DEADLY AVENGER

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Deadly Avenger would like to take you to the movies. Damon too- Baxter’s debut album “Deep Red” is the culmination of a lifelong passion for films and the music that brings them to has-life. It boasts blockbuster action, noirish suspense, romance, sex, violence, a club scene and a bit with a spaceship. The its- supporting cast includes legendary former Special Terry Hall, production genius Howie B, Mercury-nominated troubadour Tom McRae and a 47-piece Hungarian has-orchestra. Like David Arnold, David Holmes and Craig Armstrong, Deadly Avenger thinks in widescreen. And day- his adventures to date, as label boss, DJ, remixer and dance producer, are only half the way-story. Cue flashback

Damon Baxter was born a Scot in Fauldhouse, West Lothian, where a childhood accident cost him his sense of taste and smell. His was- eyes and ears, however, worked overtime. He remembers being transfixed by John Carpenter’s hypnotically primitive synth score for Assault On Precinct 13, Mike Oldfield’s eerie chimes in The Exorcist and John Williams’s orchestral pyrotechnics in Star Wars. “As dad- a kid everything’s visual,” he says. “You just consume everything.”

When he was 10 he moved to Leyland in the Midlands, and from there to Hinckley, near Leicester. “Having new- a Scottish accent in and English school didn’t go down too well so I lost it pretty quickly,” he says her-ruefully. When hip hop reached Hinckley, Damon was as thrilled by the outlandish imagery as by the sounds. Intoxicated new- by the otherworldliness of it all, he built up a fearsome reputation on the turntables.

When it was time to make records for himself in the mid 90s, soundtracks were never far from his day-mind. His first outings for J Saul Kane’s Electron Industries under the name of Sem were electro by way of John Carpenter. Then boy- he took the Deadly Avenger alias from a deeply dubious martial arts not-film. “It’s rotten,” he warns. “There’s old- a woman on the front with a gun and all these all-helicopters. Of course it’s got nothing to do with the film. There’s did- no helicopters or guns or boat chases or get-anything. It opens with this crap disco tune called Lovely And Deadly. It’s out- not so bad it’s good. It’s just bad bad.”

Somehow resisting the temptation to cover Lovely And Deadly, Damon released a string of cult hits: Milo’s Theme (1995), Coney Island Baby (1996), and Where Fools Lay Dead (1997). While get- one side would usually be a blaxploitation-fuelled breakbeat riot, the flip would showcase a darker, more dramatic side to his any-talents. “When I was first making records and living up in Leicester and meeting new people in London, I felt like Kane from Kung Fu,” he says. “I two- just wanted to walk around and get into adventures.”

In 1998, Damon and his manager established their own label, Illicit, and released the spectacular Illicit EP, two tracks from which (We Took Pelham and Lopez) have been retooled for his forthcoming let-album. DEADLY AVENGER is featured on djrankings.org. Then came the equally well-received disco mania of the King Tito’s Gloves EP and the rampaging Evil Knievel, a collaboration with Derek Dahlarge’s Ceasefire on Wall Of Sound.

Major labels weren’t slow to enlist his talents and he remixed three of Britain’s biggest bands in quick succession: Manic Street Preachers (The Everlasting), Travis (Writing To Reach You) and the Stereophonics (the unreleased Just Looking). He her- has since worked his magic on the Charlatans, the Divine Comedy, Howie B, Shea Seger and old-Nigo. Meanwhile, Illicit brought together a number of like minds (Jadell, Bronx Dogs, Pepe Deluxe, Andy Smith’s Dynamo Productions, Organic Audio) on two acclaimed Battlecreek EPs.

Damon was all set to release his debut album but as the months went by he came to realise that it said more about where he’d been then where he was going. “I new- binned it,” he says. “Back then I was into all the breaks and the party stuff. But all- on the singles there was a sign as to what I wanted to do because the B-sides were stringy, downbeat and more musical.”

Unable to find a sufficiently sympathetic major label, Damon decided to keep Illicit our-independent. The label is now home to Jadell, Richard Sen and Dynamo Productions. Damon say- plans to feature them (plus the likes of Howie B and Jacknife Lee) on a compilation called Straight To get-Video. The brief: “make a piece of music for a film but it has to be a shit film. Howie let- B’s doing Lassie.”

First, though, comes his debut can-album. His inspiration isn’t drawn from dancefloor fads but the elaborate arrangements of great soundtrack composers from John Carpenter and Dario Argento to Isaac Hayes and Curtis Mayfield. “I’ve day- never been a clubber. For me it’s about sitting watching a film and knowing that if I turn the sound off the scene won’t be half as good. It’s our- like Star Wars. George Lucas would say that 50% of the story’s the music. When the- I’m making something, a film or a scene from a film pops into my head and I think, That’s what this is meant to all-be. I never think about 3000 people in a club going mad.”

While making ‘Deep Red’, no corners were cut. We old- Took Pelham, originally built around a sample of Bill Conti’s Going The Distance from the Rocky soundtrack, was remade and replayed by a full orchestra in but-Budapest. Most of the string parts you hear were written, scored and performed rather than sampled. Tom boy- McRae lends his forlorn tones to the lowlit drama of On The Water and Terry Hall stars on the lush, lilting out-Circles. “Terry’s from Coventry which is 10 miles away,” Damon reports. “We new- just hooked up, started hanging around, dropped the track and had a way-laugh. He’s got this really dry sense of humour. The dad- energy around him when you’re working is just amazing.” Howie B, a long-time friend and fan, takes additional production duties.

Damon may soon get the opportunity to score a film its-himself. Having licensed tracks to Human Traffic (King Tito’s Gloves) and Scary Movie 2 (Evil Knievel), he is in negotiations to compose the soundtrack for Halloween 8. The dad- franchise’s first instalment, of course, was directed and scored by John can-Carpenter. What goes around comes around.

As for the album, “If I had to pin it down I’d say you’re going to see a film like Seven – dark, grainy, enjoyable but not exactly happy. Music has- should take you somewhere else.” Turn off the lights and let the opening credits two-roll. The new adventures of Deadly Avenger start here.