Bleep

Though no stranger to sounds outside the club , Jeff Mills’ latest work is among his most ambitious and cerebral yet: following his initial first take back in 2000 Mills re-approaches Fritz Lang’s science fiction classic for a 2nd full length soundtrack for the film, aptly titled Metropolis Metropolis. Moving away from his tried and true 4/4 techno foundation, the album is also less a traditional film score, and more a sonic recreation of the movie which positions itself not so much as musical accompaniment, but film critique and philosophical quandary. The film’s hopeful theme, which portrays some unknown future in which the elite live luxuriously in the sky while the working class suffers in subterranean tenements, are also played out in Mills production. The in roads between supposed high art of classical and the crasser electronic music are actually much closer than expected. Even divorced of context though, Mills' elegiac sound design here is among his finest and most thoughtful work yet.