(Illicit/Stomp)

Having only just started settling down from the party hip hop antics of his Fabriclive compilation of last year it was with great anticipation that I put Deadly Avenger’s latest album Straight to Video in my CD player and got my dancing shoes ready. Luckily I hadn’t tied them up too tight for no sooner had it begun I was taking them off and sitting back in the couch with my feet up, quite happy to watch the world go by as I took in the soundscape of what this album was offering.

Read a little about Deadly Avenger, aka Damon Baxter, and you find out that whilst he has been responsible for tearing apart many a party with his no holds barred turntable antics he has also been heavily influenced by the world of film and most importantly film scores. Having been denied the senses of taste and smell due to a childhood accident he has had to rely more heavily on his three remaining senses of touch, hearing and sight to provide him with sensory stimulation. It is thus no surprise that when he saw films such as “The Exorcist” and “Star Wars” as a kid that the respective scores of Mike Oldfield and John Williams alike had a huge impact as they further enhanced the already visual amazements that both films held.

With Straight to Video Deadly Avenger has asked some of his mates to score some of their favourite moments in film. Each track is inspired by a scene from a movie or a movie in general. Some of the artists who have contributed and the movies that they’ve chosen are (film in brackets) Cinema Recorded Movie Library (Rollerball), Faze Action (Enter the Dragon and Howie B (Lassie). Baxter’s own contribution is based on Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining”.

Comparisons to David Holmes (think of his scoring of “Out of Sight”) and DJ Shadow are made and for the most part rightfully so. The opening Moonpie by Cinema Recorded Music Library has a definite DJ Shadow feel to it with its laidback and atmospheric hip hop feel. Without actually seeing each film and comparing it, and I don’t think you need to at all to appreciate this album, it’s not always easy to imagine the music in the film. Although I think an interesting development of this project would be for each artist to write a complete score, in the vein of Jeff Mills interpretation of “Metropolis”, for their film of choice. Instead this album seems more, for the most part, a reaction to and feeling derived from the films in question.

Tracks take on elements of hip hop, electro, jazz, lounge, breakbeat and more as each artists sets about offering their interpretation. One thing that came to mind immediately when listening to this was how much fun many of them probably had in working on such a project in the way that it gives them a chance to work in many samples and effects that would never be used on more dancefloor oriented releases. Tracks rich in texture can be highly emotive, something which is conveyed heavily throughout this release.

Whilst not a completely new idea it is an interesting one and works extremely well in this case. As mentioned before it would be interesting to sit down with the movies and see if you can relate them to the tracks. This album may only appeal to a niche market but if any of the above sounded remotely interesting I strongly recommend checking this release out.