Dead Man's Tunes
Last updated: 12/10/2006 - 12:17
The hugely atmospheric soundtrack to the new Shane Meadows feature Dead Man's Shoes offers a fair few treats from Warp Records - and beyond.
Dead Man's Shoes Original Soundtrack
This month sees the release of the debut feature length, theatrically distributed film from Warp Records subsidiary WarpFilms. The film: Dead Man's Shoes is a genre-defying movie pitching horror and the supernatural against comedy and social realism
The brainchild of writer and director Shane Meadows (24/7, A Room for Romeo Brass, Once Upon A Time In The Midlands) and actor and screenwriter Paddy Considine (Last Resort, 24 Hour Party People, Room For Romeo Brass, In America) who collaborated on this semi-improvised, axe-wielding revenge thriller.
Selected for screenings at the Edinburgh – in the ‘World Premiere British Gala’ slot – at Toronto and at the Venice (during ‘Director's Fortnight’) film festival, Dead Mans Shoes is poised to become a cult smash, and follows the BAFTA award winning success of Chris Morris' debut short for WarpFilms in 2002, My Wrongs #8245-8249 and 117.
Set in a nameless English Midlands village, in a community where crime is unchecked and drugs, violence, intimidation and power games are accepted as the fabric of daily life, Dead Man's Shoes explores a decayed underbelly of contemporary rural Britain that’s an unusual angle to see on screen. Two brothers; former soldier Richard (Considine) and the younger Anthony (played by Toby Kebbell) set about righting the wrongs they feel have been done to them, treating modern semi-rural England like it’s some fantasy version of the Wild West.
"This is a very skilful, superbly edited piece of moviemaking, intriguing, gripping...Ultimately, it's a moral fable of a religious kind..." - Philip French, The Guardian (Oct' 04)
The nearest contemporary film reference is probably David Mackenzie’s 2002 debut feature The Last Great Wilderness - not least because of it’s ‘backwoods’ feel, quirky setting and use of non-mainstream music on the score. The main difference in the soundtrack of course, is that where that movie utilised The Pastels, supported on one song by former Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker (himself a Warp staple, this time as a video director), Dead Man's Shoes utilises a wide variety of different performers.
As you would no doubt expect from the label that brings you the likes of Birmingham’s Broadcast, the Aphex Twin and Squarepusher, Warp have supplied a first-class, atmospheric soundtrack, that is central to the film’s success. Personally selected by the film’s director Shane Meadows, the music – predominantly, though not exclusively from artists on the Warp roster - provides a series of moody counterpoints between the lush great pastures of the Peak District (where the feature was shot), and the deranged scenes of retribution depicted.
The twisted folk of Bill Callaghan’s (Smog) – represented here by one of the real standout tracks from his last Domino album Supper - and the like of Morning Wonder from The Earlies - are interspersed with an eerie spaghetti western feel, courtesy of Calexico s three contributions. The Calexico tracks - all instrumentals - turn out to be near-perfect movie score material (no surprises there for fans of the band’s Feast Of Wire) while the unsettled and unsettling ambient calm of Aphex Twin's Nannou 2 sits perfectly alongside heartfelt singer/songwriter narratives from the likes of Adem, Gravenhurst and Clayhill.
The full track listing for Dead Man's Shoes soundtrack shapes up like this:
1. (Smog) - Vessel In Vain -
2. Calexico - Untitled II
3. Calexico - Untitled III
4. Adem - Statued
5. Calexico - Ritual Road Map
6. Laurent Gamier - Forgotten Thoughts
7. The Earlies - Morning Wonder
8. Richard - Hawley Steel 2
9. Clayhill - Afterlight
10. Calexico - Crooked Road
11. Lucky Dragons - Heartbreaker
12. Gravenhurst - The Diver
13. Cul De Sac - I Remember Nothing More
14. P.G. - Six Fallen Leaves
15. ABBC - Pluis Sans Nuages
16. The Aphex Twin - Nannou 2
17. M. - Ward Dead Man
18. DM & Jemini - The Only One
Like the acclaimed Morvern Callar soundtrack (released on Warp back in 2002), the Dead Man's Shoes soundtrack stands apart from the film as a thoroughly enjoyable and beautifully sequenced collection of songs that hang together with unusual resonance.
See also on Lifestyle:
The Dead Man's Shoes OST is out now on CD only, from Warp Records.