As horror is a neverending source of bloody good art and extreme emotions, the genre continues to reinvent itself. With films now playing in groundbreaking 3-D, fearful video-gaming at an all-time high and hi-def discs exploring new digital frontiers, it seems there’s nowhere horror can’t go. Such is the case with a musician who has long adored scary cinema, and the connection he has developed with the distinct and eerie music that is a essential part of them.

Ironically, it is by breaking the connection between classic fright films and their unique scores that the DJ who calls himself Speedy has been reworking these movies with his new music for over half a decade. Speedy, a.k.a. Jimmie Gonzalez, began his transformation in 2004, when he developed a vision that would forever change him as a musician and the world of DJ artists. As Speedy’s official website states, “The concept consisted of classic Eurohorror films of the ’70s & ’80s stylistically re-edited to a relentless dark-brooding techno mix intensifying climaxes from both shock cinema and goosebump-induced vibes.”

This led Speedy to his horrifically and beautifully mastered DJ DVDs THE COLORS OF DARKNESS and ELECTRO EURO-TRASH (see clips below). With both of these works, Speedy was able to tear apart the films we have all grown to love and create a whole new landscape of terror, with his own use of music and “sewn-together storylines” that he creates with the re-edits. “The main thing I was hoping would come across,” he tells Fango, “is my vision of the electronic music and horror connection, which has always been a key element in the genre, especially in landmark scores by the likes of John Carpenter and Goblin. Horror has always been linked with metal and the Gothic scene, but the darkness and atmosphere found in underground electronica and minimal techno is downright scary.”

After gaining notoriety for his groundbreaking visions, Speedy began to develop his own love of filmmaking. He has created music videos for various DJ artists as well as short films, and critic Richard Roeper has even praised him for crafting “a topnotch production right up there with any of the Hollywood slasher films.” And if you think this lover of the macabre couldn’t go any further, Speedy has also developed his newest brainchild: Cinema Therapy. With this multimedia presentation, he developed a way to unite his live DJ skills and love of horror cinema into a unique experience that he has performed at various clubs and festivals. Its blend of new music and familiar video puts Speedy in the driver’s seat, conveying us through the wide-open spaces of our minds and down the bumpy roads of our psyches. It’s an eclectic blend that would fit in nicely at any genre convention, film festival or premiere as it tears down the wall between the visual and audible landscapes of perceived cinema.

With compositions and sound design in the works for his current project, the digi-novel LEVEL 26 (on which he’s teamed with with CSI creator Anthony Zuiker), Speedy is already gearing up for the second book and a wide-scale assault of convention and festival performances for 2010.

For more information on booking Speedy or to view more of his work, check out his site linked above, see his YouTube channel here and for free promotional discs for his new Cinema Therapy mix DVD, you can contact him directly at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

 

 

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