“I like to do very emotional things, and fear is such an intense emotion,” says film composer Brian Reitzell (“Lost In Translation”, “Friday Night Lights”) on his desire to do a horror movie. After considering numerous projects, he decided to take on “30 Days of Night” as his first film in that genre. To capture … Read more
WIth “The Grudge,” Norway’s Mortiis once again surprises listeners with a new musical twist. The last Mortiis release, “The Smell Of Rain,” shifted further from the ambient style of his early work in favor of more melodic, vocal-driven songs. On the new disc, Mortiis continues with more traditional song structures. But while electronics still figure … Read more
Since leaving Nine Inch Nails in 1996, Chris Vrenna has done a variety of interesting projects. Among other things, he did the soundtrack for the video game “American McGee’s Alice,” has remixed acts like Xzibit, Rasputina and Rob Zombie, and of course launched his own musical project – Tweaker. Now a partnership with Clint Walsh, … Read more
How did you come to do music for the “Die Hard Trilogy” video game? BT: “They’d heard a couple of tracks from my album, like ‘Madskillz Mic Checka’ and The Hip Hop Phenomenon’,” and they were like ‘yeah, we want stuff like that, but even more aggro.’ They were looking for really aggressive, new school … Read more
“It’s heading towards the millennium,” said 12 Rounds member Atticus Ross, “so we’re taking advantage of what we can.” What Ross is referring to is the way he and bandmate Claudia Sarne are combining the punk edge of their band’s previous incarnation with their programming and production skills. He admitted that the band “didn’t play … Read more
When Geoff Barrow started doing remixes and creating backing tracks for Neneh Cherry, the fact that he wasn’t himself working under a band name led many people to refer to him simply as “the guy from Portishead.” The name stuck, so when he teamed up with vocalist Beth Gibbons to focus on his own music, … Read more
On “Dos Dedos Mis Amigos,” Pop Will Eat Itself once again gave their instantly recognizable sound yet another new twist. Without losing their pop edge, PWEI opted for a slightly noisier style, with fewer clean and polished guitar and synth lines. Along with the new sound came a new label, with the band signed to … Read more
Though Australia is not normally thought of as a hotbed for electronic music, Sydney’s Single Gun Theory have nevertheless proven to be one of the most creative bands in the genre. The group’s music is highly structured and song-oriented, while also being very experimental in terms of the sounds used. Their latest album, “Flow, River … Read more
One of the more surprising musical events of the 90s was the rebirth of Underworld. They had put out two albums previously, but 1994’s “Dubnobasswithmyheadman” saw a revamped line-up and a major overhaul of their sound. Now a trio of original members Karl Hyde and Rick Smith with DJ Darren Emerson, Underworld truly bridged the … Read more
Just because a band relies almost entirely on electronic instruments doesn’t necessarily mean they have to be synthetic sounding. A good example of this is Sheffield’s In The Nursery, who use samplers and computers to come up with lush, classical sounds. Back in the early to mid 1980’s, the duo comprised of twin brothers Klive … Read more