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(Sonic Arcana/Creative Vibes)
Compiled, produced and blended together by Groovescooter Records heads Paris Pompor and Georgie Zuzak, this second instalment in their ongoing ‘Music For Film’ compilation series (following the release of the first volume through Silent Recordings) acts as a companion soundtrack of sorts to 2005’s Sydney Film Festival, now in its 52nd year. Rather than simply draw from a selection of this year’s myriad offerings however, for this compilation the Groovescooter crew have cast their net right back to traverse almost four decades of Australian film soundtracks, collecting together the work of classic composers such as Brian May (not the Queen guitarist) and John Barry, who contribute moments taken from seminal Australian movies such as ‘Mad Max’ and ‘Walkabout’, alongside the work of more contemporary producers more widely-known known for their work outside the film sphere, such as Decoder Ring, Severed Heads and David Bridie. The subtitle here – ‘cults, classics, curios’ also provides an indication as the slant of the tracks included here, with Pompor and Zuzak drawing together an eclectic 21-track selection that takes in a range of lesser-known Australian celluloid moments that sure to provide surprises for novices and film buffs alike.
Don Meers’ atmospheric intro track ‘Nevermind’ begins things on a pulsing ambient note, with what sounds like treated strings arcing their way through a blurry background of echoing machine bleeps and skittering glitchy textures, before David Lindup’s ‘Testing Time’ takes things down a path that’s a dead-ringer for an outtake from Isaac Hayes’ ‘Shaft’ score, wah-wah funk guitars riffling their way around a rolling backing of fluid funk-soul that also tosses in a slight element of crime-noir amongst its bright horns and snaking ‘Superfly’-esque flutes. David Thrussell’s storming ‘End Theme’ from Guy Pearce movie ‘The Hard Word’ offers one of the most noirish moments amongst this collection, with a vast classic Hollywood film score feel that’s soaked in John Barry-esque spy-jazz horns and thundering percussion, while UK band Jigsaw’s ‘Sky High’ (from the movie of the same name) took me by surprise perhaps more than any other track on this collection, in the sense that once it kicked in with it’s “you’ve blown it all sky-high / by telling me a lie” chorus, I realised I’d heard it a thousand times in places like taxis where an AM station was playing, I’d just never realised that it was in fact originally taken from the soundtrack to an Australian movie.
Tooth’s epic, winding ‘Dreamland’ (taken from the soundtrack to ‘Angst’) finds the middle ground somewhere between Herbaliser / Mo’ Wax style downbeat instrumental hiphop and Roy Budd-esque slowburning film score orchestration, blues-steeped guitars and Hammond organs tracing their way around ghostly samples and clattering drums, before Inga Liljestrom’s hauntingly intimate ‘All Of This’ (taken from Australian independent film ‘Left Ear’) takes things down through a Mazzy Star-esque heavily-reverbed torch song vocal over gentle strokes of what sounds like a mandolin or dobro. Phillip Brophy’s ‘Swoon’ was originally produced for the score of Alex Dimitriades movie ‘Head On’, but shelved when Ollie Olsen went on to supervise the film’s soundtrack, and now provides an unsettling fusion of juddering electronic ambience and vaguely-New Wave-tinged synthetic melodies that leads into John Barry & The City Of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra’s ‘The Final Dance’, taken from 1971 Aussie ‘arthouse’ movie ‘Walkabout.’ I must confess that until now, I hadn’t realised that Barry had ever been commissioned to work on music for an Australian film, but ‘The Final Dance’ certainly represents an intriguing twist on Barry’s signature sweeping widescreen orchestration, with ominous didjeridoo textures building like a gathering storm beneath the vast strings.
Fresh from remixing Bjork, Ben Frost contributes ‘Ray’s Theme’ (from Australian film ‘Everything Goes’), which blends blurry drone-landscapes in the vein of Sigur Ros or Mum with trailing post-rock guitars and weary-sounding drums in one of this collection’s most hypnotically-bereft sounding moments, while Brian May’s ‘Flight From The Evil Toecutter’ (taken from the score for ‘Mad Max’) brings on the white-knuckled fear with chaotic, blaring chase-scene strings and thundering percussion bringing forward a classic Hollywood epic score approach that counterpoints some of the more contemporary electronic productions on show here. Severed Heads’ ‘Pour Chiens Moyens’ (taken from the ‘Illustrated Family Doctor’ score) repesents this compilation’s most up-to-date inclusion and calls to mind Phillip Glass or Brian Eno’s glacial melodic ambience, with delicate wavering delayed-out synths gently emerging like bubbles from underwater, before Ens closes this expansive collection with ‘Tropic Of Cancer’ (taken from the only non-Australian film inclusion here, Japanese director Yusuke Hayamizu’s ‘Nanaon No Senritsu’), its digitally-manipulated trailing effects and slow jazz beats bringing things to a suitably evocative finish in the style of Andrew Pekler’s jazz-tinged electronics.
‘52nd Sydney Film Festival – Music For Film’ is a stunning second volume in this ongoing compilation series from Groovescooter / Sonic Arcana that manages to take the listener through a head-spinningly diverse selection of evocative soundtrack moments from Australian composers, with a number of lost ‘classics’ as well as more contemporary electronic inclusions ensuring that this compilation provides surprises from start to finish. Most notably, this compilation provides a vital snapshot of the ongoing relationship between Australian filmakers and composers, as well as the sheer breadth of sonic terrain being explored through the fusion of these two artforms in this country, taking in pristine electronic ambience alongside vast cinematic orchestration and funk-tinged offerings. A compilation of this type seems well overdue, and in this case, Groovescooter / Sonic Arcana definitely don’t disappoint. Kick back, dim the lights and let the inner cinema unfold.
Check out http://www.sonicarcana.com, http://www.sydneyfilmfestival.org and http://www.groovescooter.com.
