Darren MillardLiars recent single ‘No. 1 Against The Rush’ from their latest album WIXIW has a melancholic and swooping sci-fi melody that would glide seamlessly into the Blade Runner soundtrack. And it’s not the first piece of music I’ve heard in the past year that borrows the weightless retro-futurism of dystopian synth-king Vangelis.
Electronic music producer Jamie Teasdale’s album Severant (delivered via the alias Kuedo) grounds the airy and driving ambience of his own Vangelis-inspired sounds with stuttering drum-clicks and frenetic beatwork. The wet windscreen drama of album track ‘Whisper’ is both an ode to claustrophobic tower blocks and city-subsumed loneliness as it is hover vehicles and neon signs.
Martin Herterich’s Motor City album released under his Sand Circles moniker borrows as much from Detroit techno (hence the album title) as it does from the crumbling architecture of cult sci-fi cinema. The same nostalgia-invoking tones that Boards Of Canada are so good at cooking up, except this time over warehouse techno rhythms and the night-drive ambience of an alternate dimension 80’s American cop drama.
It all brings me to my main motivation for writing this piece: the new Blade Runner – 30th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition, released October 29th in a box-set containing DVD, Blu-Ray and UV (UltraViolet) copies of the film. It’s easy to imagine that this is just a cynical re-release for the film studio to rake in extra dosh. I can’t help but be intrigued by the extras however: a 72-page digi-book and over ten hours of bonus content from previous editions collected and transferred to Blu-Ray. It’s not cheap (currently listed for pre-order at £29.99 on Amazon) but it’s likely to be the most complete version you’ll find until holographic cinema becomes a ‘thing’ or we get a gimmicky 3D remake. Oh, and you also get a dinky hover craft toy thingy. Sold!