Cinematic Music I Like

I think it was the movie Undercover Brother that had a scene with the cool guy walking along, followed by a bunch of musicians. When someone asks who they are, he says, “That’s just my theme music.” I think a lot of us wish we had our own theme music. Sometimes I even find the right band.

Frostnatt

Frostnatt is a one-man atmospheric black metal project. Although I wouldn’t usually identify with black metal closely enough to make it my theme music, Den Russiske Tomheten really feels like a soundtrack. It’s instrumental and repetitive, but with a very high level of tension that seems to keep building. When I call this music cinematic, I mean it feels like you’re in a very tense, dramatic movie.

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Graveslave

That’s Graveslave all one word, so you don’t get confused by the options on Bandcamp. And I’m going to use cinematic in a different sense for this one, because there is nothing soundtrack-like about the straightforward death metal on Devotion. This album caught my eye before it caught my ear, thanks to the absolutely delightful lyric video for the track “Fatal Push” which is filmed in the style of a PBS kids’ show. I dare you not to smile.

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Noctu

Isolato Da Un Mondo Senza Speranza is a single track that tops 30 minutes, and feels like the soundtrack to a dark and mournful ritual. Music writers, especially in metal circles, through words like “monumental” and “awesome” around pretty freely. But this track by Noctu is an awesome monument … and like many great monuments, the thing that it honors is obscure.

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Oliver Coates

skins n slime is not a soundtrack, but it sounds like one. Cellist Oliver Coates does write soundtracks, and it comes through on this digitally enhanced cello album that feels like it’s telling a story. There’s a lot of repetition and almost drudgery, but it’s punctuated by intensely emotional moments that are sometimes uneasy and other times sublime.

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漏網之魚樂隊

I am not sure where I first heard this band, but I followed them on Bandcamp, forgot all about them, and then was surprised by an email announcing their latest release. Google translate tells me 漏網之魚樂隊 means Leaked Fish, but if I hover over the link, it says “showstart – release” which may refer to the label. The tags for this Chengdu-based band/label include hiphop and rock, both of which are simply untrue for this album, titled 反轉曏往 (per Google, Reversal). It is actually vibrant, energetic and interesting pop music that sounds like the OST for an anime or K-drama, despite the fact that those adjectives rarely apply to OST music. I can almost picture the contemporary urban romantic comedy it would pair with. To more metal-minded readers, that might sound like a dis. But speaking as someone who has unironically watched Healer four times already, it is absolutely my jam.

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