Music for Drifters

Last updated

Music for Drifters
Music For Drifters (album cover).jpeg
Soundtrack album by
Released18 April 2015 (Record Store Day vinyl release)
24 July 2015 (wide digital release)
Recorded2014
Genre Indie pop, progressive rock, soundtrack
Length40:40
Label Memphis Industries
Field Music chronology
Field Music Play...
(2012)
Music for Drifters
(2015)
Commontime
(2016)

Music for Drifters is the official release of the soundtrack to the 1929 documentary Drifters , credited for kickstarting the "documentary" film genre. [1] [2] [3] [4] The soundtrack, commissioned in 2013 by the Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival, [5] was composed by the Sunderland band Field Music. The composition is the first of their works to feature pianist Andrew Moore since 2007's Tones of Town . After touring the film accompanied by the band playing the soundtrack live around the UK, the composition was recorded and released firstly on vinyl for Record Store Day 2015 (limited to 750 copies [6] ), and then digitally in July 2015.

Contents

Reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic 75/100 [7]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [8]
Drowned In Sound Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [9]
The Guardian Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [10]
NME Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [11]

Though a niche release commercially, the soundtrack was well received by some critics, with several praising the band's ability to evoke "...an oddly aquatic ambience...the percussive delicacy evocative of the lapping tide, the idiosyncratic shifting of pace signalling the unease of the environment". [12] The Scotsman praised the touring performance of the soundtrack, giving it four stars (out of five) and again noting the "complementary score of plangent guitar, electro jazz keyboards and a slow martial beat to match the hypnotic footage of bobbing buoys and silvery shoals caught in the nets." [13]

Track listing

All songs written and composed by David and Peter Brewis and Andrew Moore.

  1. "Introduction" – 0:46
  2. "Village" – 2:37
  3. "Engine" – 0:46
  4. "Out of the Harbour" – 0:44
  5. "Headland" – 1:34
  6. "The Log-Line Tells the Miles" – 0:50
  7. "Casting Out (Part 1)" – 0:40
  8. "While Down Below" – 1:26
  9. "Casting Out (Parts 2 & 3)" – 3:55
  10. "Night-Time" – 0:43
  11. "Destroyers of the Deep" – 2:58
  12. "Dawn Breaks" – 1:26
  13. "Wake Up" – 0:56
  14. "Hauling" – 2:40
  15. "The Storm Gathers" – 3:57
  16. "Full Speed" – 0:32
  17. "Batten Down" – 3:33
  18. "The Ship Rides Through / Quayside (Part 1) – 2:26
  19. "Quayside (Part 2)" – 4:54
  20. "Ends of the Earth" – 1:43

Personnel

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References

  1. "John Grierson 1898 – 1972" (PDF). Griersontrust.org. Retrieved 13 March 2022.
  2. "DRIFTERS (John Grierson, 1929)". Grunes.wordpress.com. 11 September 2007.
  3. "Tate Liverpool | Past Exhibitions | Making History". www.tate.org.uk. Archived from the original on 21 June 2008. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
  4. "Montage Film Reviews - Written Reviews Section: 'Drifters' 1929 (Dir. John Grierson) "Dramatising the Mundane: The Working Man Hero in John Grierson's 'Drifters' "". Archived from the original on 27 March 2012. Retrieved 19 July 2011.
  5. "Announcing a new commission: Field Music "Drifters"". Archived from the original on 15 September 2015. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
  6. "Field Music – Music for Drifters (2015, Silver, Vinyl)". Discogs . 18 April 2015.
  7. "Music for Drifters by Field Music - Metacritic". Metacritic .
  8. Sendra, Tim. "Plumb - Music for Drifters | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic.
  9. Brown, Paul (22 July 2015). "Review: Field Music – Music For Drifters". Drowned In Sound . Archived from the original on 1 August 2015. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
  10. Gisbone, Harriet (23 July 2015). "Review: Field Music – Music For Drifters". The Guardian . Retrieved 30 July 2015.
  11. "Music For Drifters - Review". NME . 13 July 2015. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
  12. "Field Music: Music for Drifters review – shoals of silver daring". TheGuardian.com . 23 July 2015.
  13. "Gig review: Field Music: Drifters, Glasgow - The Scotsman". Archived from the original on 24 July 2015.