Rewind....

...to the early 1980's and the appearance of a large silver / black rectangular box underneath the TV set; a box that even then seemed old-fashioned, despite being state of the art technology; a box that bore the legend 'BETAMAX'.

With the rapid advances in technology since the halcyon era of video, it's
easy to forget the massive impact that the video player had on our lives.
On a very basic level Betamax and VHS made it possible to watch films without having to go to the cinema. For kids like Damon Baxter, aka Deadly Avenger, it meant a hell of a lot more. It meant the end of trying to sneak into the cinema for your older brother or sister to watch the latest 15 and 18 films.

Now, the underage renting of videos from the less discerning video emporiums
was added to the litany of rebellious teenage pursuits like smoking, drinking and having sex. The phrase 'home entertainment' took on a whole new dimension. Horror movies like The Evil Dead were no longer exclusive to the night. They could be rented during the day and watched whilst you bunked off school and your parents were at work, sunlight creeping through the curtains as the goriest most shocking scenes were rewound and viewed again and again.

As well as renting, videos could be purchased - classic movies could become
yours to own. Baxter and his friends started to develop video collections to rival their vinyl, chock full of Kung Fu, Sci-Fi, Horror and Action flicks like Enter The Dragon, Rollerball, Rambo - First Blood, Dirty Harry and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, many of which were made when they were still in nappies.

For every great film released at this time there was the inevitable dearth of rubbish taking advantage of this accessible new medium. The immortal
'Straight To Video' titles; films that were so bad, they were actually good.
Without video, films that failed at the US box office would have sunk without a trace in the UK. Now they could reach these shores and live forever, to be accidentally rented and watched with amazement from the comforts of the sofa. Plenty of Straight To Video films have become cult classics.

Baxter can trace his obsession with films and their soundtracks back to this
golden era. He often used films as his inspiration when making music. He'd have videos playing constantly in the background while he fucked around in
the studio. Suddenly, a scene from a film like 'Se7en' would grab his attention and he'd score that scene himself, repeating the action over and
over again in order to fully capture the atmosphere.

This way of working gave Baxter the idea for this 'Straight To Video'
compilation. He decided to ask some of his mates who made music to try their hand at scoring a track to accompany a scene from a film they rated.
Inevitably, not everybody stuck to the script - some have recorded tracks
inspired by an entire film rather than a specific scene, whilst others have
created their own imaginary films on which they have based their tracks.

What we are left with is a 14 track collection of awesome soundtrack
influenced music from some of the most creative talents working on the music
scene today. As a body of work, it stands testament to the power of films
to inspire, shock and make you laugh, transporting the listener to their own
headphone cinema, and evoking plenty of seminal memories for the Betamax
generation.