John Carpenter: Big Trouble In Little China OST
John Carpenter: Big Trouble In Little China OST– Musicians in 2012 fail to understand something John Carpenter always knew instinctively, and that is how to harness and overtake the pulse, the life force. You must be exacting to find the pathways directly into the bloodstream. For every moment of Big Trouble In Little China‘s score, there is a malevolent smirking plague ready to invade you with its pustules and blurry, fevered dementia. It’s one of the very few movie soundtracks that could honestly be considered dangerous. More dangerous than anything the Sex Pistols committed to tape, more violent than a young Nick Cave. It does so simply by moving at its own pace. It creates a methodical lawlessness. Like any viral infection it must first establish a stranglehold and to do so, it must reproduce and populate; that takes time. ‘Abduction At Airport’ bores it’s vision inside your mind with a stringent, maddening repetition of bass growing, sprawling and attaching itself.
While ‘The Storms’ and ‘Here Come The Storms’ both create a heightened sense of true fear. It’s no easy task to repeatedly and faithfully induce the sense. It has to be powerful enough to bring about vulnerability and leave doubt planted firmly in the moment. It has to leave you smaller, unsure and resolutely frightened. These compositions do so upon each and every successive listen. The encounter will never become easier.
It’s a score that also challenges you to fortify your own resolve to escape its murky clutches. ‘White Tiger’ tries to disorient you into subjugation with its oppressive labyrinthine mist.
‘Hide’ and ‘Final Escape/Lopan’s Demise/Getaway’ also deserves full credit for being two of the very best sinister action cues ever made. The idea of escape has never felt this futile or hopeless.
John Carpenter never wastes the moment in scoring: He moves like every step is new and will be his last. He has no interest in the quick, as the quick will fade. Carpenter should also be credited as a truly unique and singular musician, composer and punk rock deity. As Jack Burton posits “It’s all in the reflexes”…10/10