Dave Neabore, Retro Inferno LP
Blue vinyl edition
* Pressed on 150 gram vinyl
* Printed on a deluxe heavy weight gatefold tip-on jacket
* Cover art by Pat Carbajal
* Design by Kim Berlin
Dave Neabore, bassist for New Jersey hardcore band Dog Eat Dog, is no stranger to music which evokes terror. His solo work includes the score for the 2009 documentary, Paura: Lucio Fulci Remembered Vol. 1, as well as singles and scores for horror comics publisher Eibon Press, such as the score for Lucio Fulci's Zombie (Fulci's Inferno).
It's that company which originally released Neabore's latest collection, Retro Inferno, "10 hot tracks of retro-cool soundtrack music for the movies in your mind." Originally a limited-edition compact disc of 300 copies, it now makes its vinyl debut on Cadabra Records, and what a brilliant debut it is.
Much like fellow composers of music for films which exist only in one's imagination such as Orgasmo Sonore, Slasher Dave, or Antoni Maiovvi, Neabore takes as his influences the last 50 years of horror scores to craft pieces which are at once familiar and excitingly new.
As the title suggests, the ten tracks which comprise Retro Inferno pull from the '70s and '80s, as though you're hearing title themes from black-gloved gialli, grotesque sci-fi, splattery horror, and everything in between. The album is the modern, original twist on classic albums like Milton Delugg & His Orchestra's Music For Monsters, Munsters, Mummies & Other TV Fiends from the '60s, wherein new spookiness played alongside cuts from classic television horror, with the latter influencing the former, but here, Neabore is all retro-cool and laden to the hilt with electronic sounds to raise the hair on the back of your neck.
"Blue Iris" is black metal by way of Italian progressive rockers Goblin, replete with creepy laughing children and gutteral demonic gasps and groans to augment and accentuate the xylophone and squelching synthesizers. The percussion of "Destroy All Robots" is as pulse-pounding as anything Brad Fiedel ever made for The Terminator, while the acoustic guitar of "Zombie Moon" combines with ghostly choruses to evoke Fabio Frizzi's heyday with Lucio Fulci.
Retro Inferno's panoply of influences are clear, but this album is homage of the highest order. With "Dead Canyon" and "Jungle Apocalypse," one can feel the danger all around them, pressing in from all sides, allowing the listener to craft a bespoke adventure as the music unfurls.
Of particular note is the pure, unfettered horror disco of "Electric Sky." It's a glorious rave-up suitable for soundtracking the prom night being stalked by a masked killer, a night train to terror – or, for that manner, a disco aboard a terror train. Coming at Retro Inferno's midpoint, it compiles the best of what's preceded it while previewing the fun yet to come. By the time “Ninja Blast” and its action-oriented sounds have faded, you'll feel as though you've sat through the most brain-melting movie marathon to never have existed.
