CD: Cliff Martinez - The Neon Demon OST | reviews, news & interviews
CD: Cliff Martinez - The Neon Demon OST
CD: Cliff Martinez - The Neon Demon OST
Soundtrack to Nicolas Winding Refn's fashionista horror flick contains nuggets worth mining
![](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/mast_image_landscape/public/mastimages/the-neon-demon-soundtrack.jpg?itok=i8RhRYjw)
Cliff Martinez isn’t your average Hollywood film composer. He didn’t come up via an orchestral academy or even move sideways from the electronica/classical crossover milieu. Neither John Williams nor Jóhann Jóhannsson are his template. Instead, he took a sharp left out of the LA punk scene, drumming in bands ranging from Lydia Lunch’s no wave noisiness to the nascent, raucous Red Hot Chili Peppers. He even played on Captain Beefheart’s final freak-out, 1982’s Ice Cream For Crow.
In more recent years Martinez’s work has connected with the arty, occasionally kitschy, end of electronic pop. His collaborative score with Skrillex for Harmony Korine’s extraordinary Spring Breakers was a case in point, but it was the Eighties-style synth tautness he added to Nicholas Winding Refn’s cars’n’robbery'n'Ryan Gosling flick, Drive, that really captured imaginations. It's a soundtrack that goes beyond filmic functionality, and became much-listened to in its own right. The score for Refn’s latest, the hyper-stylised, LA-based fashion-horror flick, The Neon Demon, occasionally reaches similar heights.
As is usual with soundtracks, much of the album consists of short pieces, mood-setters. These range between Italian giallo horror sinister synthesizers (“Somethings In My Room”) and twinkling, sonic sparkles such as “I Would Never Say You’re Fat” and “Kinky”. The most interesting stuff, though, is when Martinez lets his inner club lizard out for upwards of five minutes on the moody, dubstep-tinted squelcher “Are We Having A Party” or, especially, the dub-house groove of “Messenger Walks Among Us”. His thunder is almost stolen by his director’s nephew, for Julian Winding’s “Demon Dance” is a mighty psy-trance techno banger. There are also a couple of songs by other artists, Sia & Diplo’s “Waving Goodbye” and Danish band Sweet Tempest with the electro-goth rocker “Mine”, but it’s Martinez’s cool, polished electro palette that’s the main dish. It’s no Drive OST, but there’s cherry-picking to be done.
rating
Buy
Share this article
Add comment
Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
To take a subscription now simply click here.
And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?
more New music
![Taylor Swift, Wembley Stadium, Saturday 22nd June 2024](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/tay%20header.jpeg?itok=X6Ly0O0S)
!['An album of real warmth and connection'](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/thompson.jpg?itok=Mb9rBt0T)
![Chillin' with them old blues](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Peyroux_LetsWalk_Cover_03_3600x3600%20%281%29.jpg?itok=F2jUDM0f)
![The Cryin’ Shames, c. September 1966 in their final incarnation as Paul & Ritchie & The Crying Shames](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/The%20Cryin%E2%80%99%20Shames%20Do%20The%20Strum_the%20cryin%20shames_Header_1000.jpg?itok=Y75fI_xH)
![](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Zara%20McFarlane%20Album%20Cover%20resize.jpg?itok=bOwUNyAa)
![Rain Parade’s Steven Roback, caught as the musical mist engulfs him](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Rain%20Parade%20229_header_1000_simon%20godley.jpg?itok=sjprkj6w)
![Cover art, for once, pretty much summing up the album's contents](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/lost035dd%20cover.jpg?itok=OiYwT3cZ)
![Comix Sonix: soulful and enchanting strangeness](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/PEPE%20DELUXE%CC%81_Comix%20Sonix_TAD.jpg?itok=C34lNop2)
![Bedford and Simmonds: beautifully crafted](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Strange%20News%20cover%2014%20x%2012.5%20cm%20300%20res.jpg?itok=LD1S9YHy)
!['Weird, funny, exploratory, articulate, pansexual and gender-blending, the full package'](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Kehlani.jpg?itok=5v5kR7im)
![Margo Guryan: she saw herself as a songwriter, a figure with no public profile](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Margo%20Guryan%20Words%20and%20Music_header_1000.jpg?itok=CobbX4dG)
Comments
I'm curious as to how you
I'm curious as to how you feel about his work in Solaris and The Knick?