Top Score

Take three cult films, a set of decks and a big screen and what do you get? For Vinyl Projections, talented DJs were locked up with different movies for a month and given the task of devising completely new musical scores for them. The tizzed-up Petersham RSL was the perfect venue to appreciate the results of their hard work. The cinema-like space with its comfy seats was perfect for viewing the projected films, while the dancefloor with its low-key laser lighting was on standby for those of us who couldn’t sit still during the accompanying live sets.

The first audiovisual treat was ‘Shadow of the Vampire’, ably re-scored by Regal and Toon. The film is a fictional recount of the making of ‘Nosferatu’, the first ever vampire film, telling the story of a mad director who casts an actual vampire in the titular role. The richly textured dub and laidback breakbeat dolled out by the DJs complemented the movie’s gothic landscape of crumbling ruins and strange subterranean caves. The scorers overlaid their brooding beats with eerie samples from the original soundtrack to add to the drama and characterisation.

Regal and Toon had obviously watched the film intently, and their timing was impeccable. Variations in their set not only matched the mood of the action onscreen but also coincided with major scene changes. To start, quirky acid jazz accompanied the film-shoot scenes, but as discord began to foment amongst the film crew, the tempo picked up with some bass-heavy breaks. Cut to a scene in which the macho Fritz Wagner triumphantly swoops onto the set in a helicopter, and the music exploded into a festive Latin house track, surprising a burst of applause out of all of us in the audience. Some wonderful leftfield music featured, like the old-fashioned honky-tonk piano music during the black-and-white sequences. Strings and orchestral strains leant a cinematic quality to all of the tracks. This was definitely my pick for the film score of the evening.

Next on the bill was DJ Tas, re-scoring the animated feature ‘Armitage Dual Matrix’. Embracing the clubbing aspect of the night, he immediately launched into a pumping house set. The gravelly bass and blaring vibes brought his sound very close to trance, and fortunately, the plot included enough confrontations, car-chases and general chaos to carry this off. Still, at times the furious energy of the set seemed a little too much for the scene, both on and off screen. Tas did manage to lure the mainly sedentary audience onto the floor, however, by craftily dropping the much-loved ‘Dooms Night Remix’ by Azzido da Bass.

It was apparent by this stage that not all the DJs would take the same approach to their re-scorings, some choosing to keep the beats in the background, others treating the visuals like traditional, semi-redundant party projections. Crucial D struck a nice balance between these two approaches with his film, the anime classic ‘Ghost in the Shell’. Direct audio feed from the DVD player enabled us to hear the dialogue but never detracted from the skittering breakbeat mixed in over the top. All the important speeches were synced beautifully with ambient breakdowns in the tracks. Glitchy, synthesised effects and clean sharp beats evoked the film’s futuristic architecture and machinery. This is a movie in which a lot of soul-searching takes place on the part of the femm-bot protagonist, and the gently pulsating rhythms and sweet electronic riffs were the perfect accompaniment, while contrasting fight scenes were heightened by erratic 2-step beats with fractured vocals. Crucial D’s sensitive handling of this film kept us all glued to the screen right to its conclusion.

The next Vinyl Projections takes place on May 14. It’s a coming attraction you won’t want to miss.

See also: http://www.inthemix.com.au/p/np/viewnews.php?id=13692