James Lavelle aka UNKLE have a new record, War Stories, due July 24. Ben Kinglsey has a new movie, “You Kill Me,” that was released nationwide last week. Ergo we look at the score to “Sexy Beast,” which starred Ben Kingsley as a fierce sociopath, was scored by UNKLE with the assistance of British rock band South (whom Lavelle had taken under his wing at the time) and was directed by then first-time feature filmmaker Jonathan Glazer (who had directed UNKLE’s celebrated “Rabbit In Your Headlines” video; Glazer also has the distinction of being the Director’s Label series filmmaker with the least amount of videos under his belt).
The main theme, “Cocaine & Camcorders” is simple, but pure Lavelle: a dark, subterranean electronic bassline with sharp breakbeats that fuel not only the film’s tangential caper drama, but brings the scorching tension from Kingsley’s psychopathic character to a head.
This musical bass motif repeats itself all over the film and gives the film a sense of blistering pressure and offputting mystique (after all their is a weird, unexplained supernatural theme throughout). The score is simply, thick, sweaty and brimming towards discomfort. Roque Baños’ simple, flamenco guitars are used in sharp contrast to provide the warmth between Ray Winstone and Julianne White’s characters.
We forewarn: the dialogue over every single track gets a little annoying after a while when you just want to enjoy the music independently of the film, but such is life. It does provide context if you forget the film or just love Kingsley’s character wonderfully insane dialogue.
Download: Unkle With South – “Cocaine & Camcorder”
Download: Unkle With South – “Logan’s Run”
Download: Unkle With South – “Suicide”
Download: Roque Baños – “Gal & Dedee”
