[Tribute] – ‘Like Tears, In Rain’ (2019) – Music From the World of ‘Blade Runner’

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Stream the mix while you read; download at the bottom of this post.

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“Los Angeles, November, 2019”.  That eye, reflecting that eternally-nocturnal city.  Explosions in the sky.  The rain.  The sound of the rain, omnipresent.  The sounds of the sky, unreachable to those trapped in the gutter-like streets.  I first visited 2019 twenty-five years ago, through ‘Blade Runner,’ especially via the sounds of ‘Blade Runner,’ and part of me never left.  And now here we are, caught up in time; too close to caught up in vision.  Our world is not (quite yet) the apocalyptic landscape of ‘Blade Runner‘. But that world’s isolation-in-a-crowd, paranoiac uncertainty about the meaning of “real,” and oligarchic dehumanization of the oppressed feel intimately familiar.  Gestating in me all those years, but only possible now, Musicophilia finally has a mix in tribute to–and embedded in–the rich, unequaled environments of the film.  ‘Like Tears, In Rain‘ presents some of the most exciting and evocative music that happens to come from our world in our 2019, but that could have come from ‘Blade Runner‘s rainy streets and decaying buildings.  It’s music substantially sourced from machines and electronics, but that feels “more human than human”.  From a certain angle, this mix is a retelling of ‘Blade Runner‘ from a subaltern perspective: this could be the music played by the people (and the fugitive Replicants) in the streets, palaces, bureaucracies, hovels and ruins of Los Angeles through which our “hero” Deckard and “villain” Batty enact their deadly hide-and-seek.  Even in such a world, maybe especially in such a world, music persists.

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Vangelis and the technical artists behind ‘Blade Runner‘ created sound-as-music, music-as-sound, with no line between score and effects, abandoning normal clarity between what was emanating diegetically from the environment and what wasn’t.  Utilizing the remarkable ‘Los Angeles, November 2019‘ collection that focused on the sound environments of the film  as “field recordings,” I’ve layered in music that (whether consciously or through its invisible but deep influence), draws on many of the same sonic, philosophical and emotional themes of ‘Blade Runner‘.  The result is, not unlike the ‘Sensory Replication Series‘ mixes, more of a journey through a virtual place than a sequence of songs.  Drawing only from the current year, you would think the palate would be limited; and yet, the breadth of sounds that felt organically linked to the world of ‘Blade Runner’ was surprising even to me.  A churning beat mingles with the crackling neon and repetitive robotic street signs.  Deep bass drones tie to the sounds of the spinners and blimps overhead.  Icy decaying tape samples underpin the unseen wind chimes of Tyrell’s glinting headquarters.  Chopped voices lamenting dehumanization cut with the computer bleeps of the detective’s hunt.  Lamenting synthesizers fit between sad sighs of an apartment’s mechanical system.  Ghostly sounds of samples stretched to cracking envelope four-decade-old synth-sax lines we know by heart. Deep drum strikes recall the boom–music? environmental sound?–that opens the film.  That’s just the first half of the mix.  Even the echoing laugh of a forgotten half-built robot are recalled in a story about infants learning–determined yearning for–balance and first independent steps.  “Eyes,” “watching,” “the night,” running, dreams, the uncertainty between the real and the unreal, all cycle through.  While there is great specificity in the (imagined) time and place, the themes at play are universal.

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In some ways it could be unnerving that so much of the best music of our 2019 fits so naturally in ‘Blade Runner‘s 2019.  Certainly, these dangerous days are not the future we would’ve wished for in 1982 or 2002 or any other time.  But I’ve always seen ‘Blade Runner’ (even sans absurd “happy ending” of the original theatrical release) as a film about the perseverance of the human spirit in seeking freedom and dignity, and about the fight to expand the understanding of who deserves it.  This music, even though it draws on the same angers and anxieties and dangers as the film, also speaks to that human dignity and freedom that produces works of striking beauty in even the darkest days.  Even the struggle is beautiful; even if it fails, there’s beauty in trying.  Creating and celebrating human beauty (in all its imperfections) means that we will not be lost, like tears, in rain.

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Download/stream the mix below the tracklist. There probably won’t be a traditional ‘Best Of’ year-end mix at Musicophilia this year.  Instead, ‘Like Tears, In Rain’ and the ‘Old Souls‘ series will tell the story of the music that moved me this year.  Please remember, this music is made by working artists who all deserve your financial support. So please, please, buy the music and merch, go to shows, and propagate the art to everyone who needs to hear it. I’ve included links to pages where you can buy the music in the tracklist below. Thank you for listening, and please pass it on.

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Various – ‘Like Tears, In Rain’ (2019)

[Music in the World of ‘Blade Runner’]

I. Chinatown
[00:00] Elucid – “A Great Many Wishes” (‘Every Egg I Cracked Today’, 2019)
[02:30] Hildur Gudnadottir– “Gallery” (‘Chernobyl’, 2019)

II. Police Headquarters
[04:50] Debby Friday– “Indulge Me” (‘Bitchpunk’, 2019)

III. Tyrell Corporation
[08:15] Yosuke Tokunaga – “Cabinet” (‘8 Furnitures’, 2019)
[10:50] Tim Hecker – “Step Away From Konoyo” (‘Anoyo’, 2019)

IV. Apartment 9732
[15:15] Yatta – “Francis” (‘Wahala’, 2019)
[19:35] Thom Yorke – “Dawn Chorus” (‘Anima’, 2019)

V. Downtown
[25:15] Burial – “State Forest” (‘Claustro’ EP, 2019)
[30:35] These New Puritans – “A-R-P” (‘Inside The Rose’, 2019)

VI. Animoid Row
[36:45] Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah – “I Own The Night” (‘Ancestral Recall’, 2019)

VII. DNA Row
[42:20] Andrew Wasylyk – “Through The Field Beyond the Trees” (‘The Paralian’, 2019)
[43:50] Nelson Bandela – “Balance 101” (‘Fantastic’, 2019)

VIII. Apartment 9732
[45:30] Sequoyah Murray – “I Wonder” (‘Before You Begin’, 2019)
[49:30] Charles Hayward – “Watching You” (‘Begin Anywhere’, 2019)

IX. Downtown
[53:00] Country Florist – “Outlastr” (‘Outlastr’ EP, 2019)

X. The Bradbury
[57:05] Lealani – “The Mountain” (‘Fantastic Planet’, 2019)
[60:25] Clipping – “Nothing Is Safe” (‘There Existed an Addiction to Blood’, 2019)
[65:25] Fran & Flora – “Doina I” (‘Unfurl’, 2019)
[Total Time: 71:00]

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Download ‘Like Tears, In Rain’ Here (160 MB)

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Stream here:

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