Various Artists "Hot Fuzz" soundtrack (Interscope) Sounds Like: Britons rocking out Grade: A-
Let's be honest-a lot of soundtracks suck. Anyone still playing "Music From And Inspired By 'Batman & Robin'"? Didn't think so. Sometimes, however, a positively great soundtrack comes along with tunes so rocking it blows one's mind. Such is the case with "Hot Fuzz."
"Hot Fuzz" features loud rock music, recent and classic. The recent includes songs from Eels, Supergrass and Scottish drunkards The Fratellis. The classic includes thunderous and catchy grooves from Adam Ant, XTC and the Kinks. There's hardly a lagging moment, sure to make "Hot Fuzz" a great spin for summer parties.
Except for the Eels-who are from L.A.-the music on "Hot Fuzz" is quintessential British: as filled with wit and absurdity as it is rocking. Those hoping for a moping companion to the "Garden State" soundtrack should look elsewhere.
If the album has a flaw, it has to do with the integration of movie quotes. These are great and hilarious when listening to the album straight through, but those planning to import the soundtrack into iTunes and shuffling it with their other MP3s may find these gapless, movie-themed transitions irritating. Fortunately, few of the tracks warrant skipping so this will only be a problem on occasion.
"Hot Fuzz" is a soundtrack to restore one's faith in soundtracks. See the movie, pick up the CD, and rock out.
- ADAM BENDER
The Field "From Here We Go Sublime" (Kompakt) Sounds like: Grade: A-
There's a question that lingers in all of us, rising from deep inside when we are at our most triumphant or pathetic, causing us to stop and wonder: What does it sound like when we die? Perhaps it's because films have already crafted the soundtrack of almost every other stage in our lives, but it seems to be the last great unknown; if there is a God, what would he/she/it include as the climactic point in the DJ set of your lifetime?
The Field, an outfit for Swedish techno producer Axel Willner, has put together an album full of potential songs for the conclusion of our lives, and it's quite the debut set of songs. "From Here We Go Sublime" is ripe with epic pieces that are too transcendental to be labeled merely as house music, unless Sweden's discos are much more hip than those in America (a definite possibility).
This is massive music consisting almost exclusively of long songs built around only two or three samples, with an ever-pulsating drumbeat that rarely changes. Often it feels like these songs are being transcribed from other worlds, as if Willner was granted a month to travel around the universes and other dimensions to seize other auditory bits and pieces to craft an otherworldly album. Other times, it only takes one listen to realize that he has built an entire song on a sample of Lionel Richie's "Hello" (which may be the definition of otherworldly).
Even after an album that wows at nearly every point, the closing title track completes the circle of life, to use Mufasa-based analogies. Drenching the doo-wop of The Flamingos in reverb, so that it sounds like it was sampled from an under-the-sea dance, The Field is content to let the sample speak for itself, instead of chopping it up and giving it new life. Willner has acknowledged that it had a life of its own before it fell into his hands.
After letting the listener bask in this moment of serene, slow beauty, the sample is amplified and cracked up, and then it's all over. Suddenly it all makes sense - this isn't an album that is content with providing music for our deaths. It's actually meant to detail our entire lives, from our first experience on ice to our last dance. Or maybe it's not, but at least it's still some of the most tremendous techno heard this century.
- DREW ROSENSWEIG
