First this. This webzine writes reviews about Sonic Supremacy, not about Visual Art [movies / motion pictures]. But I would like to start this review with a small word about the short movie Keeley. It’s a well-written and nicely performed story, quite controversial, about religious fundamentalism and … Nope, I’m not going to spoil the fun yet. But believe me that from cinematic point of view, this material is highly recommended – and apparently it has been welcomed by many connoisseurs of the motion picture scene with superlatives and appreciation / respect / gratitude. I, being an amateur, was (and still am) very overwhelmed too by this eighteen-minute epic story. And FYI: a DVD-edition will follow later this year. But as said, Concreteweb is about aural pleasure and sonic satisfaction in the first place…
Well, that movie was written and produced by Martin W. Daniels, award-winning film-maker / producer. As scenarist (screenwriter) and producer from many (short) movies throughout the years (he finished nine of them during the last five years), this guy’s name gained honour, reputation and fame within that specific scene. But Martin is also active as musician within many genres. This goes for Noise / HNW, Techno, Black Metal, Ambient, film scores, Experimental, (Neo) Folk, you know, a wide range of styles. A small selection: Sisters Memon, MWD, Regiment VX, Adult Scum, Survivalist and many more.
This said… Most of the time, Martin does write his own sonic material for the (short) movies he’s involved with. This review deals with the soundtrack for higher mentioned Keeley. It got released under the M. W. Daniels moniker, kindly supported by long-time-befriended outlet Gates Of Hypnos. The latter, by the way, is a label by Sado Rituals / Crepuscular Rituals mastermind Przemysław ‘Sadox’ G. It comes with fine artwork crafted once more by another long-time friend / collaborator, Nicolai Kornum (responsible, for example, for the posters). This original soundtrack is divided into thirteen titles, though must be seen as one huge story (yeah, therefor it’s a soundtrack, of course), clocking about half an hour.
The opening main sequence offers us an ominous approach of obscured ambience, quite short yet deeply setting the spine of this movie’s theme on the foreground. In a cinematically-oriented way, it creates a bleak vision, a pre-apocalyptic soundscape that weights heavy and gloomy. The Killing Of Liam goes on in this ominous sphere, being based on rumbling drones and hypnotic noises. It’s a kind of Dark Ambient Music with a scarifying atmosphere, almost Lovecraftian in essence. And so it continues…
It would be too silly to analyze each single poison-gassing title on this soundtrack, so I won’t. But both first pieces I dissected in my former paragraph are like a setting for the audible darkness yet to come. Besides darkened Drone and Ambient (mainly translated via short pieces, yet all of them profoundly captivating, veiled in a suffocating nebula; most of them continue this ambiental way), one might expect some aberrated, even renovative metamorphosis too throughout this album. There are those semi-asphyxiating and Oriental-like additional melodies, repetitive and therefor truly mesmerizing, like meditative rituals spawn from a deep-dark mind (Burning The Flags, Keeley Vs The River Thames, Planning The Terror Attack a.o.). it goes well with the main theme of the concept, believe me, in all its explicit fundamentalistic finesse. At the other, you can also expect a piece performed with acoustic guitar too (i.e. the almost up-tempo track Keeley And David At The Café), drenching the whole into a totally different – yet at least as intriguing – veil of mystery. And some do find a fascinating balance of radical propaganda through both Arab-oriented melodies and dark-droning elegance too, like in Keeley vs The London Underground.
Or, in short: this original soundtrack is a cool work of sonic majesty, an accompaniment for listeners teasing their fantasy or pleasing their inherent crave / urge for visual satisfaction. M. W. Daniels once again shows another facet of his sonic (and visual) creativity, which will be appreciated by the open-minded souls amongst us…
https://gatesofhypnos.bandcamp.com/album/keeley-original-soundtrack
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/adult-scum
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/regiment-vx