So what if, instead of the daily drudgery of whatever your regular life might consist of, the start of a new week signaled the beginning of an exciting adventure instead? Well, this week we’re going to assume that’s actually the case. Let’s just pretend as though this Monday morning were nothing more than the “please turn off your cell-phone” PSA before the edge-of-your-seat unfurling of some explosive reel of action-packed celluloid. Are you with me? Good… Now all we need is an appropriately dramatic soundtrack.
UK-based producer Damon Baxter not only sports the dramatic alias Deadly Avenger, but the music he makes under that moniker is the stuff cinematic soundtracks are made of. Well, cinematic soundtracks if they were hacked up and mixed over Hip-Hop breaks, booming drum-machine beats, and other electronic ephemera. But regardless of his stylistic dalliances Baxter acknowledges that he’s creating miniature soundtracks to movies that don’t actually exist, and that his many cinematic affectations are more than mere coincidence. He did it on his 2002 debut Deep Red, and he’s doing it again with Blossoms and Blood, his long-awaited sophomore LP.
With an album bearing a seemingly Samurai-cinema-inspired title it would be hard enough to deny any silver-screen aspirations. On top of that, individual song-titles like “We Took Vegas,” “Mal Paso Pt. II,” “The Wraith,” “Sequola,” “Invincible,” “The Reveal,” “Chevy Chases Hair” and “Suite From Near to Me” make it damn near impossible. And when you hear those songs, which betray the influence of ’60s Spy flicks, ’70s Exploitation films, Spaghetti Westerns & overwrought romances, and loving bear the imprint of such composing luminaries as Ennio Morricone & Lalo Schifrin, you might actually start wondering when the climactic car-chase is gonna jump off.
The lead-off track “We Took Vegas” sets the cinematic adventure off on a perfect note, with a histrionic swell of strings & braying brass, fuzz tone & wha-wha guitars, clanging bells, and the fluttery trills of a flute, evoking the pomp of James Bond and the slickness of Shaft. “Invincible” gives off the paranoid air of a hard-edged urban cop drama about inspector Harry Callahan, but with an explosive middle section fueled by a repetitive one-note piano figure, a pounding “Scorpio”-esque drum-break and acid-flavored synth-lines. And tracks like “Chevy Chases Hair” and “Gekko” have a decidedly more electronic feel to them, reminiscent of Vangelis‘ Blade Runner and Chariots of Fire scores.
While the tune “Exit” — which sports a heavy Psyche-Rock and Funk-influenced sound featuring screaming guitars, thunderously reverberating drums, pummeling percussion, and more flutes, that sound at home playing over the end-credits of a grimy Exploitation flick in a sleazy second-run theatre — offers an end to the LP that’s just as note-perfect as it’s beginning.
Deadly Avenger “Exit”
Like I told you, it’s quite the adventure. Just don’t get too carried away. ‘Cause bar-fights, car-chases and shoot-outs don’t turn out as well in the real world as they do in the movies.
- El Keter