There's a certain art in scoring an effective soundtrack; enhancing thevisual drama by heightening tension and emotions to set the overalltone of a scene. At best, it's either a standout composition or elseit's blending so effectively with the visual that you wouldn't recallthe music specifically. You just knew it was there. Unfortunately, aswith most original score soundtracks, you tend to hear more on the discthan you would in the film. For Scottish director David MacKenzie'supcoming film, Young Adam, David Byrne has composed fourteen semi-brief pieces of cinematic based music to complement the visual. For Lead Us Not Into Temptation,Byrne kept with the film's background by recording the soundtrack inScotland using members of Belle and Sebastian, Mogwai and Appendix Outto help convey a Glaswegian vibe. In hearing the music prior to seeingthe film, track titles such as "Body in a River," "Seaside Smokes," and"Warm Sheets" automatically conjure up their appropriate scenes, playedby nicely arranged strings, plucked upright bass and wispy drums. Theeerie piece "Mnemonic Discordance" is based around treated guitarsweeps which feature the clang of tuned metals and sampled screeches ofthe New York City L-train's brakes. The classically-influenced"Inexorable" moves along to rhythmic intervals, weaving piano andswooping, melancholic strings which dramatically build in intensity.Going in a totally different direction that the rest of the disc, theHung Drawn Quartet of saxophones are recruited to bop and swing throughCharles Mingus' punchy "Haitian Fight Song." The musicianship is great,although I'd have to see the film to truly appreciate the piece'scontext. For the longer pieces "Speechless" and "The Great WesternRoad" Byrne adds his distinct voice to the mix of laid back grooves,distant strings and keyboards to wind down the disc. Although veryeffective in conveying emotions, Lead Us Not Into Temptationtends to focus a fair bit on the use of strings, which nowadays tendsto unfairly and automatically be associated with being cinematic.However, for Byrne's compositions and their context, anything elsewouldn't do them justice.samples:
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