There are a few movie soundtracks that stick out as favorites in my collection: “Hackers” (even though the movie, to me now, is laughable), “Valley Girl,” “Garden State,” “The Crow,” and “Run Lola Run.” As I made my way through the Chronicle Movie Soundtrack (Milan Records), going from song to song, I found myself “hearting” each one on Last.FM.
I have yet to see “Chronicle,” a sci-fi thriller, which is the directorial debut for 26-year old Josh Trank (opens on February 3). But if the movie is nearly as good as the soundtrack…wow.
Although the genre style lies mostly in electro and dance, which I love, there are some definite deviations, bringing a diverse experience for the listener and an opportunity to discover new artists to add to their iTunes collection.
Example being is the jangle joy, clap-along song “Bone Dry” by A B & The Sea (clever!), a San Francisco band that captures the emoticon of Death Cab for Cutie or Michael Penn. Cincinnati’s Bad Veins bring in a highway swagger to the soundtrack with “Gold and Warm,” sprinkled with touches of harp and keyboards that add a wink and smile to the track.
Listed as STFKR, as they typically are on these occasions, Starfucker’s “Bury Us Alive” appears in all it’s glory, originally part of the band’s 2011 release, Reptilians, the album that came in at #3 in the Kaffeine Buzz Best Albums of 2011. And #5 on the Best of List was M83, who adds “The Bright Flash” to the soundtrack, which I’m guessing by the film’s synopsis, is fitting in both title and sound. And yet another favorite is found from Simian Mobile Disco’s “Sweetbread.”
Going back to the discovery aspect of this collection, Blonde Acid Cult is a new one on my list, with “Calypso” being a perfect complement to late-night walk through the city or an early morning run through the park. The Longcut out of Manchester thrive with a sense of both urgency instrumentation and a slow glide from the vocals on “Tell You So,” where you envision a bird’s expansive wings stretched and still in the air, and in pulling back you find it’s travelling at 100 mph (ironically, the drum and keyboard work on this track is a close cousin to the M83 song on this same soundtrack).
If you’re a fan of Fools Gold Records, then you may already be familiar with Congorock, a producer and DJ out of Italy that would throw the club into a frenzy with “Sirius,” pulsating the dancefloor with a low-toned, jungle-esque vocal sample and chunky beat persona.
Capsule is an electronic duo out of Japan, and their “Flash Back” runs right along side Tom Tykwer’s work on “Run Lola Run,” to a point I can almost envision the “Chronicle” scene after only viewing the trailer.
So what is this new movie about that would justify such a stellar lineup of artists to provide that sonic backdrop?
The synopsis states, “Three high school students make an incredible discovery, leading to their developing uncanny powers beyond their understanding. As they learn to control their abilities and use them to their advantage, their lives start to spin out of control, and their darker sides begin to take over.”
We all have a dark side, or a shadow side, and when given power over other people and things, it tends to rear its ugly head. You can say that about a lot of people who may not have made a “discovery” in the ground, as the characters from this film did. So it would seem this film’s main premise has underlying subtext of true substance, more than your typical teenage-oriented feature film that sells tickets via a major special effects budget (cough, “Transformers 2,” cough); where the quality of the film meets or even exceeds that of its soundtrack…unlike “Hackers.”
I’m looking forward to seeing if my suspicions are true – the film opens in theaters February 3. In the meantime, kudos to Andrea von Foerster, music supervisor for “Chronicle” for pulling together such an array of artists.
