mixtape: blue singularity: a cyberpunk movie soundtrack
download (separate tracks) (72:01, 93mb zip)
download (single mp3 mix) (71:37, 98mb zip)
front cover (large)
back cover (large)
i haven’t read a cyberpunk novel in ages, but one night i got to thinking about how i’d really like to see a new cyberpunk movie on the big screen and how it’d be so kickass if it actually kicked ass as a big summer blockbuster. this got my wheels turning, and i eventually came up with making a (make believe) movie soundtrack for a (fake) movie based on a (non-existent) book. i thought i would start off with trying to incorporate some of the most cyberpunky (to my mind) songs i could think of, and marry them with some other music that really fit the story idea in my head. none of the songs on the album ended up being terribly current, but somehow i like that.
01 prologue: an artifact found
[corner stone cues - petra] amazon
the title sequence to the film takes place in the mid-20th century - about 200 years before the events in the movie. pretty much just a macguffin device, the “artifact” triggers a great leap forward by the thinkers of the day who then lay the groundwork for the coming technological advancements. i think the corner stone cues orchestral score goes well with the title credits slowly panning over the “artifact”.
02 chapter 1: technological singularity
[tettix - the computer takeover] download | itunes
we jump forward to about 50 years before the movie’s present day. the technological singularity refers to the point at which man’s tinkering leads to artificial intelligence becoming self-aware and, in secret, the now globally-linked AI developing its own goals. one of the more chiptune-oriented bits of tettix’s catalog just had to be included, and so what if the title is squarely on the nose?
03 chapter 2: a blinding white light
[lemon jelly - ‘88 aka come down on me] amazon
when the global AI made its existence known to mankind, it did it with a bang - literally. triggering a handful of explosive devices around the globe, the AI collective knew that man would only listen when threatened with violence. a truce was enacted, and man has learned to live alongside the just-this-side-of-oppressive silicon-based lifeforms. this song, along with the preceding, is heard during the movie’s prologue - which i envision as being told through some sort of animated sequence.
04 chapter 3: after the bomb/uneasy coexistence
[grand national - peanut dreams] amazon
here’s where we get our first look at the movie proper - establishing shots of ruined and rebuilt metropolises, hover vehicles: all manner of modern tech developed almost completely by AI. we move from the macro to the micro, resolving on a little shithole dive in an area of town where even the robots are down on their luck. grand national’s peanut dreams gives me visions of people, and androids, going about their daily business on a particularly crappy and rainy night.
05 chapter 4: in the VIP room at club chromium
[george michael - freeek!] amazon
handel (played by thomas jane), a retired ‘netjockey and current food counselor (some of our vat-grown fruits & vegetables are sentient in the future and develop anxieties about being eaten - not a prestigious job), is trying to weasel his way into the VIP room at the club for some reason or another, but only manages to get turned down and buy more & more drinks for himself. he’s a schlub now, but once upon a time he was somebody, which is why he’s dragged into the story’s plot. george michael’s freeek!, actually inspired by cyberpunk, seemed a fitting song to be blaring annoyingly in the dark club while handel does his thing.
06 chapter 5: just gotta get home, sober up
[back to basic - slay your dragons] download
handel begins to sense, thanks to the proper bio-enhancement implants, like he’s being watched, followed, tracked. he’s been out of the game for quite a while, and kept his nose (relatively) clean, but maybe it’s time to head back home to regroup just in case. the accompanying song plays over his winding trek back from the club to his apartment.
07 chapter 6: flashbackwards and flashforwards
[eli kazah - the search is over] amazon
handel makes it back to his place, only to be ambushed by some henchmen and drugged into submission. strapped into a sensory-interference device handel is greeted by the richest man in all the colonies, xavier tevin (philip baker hall), who somehow has now got handel under his thumb and tasks handel with bringing down the AI collective once and for all. we get glimpses of handel’s past ‘net achievements during the exchange, which is where we hear this track.
08 chapter 7: “almost forgot-there’s a bounty on your head”
[a perfect circle - counting bodies like sheep to the rhythm of the war drums (edit)] amazon
tevin’s parting advice is to get a move on, and to provide some incentive he’s retained the services of a bounty hunter (josh lucas) as motivation. the sadistic bounty hunter enjoys his job and, while cautioned against completely elimating the mark, he gets handel in motion by first beating on him and then blowing his apartment the hell up. a perfect circle’s driving beats play over the thorough beating handel gets as soon as the sensory-interference device cuts out.
09 chapter 8: backstage passes/followed through the crowd
[billy idol - shock to the system] amazon
the bounty hunter’s next move is to go after android cassie (alison lohman), perpetually young prodigy and handel’s former partner in ‘net excursions, who handel hasn’t seen in years and is now coordinating the global touring schedule of a mildly famous musician who just happens to be in town. handel needs cassie for the job, and now needs to get her out of harm’s way as well. billy idol’s ode to cyberpunk is the sort of quasi-cool/quasi-lame sounds the musician in the movie is playing while handel and cassie weave through the crowd, coolly pursued by the bounty hunter.
10 chapter 9: time to get cassie off the street
[kita khyber - the crossroads (edit)] download
rapidly running out of public places to hide in plain sight, handel and cassie decide to try to shake their tail. slowly at first and then with more urgency, the music mirrors the increasing tension which comes to a head in the next chapter.
11 chapter 10: the underground chase
[crystal fighters - i love london] myspace
desperate to lose the bounty hunter, handel and cassie go underground into the ruins of the old city and are pursued in an action-packed and explosive chase sequence (in and out of vehicles) in which the two finally lose the bounty hunter. i love how bombastic the crystal fighters track becomes when it gets going, and i see a lot of claustrophobic tight shots set to the beat of the song.
12 chapter 11: safe in your arms
[apparat - not a number] amazon
exhausted and in need of a gameplan, handel and cassie finally get to catch their breath as well as catch up on the last few years they spent apart. what’s this, though? some kind of romance possibly blooming? but he’s gotten so much older while she’s still so young looking! (guys, this is probably when you want to get up and go to the bathroom because it gets a little sappy.)
13 chapter 12: getting off-planet/the orbiting city
[justice - one minute to midnight] amazon
after a little rest, the two form a gameplan that may or may not in fact bring down both the ruling AI collective as well as xavier tevin’s empire. both strikes could potentially be accomplished from within the AI collective’s orbiting platform, but in order to get inside they’ll need the help of a legendary ‘netjockey who’s gone into seclusion somewhere in earth’s largest off-planet city. justice’s one minute to midnight has always sounded to me like what it’d be like to cruise around a self-sufficient arcology orbiting the earth.
14 chapter 13: recruiting burnout’s help
[king crimson - ladies of the road] amazon
handel and cassie locate burnout (michael c. hall), and eventually convince him to help. king crimson’s suitably retro track helps to explain just why burnout has the name he does and how eccentric he’s gotten, holed up all by himself for so long.
15 chapter 14: conducting the implant surgery
[amon tobin - the killer’s vanilla] amazon
when handel hung up his ‘netjockeying gear, he had most of the relevant implants removed from his body but guess what? - now he needs ‘em back. burnout is barely qualified to perform the necessary implantation surgery but with the help of cassie’s steady robotic hands is able to put handel under and jack into his spinal column.
16 chapter 15: sneaking aboard the polyphemus
[jamiroquai - deeper underground (edit)] amazon
outfitted with the latest in ‘net implants as well as some pretty damn cool blackmarket weapons, handel now needs to gain access to the AI collective’s base of operations, nicknamed the polyphemus. with cassie running interference from cyberspace and burnout as the link between the physical and virtual world, handel and burnout eventually infiltrate the polyphemus…quickly followed by the bounty hunter, who’s still in pursuit. jamiroquai’s deeper underground sounds like something that might be playing while our antihero goes all stealth-like.
17 chapter 16: inside the ship & inside the chip
[unkle - restless] amazon
once inside the platform, handel and burnout make their way to the core where the real work can begin. aided in-person by burnout and via uplink by cassie, handel breaks into the AI collective core intelligence successfully but is quickly discovered in cyberspace by patrolling security protocols while attacked in meatspace by the bounty hunter.
18 chapter 17: alert, then all-out assault
[the prodigy - no man army] amazon
all hell breaks loose. forced into conflict and still jacked in to the ‘net, handel has to physically battle the bounty hunter while simultaneously battling the AI’s assault in the virtual world. i’m not gonna tell you how it ends, but let’s just say that the AI collective’s hold on mankind is lost and tevin’s monopolistic empire crumbles as well, though not in the way you think. the prodigy’s track has a beat that mirrors the core’s alarm sounds perfectly, so sue me if it’s too on the nose again.
19 epilogue: a relic buried
[m83 - farewell, goodbye] amazon
after the fall of both ruling forces, a new age of man and machine is brought about, as demonstrated by handel and cassie who possibly realize their feelings for each other after being reunited (embracing in slo-mo zero gee, natch). we slowly pan out from the earth to reveal the return of the “artifact”, now a relic as a distant primitive colony discovers and begins to worship it. roll credits.
or something like that.
