Nash The Slash

Canada's experimental rock enigma, Nash the Slash has created a musical soundtrack to the classic '20s German expressionist silent film Nosferatu, perhaps one of the creepiest horror films of all time. Not only is the music he penned worthy of a standalone listen, it is also obviously intended viewing with the film. Nash vividly enhances the dramatic building of suspense and impending doom inherent within director F.W. Murnau's reinterpretation of the Count Dracula story, instantly replacing all those previous generically inferior attempts by others that could not capture the romantic and tragic essence of the story. Although Nash mostly used synthesisers, drum machines and samplers on this project (with the addition of a real damp and haunting Romanian choir), the sound textures are far from being glossy, instead they are sublime - the graininess of the deteriorated visuals and the feel of the time period are matched. He also proves he is a disciplined soundtrack composer, having identified the recurrent themes and motifs within the film and making returns to them from time to time for the sake of narrative stability. To aid in explaining the style of the music, one can make cognitive comparisons that combines touches of the Residents, Rachmaninov, '60s-'70s Jerry Goldsmith and '80s goth. And what is best about this soundtrack is that it functions in the way a soundtrack is truly supposed to, which is not to overpower or draw attention away from the screen, but instead to create an experience as a whole. Darkness, marijuana and loud volume highly recommended.