Christ, this is tense stuff. Very much in
the John Carpenter soundtrack mould, but it's utterly absorbing.
Umberto is Matt Hill, a
multi-instrumentalist from Kansas City who is keen on film scores. This
particular album came about when Stuart Braithwaite watched him score a video
nasty at the Glasgow Film Festival, and while it's sometimes hard to reconcile
a film score without the film, in this case the music stands alone.
Hill crafts some deeply tense synth
backgrounds here, punctuated at moments with distressing stabs (no doubt
indicating a grizzly end) and a low end with purpose. The beats and bass really
hold the fog like swirls of synth together, binding the sound into an
unsettling groove before a eureka moment brings a fuller sound on board in
The Investigation. This is textured, clever stuff and it sounds
fanbloodytastic.
As the music was conceived as a film
score it retains a cinematic feel. You move with the story and it's very easy
to create visuals in your head that correspond to the horror in your ears; a
freshman college student meeting a stranger in the college grounds; the still
night pierced by a desperate scream; a community gripped with tension and fear
as the body count rises, growing ever grizzlier with each death; a jaded
detective, determined to solve one last case.
Ach, the film's probably pish but this is
a finely crafted album nonetheless. If only every soundtrack sounded like this.
The bravest thing here is the space that
Hill has left. It's tempting to layer sounds needlessly, just because you can. Thankfully,
he realises that emptiness and space generate a bit more tension, lending more
power to the moments when a bigger sound takes over. This is a cracking album
that will reward repeat listening. More of this please!
Umberto - Night Has A Thousand Screams is
released by Rock Action on the 26th of November.
DO
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