The eerie synth sounds that often permeate Black Mountain's music — courtesy of keyboardist Jeremy Schmidt — add a kaleidoscopic colouring that balances the band's sludgy riffs and '70s rock attack. Schmidt's keys-heavy solo project, Sinoia Caves, takes this atmospheric approach to extremes, employing analog synths and minor-key melodies for lengthy explorations of mood and texture. So it makes sense that Vancouver director Panos Cosmatos tapped Schmidt to score his retro sci-fi horror film Beyond the Black Rainbow — the full version of which is now being released as a Sinoia Caves album on Jagjaguwar.
The film itself relies less on straightforward narrative than on stylized set design, trippy visual effects and a simmering sense of terror, as viewers follow a mysterious patient's journey through the freaky depths of an experimental laboratory facility. Schmidt's music perfectly heightens the tension, edging up from breathy high notes to full-blown Iron Butterfly–esque organ squalls. But it's also surprisingly listenable, even without the visual cues: Opener "Forever Dilating Eye" is propelled by a dance-y floor tom groove, while the aforementioned organ riffage (on both "Run Program: Sentionauts" and "Sentionauts II") will lodge itself in your head like a weird dream. Only the 16-minute "1966 — Let the New Age of Enlightenment Begin" gets bogged down in its own epic-ness, which is fine for a movie packed with disorienting imagery to distract from the tedium, but less so for keeping listeners interested.
(Jagjaguwar)The film itself relies less on straightforward narrative than on stylized set design, trippy visual effects and a simmering sense of terror, as viewers follow a mysterious patient's journey through the freaky depths of an experimental laboratory facility. Schmidt's music perfectly heightens the tension, edging up from breathy high notes to full-blown Iron Butterfly–esque organ squalls. But it's also surprisingly listenable, even without the visual cues: Opener "Forever Dilating Eye" is propelled by a dance-y floor tom groove, while the aforementioned organ riffage (on both "Run Program: Sentionauts" and "Sentionauts II") will lodge itself in your head like a weird dream. Only the 16-minute "1966 — Let the New Age of Enlightenment Begin" gets bogged down in its own epic-ness, which is fine for a movie packed with disorienting imagery to distract from the tedium, but less so for keeping listeners interested.
