Authour: Peter Muscutt
Music Ripe For a Film Soundtrack!
Have you ever heard a song, a piece of music etc and wondered 'that would work well in a film?' OK, probably not. It's to my eternal shame that I have a Smart Playlist on my iPod (although there's only three - the others being 'Mash-ups', a 150-strong list of groovy bootleg cut-ups and remixes by DJs from the mash-up scene and 'The Best Mix', a highly unoriginal title for my favourite ever tracks) called 'Atmospheric Music'. This play-list is a collection of songs, that, although not widely known or that popular, still represent a peculiar charm, an eerie feeling, or just sound like they'd infinitely contribute to a particular type of scene in a film.
If I'm honest, it was a half-hearted attempt to write a book that made me put this list together. The book was (or should that be 'is' - I'm still convinced I'll write it one day) called 'Floor 15', and was about a crumbling council estate in some unnamed city just after a nuclear war has taken place in Britain (as it often does, dangerous things those nuclear weapons!). It was to have various chapters devoted to various strange characters, such as a woman who kept her stillborn foetus in a jar (which had psychic powers, naturally), an elderly lady who accidentally kills a young boy whilst trying to escape the war-torn estate, and an ever present gang of boys who pester a man known as The Storyteller for clues as to how the country got into the deserted, corpse-ridden state it now is. The music I was listening to at the time led me to think of it as some kind of 'soundtrack' to the book, and I'd like to share some of those songs with you now...Oh yes, and if the book ever gets finished, go and buy a copy! Call me nerdy if you like, but I even thought about which parts of my story these songs would suit - if you liked the soundtrack to 'Trainspotting', chances are you'll lap this up. Or not... see what you think!
The Cooper Temple Clause - Written Apology (from the album 'Kick Up The Fire and Let the Flames Break Loose')
An absolutely outstanding song that is just crying out to be in some movie, preferably at the end. In my story, I always imagined it to coincide with the ending, which involved the final remnants of the estate collapsing in the light of a fresh nuclear attack. I love the way it starts off quite dark and menacing, before exploding into some anguished rock song, then mutating into some alien techno ending, all spread over ten glorious minutes.
The Future Sound of London - First Death In The Family (from the album 'Dead Cities')
The FSOL have always made very cinematic pieces of music, albums with rarely any discernable start and end, with endless segues of music that you can lie back and imagine things to! This piece is another dark and surreal song, not really anything you could hum on the way to the shops, but damn fine for using in a story like mine.
Ultrasound - Happy Times Are Coming (from the album 'Everything Picture')
This group only made the one album to my knowledge, which is a shame, as they made some great atmospheric tracks like this eight-and-a-half-minute gloom-a-thon, which, being gloomy, would suit my story again. If I'm being honest, most of these songs included here are more like end credits music for a film - they seem to have some dramatic or optimistic quality that seems perfect for an ending.
Blur - Essex Dogs (from the album 'Blur')
If Blur ever wanted to release a song under a different name so nobody would know it was them, then this would edge it. A moody, paranoia filled trip through suburbia with Damon and the lads, depicting dogs jumping through sprinklers, Essex pubs, and the smell of puke and piss. Just the sort of grimy, eerie song that I thought would suit a film well. Rather than an ending, this would be better positioned at the start of a film - or in my story, a journey through the horrors of a bombed out country. It's a cheery story, this one I'm writing, isn't it?
Mansun - Special/Blown It (Delete as Appropriate) (from the album 'Six')
This isn't as depressing as some of the other songs on my list, and has a kind of bleak optimism, a sense of resignation (the line 'I've really blown it now... ' summing it up) but with a freedom to the whole thing - almost like 'I've made a mess of things but now I can start fresh'.
Suede - The Next Life (from the album 'Suede')
A very gentle, piano led ballad which is very minimal in it's arrangement. Brett Anderson's voice kind of caresses you in this one, like a hangover cure. This would work well in one of those scenes where a character needs to get some space and leaves home for some distant place. Not stereotyping those kind of films or anything.
Pulp - Deep Fried In Kelvin (from the single 'Lipgloss')
How this track was never even put on an album is perhaps the biggest crime Pulp ever committed. A fantastic ten minute ode to the joys (or not) of living on the infamous Kelvin housing estate in Sheffield. As this song is actually about a council estate, it makes it a dead cert for being included on the soundtrack of a story about one. As it is, this is beautifully apocalyptic, timeless, and scary.
Muse - Nishe (from the single 'Unintended')
Beautiful laid back track that sounds like it was recorded in some bedroom really late at night, like 3am or something. Would suit a night time scene in a film or story such as mine, and the fact that it's an instrumental swayed it for me! (Isn't all good film music instrumental?)
Suede - We Are The Pigs (from the album 'Dog Man Star')
Another Suede track, and one suitable for an opening track, playing over some credits at the start of a film (God, I am sounding a real nerd now). This track, full of soaring chords and interspersed with seedy sounding trumpets, is a real winner. It's just that little bit less commercial than something like 'Animal Nitrate' which would give it a bit more credibility in a film.
Kraftwerk - Mitternacht (from the album 'Autobahn')
Although it could be argued the entire 'Radioactivity' album could have been the soundtrack to some odd, experimental art film, this effort from Kraftwerk's fourth album shows how atmospheric they could be, even in 1974. All the feeling and sounds of a walk through a city at midnight are conveyed here, from dripping water, to echoing footsteps, whooshes of steam from factories and dark, descending chords bringing across the sense of a walk down some dark, deserted street.
Orbital - Transient (from the album 'The Blue Album')
Orbital hit their cinematic peak in 1996 with the amazing 'Insides' album, but this effort from their final studio album captures that film-music style one last time. Sounds like a piece of incidental music from some futuristic science fiction horror, which...hmm, didn't they record in the shape of the soundtrack to 'Event Horizon'? The original choice from the Hartnoll brothers was the full length, five-part, thirty minute version of 'The Box', but that would have been heavy going even for the most difficult of films!
The Orb - S.A.L.T. (from the album 'Orblivion')
Paranoia packed and apparently narrated by radio's very own Mark Radcliffe (I'm sure it's not), this is dark, wavering techno punctuated by some bloke going on about prophecies, strange marks on hands signalling the bar-coding of society, and an unhealthy obsession with the number 666. It picks up as it goes along, twisting from a meandering song you definitely shouldn't listen to when walking home late at night to a full blown techno overload.
Babylon Zoo - Is Your Soul For Sale? (from the album 'The Boy With The X-Ray Eyes')
OK, not the most fashionable band ever, but this track from the groups' first album is a worthy film-closer, and for some reason I keep imagining a small plane carrying survivors from a great fire away from the smouldering ashes of a ruined London. Maybe because of the line 'London town is burning, and the mice and men are running...'
Muse - The Gallery (from the single 'Bliss')
Quite experimental in that Muse haven't really ventured into the world of synthesisers and treated drum machine beats that often, but this veers nicely away from the rock guitar sound they do so well. Like the other track of theirs used here, 'Nishe', this is futuristic in sound, but still retains an eeriness associated with things like the end of the world or lots of death. Which my story would have in the truckload.
The Auteurs - School (from the album 'How I Learned To Love The Bootboys')
If you need any evidence that Luke Haines, lead singer in The Auteurs, can do film soundtracks, watch 'Christie Malry's Own Double Entry'. This is a frankly disturbing song gentle in stature, but with a sense of menace just bubbling underneath the surface.
Orbital - I Wish I Had Duck Feet (from the album 'Snivilisation')
There was a song they always used to play in Drama class at school, which was really, really frightening and had a woman singing in distorted vocals with the line 'what...is behind the curtain', and it used to freak me out completely. I had the same sort of feeling listening to this, another cinematic wonder from Orbital, which is all about freak shows. Yes, freaks, nuclear war, death, violence and general horror. If my story is going to be a film, methinks it will be an '18' rating!
So there you go, music lovers. If you like the sound of some of your favourite songs being in a film, why not start pestering the film makers to fork out the cash to use them? After all, its only by fluke that Godspeed You Black Emperor were used in '28 Days Later' - you know, the music that builds to a great crescendo as the lonely guy wanders around a deserted London... and that song rocks!
Music Ripe For a Film Soundtrack!
Have you ever heard a song, a piece of music etc and wondered 'that would work well in a film?' OK, probably not. It's to my eternal shame that I have a Smart Playlist on my iPod (although there's only three - the others being 'Mash-ups', a 150-strong list of groovy bootleg cut-ups and remixes by DJs from the mash-up scene and 'The Best Mix', a highly unoriginal title for my favourite ever tracks) called 'Atmospheric Music'. This play-list is a collection of songs, that, although not widely known or that popular, still represent a peculiar charm, an eerie feeling, or just sound like they'd infinitely contribute to a particular type of scene in a film.
If I'm honest, it was a half-hearted attempt to write a book that made me put this list together. The book was (or should that be 'is' - I'm still convinced I'll write it one day) called 'Floor 15', and was about a crumbling council estate in some unnamed city just after a nuclear war has taken place in Britain (as it often does, dangerous things those nuclear weapons!). It was to have various chapters devoted to various strange characters, such as a woman who kept her stillborn foetus in a jar (which had psychic powers, naturally), an elderly lady who accidentally kills a young boy whilst trying to escape the war-torn estate, and an ever present gang of boys who pester a man known as The Storyteller for clues as to how the country got into the deserted, corpse-ridden state it now is. The music I was listening to at the time led me to think of it as some kind of 'soundtrack' to the book, and I'd like to share some of those songs with you now...Oh yes, and if the book ever gets finished, go and buy a copy! Call me nerdy if you like, but I even thought about which parts of my story these songs would suit - if you liked the soundtrack to 'Trainspotting', chances are you'll lap this up. Or not... see what you think!
The Cooper Temple Clause - Written Apology (from the album 'Kick Up The Fire and Let the Flames Break Loose')
An absolutely outstanding song that is just crying out to be in some movie, preferably at the end. In my story, I always imagined it to coincide with the ending, which involved the final remnants of the estate collapsing in the light of a fresh nuclear attack. I love the way it starts off quite dark and menacing, before exploding into some anguished rock song, then mutating into some alien techno ending, all spread over ten glorious minutes.
The Future Sound of London - First Death In The Family (from the album 'Dead Cities')
The FSOL have always made very cinematic pieces of music, albums with rarely any discernable start and end, with endless segues of music that you can lie back and imagine things to! This piece is another dark and surreal song, not really anything you could hum on the way to the shops, but damn fine for using in a story like mine.
Ultrasound - Happy Times Are Coming (from the album 'Everything Picture')
This group only made the one album to my knowledge, which is a shame, as they made some great atmospheric tracks like this eight-and-a-half-minute gloom-a-thon, which, being gloomy, would suit my story again. If I'm being honest, most of these songs included here are more like end credits music for a film - they seem to have some dramatic or optimistic quality that seems perfect for an ending.
Blur - Essex Dogs (from the album 'Blur')
If Blur ever wanted to release a song under a different name so nobody would know it was them, then this would edge it. A moody, paranoia filled trip through suburbia with Damon and the lads, depicting dogs jumping through sprinklers, Essex pubs, and the smell of puke and piss. Just the sort of grimy, eerie song that I thought would suit a film well. Rather than an ending, this would be better positioned at the start of a film - or in my story, a journey through the horrors of a bombed out country. It's a cheery story, this one I'm writing, isn't it?
Mansun - Special/Blown It (Delete as Appropriate) (from the album 'Six')
This isn't as depressing as some of the other songs on my list, and has a kind of bleak optimism, a sense of resignation (the line 'I've really blown it now... ' summing it up) but with a freedom to the whole thing - almost like 'I've made a mess of things but now I can start fresh'.
Suede - The Next Life (from the album 'Suede')
A very gentle, piano led ballad which is very minimal in it's arrangement. Brett Anderson's voice kind of caresses you in this one, like a hangover cure. This would work well in one of those scenes where a character needs to get some space and leaves home for some distant place. Not stereotyping those kind of films or anything.
Pulp - Deep Fried In Kelvin (from the single 'Lipgloss')
How this track was never even put on an album is perhaps the biggest crime Pulp ever committed. A fantastic ten minute ode to the joys (or not) of living on the infamous Kelvin housing estate in Sheffield. As this song is actually about a council estate, it makes it a dead cert for being included on the soundtrack of a story about one. As it is, this is beautifully apocalyptic, timeless, and scary.
Muse - Nishe (from the single 'Unintended')
Beautiful laid back track that sounds like it was recorded in some bedroom really late at night, like 3am or something. Would suit a night time scene in a film or story such as mine, and the fact that it's an instrumental swayed it for me! (Isn't all good film music instrumental?)
Suede - We Are The Pigs (from the album 'Dog Man Star')
Another Suede track, and one suitable for an opening track, playing over some credits at the start of a film (God, I am sounding a real nerd now). This track, full of soaring chords and interspersed with seedy sounding trumpets, is a real winner. It's just that little bit less commercial than something like 'Animal Nitrate' which would give it a bit more credibility in a film.
Kraftwerk - Mitternacht (from the album 'Autobahn')
Although it could be argued the entire 'Radioactivity' album could have been the soundtrack to some odd, experimental art film, this effort from Kraftwerk's fourth album shows how atmospheric they could be, even in 1974. All the feeling and sounds of a walk through a city at midnight are conveyed here, from dripping water, to echoing footsteps, whooshes of steam from factories and dark, descending chords bringing across the sense of a walk down some dark, deserted street.
Orbital - Transient (from the album 'The Blue Album')
Orbital hit their cinematic peak in 1996 with the amazing 'Insides' album, but this effort from their final studio album captures that film-music style one last time. Sounds like a piece of incidental music from some futuristic science fiction horror, which...hmm, didn't they record in the shape of the soundtrack to 'Event Horizon'? The original choice from the Hartnoll brothers was the full length, five-part, thirty minute version of 'The Box', but that would have been heavy going even for the most difficult of films!
The Orb - S.A.L.T. (from the album 'Orblivion')
Paranoia packed and apparently narrated by radio's very own Mark Radcliffe (I'm sure it's not), this is dark, wavering techno punctuated by some bloke going on about prophecies, strange marks on hands signalling the bar-coding of society, and an unhealthy obsession with the number 666. It picks up as it goes along, twisting from a meandering song you definitely shouldn't listen to when walking home late at night to a full blown techno overload.
Babylon Zoo - Is Your Soul For Sale? (from the album 'The Boy With The X-Ray Eyes')
OK, not the most fashionable band ever, but this track from the groups' first album is a worthy film-closer, and for some reason I keep imagining a small plane carrying survivors from a great fire away from the smouldering ashes of a ruined London. Maybe because of the line 'London town is burning, and the mice and men are running...'
Muse - The Gallery (from the single 'Bliss')
Quite experimental in that Muse haven't really ventured into the world of synthesisers and treated drum machine beats that often, but this veers nicely away from the rock guitar sound they do so well. Like the other track of theirs used here, 'Nishe', this is futuristic in sound, but still retains an eeriness associated with things like the end of the world or lots of death. Which my story would have in the truckload.
The Auteurs - School (from the album 'How I Learned To Love The Bootboys')
If you need any evidence that Luke Haines, lead singer in The Auteurs, can do film soundtracks, watch 'Christie Malry's Own Double Entry'. This is a frankly disturbing song gentle in stature, but with a sense of menace just bubbling underneath the surface.
Orbital - I Wish I Had Duck Feet (from the album 'Snivilisation')
There was a song they always used to play in Drama class at school, which was really, really frightening and had a woman singing in distorted vocals with the line 'what...is behind the curtain', and it used to freak me out completely. I had the same sort of feeling listening to this, another cinematic wonder from Orbital, which is all about freak shows. Yes, freaks, nuclear war, death, violence and general horror. If my story is going to be a film, methinks it will be an '18' rating!
So there you go, music lovers. If you like the sound of some of your favourite songs being in a film, why not start pestering the film makers to fork out the cash to use them? After all, its only by fluke that Godspeed You Black Emperor were used in '28 Days Later' - you know, the music that builds to a great crescendo as the lonely guy wanders around a deserted London... and that song rocks!
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