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On the 26th of October, a small theater near the Loyola University campus, hidden in between a Starbucks and a Thai place,
was premiering the F.W. Murnau’s 1922 silent film, Nosferatu. The theater room was compact with a lack of theater members
and portrayed the film from a possible DVD throwaway uploaded to a projector.
It was the only premiere of the film throughout all of Chicago, set for a single night. Although the setting wasn’t more or less
grandiose, it almost didn’t matter. Being there to see the film in the big screen in the only premiere possible was special
enough.
Although the film is historically significant for its revolutionary art direction and influence on the horror genre, the film reigns
insipid compared to conventional techniques of film. Regardless of the few bouts of laughter from the audience at the cheery
points of the film, the film still eluded a sensation that could not be compared to today’s standards.
The highly contrasted, rugged audio of the film added to the thoughtfully executed attempt at created a nocturnal sensation
for the film. If silent films were recreated today, it would mostly polish up the jagged lighting, audio, and exaggerated acting
from the silent era. The faultiness of conventional technology only added to Count Orlock’s mystifying presence.
Count Orlock is much more ominous in this type of filmmaking. Due to the subtle and possibly inadvertent techniques, Count
Orlock, or the transformation fo Dracula, lives on into cultural infamy.
Wun Two is a beat conductor belonging to the instrumental era of Hip-Hop. Now that Hip-Hop has the viscosity of evolving
into different forms of itself, it shows no need to stagnant in its progress.
With this type of form, the genre is allowed to contain some audio deficiencies. Scratches and lo-fi aesthetic is not only
allowed but sometimes encouraged in this form of Hip-Hop.
Wun Two has yet again cultivated this personality into the appropriately titled ‘Nosferatu EP.’ The project holds fifteen tracks
that hold the same ruggedness of his previous projects, only with another appeal
The samples are cartoonishly eerie, which are added on by Wun Two’s esoteric snares and drums. These elements are
repeated in a pattern until it finds the need to transition to the next beat.
These tracks are all horror-themed, which contain samples from campy, older movies that defined the standard for its time.
My personal favorite track, creature, is the first track that creeps into the EP after the introduction, breaking the silence. The
track is an old-school homage that involves snippets from the Cool Jazz era, mixed with a subtle eerie sample.
The mixture results in a humble sound, which radiates a glow from the misty midnight sky. The track the golden arm uses the
typical malevolent instrument that plays during the suspenseful moments in older, black and white films. Melted with a
crystalizing chord sample and one-step snares, the beat culminates into a unique homage to the noise of the horror genre.
Perhaps the best example from this EP that follows the formula of the golden arm is motel transilvania. The sampled keys are
arranged so synchronized with the beat pattern that it supplements the rest of the components that manifests a perfect tribute
to the black-and-white era of horror.
Nosferatu is the perfect showcase for what film production was capable of back then. Wun Two utilized his begrimed Hip-Hop
noise as the perfect tribute to the now-fallacious nature of the production back then.
Regardless that technology has come such a long way, the cultural tradition of the holidays is still very similar from back then.
The same dark, eluding vibrations of the cold, nubiferous night matches well with these two works of art.
Wun Two’s sound already has that “old-school,” lo-fi feel to it, that assembles perfectly with the predated feeling that F.W.
Murnau’s Nosferatu gave even after all these years. Two highly distinct artists that come hand in hand make for an
appropriate collaboration, as well as a celebration of the holiday cheer.
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