Umberto - From The Grave... (Sonic Meditations, 2009)

Umberto - Running Blade


Remember Gianni Rossi's soundtrack to Gutterballs? Remember how it was full of bass and synth and Italo horror disco awesomeness? Remember how much I loved it? Well Umberto's From The Grave is... BETTER than the Gutterballs Soundtrack. There. I said it.

Everything you ever wanted from an old school horror soundtrack is present on From The Grave. Super moody, driving disco beats, chilling synths, and speaker blowing bass. The tunes are the type where you'd be throwing it down on the dance floor if you weren't running for your life from the undead.

The special thing about Umberto's tape, though, is that even though there are song titles like "Opening Titles," "Dream Sequence," and "Shower Scene," From The Grave isn't the soundtrack to anything except your nightmares (or maybe your next Carpenter themed dance party). And that's one of the reasons this is better than Rossi's soundtrack. You can let your imagination run wild when listening to this tape. Like when "It Came From The Swamp" comes on. What came from the swamp? It's totally up to you! You could be lame and go with Swamp Thing, or you could summon your inner 3 grade self and conjure a wicked scary drippy, mud caked 10 horned beast with teeth made of alligator claws. That makes for a much better experience than when you hear "Theme From Gutterballs" and all you can see is the Gutterballs logo. Trust me.

Real soundtracks can eat it. Umberto is the king of fake soundtracks. And now everyone knows that fake soundtracks are the fucking coolest.

MFMB - MFMB (La Bulle Sonore, 2009)

MFMB - The Tune On


You know what I love about Sweden's MFMB? Their name. I'm normally against the letters-for-a-name thing (The XX is the stupidest name ever) but for these guys I'm making an exception. Notably because it starts out with MF, which everyone knows stands for motherfucker/motherfuckin. And since I'm pretty sure MFMB haven't come out and said what their name stands for, I get to make up all sorts of crazy shit and make their name as awesome as I want. So far, Motherfuckin Moon Boots is making rank.

You know what else I love about Motherfuckin Magical Beasts? Their music! It's the best. It's like a perfect hybrid of disco shoegaze punk. Or something. It's epic and dancey and rockin in all the right ways. And their self titled EP is full of the kind of tunes that I could play in the presence of both my younger and older sisters and all 3 of us would like it. They'd all be like, "Oooh, it's dark and moody" and I'd be like, "Whatever. I'm gonna dance." So if both my sisters and I can get into it, my guess is you can too.

Gianni Rossi - Gutterballs Soundtrack (Permanent Vacation, 2009)

Gianni Rossi - Theme From Gutterballs


I think this marks the first time I ever listened to a soundtrack before I saw the movie, but when I found out about this, I just had to. I mean, Gutterballs sounded like an awesome enough movie on it's own (simplified: slasher set in a bowling alley) but when I saw that the soundtrack was basically packed with synth disco horror, there was no stopping me.

Gianni Rossi has made a score that will easily be enjoyed without any context in regards to the film. The songs on this are just so fucking cool. The beats are non-stop, the bass grooves are propulsive, and the '80s guitar riffs are so rocking. I haven't heard a soundtrack that sounds this cheesily amazing in forever. Most authentic '70s and '80s horror movies don't even have soundtracks this good.

However, it is still a soundtrack, with the whole variations on a theme sorta thing. So, obviously, if you hate that, then just duck out now. But if you're a fan of anything Goblin/Italo Disco/Horror then you're gonna eat this shit up. Either way, though, just try to forget that this is supposed to be from a movie because it doesn't even matter. I must've listened to this 20 times before I saw Gutterballs. But see the movie, too, because it's fucking ridiculous.

Weird Tapes - Get Religion

Weird Tapes - Home


I know I'm a bit late on this one, but only according to some. I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who've never heard about Weird Tapes. But that's not even why I'm writing about them. I'm doing it because I love them and I love writing about shit that I love.

Guy, girl, both, neither, I don't really have the energy to find out much about Weird Tapes. Yes, I went to their Myspace page and blog, but a 5 second glance didn't yield much information. All I know is they got some super cheesy imagery and super awesome music.

Get Religion is... um... pretty much... it's just disco. Yeah. But, like, new disco. And good disco. Pretty straightforward, fluffy light disco with heavy beats. Kinda spacey, repetitive, minimal, and done just right.

I know everyone's not a fan of this new electro-disco nonsense and I don't blame you. I'm not all on board either. In fact I think Hercules & Love Affair is probably the most overrated band of 2008 (right next to Vampire Weekend). But Weird Tapes have something almost timeless, almost like anti-disco. It's the kind of music that you put on at a party and even if that douchebag no one likes shows up, everyone's still happy and having a great time because Get Religion can do that. It's transcendent disco. And I know you like it.

Aaaaaand it's free. From the band, not me. Head on over to their blog and download it, along with all the other stuff like More Tapes.

Usputuspud - Disco

Usputuspud - Cherished Wig (excerpt)


More genre mixxxing. I love it. What we have here is some dance drone. Waves of guitar with minimal beats laid down underneath. And the best part? It's all super blown out and lo-fi. My favorite!

Usputuspud (say it a few times and you'll get the hang of it) put out this limited edition tape called Disco on Caligulan Records. And it. Is. AWESOME. It's like the whole thing was recorded at maximum volume, everything in the red, only to tone it down a bit when it was finalized on tape (if it sounds like I'm spouting total bullshit, I am. I have no idea what I'm talking about.). What I'm trying to say is the tape itself isn't super loud, but it sounds like the original recording was. In other words: really cool.

Everything is so blown out, in fact, it's pretty tough to discern what instruments are being played. I'm pretty sure it's a lot of guitar on the A side. But the B side might be mostly piano based. Or it could just be more guitar. I don't know. Nor do I care.

Each side contains one track, almost 15 minutes each. That's a half hour of kick ass guitar drone with some washed out techno. It sounds like your next door neighbors are having a dance party while you're experimenting with feedback loops and all you can hear is the beat and their feet stomping.

One of the best parts is on track one, "Cherished Wig," where after about 10 minutes go by, the beat drops out, and you're left with the feedback. The cool thing is, it's like there's this phantom beat still lurking. It's totally gone, but you still hear it in your mind. It's great. The last 5 minutes morph from what was a once cohesive guitar into shapeless echoey feedback.

"Fetish Ball," the B side, leans further to the dance side of things. Not a whole lot of drone, with the guitar (piano?) creating a beat all it's out, until some percussion comes in. The notes are drawn out so they overlap each other, and it's all really lo-fi, so it's still pretty droney. There are even times when Usputuspud himself starts singing. It's certainly a nice effect.

I will definitely be picking up his first tape, Liturgikal Alcoholik from White Lodge Tapes, because this is definitely something I want to hear more of. And this packaging is seriously gorgeous. Black ink printed over the already beautiful photo, with an intricate cut out in one of the corners. Stunning.