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V FOR VENDETTA
Original Soundtrack to the Graphic Novel by Alan Moore and David Lloyd with music by David J

Released for Record Store Day - April 13th 2019

David J Haskins Bauhaus, the band

A slow burning flame, ignited during the final days of 1978 is beginning to flicker; the light is dimming on the carnival of darkness...
It’s January1983, five days into the New Year to be exact and David J receives a letter from his friend, the comic writer, Alan Moore. The letter proposes that he (David) write some music, the writer suggests something kind of vaudevillian, cabaret-esque to supplement a set of lyrics he has written. The idea was that this score would accompany the serialized strip (V for Vendetta) in ‘Warrior’ comic where each month a different episode would be published, but this particular episode was to be a little different. No dialogue this time, just a transcription of the lyric: Included within the letter were the lyrics for This Vicious Cabaret, the music was composed on an old upright piano in David’s back room at home, the results are the afore mentioned This Vicious Cabaret, V’s Theme (Intro), Incidental and V’s Theme (Outro) all contained within this new Glass Modern lustrous 180gm vinyl only offering. Initially released as a 12” single way back in 1984 and re-wrapped within On Glass the labels’ compilation of David’s recorded works. Variants of On Glass were subsequently re- issued by both Cleopatra (1988) and by Plain Recordings (2006) neither of which contained the full four tracks from the original vinyl offering. As a stand-alone release Plain Recordings however did capture the full E.P. augmenting it further with an Overture arranged by Ego Plumb, David’s original demo of This Vicious Cabaret and a second David J/Ego Plumb composition Song from the Kitty Kat Keller.
This new Glass Modern ‘Grande’ edition of ‘V’ includes the seven tracks contained within Plain Recordings digital release but enhance it even further by the addition of two spectacular supplementary recordings. Opening with Ego Plumb’s majestic Overture setting a perfect scene for This Vicious Cabaret to take the stage...David has created a dark perfect partner to accompany Alan’s futuristic story, it’s at times edgy, at others it’s twisted yet David has somehow captured its curators vaudevillian directive astonishingly well, the burlesque theme continues throughout, more so with the instrumental offerings. The second of the Ego Plumb / David J co-writes: Song From the Kitty Kat Kellar and thanks in large to the fabulous organ, has retained the feel, essence and spirit of This Vicious Cabaret rather unassumingly, conjuring up fabulous images of smoky cellar bars in a decadent 1930’s Berlin. The seven minute Ballet on the Burning Stage is a particular highlight, after the slow brooding build of the intro there’s an incredible moment two minutes in, the sudden explosion of the now familiar ‘V’ piano hook, just simply magnificent, created from a series of samples from the original E.P. by noise guru Tim Newman whilst David litters it with splintered vocal lines extracted by Tim from the demo of the title track. Created some thirty five years after David’s original compositions Tim has produced a pair of tracks that’s are so in-fitting within that concept that its easy to imagine these as period outtakes. The Present: the second of the two ‘new’ tracks is a soundscape of city sirens nestled amongst seismic rumblings and sonic blips interwoven with fragments of backward loops and sporadic spoken word elements from Alan himself, a hybrid that takes its title from the custodian’s offering of his view of Science Fiction.
V For Vendetta is presented in a special die-cut sleeve, re-imagined from Dominike Duplaa’s original 2006 assemblage, released by Glass Modern (GLAMLP009)13 April 2019 on 180gm crimson vinyl, a special die cut sleeve and inner bag with sleeve notes by David J
© Andrew J Brooksbank February 2019 ... See MoreSee Less