The art of film music I find particularly fascinating. There’s something about the heightening of the tension that sound and film concoct that can be at times so utterly intoxicating. For me, the best film music maintains that tension even once the image is removed.

With that in mind I’ve selected just a fragment of the film music that has struck me over the years. In many ways this mixtape could have been about 10 hours long – seriously, there’s a lot of amazing work out there, but rather than torture anyone with that, I figured a brief interlude in the sounds of celluloid might suffice.

I hope this simultaneously suggests some re-watchings and new discoveries. – Lawrence English

Track List:

Lawrence English – For the dreams you gave me (ost-mxtpe)
Toru Takemitsu – Suite Part 1 (Ran)
Shoji Yamashiro – Illusion (Akira)
Bernard Herrmann - Prelude (Vertigo)
Miklos Rozsa – Prelude (Double Indemnity)
Speech (The Thin Blue Line)
Takeo Yamashita played by Otomo Yoshihide (Play Girl BGM)
Bernard Herrmann – Main Title (Taxi Driver)
Cliff Martinez - Don’t Blow It (Solaris)
Vangelis - Main Titles  (Blade Runner)
Wendy Carlos Title Music (A Clockwork Orange)
Robin Guthrie and Harold Budd – Neil’s Theme (Mysterious Skin)
Trevor Jones - Girl Of My Dreams (Angelheart)
Philip Glass - End Credits (The Thin Blue Line)
John Carpenter - Theme (Halloween)
Goblin - Al Margini Della Follia (Dawn of The Dead)
Popul Vuh - Aguirre I (Aguirre: The Wraith Of God)
Bernard Herrmann - Prelude (North By Northwest)
Toru Takemitsu - Suite Part 1 (Ran)
Vangelis and Don Percival – One More Kiss Dear (Blade Runner)
Jerry Goldsmith - Love Theme Reprise (Chinatown)
Ennio Morricone - Titoli (A Fistful Of Dollars)
Popul Voh - Bruder Des Schattenes: Sohne Des Lichts (Nosferatu)
Toru Takemitsu - Suite Part 1 (Ran)

Films links:

Ran
Akira
Vertigo
Double Indemnity
The Thin Blue Line
Taxi Driver
Solaris
Blade Runner
A Clockwork Orange
Mysterious Skin
Angelheart
Halloween
Dawn Of The Dead
Aguirre: The Wraith Of God
North By Northwest
Chinatown
A Fistful Of Dollars
Nosferatu

www.lawrenceenglish.com
www.room40.org

Here is a small mix of film music that I compiled without too much of a plan or concept – I just looked through my shelves of music one dark and rainy afternoon and let the music find me.

There are pieces from some of my favourite movies, some from movies I have never seen, and even one from a movie that I saw and didn’t even like – but the soundtrack is great! Some people find it strange that I sometimes buy soundtracks without ever having seen the film, but in making this mix I began to see the purpose – Greg Haines

Track List:

Erik Enocksson - The Lingering Procession (Farväl Falkenberg)
Neil Young – Theme from Dead Man (Dead Man)
Ry Cooder – I Knew These People (Paris, Texas)
Thomas Newman – Any Other Name (American Beauty)
Kristin Asbjørnsen – On the Bus (Factotum)
Ayub Ogada – Kothbiro (The Constant Gardener)
Gustavo Santaolalla – Deportation (Babel)
Zbigniew Preisner –  Van Den Budenmayer Concerto En Mi Minuer (La Double Vie de Veronique)
Francois Tetaz - Abysmal Horizon (Wolf Creek)
Michael Andrews – Time Travel (Donnie Darko)
Peter Broderick – In the Valley Itself (Confluence)
Nine Inch Nails – A Warm Place (Natural Born Killers)
Craig Armstrong – Hanging (Plunkett and Macleane)
Beck/Jon Brion – Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind)
Philip Glass – Organic (Koyaanisqatsi)

Films included are:

Farval Falkenberg
Dead Man
Paris, Texas
American Beauty
Factotum
The Constant Gardener
Babel
La Double Vie de Veronique
Wolf Creek
Donnie Darko
Confluence
Natural Born Killers
Plunkett and Macleane
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Koyaanisqatsi

www.greghaines.co.uk

You may or may not know that the stunning new album ‘Cult Spectrum‘ from Nova Scotian Arms was released this week on Digitalis. Whilst we get cracking on a full review, here’s a rather special mix put together by Grant for your listening pleasure…

“The spiral is linked to the cosmic symbolism of the moon, to the erotic symbolism of the vulva, to the watery symbolism of the shell and to such fertility symbols as helix or horn. In short, it stands for the repetitive rhythm of life, the cyclical nature of evolution and the permanence of being beneath the flux of movement.” – Grant Evans

1. Alejandro Jodorowsky- Communion
2. Boris and Merzbow- Sun Baked Snow Cave (excerpt)
3. Nurse with Wound- Spiral Insana (excerpt)
4. Burzum- Gebrechlichkeit II
5. Innercity- Free Spirit (Dead Body Walking)
6. DJ Screw- In the Air Tonight
7. Holger Czukay- Boat Woman Song (excerpt)
8. Dolphins Into the Future- Ko’okika Moku’aina
9. Peter Brötzmann and Han Bennink- Aufen No. 4
10. Xiphiidae- Paper Giant Blind with Age (excerpt)
11. Pierre Basien- Avid Diva
12. Aphex Twin- Blue Calx

www.novascotianarms.blogspot.com
www.foxydigitalis.com

Christina Vantzou presents the first in a new series of mixes that will see artists selecting various film scores that have inspired their career in one way or another. I hope you will agree this first installment from Christina is the perfect introduction!

Track List:

01. Poltergeist Theme – Jerry Goldsmith (Poltergiest)
02. Moving through time – Angelo Badalamenti (Twin Peak: Fire walk with me)
03. Prologue – The Highest Point – Simon Rattle, Berlin Philharmonic (Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer)
04. Les rêves – Alexandre Desplat (Un prophete)
05. La neige – Alexandre Desplat (Un prophEte)
06. The City – Bernard Herrmann (Psycho)
07. Song For Jesse – Nick Cave & Warran Ellis (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford)
08.First Drop-Off, First Kiss – James Horner (A Beautiful Mind)
09. Will’s Confession – David Julyan (Insomnia)
10. Colours In The Clouds – Alexandre Desplat (Girl With A Pearl Earring)
11. A Good Mother – Claudio Ianni (The Others)
12. Roslin and Adama – Bear McCreary (Battlestar Galactica Season 2)
13. Adagio For Tron – Daft Punk (Tron Legacy)
14. I Drive – Cliff Martinez (Drive)
15. Girls – Death in Vegas (Lost in Translation)

Films included are:

Poltergiest
Fire walk with me
Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer
Un prophrte
Psycho
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
A Beautiful Mind
Insomnia
Girl With A Pearl Earring
The Others
Battlestar Galactica Season 2
Tron Legacy
Drive
Lost in Translation

www.christinavantzou.com

Fond memories of 2011: Another great year for music and this mix captures some of my favourites.

This isn’t really a best of 2011, and apologies to the many great artists not included (Adam A Williams, The Listening Mirror and Wil Bolton to name a few). Perhaps another mix soon…

- Antonymes

Antonymes – On Departing The Strange Museum
Luke Twyman – All A Blur
Paper Relics – Over Exposure (Prelude)
Jannick Schou – Departure (through the eyes of Antonymes)
Markus Mehr – Cousteau
Rafael Anton Irisarri – Milano
Pleq + Lauki – ii (Antonymes remix)
Richard Moult – Celestial King For A Year Part II
Talvihorros – Beta
David Newlyn – Landscape III
Antonymes – 291210 (Clem Leek remix)
Hummingbird – Blood on the Dancefloor (Berlin Disco)
Scissors & Sellotape – Words Of Support
Simon Scott – AC Waters
Clem Leek – London Bridge, Friday, 2.30pm (Danny Norbury remix)
Alex Tiuniaev – Daylight
Deaf Center – Time Spent
Antonymes – On Arrival At The Strange Museum

www.antonymes.co.uk

Not really a mix but more of an old school mixtape, the kind you would make for girls in the hope of securing illicit lip locks under the stairs during the school disco! Not that it ever worked out that way, you still lived in hope that the right mix of songs could aid you in the quest for a young girls heart. Anyway most of the songs here I would listen to on my way to the recording/mixing sessions of our new album “Ballads Of The Research Department”.

I remember it being really cold waiting for the various buses and metros and this seemed to soundtrack my surroundings perfectly. Some of the pieces were a direct influence on how the album would turn out, sort of an audio mood board.

Grab yourself a hot drink and a blanket and enjoy. – Andrew Hargreaves

Gurdjieff/Hartmann – The Circles
Patty Waters – Why Can’t I Come To You?
Nico – Frozen Borderline
The Boats – The Ballad Of Indecision
Liz Isenberg – People Who Die In The Desert
Brigitte Bardot – Une Histoire De Plage
Julia London – Cry Me A River
Vincent Gallo – When
Ennio Morricone – L’Assoluto Naturale
Tape Loop Orchestra – The Word On My Lips
Zomes – Alec’S Anthem
Chopin – Preludes Op.28 No. 4 In E Minor
Kim Jung Mi – The Sun

www.oursmallideas.co.uk
www.moteer.co.uk
www.homenormal.com
www.12k.com
www.slaapwelrecords.com

At first sight you might not recognise the name, but Craig Tattersall has been making music for a good, long while now under a wide range of artist names, either alone or with a number of collaborators. Over the years Craig has been involved in too many projects to name: Hood, the Famous Boyfriend, Remote Viewer, the Boats, the Humble Bee, E&I, the Archivist, Theodore and Hamblin… I imagine these are only the ones I’m aware of. Besides these numerous guises (and voluminous remix work) he co-founded the Moteer/ Mobeer record labels, with Andrew Johnson, and currently oversees the Cotton Goods label (hand making each release out of reclaimed books with an evident degree of painstaking attention to detail and love).

It’s a given that most regular visitors to Fluid, would have heard some of Craig’s music at some point.

I first heard Craig’s music in 2002 on the Remote Viewer album “here we go again on our own”. At the time City Centre Offices were putting out some of the freshest sounding acoustic-influenced electronica around and, for me, the Remote Viewer seemed to define the sound. I remember being amazed that music of this calibre was coming out of my corner of England. Since then, I’d say that Craig’s stuff has been a constant feature of my listening diet – theres always something about it that just compels me to listen and absorb.

Despite the dizzying array of projects and incredible rate of production, there’s always something recognisable, something ‘Craig-y’, about everything he puts his hand to. It’s a unique sound, at once familiar yet always beguiling and somehow elusive. Even in the more abstract Humble Bee material, melody plays a central and paradoxical role – there’s a melancholy touch but it’s never cloying, there’s a kind of well-defined vagueness, neither too overt nor too subtle…always catchy but still forever unlikely to become so familiar as to lose it’s emotional pull.

In this selection, I’ve not even touched the surface of his recorded output. I’ve merely tried to give a bit of a taste of what Craig’s music is about – I think I’ve veered closer to the more beaty/clicky side of things, but in so doing, I know that I’ve neglected to do justice to the more abstract/ambient/experimental music that he produces with such apparent ease (exemplified by the Humble Bee/ E&I releases). Given my clumsy mixing, and limited selection of material, I’m thankful that the gentle beauty and well honed touches of Craig’s work manage to speak for itself.

Give this brief introduction a listen, get comfortable with it, and I’m pretty sure you’ll fall in love with Craig’s vision too. – John McCaffrey

Tracklist:

1: Forget Everything (remote viewer remix)– the famous boyfriend unreleased
2: This is About You, This is About Me – the archivist
3: Pewn – theodore & Hamblin
4: Untitled – remote viewer unreleased
5: No More Wasting Chances – the sea
6: Untitled (remote viewer remix) – brael/tokyo bloodworm
7: Walsh Ambrose – remote viewer
8: 17 Nov 2009 – humble bee
9: The Noises Inside Craig’s Head – the famous boyfriend
10: A School of Cherry Blossoms – the sea
11: You Are Made of Stardust – the archivist
12: At Little Time – the boats
13: Spend More Time With Me – remote viewer
14: The Fucking Bleeding Heart Brigade – remote viewer

www.cottongoods.co.uk
www.moteer.co.uk

Jonathan (Hibernate Records) has put together a superb mix for Fluid Radio listeners that will also be available as a limited edition CD and download ahead of the Hibernate and Home Normal Christmas gig coming up on 18.12.11 that brings with it a solid line up including Wil Bolton, Ithaca Trio, Isnaj Dui, Talvihorros, The Boats, Machinefabriek and Konntinent playing live at the Victoria in Dalston, London. For more details on the venue and directions check here

Doors: 5pm until 11pm
Tickets: £8 in advance which includes a free and exclusive CD or £10 on the door!
Advance Tickets from www.hibernate-recs.co.uk only 12 remaining.

The exclusive CD has been compiled by Jonathan Lees of Hibernate/Rural Colours and has tracks from Antonymes, The Boats, Offthesky, Machinefabriek, Strom Noir, Good Weather for an Airstrike, Ithaca Trio, Isnaj Dui, Wil Bolton, The Frozen Vaults, Konntintent with Leyli, Upward Arrows, Listening Mirror with Alicia Merz, Clem Leek, Anna Rose Carter with Christopher Bailey and Daniel Thomas Freeman. The album has been mastered by Wil Bolton and features artwork from Lucia Mancilla Prieto.

The full album can be downloaded in various digital formats of your choice including FLAC from Bandcamp in return for a donation. Proceeds will go to the Archway Foundation, established in Oxford in 1982 by Paul Hawgood to help serve those hurt by loneliness.

We are also giving away a copy of the CD plus two free tickets to the gig! For your chance to win simply send your answer via email here

- What was the title of Clem Leek’s first ep and what was the label called?

Mix Tracklist:

1. Antonymes: Snow On Snow
2. Clem Leek – Away in America
3. The Boats with Annabel Keach – Once In A Royal Boats City
4. Offthesky: O Holy Night
5. Daniel Thomas Freeman – In The Bleak Midwinter (from words by
Christina Rossetti 1830 – 1894)
6. Machinefabriek: Silent Night
7. Strom Noir: Icon
8. Good Weather for an Airstrike: O Christmas Tree
9. Konntinent ft. Leyli: Snowfall
10. Anna Rose Carter and Christopher Bailey: Go Tell it on the Mountain
11. Wil Bolton: Coventry Carol
12. Isnaj Dui: Always Close
13. Listening Mirror ft. Alicia Merz: Silent Night
14. The Frozen Vaults: God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
15. Upward Arrows: Gaudete
16. Ithaca Trio: God Rest

www.hibernate-recs.co.uk
www.homenormal.com
www.festivegreetings.bandcamp.com
www.archwayfoundation.org.uk
www.thedalstonvic.co.uk

My definition of Ambient music develops like weather, but of certainty: I believe it’s sound that fills gaps between somatic timbre. What’s excluded by percussive thickness, loud vocal and instrumental noise, cannot influence mentally by self-admission, so you need cross-integers (pauses, silence, receding sonics, et al) for non-somatic changes, in order to break through to any original state (i.e stability, healthy blood flow, desired breath rate). It’s where the largest effects are achieved: Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side Of The Moon” a high benchmark in psychedelic LP mixing, as far back as 1974. “Breathe, breathe in the air” sung back then, being the underlying theme of “Somatic Transport”.

I succeed with my health most through Ambient. Several producers, like those included, being interested in dynamics, under / overproduction that comes by differing locations, alternative concepts, experimental trends that file and chisel themselves, grants me ability to consolidate bipolar disorder, social anxiety, and all corollaries that follow and depart as time shifts. So with this mix, I diversified from my regular fusion style to create somatic transporation effects – tracks heartbeats pulsing into each other; breaths swimming askew at each tail; short to long juxtapositions, and edit work that holds the idea of Ambient being as much a germ as a permeation of a track’s body – one that doesn’t always leave you breathless, but is a reflection of heart and mind as to what it touches. – Foci’s Left

Mick Buckingham (Fluid Radio contributor, Foci’s Left, Muttley) runs the Subvert Central group blog SubVersion, where a one-off Oxford show with Greg Haines and Alexander Thomas originated. He has since been maintaining promotion for several artists, either by web and gig reviews, or activity in the SC community. “A Breath Of Peace”, his debut LP, will be self-released this decade, with all funds donated via MIND charity to care for Oxford’s Warneford Hospital Crisis Day Service, central to the city. Audio Gourmet released “Spillage” EP in June 2010.  If you are interested in contributing to the album, contact Mick directly.

01 – 00:00 / 35:28 Atomic Skunk – Temple Of Stars (Alchemy LP, Organic Robot, 2011)
02 – 00:08 / 20:55 / 20:59 Machinefabriek – Dauw [excerpt / clean / reversed] (Dauw LP, Dekorder, 2008)
03 – 00:10 / 37:18 Foci’s Left – Somatic Transport [excerpts] (Unreleased)
04 – 01:33 Ex Confusion – Lonely Flower In Her Hand (Something To Remember LP, U-Cover, 2010)
05 – 02:24 Thanet – Station Wave (Receiving Calls, Mordant Music, 2011)
06 – 03:26 Neue – Mars (The Planets, Neue Bandcamp, 2011)
07 – 03:58 / 37:21 Robert Carty – Waves (Photonic Movements LP, Earth Mantra, 2011)
08 – 01:33 Ex Confusion – Lonely Flower In Her Hand (Something To Remember LP, U-Cover, 2010)
09 – 06:54 / 08:18 Roger Eno – Little Things Left Behind (Swimming LP, All Saints, 1996)
10 – 07:58 / 16:51 Noveller – Ends (Glacial Glow LP, Weird Forest, 2011)
11 – 09:15 Jacob Harris & Devin Underwood – Lucid Reactions (The Vivid Unmapped LP, Data Obscura, 2011)
12 – 10:58 Specta Ciera – Foot Bridge (Meadow Return EP, Audio Gourmet, 2010)
13 – 11:54 Akio Suzuki & David Toop – Breath-Taking (Breath-Taking LP, Confront, 2009)
14 – 11:54 David Tagg – Wolf Suite II (I Am The Wolf LP, David Tagg Bandcamp, 2011)
15 – 12:44 Benjamin Dauer – Sweet Collision (Only Light To Clear Away LP, Distance Recordings, 2011)
16 – 14:49 / 24:00 Eluvium – Taken (Talk Amongst The Trees LP, Temporary Residence, 2005)
17 – 17:46 Kalte – Polyphyletic (Fissures LP, pc0311, 2011)
18 – 21:24 Robin Guthrie & Harold Budd – And Then I Turned Away (After The Night Falls LP, Darla, 2007)
19 – 22:36 Herzog – Low Sun (Young Lungs Against The Sea, Herzog Bandcamp, 2011)
20 – 24:20 La Berger – Bern deep’n'bub (Expeditions On The Greyscale LP, La Berger Bandcamp, 2011)
21 – 29:27 bvdub – No More Reasons Not To Fall (The Art Of Dying Alone LP, Glacial Movements, 2010)
22 – 25:25 A New Season – Neither Discussed Nor Planned (Cathedral Transmissions, 2011)
23 – 31:49 Lawrence English – Hotaru (Benefit For Japan 64 Track Compilation, Antiopic, 2011)
24 – 38:19 Lauki – Domo (69º54´S?-?135º12´E EP, Audio Gourmet, 2011)
25 – 40:41 The Future Sound Of London – Environments II [Untitled excerpt] (Environments II LP, FSOL Digital, 2007)
26 – 41:50 Bitcrush – What Would Hope Be Without Disappointment (Epilogue In Waves LP, n5MD, 2008)
27 – 43:58 Good Weather For An Airstrike – The Sun Sets Over Us, And We Are Happy (A Summer LP, Sonic Reverie, 2011)
28 – 46:45 From Light To Sound – Compliance (CD-R & FLTS Bandcamp, 2009)

Can’t explain why, but this mix came together much faster and much more coherently than prior mixes I’ve done for Fluid. It combines very new or as-yet-unreleased tracks with bits and bobs from the last couple of years…

There’s no special preconsidered theme – but I feel that there’s a gelling of tracks; a synergy in this mix that is really a happy accident more than forethought …

…and maybe that’s the way a good mix comes together; an accidental and imagined meeting of minds of the featured artists rather than the skill or perceived agenda of the “dj”…. like a supergroup that never existed or memories of the teenage mix tape that just worked in such a way that you couldn’t imagine those tracks having a running order other than that committed to that particular C90.

Anyway, enough bollocks….I’m happy with this mix, and thank the artists for their music…

Hope you like it too. – John. M

Track List:

Antonymes – Endlessly
Szymon Kaliski – Or gently
Antonymes – A heart filled with emptiness
Hummingbird – Garden of secrets
Christoph Berg – Falling asleep (P Jorg remix)
Hess & McFall – Finis iv
Aaron Martin – Water tongue (Jasper TX remix)
Northerner – The end of December
Being – Particle stream (the Humble Bee remix)
Aix Em Klemm – Prue lewarne
Clem Leek – Origami soldiers
New North Wales – Last light