From an early(ish) age, sneaking down stairs on a Friday night to watch shitty b-grade horror movies, I’ve always known that sounds can be as scary as visuals, if not more so. I’m illing to guess whoever it is behind the mysterious Dripping Dungeon tape label knows that too, which is why (s)he has suddenly crawled out of the crypt to unleash a series of tapes that are designed to remind us of the good old bad old days of cult cinema.
Let’s face it ,soundtracks play an important part in any decent horror movie. Not just the music but every squeak,scrape and screaming noise is coordinated with the visuals to make the hairs stand on end – it’s all designed to be an all out assault on the senses. The 50s and 60s, the time of Hammor Horror, Vincent Price and the likes were almost cartoon like in their employment of the foley artist and orchestra for adding a whole layer of cheese to the visuals. Walk into any decent second hand record store or thrift store and you’re bound to find at least one (if not a whole pile) of used sound effects records full of howling wolves, creaking floorboards and bloodcurdling screaming, inspired in no small part by the Hammer Horror back catalogue.
By the time we hit the 70s and 80s the advent of the synthesiser pushed the atmospheric limits of the horror movie soundtrack into eerier and more frightening depths, and even now 30 some years later there are bands still basing their entire sound on the work of John Carpenter, Riz Ortolani and of course Goblin. But the modern day counterparts for these instillers of audio dread seem to be leaning a little more to “Escape from New York” than “Texas Chainsaw Massacre”. Which is is why I say thank fuck for the sudden appearance of the mysterious Dripping Dungeon tape label.
How do I explain this..hmm..okay, here’s the deal: Dripping Dungeon tapes are essentially just selected highlights of the soundtracks of lost and forgotten horror films. They’re pretty much bootlegs – lovingly assembled, nicely packaged bootlegs released anonymously but distributed via Yersinia Pestis. There are snatches of music, of dialogue, and of sound effects roughly assembled in the same order they appear in the film. If you’ve seen the movies, they’re an awesome kick in the ass to watch them again, or reminder of your favourite parts. If you haven’t though..well, you actually will probably dig these even more, because they’ll allow you to create your own private vision in your own head of what these movies were like. Although having said that..as the only means I really have of going you an idea what’s going on – the trailer for “La Cripta E L’Incubo”, the subject of the first tape.
The second tape combines highlights of the soundtracks of “Axe!”and “Pieces” – the latter of which I’m embarassed to say is the only one of these movies I’ve seen – and it concentrates on the quieter, more eerie sections of the movie’s sounds..water (or is it blood?) dripping, ominous melodies, footsteps, and even sections from trailers .. it’s weirdly claustrophobic and haunting hearing this without seeing the accompanying images in a way the movie could never be.
I love the fact this shit is clearly the handiwork of some faceless fellow nerd somewhere spending time going through what I imagine must be a pile of fucking killer old movies, trying decide what to do next. These soundtracks were clearly taped direct from the master and then the person(s) behind the label had the job of selecting and rearranging their favourite bits and pieces to do some musical storytelling. It’s a labour of love, and a fascinating means of documenting the golden age of horror’s lost moments. This is the kind of obsessive,vaguely mental behaviour I can’t really get enough of, and I sincerely hope the Dripping Dungeon audio deathcult continues to deliver the deathblows for many a year to come.
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