With album cycles becoming ever more tenuous thanks to endless tour schedules and the gradual decline of full album sales it seems as though artists are finding new avenues to push their music through including mixtapes, free downloads and remix competitions. One new arena available to artists that inthemix has observed is that of working on a film soundtrack. Dance producers have been involved with cinema previously, but in 2010 the trend went into overdrive with the film brass calling on a number of dance acts to lend some electronic edge to their movies. Here we’re going to look at some of the most successful dance in film ventures of 2010 and preview some of the upcoming pairings as the trend progresses into the new year.

Daft Punk

Perhaps the most talked about of all dance music and film collaborations of the last 12 months was Daft Punk’s involvement with Disney’s Tron Legacy. Not only did the French producers make a cameo appearance in the film itself but their Tron Legacy soundtrack became the duo’s most successful chart debut in the United States, no mean feat for the enigmatic robots. Mixing their trademark electronic sounds with strikingly classical flourishes, the score succeeds in marrying Daft Punk’s dance roots with sophisticated orchestral scores in the vein of Hans Zimmer.

Tron Legacy wasn’t the only film in 2010 to benefit from Daft Punk’s involvement as one half of the duo Thomas Bangalter re-teamed with French director Gaspar Noe for another twisted outing in Enter The Void. Having previously scored the disturbingly dark Irreversible, Bangalter provides some additional downbeat synthetic soundscapes for Enter The Void.

SebastiAn

Still on the French and it seems as though edgy French auteurs have a thing for dance artists as celebrated director Roman Gavras tapped Ed Banger solo star SebastiAn to provide the backing for Notre Jour Viendra – ‘Our Day Will Come’ – a confronting exercise in violence and emotional unrest. That sounds like the perfect playground for an artist like SebastiAn to run wild around and the shadowy producer does just that, sculpting a harsh and disjointed electro score that barely makes up for his slow output of late.

Mr. Oizo & Gaspard Auge

More Frenchmen and more violence, but this time it’s done with tongues in cheek. Rubber is the latest film from Quentin Dupiex – better known as Mr. Oizo – concerning a murderous tyre come to life with psychic powers and on a quest for revenge against humanity. Sounds too ridiculous to be true, but it is and in true ‘Oizo style it looks incredible. Mr. Oizo and Gaspard Auge of Justice provide the score which is characteristically in the vein of their Ed Banger releases, charting the extreme reaches of compressed, pummeling electro.