OCTANE

ORBITAL

Rating:

Original Review by Peter Simons: It was bound to happen and here it is. British dance act Orbital have scored their first movie. Yes, they already contributed quite a bit of music for the 1997 horror movie Event Horizon, though that was in addition to Michael Kamen's orchestral score. Practically none of Orbital's music ended up in the final cut of the movie, though they did dominate the soundtrack CD. They also re-mixed the title themes for The Beach, The Saint and Dr. Who. In various interviews Orbital, alias the brothers Phil and Paul Hartnoll, have expressed a love for film music. They list John Barry as one of their most important musical influences. So, no strangers to the genre, the brothers have finally gone and written their first solo film score. And it really is a true score. Not a collection of songs, or even song-like tracks - no siree, Octane is a full fledged motion picture score.

Octane tells the story of Senga, a young woman who is plunged into a dark and obscure world after her daughter Nat is abducted by a cult of vampires. The leader of this cult is, of course, a sexy charismatic bloke with supernatural powers. His offer of an alternate existence for Nat forces Senga into a nightmarish chase where she must confront her past in order to save her daughter. The film, with a budget of a little over eleven million dollars, is directed by Marcus Adams and stars Madeline Stowe, Bijou Philips and Jonathan Rhys Meyers among others.

Orbital's completely electronic score revolves around a surprisingly simplistic 4-note theme, or loop rather, for marimba and other similar sounding instruments. It's introduced in 'Octane', the score's opening track, and gets several renditions throughout the forty three minute album. Other than this theme, the score relies on an array of bizarre synthesiser sounds, reversed vocals and distorted drum patterns. Being a fan of Orbital's unique combination of intriguing melodies and off the wall techno arrangements, I am a little surprised and maybe even slightly disappointed by how low key their score for Octane is. The only track that comes close to Orbital's usual zany techno tracks is 'Initiation', which they have already re-mixed for a single release. Most of the score relies on fairly standard horror chords, bangs, chummies and reversed sounds. Think of it as "John Carpenter meets Jeff Rona". What does make this score rather unique is that Orbital did not opt for adding orchestral samples to their music, but solely stuck to their analogue and digital synthesisers and used those sounds they would have otherwise used in a full fledged techno album.

Having always had an interest in electronic music, and even in techno to some degree, I have always wanted to know if an emotional score could be conceived with not just electronic sounds, but with specific techno sounds. The Orbital brothers seemed like the perfect guys to pull if off, but unfortunately they don't quite manage it - on CD, that is. Regrettably I haven't seen the movie, so I cannot comment on the effect of the music within the film, but on CD the music tends be rather dull and not very scary, despite scoring major points for being weird. Octane doesn't quite work as an engaging film score, yet doesn't work as an exciting new studio-album by Orbital either. It's stuck somewhere in the middle.

I wonder why they didn't make more use of their featured vocalist Lisa Billson. Orbital have done some amazing things with vocals in the past, including their work for Event Horizon, and seeing a vocalist in the credits of every single track made me jump with anticipation - but, alas, my hope was in vain. I wonder why they didn't employ some kick-ass beats as they did on Event Horizon. I'm sure the film didn't require it. Have you noticed a pattern here? Octane is not Event Horizon. And if you're one those people who, like myself, have been dying to hear another album like that, you are not going to find it here. Octane is softer. More subtle at times, yet a little more clichéd at others. What made Event Horizon truly unique was the combination of fairly hardcore techno with hardcore orchestral horror music. The resulting album is one that I treasure. Octane is an interesting step forward in the world of film music for Orbital and by all means have they done a remarkable job. Just...nowhere near as remarkable as I was hoping for.

Track Listing: Running Time: 43 minutes 08 seconds

EMI 7243-5-93784-2-8 (2003)

Music composed by Phil Hartnoll and Paul Hartnoll. Performed by Orbital. Special vocal performances by Lisa Billson. Recorded and mixed by Geoff Foster. Mastered by Kevin Metcalfe. Album produced by Phil Hartnoll, Paul Hartnoll, Simon Boswell and Rob Sutcliffe.

Cinemusic Online
Filmtracks
Movie Wave
Score!
Tracksounds


Home Page | Reviews A-M | Reviews N-Z | Composers | Links

Movie Music U.K is designed and maintained by Jonathan Broxton (c) 2003. All opinions and views expressed on these pages are my own and are in no way intended to reflect those of the University of Sheffield. All photos, multimedia and album artwork used on Movie Music U.K. are for non-profit making promotional purposes and no copyright infringement is intended.