MARK KERMODE’S MOVIE PLAYLIST
THE CRITIC AND SCALA RADIO PRESENTER CHOOSES SCORES HE’S BEEN PLAYING ON HIS WEEKLY SHOW
ASCENSION BY DAN DEACON
Jessica Kingdon’s documentary about the pursuit of the ‘Chinese Dream’ benefits hugely from the music of Baltimore-based composer and electro-whizz Dan Deacon. The film follows people from all walks of life — from factory workers, through the middleclasses to the wealthy elite — whom we see working at machines, painting sex dolls, training to become butlers, and learning exactly how much pressure to apply when hugging. Deacon’s score (available on the Milan label) brilliantly captures the shifting tones of the film, from the playful to the perplexing. At once experimental and elegiac, it’s particularly powerful when amplifying the sounds of mass production. If you enjoy this, then check out Philip Glass’ legendary work on the 1982 classic Koyaanisqatsi, to which Kingdon’s film owes a stylistic debt.
AMULET BY SARAH ANGLISS
Romola Garai’s chilling feature-debut as a writer/ director introduced cinemagoers to a composer who is a name to watch. I first saw Sarah Angliss playing theremin in an experimental show that involved robotic heads and an animatronic crow and resembled something David Lynch would have dreamed up after one too many coffees. In December of last year, multi-instrumentalist Angliss received the Ivors Visionary Award, where she was hailed as “no ordinary musician” and “a startling and multifaceted creative technologist and composer”. Her score for Amulet (which cries out for a bespoke Cd/online release) is an eerie and unsettling treat, mixing voices with sampled renaissance instruments to startling effect. “I wanted the music in Amulet to match the film’s own creeping sense of ambiguity,” says Angliss, who took inspiration from a number of sources including Old Norse prophesy and the wails of female Scandinavian goatherders. Really.
48 HOURS BY JAMES HORNER
James Horner’s music from Walter Hill’s ’80s buddy-cop/ action-comedy hybrid featuring Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte was released on Intrada back in 2011 and has recently had a remastered reissue (from hi-res transfers of the original stereo mixes) alongside Another 48 Hours. When we played tracks from this on Scala, the listener response ranged from nostalgia to surprise. The album includes an unused version of the ‘Main Title’, alongside several out-takes and alternate cues, and songs by The Busboys.