10. Brad FiedelThe Terminator Original Soundtrack
To me, this is one of the most amazing scores, one of the most breathtaking electronic scores, ever made. I can vouch that you’ll hear aspects of this soundtrack in all of my music, from The Entire City right up to my latest releases. It’s hard to describe… in a basic sense, it’s this minimal, bleak kind of sound. There’s something slightly off-kilter about Fiedel’s approach too. There are strange beats in seven rather than four-four, progressing in such an unusual way. Every time I listen back to this soundtrack, I hear a new aspect. It’s really, really multilayered and rich.
And there’s obviously a historical relationship between sci-fi movies and electronica, one that speaks to the alienness of machine-produced music. I’m thinking, for example, of the synthesiser score of Forbidden Planet by Bebe and Louis Barron.
For sure. Just think of how perfectly Delia Derbyshire’s music maps onto science fiction, how her sound was regarded as otherworldly in every sense. I love that Fiedel set out to make a soundtrack made entirely by machines, but there’s still raw emotion in it, which I think is integral. To be honest, the influence of Fiedel is obvious on the track ‘I Am Shell I Am Bone’ from The Entire City. The beat and bassline is almost an unashamed copy.
