This new CD from contains propelling, ringing and slashing guitars, along with spatial, crazed keyboards.

13 MP3 Songs
ROCK: American Underground, ELECTRONIC: Ambient

Show all album songs: Fugitives From The Laughing House Songs


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THE REDS

This Philadelphia band's first album on A&M, entitled "The Reds," is a ferocious attack, total and relentless. It's textures are dense with electronic chaos brought to the edge of madness, then resolved into piercing clarity. The album showed the band's most impressive achievement - a sound that blends Rick Shaffer's guitar and Bruce Cohen's keyboards into an interestingly textured drone, short guitar and keyboard figures, rising then disappearing back into the drone, while Shaffer's voice provides the punch and definition for the overall sound. The album was supported with live appearances with such diverse acts as The Police, Joe Jackson, The Psychedelic Furs, and Public Image.

"The Reds" was followed by an A&M released EP featuring The Doors song, "Break On Through," which suggests some of the band's roots. After leaving A&M, The Reds went forward with two independent albums, "Stronger Silence" and "Fatal Slide." These two records continued The Reds sound, receiving critical acclaim internationally, and were supported with extensive tours.

They next recorded a tense and powerful album for Sire/WB entitled, "Shake Appeal," produced by Mike Thorne (Blur, Soft Cell, Wire). This forcible record led the band to work with director/producer, Michael Mann. Mann incorporated numerous Reds songs into episodes of Miami Vice, and was so impressed with the impact of the songs that he hired Shaffer and Cohen to write songs and score for two motion pictures, "Band of the Hand" (Tri-Star) and "Manhunter" (DeLaurentis), based on the novel "Red Dragon." Soundtracks from both films are available on MCA. Shaffer and Cohen also contributed a song, "Terror In My Heart," to the film "Nightmare On Elm Street 2" (New Line), directed by Jack Shoulder.

Solo projects at this time for Bruce Cohen were writing score for the following productions, "Dr Jekyll & Mr. Hyde" and "Down The Roadâ at Philadelphia's Walnut Theatre; âSherlock Holmes And The Speckled Band,â starring Quentin Crisp, and Charles Buschâ play, âVampire Lesbians Of Sodomâ for NYCâs Pulse Theatre Company; and a forty minute electronic film noir piece for âGoodbye Johnny Staccato.â

While solo projects for Rick Shaffer included recording guitar tracks on an untitled album with Marianne Faithfull (Island); Hilly Kristalâs, âMad Mordechai (Stereo Society); Peter Murphy's, "Holy Smoke" (Beggars Banquet/BMG); and Marc Almond's, "Fantastic Star" (Some Bizarre/Mercury).

Their next album, entitled, "Cry Tomorrow," reunited The Reds with British producer Mike Thorne. "Cry Tomorrow" captures the driving intensity of previous albums and the ambient, atmospheric feel from their film scores, resulting in a stark, surreal album, with a sense of mood and mystery. The pulsing opening track, "Terror In My Heart," the bone crushing title track, "Cry Tomorrow," the searing non-stop groove of the Stones' "Gimme Shelter," the introduction of various percussive elements and a diversity of background vocals, all create an experimental and manic energy that reaches inside your head and won't let go. The album was originally released by Tarock Music, and re-released on the Stereo Society label.

In 2004 Rick Shaffer wrote and recorded, âLooking For Right,â for the Michael Mann film, âCollateral.â However, in the final film editing the scene was unfortunately cut and did not make it to the big screen.

A new album entitled, âFugitives From The Laughing Houseâ (Tarock) was released September 30, 2007. Written and produced by The Reds, the ride starts from the street fighting âWildâ and âLittle Cisco,â through the hypnotic stroll of âRinging The Bellâ and âDum Dum Diceââ¦â¦and does not let up until the end with the grinding Dub laced âGunnâs Suicide,â and slow death burn of âCanât Bring You Back Again,â which feels like a dying manâs last breath. âFugitives From The Laughing Houseâ is a straight forward raw nerve reflection of life in America today.