OneThirtyEight is a very unique band form London who specializes in strange yet simple and macabre music. They just released their debut full-length album called London Transmissions and sent it to me for review.
It comes as a CD+DVD double feature, so I'll start with the CD first. The music is mostly instrumental, and has a wonderful eeriness to it. It sounds like great horror movie music thats still enjoyable without the movie. The first track it probably my favorite. It's called Spider Baby, Baby and it's one of the track with vocals, but not singing. It's a man talking as if he's a doctor keeping a vocal diary of his experiments and its creepy as hell. The CD is definitely worth checking out.
The DVD part is pretty good as well. It contains short films/music videos for many of the tracks. Some of them are wonderful low budget gems, such as Spider Baby, Baby, Happiness, The Man who made Monsters, and the best of them all, Sensation of the Season, which was made with stop motion animation. The other two, The Amazing transparent Man and A Row of Pigs Heads, were shot and looked great, but I wanted more of a story put together.
Overall, this combo is great and definitely worth checking out! The band was even kind enough to sit down for an interview, so enjoy!
Q: How did you come up with the name OneThirtyEight?
A: Well, you have Misfits ‘We Are 138’ and the film ‘THX 1138’ this is where the name comes from, and where the meaning behind the name comes from. To me, Onethirtyeight meant no rules, no laws, no restrictions… I really can’t see the achievement in regurgitating someone else’s sound, even if it is my peers. Creatively it leaves me flat. This is a vehicle for me to express myself and to create an accurate picture of what’s in my mind.
Q: How did you get started making music and short films to go along with them?
A: As soon as I started learning the guitar, I started to write my own songs, and it just built from there, playing in bands etc. When I write it’s very visual, I can see what’s happening, so I started making short films to go with my music, there was interest and they started showing at film festivals and on TV What inspires me? Sci-fi, horror, dreams, the unknown… strange unexpected things... the twilight zone… everything… I'm not a fussy man.
Q: Could you tell a little bit about the collaboration that went into making the amazing video for "Sensation of the Season"?
A: I have a huge passion for sideshows. One of my favorite performers is Unzie, who went round the world exhibiting his pure white skin and mighty mass of hair. He was the nucleus of Sensations of The Season. We wanted Unzie meets Dr Phibes and that’s what we got.
Jan Stephens is a very good friend of mine. He is an extremely talented artist/animator, and has such a unique style, He’s made wonderful short films himself Danny Silk: Intergalactic Exterminator and The Infestation of the Nutty Joes. You should check them out! Jan had created some great posters for me when my films started playing at various film festivals, for ‘Spider Baby, Baby’ and ‘The Man Who Made Monsters’… We decided to work together on a piece and out came ‘Sensations Of The Season’, with Sharif Salah’s finishing touches, the end result was a fantastical freak-show.
Q: Where can the readers find out more?
A: You can find out all about Onethirtyeight… All the music, videos and t-shirts at
www.myspace.com/onethirtyeightmusic. I have just released my first full-length album - A CD and DVD package called London Transmissions. It’s like a radio show... a pirate radio show, beamed out from London... There’s a whole host of strange tales just waiting to be heard. Tune in… tune out…. 12 tracks and 7 videos, an other-worldly extravaganza!
