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Had circumstances, namely death, not already robbed us of the directorial talents of Sergio Leone and the curious imaginings of Jean Cocteau then a collaboration between the pair and the similarly skewed but inspired mind of Guillermo Del Toro would still be a possibility. The results would, one would assume, have been fascinating / illuminating/ twisted / horrific, or all of these. There would probably have been a lot of scenes featuring bleak, Dali-esque landscapes; at least one character with gap teeth, a glass eye and packing a shooter; an ashen faced child who may or may not be dead but doesn’t so much walk as glide when he or she moves; and something incongruous but ungodly preserved in a glass jar.
But why even ponder such a project? No reason at all other than the fact that Music For Money have the perfect soundtrack ready and waiting. Maudlin pianos weave a melancholic trail through a soundscape across which is strewn electronic squelches, distant Theremin howls, desolate post rock guitar textures, soporific drill’n’bass drum patterns and a chorus of ghostly voices to conjure a spaghetti western so unseemly that you can almost reach out and touch the tumbleweed but don’t for fear that something might bite your hand off. Like the best works of the aforementioned luminaries of film, the Montreal quartet have created a work that is unsettling in a good way, doffing their caps to their fellow Canadian creators of bleak but inventive instrumentals, Godspeed! and Do Make Say Think to name but two, while making it clear that theirs is a music that is menacing but controlled and as such hides the unyielding promise of a sting in the tail.
RICHARD STOKOE
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