Back catalogue: Soundtracks

Review: Composer Michael Abels and Oscarr winner Jordan Peele have hooked up plenty of times on the big screen before, and this is another hugely successful partnership. Us was released in March 2019 and is an original nightmare that is set in present-day Santa Cruz on the Northern California coast. Lupita Nyong'o and Black Panther's Winston Duke star and the score features many highlights such as a 30-person choir, ten of them kids, on 'Anthem', while plenty of Eastern European instruments, violins and percussion were also employed. 1995 hip-hop anthem 'I Got 5 On It' by Luniz is also included and never fails to stand out.

Review: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Nope by Micael Abels accompanied the Oscarr winner Jordan Peele's famously expansive horror epic and helped take it to the next level. This is their third project together and maybe the most ambitious score of the lot. It draws influence from sci-fi, horror, action and westerns and there is a real blend between original score and source music. It is at times a terrifying listen and at others full of grand adventure, awe and wonder. The sounds scale up when needed to match the pictures and totters they make for a superb experience, but the soundtrack alone is one hell of a ride.

Review: .The last full length we had from Federico Amorosi and Valerio Lombardozzi, AKA Dressel Amorosi, was a pretty scary place to spend time. Themed around late-mid-20th Century Italian horror movies (see: Dario Argento), the record paid homage to the iconic sounds of that culture, but also refused to simply rehash the past. An atmospheric, spine-tingling collection of suspenseful synth-first stuff, it also benefited from landing around the same time as a new Stranger Things series. A year on and things are now on a slightly less tense route. Spectrum is still looking to offer thanks to the Italian film industry as was a few decades back - specifically for gifting us so many amazing soundtracks. But this time round we're much closer to the glam and glitz of a Roma Italo party than anything like the Upside Down, while still packing depth and atmosphere.

Review: Australian folk-indie-pop set Angus & Julia Stone, appropriately led by brother and sister Angus and Julia Stone, have been making waves Down Under for almost 20 years now. One listen to their output is enough to convince you they're a cut well above the rest, and the panel charged with deciding on the ARIA Awards obviously agree. They've now won lots, and received nominations for countless more.
Life Is Strange certainly reflects their oeuvre quite accurately. Somewhere between contemporary country, blissful indie and romantic, soft and sweet artsy indie, the project itself also reflects their forward-thinking attitude, with this one of a growing number of video game scores that are actually albums in themselves, rather than the kind of straight up soundtracks we're mostly used to.

Review: Song Cycle Records has put together a collector's edition box set of the Solaris original soundtrack as realised by Russian composer Edward Artemiev, who was once a member of the legendary Experimental Studio of Electronic Music in Moscow. Andrey Tarkovsky's masterpiece film from 1972 is a cosmic epic with a soundtrack to match thanks to its many eerie synthesiser sounds and lo-fi, alien ambient atmospheres. The pair also worked on Mirror (1975) and Stalker (1979), but Solaris might be their best, as this compelling box set proves.

Review: This vinyl issue presents some of Edward Artemiev's finest soundtrack work, taken from Andrei Tarkovsky's classic films Stalker and The Mirror. The A-side is given over to four tracks from Stalker, with the haunting themes of the film's narrative explored in the title theme with chilling synth textures, pan pipes and harpsichord tones, while the prickly textures of "Train" and "They Go Long" offer tense introspection. "Exodus" and "Dedication To Andrei Tarkovsky" from The Mirror both offer that unique combination of monolithic scale and pastoral melody that makes Artemiev's music so intriguing.

Review: If you're going to put together a compilation of anthems plucked from the unabashed and unapologetic world of 1980s film soundtracks, then for goodness sake subtitle it The Soundtrack of Your Life. In fact, throw in Vol. 1 just so we know this isn't where the story ends. A decade that wasn't exactly renowned for its subtleties or known for a belief that anything could possibly better it really only deserves this kind of album name, which - from where we're sitting - is pretty accurate.

After all, you'll have to go a very, very long way to get bigger than 'St Elmo's Fire (Man In Motion)', a track way, way bigger than the somewhat rudimentary Brat Pack flick it takes its name from. Better films are represented here, with even larger tunes - 'We Don't Need Another Hero' from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Beverly Hills Cop's 'The Heat Is On', and 'Maniac', plucked out of Flashdance, are just a few examples.

Review: A Monster's Expedition + Earlier Adventures is a double disc collection of music from four different video games (namely A Monster's Expedition, Sokobond, Cosmic Express and A Good Snowman Is Hard to Build) all composed by Eli Rainsberry, Allison Walker, Nick Dymond, and Priscilla Snow. Each one is utterly unique to the game and each one comes laden with beautiful soothing atmospheres delicately coloured with ponderous and whimsical melodies that will distract you from whatever you are doing they are so gorgeous. This is music to get lost in and it comes with superbly serene artwork from Andre Rodrigues.