The Last Punisher

Albums: 1987 Animal House; 1989 Mean Machine; 1990 Faceless World; 1991 Timebomb; 1997 Solid; 1998 No Limits; 1999 Holy; 2002 Man And Machine

Despite his often upbeat melodies and maniacally joyful keyboards, Sam Coomes has never sounded like a glass-half-full kind of guy—singing for nearly 30 years about hurting the one you love, limping out the door, feeling better under a cloud, being "stuck in this rotten lump of me.

Travis Bickle is an ex-Marine and Vietnam War veteran living in New York City. As he suffers from insomnia, he spends his time working as a taxi driver at night, watching porn movies at seedy cinemas during the day, or thinking about how the world, New York in particular, has deteriorated into a cesspool. He's a loner who has strong opinions about what is right and wrong with mankind. For him, the one bright spot in New York humanity is Betsy, a worker on the presidential nomination campaign of Senator Charles Palatine. He becomes obsessed with her. After an incident with her, he believes he has to do whatever he needs to to make the world a better place in his opinion. One of his priorities is to be the savior for Iris, a twelve-year-old runaway and prostitute who he believes wants out of the profession and under the thumb of her pimp and lover Matthew.

Based on author Rick Porrello's book To Kill the Irishman: The War that Crippled the Mafia, director Jonathan Hensleigh's richly detailed biopic details the rise and fall of notorious Cleveland union rep Danny Greene (Ray Stevenson), who earned notoriety in the mid-1970s for his bold willingness to defy the Italian mob. Raised on the mean streets of Cleveland, Greene's tough reputation eventually lands him a contact with the local mob. Before long, the scrappy local has become a mafia enforcer, but after forming an alliance with notorious gangster John Nardi (Vincent D'Onofrio) and burning feared loan shark Shondor Birns (Christopher Walken), Greene starts to discover that he has the potential to become as powerful as any of his adversaries. Later, Greene develops a reputation as untouchable after surviving numerous assassination attempts, and dealing a devastating blow to organized crime syndicates across the U.S.

Composed in 2020 during the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the first incarnation of the work was played as a sound installation at the Kapellen Leprosarium (Leper's Sanctuary) in Hanover, Germany. This sanctuary was built around 1250 and served as a quarantine for those who suffered from the plague and leprosy in the Middle Ages.