Forbidden Planet Explored / Sci-Fi Sound Effects

Album Review

Jack Dangers of the impossibly influential electronic act Meat Beat Manifesto strips away the drum machines and samplers, leaving only his impressive vintage synthesizer to produce this live ambient work, played to accompany a screening of the classic sci-fi film Forbidden Planet. It's not the most novel idea. Electronic artists have long reached towards the cinema to give their music a more complete existence. Techno icon Jeff Mills went so far as to produce a soundtrack for the Fritz Lange silent masterpiece Metropolis, and proceeded to screen it around the world. What's interesting about Dangers' attempt is that he performed all of the music live, as well as generated sound effects which are included on the second disc. Also interesting is the fact that Forbidden Planet is not a silent film and therefore had a soundtrack of its own long before Dangers took the controls. But no matter. As a study in oscillator-produced texture and sound, few have the capabilities of Dangers to make his robust electronic machines feel utterly weightless. Like a 100 ton supercomputer, floating away in the zero gravity of space.