September 19, 1998

Love Is the Devil OST

Always nice when 'Film Soundtrack' doesn't just mean a collection of major label tie-in tracks from an assortment of random artists....

7 / 10 Always nice when 'Film Soundtrack' doesn't just mean a collection of major label tie-in tracks from an assortment of random artists. Former Yellow Magic Orchestra member Ryuichi Sakamoto has scored Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence and The Last Emperor but this is his most extreme, audacious work yet.

At first, this collection of semi-abstract, musical haikus doesn't seem appropriate for the subject matter of Love Is The Devil, based as it is on the artist Sir Francis Bacon, a far from introverted character whose grotesquely sensual paintings seemed to reduce humanity to so many contorted sides of beef at first glance. But he had an inner life and it's this that Sakamoto conveys through these 28 tracks. With brief but self-explanatory titles ('Walk', 'Bathroom', 'Nightmares'), these pieces are studies of the interior of an extraordinarily, richly responsive mind.

So, 'Boxing' conveys a swirl of pumping adrenalin in response to a prizefight and 'Sex' is like a Greek chorus of neural impulses and sensory responses to the ecstasy of the act. Ranging from musique concrhte to swooning gothic flourishes, this is a soundtrack you could make your own film up to.

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