METROPOLIS

One of the most satisfying things that happens to me in relation to music is when the light goes on as it were with an album that at first I didn't even like. This usually happens when i'm listening to Rio / Avant styled music that just comes off as too difficult or out there initially but then after many listens it clicks with me and I wonder why I didn't get it earlier. This has happened to me a lot with ART ZOYD's records including this one. Especially this one. I find that ART ZOYD makes music that I never really understand fully but I do appreciate it. While most albums reveal their hidden secrets after 10 listens or so I don't think ART ZOYD's music ever does give up these secrets completely even after 50 listens.

This was an album that doesn't really sound like any ART ZOYD album i've listened to before. It is a soundtrack for the movie Metropolis which was re-made in 2002. The original movie came out in 1927 and was a Science Fiction film. This soundtrack is minimalistic and dark. It really gets my imagination going. A lot of themes or sounds seem to be reprised. This isn't the Classical sound of early ART ZOYD but it does have more in common with their electronic styled recordings. There's lots of percussion and electronics along with samples, keyboards and sax. It's often dense and dark as we go from scene to scene usually uninterupted. There are 33 tracks to this soundtrack which amounts to about 108 minutes of music. There are also two extra tracks not related to the soundtrack worth about 42 minutes in total. These two tracks fit in well with what has gone on before in this 2 disc affair. The first of these two extra songs was written for a ballet. All I can say is that it must be for a ballet from hell.

I was going to go track to track like usual but 33 tracks with me saying a lot of the same things is just too much. It was interesting listening to this one mechanical sounding rhythm that was reprised several times. It sounds like a train heading down into the bowels of hell. Very dark and creepy. I like how Man With Hat (Phil) described this to me : "It would definitely be fitting to play in a hellish labyrinth of corridors leading to pure doom." Perfect. "There is a track on UNIVERS ZERO's "Implosion" that this reminded me of but note that "Implosion" came out a couple of years after this.

This is a recording that has really excited me for some reason and I look forward to spending more time with it. Love the cover art as well as we see a sea of these creatures looking very angry.