The Warp wonderkid’s first film soundtrack has the same sotto piano as his score for crime drama ‘Kiri Variations’, but this is a corroded pianoforte laid waste to the ravages of time – and then tenderised with a hammer. For a large part, Clark’s scraping, barnacled bass looms close, full of the same physical heft felt on the brilliantly ominous ‘Death Peak’. Even the album’s prettiest theme, a lilting nine-note piano motif, gets pitched into apocalyptic sirens on the soaring highlight ‘Realm Promo’.
And yet, when we’re full of the terror of it all, his later ‘Isolation’ themes reassure us with calmer strings. That means this OST loses some of its OMG, but it helps remind us this is music for Adam Egypt Mortimer’s 2019 horror movie and not necessarily Clark at full throttle.
The film’s antagonist Daniel may not be real, but you’ll still feel every hammer blow of this deliciously degraded soundtrack.
