Happy Sunday. Here are some scores and score-like releases you shouldn’t miss. In fact, you couldn’t miss them if you wanted to. I’ll see to that.
Mondo Boys – She Dies Tomorrow (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Director/actor Amy Seimetz’s new film, She Dies Tomorrow (NEON), is a multi-sensory infusion of colorful enchantment and mesmerizing intrigue, built on a foundation of crippling trepidation that’s laced with a profound creative audacity. Complementing this otherwordly experience is Mondo Boys’ compelling orchestral score, overflowing with original work and also gems such as Mozart’s “Requiem, K.626 Lacrimosa,” that give the film a Kubrickian air. See the film and also listen to the score below. The music is available digitally via Milan Records. The films is out on VOD now, but you can also catch it at the drive-thru in some regions.
Volker Bertelmann & Dustin O’Halloran — The Old Guard (Music from the Netflix and Skydance Film)
Director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s intensely fun and compelling The Old Guard, starring Charlize Theron, Kiki Layne, and Chiwetel Ejiofor, gets treated well by composing duo Volker Bertelmann & Dustin O’Halloran (Lion). Expect deeply meaningful piano segments, owing to Bertelmann’s renown as a practitioner of prepared piano; and also expect a healthy dose of moving string parts and engaging synth and electronic passages. The duo expertly capture the somber and macabre moments with as much craft as they do the intense action segments. It’s a great score on its own or as a complement to one of the best films to hit Netflix. (The film is an adaptation of Greg Rucka’s graphic novel series about a team of apparently immortal mercenaries.)
Deadly Avenger & Si Begg — YOKAI
Deadly Avenger and Si Begg are a Britain-based horror-trailer-scoring powerhouse duo and the music on this album reflects their predilection toward upending the established order of trailer music. As with previous Burning Witches Records releases, Yokai comes in a truly gorgeous vinyl packaging. (The duo have scored trailers for Hereditary, Midsommar, Parasite, IT, and Pet Sematary, among other things.) Vehlinggo readers will know Deadly for his string of Japanese-themed releases, largely focusing on kaiju. In this case, he trains his focus on Japanese demons.
Bonus: Check out my interview with Deadly Avenger for the new Burning Witches Records podcast episode.
(Note: Film trailers often don’t use score from the film. Therefore this is more of a reference of the film itself.)
Bonus Features
The scores for the films below have not yet been released as far as I can tell, but you should rent or buy the films to experience these fantastic bodies of work (and to see the films, of course).
Yes, God, Yes — As previewed in an interview back in 2018, composer Ian Hultquist (Assassination Nation) did the score for Karen Maine’s comedy about Catholic teens navigating their raging hormones. The film stars Natalia Dyer, who you know as the intrepid Nancy Wheeler from Stranger Things or Coco from Velvet Buzzsaw. Hultquist offers up a touching array of catchy synth melodies and colorful synthscapes — blended with other engaging sounds — that brilliantly interpret and complement the dramatic and comedic elements surrounding the tomfoolery the kids (and adults) get up to. The film is on VOD right now.
Spree — This one also stars a Stranger Things icon, Joe Keery (AKA Steve Harrington), and you will never look at him the same way again. In this film, directed by Eugene Kotlyarenko, Keery plays an unhinged rideshare driver who goes to increasingly fucked-up lengths to build an audience for his livestreams. Along for the ride is vaporwave pioneer James Ferraro, whose deftly crafted synth-heavy score is a worthy passenger on this journey. The film is on VOD right now.
Oh, and I hope you didn’t forget about these seven scores and soundtracks!
(Editor’s Note: The One-Liners column is a concise but meaningful way to highlight Vehlinggo-recommended releases. It’s not exactly weekly, but it can be. Entries are almost never one line, but they could be. Check out the most recent One-Liners post.)
