Bless me, is it almost Record Store Day already? Yes, before we know it, it’ll be April 13; and I don’t have any of my shopping done yet! I haven’t trimmed my RSD tree…I haven’t sent out my RSD cards…and I sure as heck haven’t started prepping the RSD ham. (You want to do the ham closer to the day you’re going to eat it.) I’ll have to start practicing my RSD carols and get my RSD sweaters dry cleaned. I don’t want a repeat of last year — unrelenting chaos. You don’t even want to hear about it.
Unlike me, though, Metavari — a.k.a. Nathaniel David Utesch — is ready. More than ready: Utesch was born ready, so many years ago, like the Christ child or some shit; ready to turn this mutha out RSD style with ABSURDA: Music Reimagined in the Short Films of David Lynch. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, there, fella,” you’re clearly thinking to yourself. “David Lynch’s films utilize sound to such a detailed degree that it would be FOOLHARDY — FOOLHARDY, I tells ya — to try to rescore those things, even the short films that barely anybody cares about!”
Sigh…RSD 2018 is happening all over again.
Look, I’m not here to tell you how to feel about this. I’m not here to berate my uncle at the dinner table about the intricacies of film editing or yell at my brother that silence can be just as useful as a full-blown symphonic score (that idiot’s a HUGE Hans Zimmer fan, btw). I’m here to show you that SOMEONE ELSE can reinterpret an existing piece of art with just as much vigor and vitality as the original composer. So check out Lynch’s early short “The Alphabet,” with Metavari’s updated soundtrack over it:
You like that? Good. Music’s available first thing RSD morn, pressed to a nice clear vinyl platter via One Way Static / Light in the Attic. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go hang out in the kitchen to get away from all you people for a while. Maybe bourbon up this egg nog a little more. I’m gonna need LOTS of bourbon to get through the next couple weeks…
ABSURDA: Music Reimagined in the Short Films of David Lynch tracklisting:
01. Six Figures Getting Sick (Six Times)
02. Absurd Encounter with Fear
03. The Alphabet
04. Theme from The Grandmother
05. Industrial Soundscape (Excerpt)
06. Absurda
07. Premonitions Following an Evil Deed
08. Dream #7 (Extended)
09. The 3 Rs : Epilogue for The 3 Rs
10. Ballerina, part 1
11. Ballerina, part 2