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Harold Budd - Robin Guthrie & Harold Budd: Mysterious Skin (OST) CD (album) cover

ROBIN GUTHRIE & HAROLD BUDD: MYSTERIOUS SKIN (OST)

Harold Budd

 

Progressive Electronic

2.23 | 7 ratings

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colorofmoney91
Prog Reviewer
2 stars Coming from someone who has not seen the film counterpart to this soundtrack, and judging this album as music alone, there really doesn't seem to be anything special here.

This soundtrack for the film of the same name, Mysterious Skin is yet another collaborative effort that definitely does not live up to the somewhat experimental or stylistically different previous collaborations, but still offers up a decent serving of deeply ambient piano impressionism from Harold Budd along with Robin Guthrie (from Cocteau Twins) -- unfortunately, unlike what the lineup on this album would suggest, there doesn't seem to be any elements from '80s goth rock present on this album at all, which would have easily made everything more interesting. What this album does offer to the usual ambient piano style, though, is equally soothing deep ambient electric guitar (clean toned) that overall make Mysterious Skin sound like a far too laid back post-rock album.

This album is different from Harold Budd's previous ambient piano albums for three reasons: it's elementally different because of the soothing guitar playing, stylistically different because Budd's keyboard sounds distinctively "keyboard", and the overall ambient effects attached to and laid under the instrumentation has a much stronger and deeper reverb effect that gives the entire album a very dreamy feel. This extra reverb, though it sounds small, does wonders for this album that would otherwise be too different to albums like The White Arcades.

Compositionally, however, very few of the tracks on this album stand out as individuals at all -- something that Harold Budd has always had a problem with on his albums (and I say this over and over again, I know). "Goodbye to Wendy" follows in the same floating ambient vein as all of the tracks, but has a profound country music atmosphere to it, including echo-y slide guitar, and the whole tracks sounds like something Earth would write if they decided to be more ethereal and laid back. "Loitering" is a fairly boring song that is amplified a bit by a thin electronic beat and repetitive motif, and that's about the only thing that makes it stand out.

So, as a Harold Budd album, Mysterious Skin is somewhat different in a few aspects but is still far too similar to the ambient music he's been creating for over 30 years. As a soundtrack, I'm sure this album works way better. Fans of the the ambient piano style music of the past will most likely enjoy this album, and so will some post-rock fans, but to me it just sounds like a new stamp on an old product.

colorofmoney91 | 2/5 |

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