Various Artists-Trainspotting OST

Originally Written and Posted at Epinions.com on 12/23/08.

The soundtrack to the 1996 film Trainspotting compiled by the film's director Danny Boyle is considered to be one of the best films soundtracks ever made. Released at the time Brit-pop was becoming the big thing in Britain. The soundtrack contained several Brit-pop luminaries like Blur, Pulp, Elastica, and Sleeper along with the British art-rock band Primal Scream. Electronic music is also explored with contributions from Bedrock, New Order, Leftfield, and Underworld while legends like Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, and Brian Eno also contribute to the film's soundtrack. The result is one of the best film soundtracks ever created.

The album opener is the Iggy Pop classic Lust For Life from the 1977 album of the same name. With its hard-hitting, loud-pounding drums, shaky rhythms and melodies, and Pop's nasally yet cool baritone vocals. Filled with lyrics about substances and an upbeat lifestyle, it's a great opener to the song and film despite its dark tone. Brian Eno's ambient piece Deep Blue Day from his 1983 Apollo: Atmosphere and Soundtracks album with Daniel Lanois and Roger Eno is a dreamy, swooning track led by Brian Eno's synthesizer arrangements and Lanois' pedal-slide work that flourishes throughout the track. Played during Mark Renton's swim to retrieve suppositories, it's one of the most beautiful cuts on the album. The ten-and-a-half minute instrumental title track by Primal Scream is another amazing track with a smooth rhythm, warbling beats, swirling synthesizers, and a guitar track. Produced by Andrew Weatherhall, the track marks a return to the band's experimental sound as it plays to the hazy conversation between Renton and Sick Boy.

Next is a cover of Blondie's Atomic by Sleeper. Led by Louise Werner's smooth, low-sounding vocals, the song is definitely faithful to Blondie's original version with its famed guitar melody, swift rhythms, and hypnotic electronic arrangements. The track plays up to the moment Renton meets Diane. New Order's electro-pop song Temptation with its chugging rhythms, flourishing synthesizer, Peter Hook's melodic bass lines, and Bernard Sumner's vocals is another famed track on the album. Mostly heard in the background and later sung by Diane in a weird dream sequence, it's one of the most endearing songs on the album. Nightclubbing is another Iggy Pop song that's from his 1977 solo debut album The Idiot produced by David Bowie. With its heartbeat-like rhythm, fuzzy synthesizers, droning guitars, Bowie's piano track and Pop's eerie vocals, it's easily one of the darkest tracks on the album. Played during Renton and his gang's rising addiction towards heroin, it's a track that works in its dark tone.

Sing by Blur is an early song from the band with its droning guitars, haunting piano track, and Damon Albarn's vocals. The song refers to a tragic aftermath and famed chase scene as it plays up to the song's dramatic tone. Next is Lou Reed's ballad Perfect Day from 1972's Transformer album with Reed's somber vocals and a flourishing chorus led by Mick Ronson's string arrangements and Reed's poignant, melancholic lyrics. The song plays to Renton's overdose as he goes into a haze and near-death. Mile End by Pulp is a kooky song with smooth, swinging melodies, Jarvis Cocker's dark lyrics, and Candida Doyle's swooning keyboards. The song plays to Begbie being a nuisance to Renton's new lifestyle. For What You Dream Of by Bedrock featuring KYO is a techno number that plays up to the new, modern world of London that Renton seems to enjoy. With its shimmering synthesizers, breaking beats, and KYO's soulful vocals, it's another standout to reveal the world of electronic music in Britain.

Elastica's 2:1 from their 1995 landmark debut album is a minimalist rocker with mid-tempo, tapping beats, groove-laden guitars, and sturdy melodies with Justine Frischmann's smooth vocals. Played during Sick Boy's arrival to London and causing Renton more trouble, it's a fun, dark track that has a sense of humor. A Final Hit by Leftfield is an instrumental piece with eerie electronic arrangements and haunting bass line to play up to the drug deal meeting with Renton, Sick Boy, Spud, and Begbie with a sense of foreboding. Born Slippy (NUXX) by Underworld is a wonderful nine-minute, forty-five second electronic track with flourishing pianos, eerie synthesizers, and loud, pounding break-beats. The track plays up to the drama where Renton makes a fateful decision. The album closer Closet Romantic by Blur's Damon Albarn is a smooth, electro-beat track with harmoniums and keyboards as Albarn sings and speaks about the James Bond films that starred Sean Connery that's played in the final credits.

When it was released shortly after the film came out, it became a major hit that a year later. A second soundtrack was released featuring songs that were in the film but didn't make it into the soundtrack along with music that inspired the film. Yet, the soundtrack was a major hit in the days of Brit-pop while often considered to be an essential record of that period. While the soundtrack also introduced American audiences to the burgeoning electronica music scene that would come a year later to little fanfare. Yet, the soundtrack remains one of the best of all-time as it's often put in lists for all-time great film soundtracks.

The soundtrack to Trainspotting is easily one of the best films soundtracks ever created. Thanks to its mix of Brit-pop, 70s art-rock, and electronic music, it's an album that is truly perfect from start to finish. Like many great film soundtracks before and since, it works because it put all the right songs from the film and into a record that is enjoyable to hear. In the end, the soundtrack to Trainspotting is a great companion to the film as well as for Brit-pop enthusiasts.

Related: Trainspotting - Favorite Films #10: Trainspotting

© thevoid99 2013

Primal Scream-Screamadelica (20th Anniversary Edition)

When Primal Scream arrived in the mid-80s as an indie-pop band with an ever-changing line-up that had then included vocalist Bobby Gillespie, guitarists Andrew Innes and Robert “Throb” Young, and then-part time keyboardist Martin Duffy. Following a couple of albums that featured their indie-pop sound with elements of traditional rock and jangle-pop, the band wasn’t going anywhere until one of their songs from their second self-titled in I’m Losing More Than I’ll Ever Have was remixed by a house DJ named Andrew Weatherall that became the track Loaded.

Spurred by the remix, that was released in 1990, and the introduction of the acid house music scene at the time. Primal Scream decided to change gears a bit to reflect what was going on in British music as they brought in Weatherall to help produce the album along with various others that included the ambient-house duo the Orb, Hugo Nicolson, Hypnotone, and legendary Rolling Stones producer Jimmy Miller. Drawing upon various musical styles into one entire album, the result wouldn’t just be a breakthrough for the band. It would be an album that would change the face of British popular music as it was called Screamadelica.

Produced by Andrew Weatherall, Jimmy Miller, Hypnotone, the Orb, and Hugo Nicolson, Screamadelica is a concoction of an album where everything happens for the ultimate party album. Featuring different styles of music from acid house, blues-rock, dub, gospel, ambient, and indie. The album also dwells into various lyrical themes recalling a party going all over the place. The result is truly one of the most thrilling and intoxicating albums of the 1990s.

Opening the album is the upbeat Movin’ On Up with its gospel-inspired lyrics, driving guitar, and soulful piano as Bobby Gillespie sings in bluesy vocal style to its inspirational lyrics that includes a gospel choir. The song is followed by a bopping electronic beats, Martin Duffy’s blues-based pianos, and wailing guitar solos to maintain its mix of acid-dance and gospel. A cover of 13th Floor Elevator’s Slip Inside This House is a track that is given hypnotic, electronic make-over with throbbing rhythms, flourishing keyboards, and a bopping bass line as Gillespie sings the psychedelic-induced song. Featuring elements of sitars and wailing guitars, it’s the track that maintains the acid-house ideas into the record.

Don’t Fight It, Feel It is a house-inspired track led by Denise Johnson’s evocative yet soulful vocals that is carried by the track’s upbeat yet dance-driven rhythm. Filled with party-driven lyrics, textured keyboard loops, and bits of crunching guitar, it’s a song that really gets the party into a major high. Higher Than the Sun is a chilling yet somber piece led by fluid keyboard wails and Gillespie’s swooning vocals that is filled with hazy lyrics, walloping beats, and high-pitch wails for this slow yet mesmerizing cut. The ambient-inspired instrumental Inner Flight is led by Gillespie’s falsetto-laden vocals that is filled with layers of ominous keyboards and swooning synthesizers that soars through the track to continue the hypnotic party vibe of the album.

The ten-minute, twenty-five second track Come Together opens with Jesse Jackson’s speech at the 1972 Wattstax concert which goes on for about half of the house-gospel track with wailing organs and swirling keyboards accompanying Jackson’s voice. With a female voice singing inspirational lyrics, throbbing beats and a blues-based piano help accompany the track as it is the album’s major highlight. Loaded opens with voice sample of Peter Fonda from The Wild Angels for this acid-house track with a group of gospel voices kicking things off. Featuring an array of samples that includes Andie MacDowell’s voice from sex, lies, & videotape, drum loops from Edie Brickell’s What I Am, and Gillespie singing bluesy lyrics. The track is one of the band’s greatest cuts as it features hypnotic, throbbing beats and a bluesy guitar that keeps the party going.

The blues-inspired Damaged is led by Martin Duffy’s somber piano and Gillespie’s soulful vocals with heartbreaking lyrics. Featuring a soft, smooth percussion track and a wailing vocal, the song goes into a touching blues-rocker that features a wailing guitar solo from Henry Olsen. I’m Comin’ Down is an ambient-driven track with a gong slowly playing in the background as Gillespie sings hazy lyrics to wind down the party atmosphere of the album. Featuring a bleeping yet hypnotic keyboard that becomes more soaring along with a evocative saxophone, it’s one of the album’s standout cuts.

A dub-driven version of Higher Than the Sun (A Dub Symphony in Two Parts) starts off as an eerie, synthesizer-driven cut with slow, metallic beats in the background that is surrounded by Gillespie’s vocals as it later becomes a throbbing, bass-driven track led by Jah Wobble’s bass with melodic keyboard riffs and walloping beats in the background. The album closer is the soft, electronic-based Shine Like Stars as it features tingling keyboards and throbbing beats as Gillespie sings cosmic lyrics as he’s later followed by swooning keyboards to close the album.

The 20th Anniversary edition of the album features the album remastered in its entirety, by the members of Primal Scream and Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine, to emphasize more layers to the production work made by varied producers for the album. The edition also features three additional discs of material for the release that includes remixes, rarities, live tracks, and a remastered version of the 1992 Dixie-Narco EP that was recorded at the legendary Ardent Studios in Memphis, Tennessee.

The second disc is a live performance from the Los Angeles Palladium in 1992 as it opens with Movin’ On Up that is filled with more driving guitars and walloping percussions as it is followed by a blazing piano flourish. Slip Inside This House maintains its throbbing, acid-dance presentation with some guitars playing in the background. The more upbeat Don’t Fight It, Feel It that is filled with swanky guitar riffs and pulsating beats to keep the party going. I’m Losing More Than I’ll Ever Have keeps the energy going for its upbeat, blues-rocker with some blazing guitars and a smooth, pulsating rhythm with lyrics of the Faces' Stay with Me in the song. The ballad Damaged slow things down a bit as the vocals of Bobby Gillespie and Denise Johnson are a real highlight of the song as it features a live drum track for the performance. A shortened performance of Screamadelica brings the house vibe of the show back with some trumpets and throbbing percussions playing with some swanky guitars.

Loaded ups the party vibe going with its acid-house presentation with beats, electronic textures, a blaring horn section, and funky guitar riffs. Come Together, which is presented in its American version, features vocals by Gillespie and Johnson as they play off each other to the song’s house-driven vibe. Higher Than the Sun adds a bit of reggae to the song as it features more wailing guitars to the slow, acid-dance presentation along with lyrics from various artists like Led Zeppelin and Sly Stone. Things close down in a couple of rock covers for a blazing cover of John Lennon’s Cold Turkey and charging cover of the Stooges’ No Fun, the latter of featuring lyrics of the Stooges’ Gimme Danger.

The third disc is a collection of remixes for a few of the singles released from the album plus a couple of rarities. The first two remixes are for the song Loaded where the first is a 12” mix by Terry Farley that features more pianos and trumpets for the track along with vocals from the original song I’m Losing More Than I’ll Ever Have. The second remix is a 7” mix by Pat Collier that is essentially a shorter mix of the song with edits on the instrumentals and samples. The next five remixes are for the song Come Together as the first is a short, 7” mix of a U.S. version of the song by Terry Farley with less instrumentals and more vocals from Bobby Gillespie. The second mix is a 7” mix by Andrew Weatherall is essentially a shortened mix of the original song. The extended 12” Terry Farley mix of the song is the song that appears in the U.S. version of the album that features more bluesy piano, Gillespie’s vocals, and throbbing beats for a gospel-house track.

The Hypnotone Brain Machine mix of the track is a fast-paced mix with more scratchy, throbbing beats and flashy synthesizer blares for a wild, acid-house driven track. The BBG mix of the track features shimmering keyboards, walloping beats, and warbling bass lines to play up the gospel elements of the track. The next three tracks are remixes for Higher Than the Sun as the first is a mix by the Orb that features more ambient textures to play up the beats with additional bass warbles. The second mix is a 12” mix that extends the track by nearly two minutes with additional synthesizer warbles and extended instrumental pieces. The third mix entitled (American Spring Mix) adds elements of the dubbed version plus the original track with Gillespie’s vocals.

The next four tracks are remixes for the song Don’t Fight It, Feel It as the first is an edited 7” mix by Andrew Weatherall that is essentially a shortened mix of the track with the vocals opening up the track. The second mix is by Graham Massey that features brief sitar flourishes to open the track as it’s mostly carried by throbbing beats, driving guitars, and layers of fluid synthesizers to play up the dance presentation as it includes heightened vocals. The scat mix by Andrew Weatherall that is essentially an extended mix of his 7” mix with more metallic beats, throbbing rhythms, and extended house piano riffs. The (High High…) mix by Graham Massey is essentially the same mix as his other remix though it includes a bit of additional synthesizers in the background. The two extra tracks that appear on the third disc includes I’m Losing More Than I’ll Ever Have that appeared in the band’s self-titled second album and a live, raucous cover of the MC5’s Ramblin’ Rose.

The fourth disc is the Dixie-Narco EP that opens up with Movin’ On Up while it features three other tracks. The first is Stone My Soul, a blues-inspired track that features a somber piano and Gillespie’s soulful vocals with a twangy guitar slide. The third track is a cover of the Beach Boys’ Carry Me Home that starts off as a blues-driven track with a gospel choir and reverb guitars as Gillespie sings the song’s dreamy lyrics before becoming this ominous track with swooning keyboards. The closing track of the EP is a ten-minute, fifty-second track called Screamadelica that is essentially a house-driven track with throbbing beats, a smooth trumpet, a melodic flute, and rhythmic keyboards as female vocalists sings the song that goes through various stylistic changes throughout.

Released in September 23, 1991 in Britain, the album was the band’s breakthrough as it was well-received with critics while becoming a major hit in the British charts. In the U.S., the album received moderate success as it helped define the acid-dance movement at its peak as the British music scene was still in need of an alternative from the mainstream pop that was dominating the charts. The album would win many accolades from critics including the first ever Mercury Music Prize in 1992 as the band was becoming one of the key acts in Britain for the years to come.

Screamadelica is an exotic yet mesmerizing album from Primal Scream featuring an amazing array of music styles carried by the various producers involved with the album. For people new to the group, this record is definitely the best place to start with as it would lead other great albums like Vanishing Point and XTRMNTR. The album’s 20th Anniversary edition is something that hardcore fans must have as it features rarities and material that they would love to have. In the end, Screamadelica is truly one of the definitive party albums ever created from Primal Scream.

Primal Scream Albums: (Sonic Flower Groove) - (S/T) - (Give Out but Don’t Give Up) - Vanishing Point - (Echo Dek) - (XTRMNTR) - (Evil Heat) - (Dirty Hits) - (Shoot Speed: More Dirty Hits) - (Live in Japan) - (Riot City Blues) - (Beautiful Future)

© thevoid99 2011

Primal Scream-Vanishing Point

Originally Written and Posted at Epinions.com on 11/2/05 w/ Additional Edits.

When Primal Scream came out with their third album Screamadelica in 1991, it was the album that blew the U.K. away as it marked the end of the vibrant, rhythmic Madchester era and pushed dance music further with a bit of rock, house, soul, and electronic music to the mix. In 1992, the band won the first ever Mercury Music Prize for artistic achievement in the U.K. as its singer Bobby Gillespie was a star along with his band members Robert Young and Andrew Innes along with new keyboardist Martin Duffy. Immediately, anticipation for their follow-up album was heating up. In 1994, they released their follow-up album entitled Give Out but Don't Give Up which was a return to the band's rock roots.

Despite a hit song in the U.S. with Rocks and opening for Depeche Mode in their world tour, Give Out but Don't Give Up received lukewarm reviews and fans who wanted something more edgy was disappointed. The band took a break only to return in 1996 with Screamadelica producer Andrew Weatherall for an instrumental title track to Danny Boyle's 1996 landmark drug film Trainspotting which won back a lot of fans. The band regrouped themselves for their next record in which the band decided to move away from the psychedelic and house style of Screamadelica for a much darker album entitled Vanishing Point after the 1971 car-chase cult classic by director Richard Sarafin starring Barry Newman, Cleavon Little, and in the U.K. cut, Charlotte Rampling.

If Screamadelica was the ultimate party album splashed with Ecstacy, psychedelics, and lots of color. Vanishing Point is a post-party album where heroin is the drug of choice, the colors are a lot darker,  and everyone is a bit hung over while watching some dark cult films. Produced by Primal Scream and Brendan Lynch with the track Trainspotting produced by Andrew Weatherall, the band does a bit of rocking but without a lot of the blues from their previous record. The main focus is a lot darker with dashes of 60s psychedelia, dub, art-rock, electronic music, and some funk courtesy of the band's then-new bass player, Gary "Mani" Mounfield of the Stone Roses. Released in 1997, Vanishing Point is a record that sets the mood for a dark hangover filled with pop culture references and lots and lots of trippy lyrics.

Through its distorted waves of noises mixed in with Pink Floyd's Interstellar Overdrive comes the opening track Burning Wheel. With its swirls of psychedelia and British trad rock, the band comes in as Bobby Gillespie sings his trippy, drug-induced lyrics with the hypnotic keyboards of Martin Duffy, Marco Nelson's throbbing bass lines, and the crashing guitars of Andrew Innes and Robert Young. Accompanied by mid-tempo, bopping beats, the song is filled with a great hook in the chorus as Gillespie's vocals just wails in this ode to Pink Floyd. Next is the instrumental track Get Duffy is a dub-based track with wandering beats simmering across Martin Duffy's organ melodies and wavy guitar riffs by Innes & Young. With echoes of metallic beats in the background and distorted buzzes behind Brendan Lynch's production, the instrumental is hypnotic in its mood and in Duffy's keyboards.

The big single from the album is Kowalski after the hero of the film Vanishing Point as Cleavon Little's super-soul DJ's voice is heard. Then Mani's throb-heavy bass lines arrive through the swirls of guitar and keyboards distortions. Then Bobby Gillespie whispers with his vocals for the song's hero as he repeats the film's title. With its ringing of keyboards and sirens of guitars, it's Mani's bass that gives the song its dark, demented feel as Gillespie goes into some of his trippy lyrics as he sings for the anti-hero Kowalski in his journey on the road with the DJ guiding him. Star opens its electronic-accompanied, shimmering beats and harmonic keyboards as the song is a smooth, laid-back track. With Gillespie singing the song's psychedelic-fused lyrics with his soulful lyrics. It's a retread of the band’s sound of Screamadelica with more swirls of electronic music, accompanying horns, and buzzing distortions of keyboards that is melodic for its seduction.

The next instrumental track is If They Move, Kill 'Em that opens with a ringing siren of keyboards that is followed by Marco Nelson's funk-induced bass lines as the guitars come crashing in with its mix of funk and rock. With the waa-waa guitars playing behind the swirls of electronic distortions, horns follow in this mix of dub, rock, electronic, and soul as the theremin sirens come wailing. Out Of The Void is another song that is filled with Duffy's hypnotic organs and swirls of sirens through Lynch's production. Gillespie reaches to darker lyrics of drug abuse as if he just got out of a party gone horribly bad. With Mani's bass line providing a dub feel to the song along with the melodic-blues guitar work of Innes and Young, the song is a standout for its dark tone. Stuka is a dub-based track with throbbing bass lines and smooth, reggae beats along with its swirls of doorbells, guitars, and synthesizers. The most rhythmic song of the track, Gillespie sings through a robotic vocoder with dark, sinful lyrics as he sings, "I got an original sin" as Duffy's synthesizer wails through Lynch's distorted, layer production.

The band returns to straight-ahead rock for Medication with its mid-tempo, bouncing drums, and blues-induced guitars as the band goes for an old-school Stones sound with Gillespie's rocking, sexy lyrics as he fuses his soulful vocals for the song. In this ode to the Stones' sound, this track is a real standout for the band's straightforward approach with Glen Matlock providing the right bass feel for the song to Innes & Young's guitars. The next rock track is a cover of the Motorhead song simply titled Motorhead that opens with distorted, growling vocals as it opens with fast-paced, electronic beats and Mani's driving bass lines through its crashing, siren sounding guitars and Gillespie singing Lemmy Kilmeister's dark lyrics. Though the band doesn't go for speed, they do manage to conjure a trippy approach to the Motorhead song that ends with crashing layers of sounds through Lynch's production.

Next is an 8-minute version of the instrumental track Trainspotting that is produced by Andrew Weatherall as the track is filled with bass-pounding beats and Weatherall's amazing production filled with distorted guitar swirls. With sirens and voices playing in the background, beats come in along with melodic guitar riffs and Duffy's organ playing. Of all the instrumental tracks, this one stands out for its production and tone of the track that is filled with harmonic keyboards and it plays well to the film which the track was named after. The album closer is the slow but seductive Long Life where it opens with Duffy's simmering synthesizer notes as the siren of guitars and throbbing bass lines come in with slow, reverb drums. Gillespie sings the song with his cool, nocturnal vocals through lyrics that are very dark as if he just survived another party gone bad as he claims it's good to be alive. With his falsetto vocals in the background through the layers of Lynch's production, guitars start to come in playing distorted, melodic riffs as the album winds down with a hangover induced close.

When the album came out in 1997, the album not only received critical acclaim but won back whatever fans they had lost through their misguided return to trad-rock. While the album didn't do very well in the U.S., in the U.K. it was a monster hit as it established the band as one of the best in the U.K. Following a tour, the band released the rarities record Echo Dek that featured remixes and outtakes from the sessions of Vanishing Point. Still, the band with its new lineup was just getting started as they would take the dark sound of Vanishing Point to new heights with their 2000 follow-up, the politically-charged XTRMNTR. Compared to 1991's Screamadelica and 2000's XTRMNTR, they’re all party albums. Screamadelica starts out as a party album filled with psychedelic drugs that winds down to its haziness. Vanishing Point comes off where the party takes a dark turn where late-night TV watching has become a day-to-day thing and there's a reach for hopefulness. XTRMNTR is where the party is now in hell as the world has lost its point and everything is thrown into chaos.

While Vanishing Point doesn't have the variety of Screamadelica in terms of vibrant songs or the rocking edge of XTRMNTR, it's still an amazing album from Primal Scream. It's also their darkest of their career so far through its hypnotic yet brooding production as well as the performance from the band. Yet, it's a record that allows Primal Scream to keep going following the disappointing results of Give Out But Don't Give Up. In the end, Vanishing Point is a chilling yet intoxicating album from Primal Scream.

Primal Scream Albums: (Sonic Flower Groove) - (S/T) - Screamadelica - (Give Out But Don't Give Up) - (Echo Dek) - (XTRMNTR) - (Evil Heat) - (Dirty Hits) - (Shoot Speed: More Dirty Hits) - (Live in Japan) - (Riot City Blues) - (Beautiful Future)

(C) thevoid99 2011