Blackfilm – Blackfilm (2008)
GENRES – Ambient, Electronic, Cinematic
Come & See - 7:04
Interference - 7:13
Untitled - 2:17
Stalingrad - 10:11
Sonar - 5:58
Five Years - 4:16
Eastern - 2:35
Midnight To 4AM - 4:35
Mahabharata - 5:35
Atlantikend - 8:02
In regards to music, the thing I hate most about myself is that I can find an absolute gem, and then totally forget about it. I mean sometimes you get caught up trying to listen to the other dozen generic sounds you downloaded at the same time, and it goes to the way-side but generally, you will remember about it when it deserves another spin. That wasn’t the case for this self titled debut from Blackfilm. It wallowed away in the depths of my collection til I was recently burning a DVD of random tunes for a mate, and it triumphantly re-emerged from the ashes. It’s not an album I love for pure originality or anything like that, but purely due to its cinematic qualities. The idea gets tossed around a lot, but this could really be used as the soundtrack for some obscure movie, and it would most likely be the best part of that movie. I mean, even the cover of the album is absolutely cinematic in nature. It’s not the most enthralling, nor is it terribly original all the time, but I sure loved listening to it.
‘Come & See’ offers up dark ambience on a platter. The piece commences with an assortment of sounds and samples, and the overall effect is of someone staring into the fog and knowing something dark and mysterious is waiting for them in there. It carries this effect for a short while, sending the occasional chill down your spine, before some intense drumming enters the scene. It almost becomes a down tempo drum and bass piece (Massive oxymoron) but it still utilises a lot of sounds and mixing to maintain that dark and grave mood. At over seven minutes it’s a very long piece, but it maintains a lot of interest throughout.
‘Interference’ starts out sounding like it’ll be some dark dance song with a fairly fast beat added, before it fades out, and some distorted speaking is introduced. The heart of the piece is this unclear and muffled piano performance. It is only a simple piece but the mixing and overlaid sounds make it a treat at times when the drumming doesn’t take over too much. There is a hint of a string ensemble here and there, but the crux and best part of the song revolve around this simple piano performance. Nothing is too confronting, but it suggests a whole lot of imagery without words, which I think is an amazing ability with music, before it entirely fades out with misshapen beats and foreign chanting.
‘Untitled’ is only a short piece, again based around the piano, but the keys and tones are elongated and mixed. Various aspects of the track are glitched out, and it makes for a nice change length wise to the tracks surrounding it. ‘Stalingrad’ carries the sombre tone expected from its name, and at over 10 minutes it is a confronting beast. Intertwined are some really great beats and mixes and string samples, as the song attempts to encompass hopelessness, fear, melancholy and abhorrence. The sampling near the end of an old song is particularly scary, it’s ever haunting loneliness present as the female vocalist calls out, but is muffled at the same time.
‘Sonar’ picks up the pace a bit from the get go, with a few sonar sounds sampled and used to make the heart of the song. It is a return to a more DnB sound used in conjunction with the piano, with an exceptional drumming performance. ‘Five Years’ is another personal favourite, with some heavily warped beats used in a combination with some violins. The way in which the two are tangled, along with this every present glitch and ‘white noise’ sound is awesome. It never remains the same as itself, always trying to offer changes, before it cuts out, and all that is left are some light background tones and the sound of a heart beating. It wasn’t prominent before the break, but afterwards, this heart sound envelops everything around it. It doesn’t struggle to reach any predefined level; it simply is what it is.
‘Eastern’ is another short track, but it is still absolute quality. At the start is some sampling of someone talking, before it reaches a cracking vinyl sound. It may seem odd but in me it creates a sad and fearful suspense, almost encouraging hopelessness. ‘Midnight To 4AM’ captures the ‘unknown’ essence that we can often feel when we are somewhere alone at night in the darkness. Despite how familiar we may be with the place during the day, the night time gives it a whole new persona that much be cracked to fully understand your surroundings.
‘Mahabharata’ carries with it a sense of foreignness with an ethereal vocal performance, and an assortment of eastern sounding instrumentation. I love the vocals for the short time they’re on, reminding me very much so of some of Lisa Gerrard’s vocals. It carries itself in a dignified manner but is still foreign enough to feel apprehensive of. Eventually some harsher beats become involved, which change up the song enough for it not to feel too similar to itself. It is another top track, probably helped by the fact I love Dead Can Dance.
‘Atlantikend’ is the final track on the album and it borrows a little bit from every other track. It has the sonar sounds from ‘Sonar’ it has the watery doom sound from ‘Come & See’ as well as other factors. The sound of the boat creaking and general flowing/watery nature is a reference to Atlanta from what I can tell. It also covers a wide range of emotion presented in the album, the most prevalent being hopeless grief and fear. It builds up to an almost post rock sound at time, and it presents a nice concept of layering. It is a quality way to end the album, almost suggesting there is a major twist in the story being told.
It’s great until you realise you have been listening to a de-jazzified/down tempo Amon Tobin sound for the last hour… This isn’t a bad thing perse, because I love Amon Tobin, and he is one of my favourite artists of all time. But after you draw that correlation some things just sound overly similar, and it is a bit of a turn off. Of course, the album is still chock-a-block full of good and great tracks, and as I said earlier, the cinematic quality to the album just makes me love it to bits, even the subtle suggestion of some major twist at the end of the ‘movie’. Blackfilm is a good album that any Tobin fans should check out, as well as those looking for a more dark/mellow chill album. Everything feels a bit too bloody long though, with the average length of song nearing 6 minutes.
TOTAL SCORE
8.5/10
– Come & See
- Sonar
- Atlantikend