Scott Walker Series, #11: Scott Walker- Pola X (1999) MP3 & FLAC

Seemingly a continuation of the tortured pop-meets-classical minimalism of Scott Walker's Tilt, Pola X is actually a more varied introduction to Walker's late-career journey into avant-garde composition. While there are certainly glimpses of the difficult yet masterful dissonance of  Tilt, there are also several beautifully orchestrated passages that build on some of the themes of the previous album, but do so by taking them in a much more immediately accessible direction. Aside from a brief sample from Tilt's "The Cockfighter" buried in "The Time Is Out of Joint," Walker's iconic voice is silent on Pola X; however, this does not detract from the power of his dark soundscapes. Walker's later work is notoriously difficult to penetrate, and there may be no better place to start than his soundtrack compositions for Pola X.

Various Artists- Dead Man's Shoes Soundtrack (2004) MP3 & FLAC -Repost-

I originally posted this amazing soundtrack a week ago, but I want to give you a "heads up" that I've added a FLAC (lossless) download option in addition to MP3 because it's otherwise unavailable in lossless format. To the best of my knowledge, this is isn't available in lossless on any other blogs at the moment.

 

"God will forgive them. He'll forgive them and allow them into Heaven. I can't live with that."

Dead Man's Shoes- Dir. Shane Meadows (2004) MP3 & FLAC

"God will forgive them. He'll forgive them and allow them into Heaven. I can't live with that."

Here's a film recommendation: Dead Man's Shoes (2004).  A fine, gritty piece of British Cinema directed by Shane Meadows and starring Paddy Considine, Gary Stretch, and Toby Kebbell. Lots of jittery hand-held camera stuff, which I'll admit, I'm a sucker for. Considine plays Richard, who has returned, after a stint in the military, to his small Midlands village to exact revenge on a group of small time drug dealers and thugs who (as revealed in a series of flashback sequences) abused and exploited Richard's mentally impaired younger brother Anthony (Kebbell in his first film role) while Richard was away.

Throughout most of the film, Richard's brand of revenge seems obsessive, hyper-violent and exceedingly cruel; however, this is all complicated by what is revealed toward the end of the film. It reminded me in many ways of Peckinpah's Straw Dogs, but with more emotional depth and insight, and as a bonus, a lot of dark humor. Great acting all around, especially Considine, Kebbell, and Stuart Wolfenden as Herbie; mind you, however, this is dark stuff! The film also has a great soundtrack featuring Calexico, Smog, Richard Hawley, Aphex Twin, M. Ward, and others, though they somehow didn't include the amazing song by Bonnie "Prince" Billy on the soundtrack album.