If you had told us at the beginning of the year that the soundtrack to Nicolas Winding Refn's low-budget arthouse noir "Drive" would become a smash hit, we would have said you were crazy. But nothing about that film could be called predictable, and when Refn splased up the neon title card with "Nightcall" playing underneath it, all bets were off. But if you loved the tunes on the soundtrack, Santa is filling your stocknig with a lot more as producer Johnny Jewel — the man behind Glass Candy and spin off bands Chromatics ("Tick Of The Clock") and Desire ("Under Your Spell") — has delivered Symmetry: Themes For An Imaginary Film.
Running 2 1/2 hours and spanning thirty-six tracks, this thing is massive, but it's steeped in the slick synths and electronic '80s pixellated haze you fell in love with in "Drive." Earlier in the year Jewel revealed that he had completed a score for "Drive" that was ultimately not used at all (Cliff Martinez delivered the ace work on that end) but this is not that music. In fact, according to the liner notes, this started being recorded way back in May 2008, more than two years before Refn's film would even roll. Described as "a conceptual tangent between Glass Candy, Chromatics, Mirage, & Desire’s more abstract sides" the project openly states its influences ranging from John Cage, Glenn Branca, Maurice Ravel, Gyorgy Ligeti, Erik Satie, Karlheinz Stockhausen, John Carpenter, Wendy Carlos and more. But really, this thing just sounds great and bodes well for his eventual re-team with Refn on "Logan's Run."
Symmetry is now available on iTunes and will be arriving on double CD and triply vinyl in 2012. Full stream and tracklist below [Italians Do It Better via Gorilla Vs. Bear]
SYMMETRY / THEMES FOR AN IMAGINARY FILM by JOHNNY JEWEL
Disc One
1. Introduction
2. City Of Dreams
3. Over The Edge
4. The Nightshift
5. Paper Chase
6. Outside Looking In
7. Midnight Sun
8. Behind The Wheel
9. Thicker Than Blood
10. A Sort Of Homecoming
11. Winner Take All
12. Death Mask
13. Jackie's Eyes
14. The Fading Faces
15. Mind Games
16. The Maze
17. Threshold
18. Flashback
Disc Two
1. Blood Sport
2. Survival Instinct
3. Hall Of Mirrors
4. Eulogy
5. The Messenger
6. Love Theme
7. Through The Gauntlet
8. Ghost Town
9. Cruise Control
10. Wave Goodbye
11. Magic Gardens
12. An Eye For An Eye
13. The Point Of No Return
14. Cremation
15. The Nightshift Reprise
16. Memories Are Forever
17. Echoes Of The Mind
18. Streets Of Fire
