Wednesday 29 January 2014

Jay Chattaway ‎– Maniac (1981)


Composer: Jay Chattaway

Tracklist
1. Maniac's Theme (Main Titles) 03:12
2. Apocalypse New York 02:07
3. On The Beach 00:28
4. Hookers Heartbeat 01:14
5. A Little Knife Music 00:53
6. Inner Voices 04:10
7. Maniac Strikes Back 01:12
8. BlastHim 02:20
9. BlastHer 01:01
10. Window Shopping 01:30
11. Subway Terror 03:27
12. Goodby Rita 01:00
13. Cemetery Chase 01:13
14. Cry For Mother 02:04
15. Mannequins' Revenge 04:09
16. Maniac's Theme (End Titles) 02:24

Jay Chattaway is an American composer of film and television scores.
Mainly known for his work as composer for several Star Trek television series 
and cult film scores such as Maniac, Vigilante, Maniac Cop and others.
Maniac is a 1980 American slasher film directed by William Lustig and written by Joe Spinell and C. A. Rosenberg.
Spinell also developed the story, and stars as the lead character.
With a minuscule budget, many scenes in the film were shot guerrilla style

Originally considered an exploitation film, Maniac later had success as a cult film. Notes from the LP: 
"Jay Chattaway's score operates in the same psychedelic neon nightmare sphere as Goblin and Tangerine Dream
At a time when most synth-based scores were strongly derived from John Carpenter's Halloween soundtrack,
Chattaway's Maniac creates its own set of resonances and echoes of Times Square.
Try listening to it at night in a dark room. Even without the visual accompaniment of the film, 
the bold synthesizer saw waves, ring-modulated "strings" and clashing tonal shifts 
call to mind the desperation of the streets and the lost ones who wander there. 
The score also works in tandem with Spinell's performance to sketch in shadings of characterization and motivation. 
When the nostalgic harmonies dissolve into dissonance, we can see that Spinell's soul is dissolving too. 
It helps us understand his inner monologue. 
Much more harmonically rich than Carpenter's minimalistic Halloween score, the music in Maniac also delineated 
a distinctive second path for composers of the '80s who created their score with limited means. 
Few of those composers, if any, matched either the subtlety or power that Chattaway achieves. 
It stands now as on of the touchstone works of the era."
The film was remade in 2012 by director Franck Khalfoun and produced by Alexandre Aja

starring Elijah Wood in the lead role.

Memory

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