Nick Cave & Warren Ellis – Mars: National Geographic Original Series Soundtrack (Milan)

 

For those needing a quick dose of new Nick Cave music in anticipation of the Bad Seeds’ show at Auckland’s Vector Arena later this month, there is hope. Cave and Warren Ellis have teamed up to create the soundtrack for Mars, a TV series currently running on the National Geographic channel.

First, a bit about the series. Mars is something of a departure for the Nat Geo folks. Rather than a traditional documentary, it is a docu-drama, taking place about 20 years into the future, telling the story of the first astronauts to visit the red planet, combining fictionalized drama and real-life interviews and other elements.

Nick Cave and Warren Ellis are no strangers to the soundtrack scene, having scored quite a few films including The Proposition and West Of Memphis.  This, I believe, is their first foray into television.

Most of the 13 tracks on the album are instrumental, featuring pulsing electronic soundscapes sprinkled with the occasional piano, violin, viola and flute.

Nick Cave’s dulcet tones can be heard on the first and last tracks (Mars Theme & Life On Mars) as he dramatically intones, “coming in too fast now, everyone is burning bright. 182 seconds baby and heaven is a trick of the light”. Then an eerie chant of “cool down my love”, is heard, sounding very much like something from last year’s Skeleton Tree album.

However, most of the soundtrack is atmospheric, moody instrumental music that vacillates from the bright, twinkling vibe of Earth to the dark and majestic Aftermath with its tense, dramatic synth bed and symphonic strings.

Voyage, with its intense throbbing electronica and droning viola sounds like a cross between Radiohead and the Velvet Underground.

So, no, there are no “songs”, per se, to be found here, other than the eerie Life On Mars (not the Bowie tune), but this moody, atmospheric collection is extremely listenable on its own, often sounding like a companion piece to Brian Eno’s new ambient album, Reflection, reviewed here.

So consider this a perfect little Nick Cave top up until Nick and the boys take the stage at Vector on January 18^th.

Marty Duda

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHyn6Lvz8wc