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| Track list: 1. Main Titles 2. Blush Response 3. Wait For Me 4. Rachel's Song 5. Love Theme 6. One More Kiss, Dear 7. Blade Runner Blues 8. Memories Of Green 9. Tales Of The Future 10. Damask Rose 11. Blade Runner (End Titles) 12. Tears In Rain Running time: 57 minutes Released: 1994 |
What to say about this? Blade
Runner has been a favourite movie of mine since I first saw it (I don't
really watch many films, mind), and Vangelis's iconic soundtrack is a
major part of that. I am surprised at the release date of 1994, but a
quick Google suggests that the soundtrack released along with the film
in 1982 was not this one.
The
Main Titles is overlaid by Deckard's search for the animal scale, then
you get the sparkly breaker, the tinny shimmer and then the long drawn
out synth notes. Far more hopeful than the depressing rain-soaked
city-scape they accompany, but certainly infused (if only by
association) with that sense of wonder and weirdness. I have been
playing Cities: Skylines recently, and could imagine playing along to
this whilst building a high rise district.
Blush Response has the dialogue from when Deckard first meets Rachel. Voight-Kampf for short and all that. When the speech fades that electric melody kicks in and shivers go up my spine. It really is quite astounding how well this holds up 30 years on. It is on the one hand so incredibly dated - the synths are very very eighties - but on the other utterly timeless. The percussive base could come out of modern electronica, snappy and tinged with darkness. The fact the movie is a classic (I almost added "cult" but that would be a disservice) that stands up in many ways certainly helps keep the soundtrack feeling fresh rather than tied to its time. I am less than wild about how the track ends and fades over into Wait For Me, but once the transition is complete the new track is a gorgeous change of tone. Softer and gentler - it is pretty much the quintessential Vangelis track. It could come from 1492, or Voices or any number of his releases if it wasn't part of this one. Solid central theme, loose movements around it, layers of synths with hidden depths - its easy to overlook the horns here in places, for instance. Its just wonderfully peaceful.
I am surprised and disappointed by how few of the tracks I can recall musically from title alone. Rachel's Song drew a complete blank for me even after it started, until the voice enters the fray. Used as instrument not as lyrical conduit it has a haunting effect. The track as a whole is mournful, slow and emotional. I don't recall its usage. I am suddenly feeling lonely. It has absolutely nothing to do with the painfully isolated saxophone on Love Theme at all, no. I suppose if I squint I can see this being a soft and loving piece, but it feels more paean to lost love than a celebration of an existing one. When the sax fades away the sparse and starry feel of the theme continues that lonely sense, the notes twinkling like in a big open night sky before a spooky edge emerges to add tension. Love is about the furthest thing in my visceral response to the track. But there is tenderness there, hence the see it if I squint, and I suppose it plays to sleazy late night bars post-closing in 40s-50s, a couple sat along at the bar or in a booth in a closed club. A stretch though.
I have always loved One More Kiss. The wandering piano, the pedestrian strumming, the slightly-too-high feel to the singing of this song just create a lovely if crumbling image of a utopia out of reach. It is incredibly fitting in more ways than one.
It is replaced by Blade Runner Blues. Musically this has very little in common with Blues. It is very blue though... plaintive (a word I feel I probably overuse in these posts, but one I rather like) to the point of making my hairs stand on end, slowing down the evening which has passed far too quickly, and without me having any proper food. Too late to think of that now, though... and I have the wonders of working long to look forward to tomorrow too. Yay. The piece of music is an interesting ramble, perhaps most reminiscent of Soil Festivities amongst Vangelis' other works. I find it hard to listen to and concentrate on too much, better as background music, and yet almost 9 minutes pass without a dull moment. Quite something. It smoothly transitions into another sad piece, the doleful (I looked up synonyms for plaintive, alright!) tone of these tunes complementing the tumbledown, shabby city whose images they belong with, a pairing that is further enhanced by the whirring and beeping sounds.
I had forgotten just how dark some of this album is. There is nothing peaceful about Tales of the Future, an echoing, modulated vocal almost screeching out with the effect of nails on a chalkboard. This turns what would be an atmospheric but forgettable backing track into an electric but threatening number. I have no idea what is being said, if anything and so it is just the harshness of the intonation that sticks with me. The straining strings that begin Damask Rose are as potent now as they ever were. Along with the preceding track these two seem to cover the "ethnic" angle of life in the LA of 2019 that is depicted, but it is otherwise very weak in comparison with the rest of the disc.
I
have, in the past, fallen asleep listening to these tracks, only to be
jolted awake by the end titles. I don't say that to disparage it at all.
They are anything but boring. Here again they jolt me. The fast pace is
anathema to what has been before and the timpani have a sense of
purpose that re-enforce that. The tone is so different to the rest of
the soundtrack, but is perfectly suited to the situation at the end of
the film with Deckard and Rachel to be on the run. It has a real tension
to it which is not something you automatically associate with end
titles, where in most cases things have been resolved away from the
tense, for better or worse.Blush Response has the dialogue from when Deckard first meets Rachel. Voight-Kampf for short and all that. When the speech fades that electric melody kicks in and shivers go up my spine. It really is quite astounding how well this holds up 30 years on. It is on the one hand so incredibly dated - the synths are very very eighties - but on the other utterly timeless. The percussive base could come out of modern electronica, snappy and tinged with darkness. The fact the movie is a classic (I almost added "cult" but that would be a disservice) that stands up in many ways certainly helps keep the soundtrack feeling fresh rather than tied to its time. I am less than wild about how the track ends and fades over into Wait For Me, but once the transition is complete the new track is a gorgeous change of tone. Softer and gentler - it is pretty much the quintessential Vangelis track. It could come from 1492, or Voices or any number of his releases if it wasn't part of this one. Solid central theme, loose movements around it, layers of synths with hidden depths - its easy to overlook the horns here in places, for instance. Its just wonderfully peaceful.
I am surprised and disappointed by how few of the tracks I can recall musically from title alone. Rachel's Song drew a complete blank for me even after it started, until the voice enters the fray. Used as instrument not as lyrical conduit it has a haunting effect. The track as a whole is mournful, slow and emotional. I don't recall its usage. I am suddenly feeling lonely. It has absolutely nothing to do with the painfully isolated saxophone on Love Theme at all, no. I suppose if I squint I can see this being a soft and loving piece, but it feels more paean to lost love than a celebration of an existing one. When the sax fades away the sparse and starry feel of the theme continues that lonely sense, the notes twinkling like in a big open night sky before a spooky edge emerges to add tension. Love is about the furthest thing in my visceral response to the track. But there is tenderness there, hence the see it if I squint, and I suppose it plays to sleazy late night bars post-closing in 40s-50s, a couple sat along at the bar or in a booth in a closed club. A stretch though.
I have always loved One More Kiss. The wandering piano, the pedestrian strumming, the slightly-too-high feel to the singing of this song just create a lovely if crumbling image of a utopia out of reach. It is incredibly fitting in more ways than one.
It is replaced by Blade Runner Blues. Musically this has very little in common with Blues. It is very blue though... plaintive (a word I feel I probably overuse in these posts, but one I rather like) to the point of making my hairs stand on end, slowing down the evening which has passed far too quickly, and without me having any proper food. Too late to think of that now, though... and I have the wonders of working long to look forward to tomorrow too. Yay. The piece of music is an interesting ramble, perhaps most reminiscent of Soil Festivities amongst Vangelis' other works. I find it hard to listen to and concentrate on too much, better as background music, and yet almost 9 minutes pass without a dull moment. Quite something. It smoothly transitions into another sad piece, the doleful (I looked up synonyms for plaintive, alright!) tone of these tunes complementing the tumbledown, shabby city whose images they belong with, a pairing that is further enhanced by the whirring and beeping sounds.
I had forgotten just how dark some of this album is. There is nothing peaceful about Tales of the Future, an echoing, modulated vocal almost screeching out with the effect of nails on a chalkboard. This turns what would be an atmospheric but forgettable backing track into an electric but threatening number. I have no idea what is being said, if anything and so it is just the harshness of the intonation that sticks with me. The straining strings that begin Damask Rose are as potent now as they ever were. Along with the preceding track these two seem to cover the "ethnic" angle of life in the LA of 2019 that is depicted, but it is otherwise very weak in comparison with the rest of the disc.
Rutger Hauer's classic monologue is an integral part to Tears in Rain, our final tune. I love the sparse melody behind his lines here and the unexpected strains of hope in the composition, at odds with almost all that went before. It is a quiet ending, a postscript really, but it is an affirmative one that changes the take-away emotion from the listen quite dramatically. The running order looks off at first, to have the end titles not close the soundtrack, but it is an inspired choice, and precisely the kind of small detail that makes you want to hear the thing again almost straight away. I really like this disc.
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