough House novels, none of which I have had the pleasure of reading.

That's the opening of the first episode. Slow Horses follows MI5 agent River Cartwright who is reassigned to Slough House after the debacle depicted in the Sneak Peek above. Slough House is where British Secret Service assigns their fuck-ups, and we meet a lovely cast who all suffer under the profanity-spewing, Curry-farting, Single-Malt-drinking Jackson Lamb, a right old bastard as played by Gary Oldman. Lamb was a legend but made a lot of enemies and got sent to Slough House to 'run out the clock.'

Lamb reminds me of two very different characters I've met before. On the one hand, Oldman invokes Jackie Flannery from State of Grace in all his whiskey-swilling, unwashed glory. The character also conjures more than a little comparison to an aged John Constantine, and I have to wonder if that's canon from the novels or if the show's creative team is showing its influence. Either way, Oldman is a delight every moment he's on screen.

So are all the other characters, too. Even the ones you despise. As the clip shows, this is a fast-moving series and, honestly, the best "spy" story I've come across.

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Read:

I guess re-reading Warren Ellis and Declan Shalvey's Injection is, at the very least, an annual appointment for me now. I woke up Saturday and re-read the first volume and experienced nothing short of total comic book ecstasy.

I've held to the story that my two favorite comics of all time are Preacher and The Walking Dead, and on some level, they are and always will be. That said, I think Injection is up there, neck and neck, as well. This might even be a "win by a nose" situation, and what I mean by that is both Ennis and Kirkman's opuses are just that - epic, long-form series. At three six-issue volumes (that I hope will one day be joined by those final two), Injection is pocket-sized, in a manner of speaking. 

Especially when you consider that this is among the best of the 'wide-screen' format series, so it reads quick. Rereading is easy, as opposed to the voluminous experience of rereading the other two. That's not without its merit, of course, but I can find far more time to read Injection, and it affects my brain in a different way. 

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Playlist:

Aidan Baker & Dead Neanderthals - Cast Down and Hunted

Aidan Baker & Gareth Davis - Invisible Cities

Zombi - Shape Shift

Lantlôs - Neon

Windhand - Split

Windhand - Eponymous

Telekinetic Yeti - Primordial

Ruin of Romantics - Velvet Dawn

Hangman's Chair - Saddiction (pre-release singles)

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Dreamkid - Daggers

Dreamkid - Eponymous

Soft Sun - Daylight in the Dark

Dreamkid - All Thriller, No Filler

Jim Williams - Possessor OST

David Lynch & Mark Zebrowski - Polish Night Music

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Dreamkid Channels Horror

 

 Solid Maxi-single from Dreamkid.

 

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Watch:

It's November, and one of the films that came in the new All the Haunts Be Ours, Vol. 2 Box Set is Rainer Sarnet's 2017 November. This one enchanted the hell out of me a few years ago when I caught it on Shudder TV, so I thought, "Hey, it's November; why not?"

I will now watch this film every November. Gorgeous beyond words, this is the best example of modern authentic Folk Horror I can think of. Of Folk Traditions, the palimpsest of the old world rubbing against the new and the friction - of the "Horror" that causes. Beautifully executed and more than a little comical at times without breaking the tone, primarily because this one has such a strong, unique vision guiding it.  I'm definitely interested in seeing what else Sarnet does.  

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Playlist:

Antibalas - Where the Gods Are in Peace

Fela Kuti - Opposite People

Fela Kuti - Sorrow Tears & Blood EP

Pearl Jam - Vs.

John Carpenter - Lost Themes IV: Noir

The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicentre

Neon Nightmare - Faded Dream

Dreamkid - All Thriller, No Filler

Dreamkid - Daggers

The Cure - Songs of a Lost World

Drug Church - Prude

Spoon - They Want My Soul

PJ Harvey - Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea

Frankie and the Witch Fingers - Data Doom

Funkdoobiest - Brothas Doobie

Radiohead - Kid A

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Dreamkid - Chrissy

 

Back in 2022 my good friend and co-host on The Horror Vision Ray turned me on to Dreamkid's eponymous album. I liked it, but this guy doubles down on the '80s stuff a couple years after a lot of other people already resurrected that vibe and ran it into the ground, so while I dug the record to a degree, there remained a distance with it for me. I listened to it off and on for a while, then forgot about it. 

I Went to see Terrifier 3 this evening. Sold out show. Every seat taken. As I walked up to the ticket taker, there was a man dressed as Art - no mask - and his daughter dressed as the child demon from part 2 waiting to have their tickets scanned. They looked awesome! I mean, I don't know if I should be watching these, let alone a girl who probably wasn't more than 8 years old, but it is what it is and we like what we like. It's not that much different than the shit we watched at that age. 

Except... maybe it is. The practical FX here are out of this world, but the cruel depravity of these flicks gives me a bit of pause, even if I've really enjoyed seeing these last two on the big screen. In the theatre, Terrifier 2 and 3 have been some of the most immersive films I've seen in ages. There's the gore, but there's also some incredible sound design. It's as good as the practical FX, in my opinion. Plus, the colors, locations, clothes, props, and music. Paul Wiley's score is fantastic. Sick and dreamy. It all works together to make a super fun watch - even if it also kind of skeeves me out.

Dreamkid's "Chrissy" is sort of the theme of T3, and it sounded amazing on the big screen. Still not super sold on the overall sound - it's good, just a bit tough to get past the affectations for someone who grew up in that era. But again, we like what we like and I'm psyched he got his stuff in such a huge movie.

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31 Days of Halloween:

Well, I pretty much said everything I wanted to about last night's viewing up above, so let's just log the list and move on.

1) The Killing of a Sacred Deer

2) The Houses October Built (2011)/Texas Chainsaw Massacre (50th-anniversary theatrical screening)

3) Loop Track

4) It's What's Inside/LONGLEGS

5) The Babysitter/Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

6) The Hitcher/Lost Highway

7) GDT's Cabinet of Curiosities: Graveyard Rats

8) V/H/S Beyond

9) Killer Klowns from Outer Space

10) Terrifier 3

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NCBD:

Man, I've been so hyped on 31 Days of Halloween that I forgot to post my comic pull yesterday. Better late than never. 

I forgot to put this one on my pull last month, so I had to have the guys order me a copy. That's fixed now; I Love these books that Lemire writes and illustrates; they have their own style and it's unlike any other. 

After the tease at the end of the last issue, I was just here for Cobra Commander (well, I was here because I read the first four issues). I was not disappointed. 

Another super solid triptych of Black Suit-era Spider-Man stories. Love it, and the editorial staff really seem to know how to choose artists whose style works super well with the color format. 

Netho Diaz, in particular, blew me away.

New arc and it's Starscream's origin? His real name is what now? This was a super cool issue. Lots of early Cybertron stuff AND a HISS tank? Oh man, we're starting to really cross the streams now...

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Playlist:

Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses (Suspended in Dusk Edition)

The Final Cut - Consumed

Saigon Blue Rain - Oko

Skinny Puppy - Too Dark Park

Baroness - Stone

The Smashing Pumpkins - Gish

The Cramps - Songs the Lord Taught Us

The Cramps - A Date with Elvis

Orville Peck - Pony

Various - Lost Highway OST

Boy Harsher - Careful

Dreamkid - Chrissy (single)

Dreamkid - Daggers

Dance with the Dead - Neon Cross (single)

Dance with the Dead - The Shape

The Veils - The Ladder (pre-release single)

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Card:

Today's card is XIX - The Sun:

This is what I love about Aleister Crowley. From The Book of Thoth:

"This is one of the simplest of the cards; it represents Heru-ra-ha, the Lord of the New Aeon, in his manifestation to the race of men as the Sun spiritual, moral, and physical."

Simplest? Oh, of course! Heru-ra-ha. Yeah. Easy.

This is a card of epiphany. Rejoice! The answers you seek have arrived. Of course, that can also bring with it unwanted knowledge. So the dance we see is one of balance, a theme much more common in the cards than I previously realized.