David Mackenzie’s new movie Hallam Foe, ready for cinemas from the 31st of August, has a very interesting soundtrack comprised entirely of music from Domino Records’ catalogue. The soundtrack was compiled by the director himself, with help from Domino’s  Laurence Bell and Jacqui Rice, and it won the Silver Bear award for best soundtrack in the Berlin film festival. One song is written especially for the movie, Franz Ferdinand’s dramatic and beautiful ”Hallam Foe Dandelion Blow”.  All the other songs are previously released by bands like Orange Juice, King Creosote, Sons and Daughters, U.N.P.O.C., Junior Boys, Clinic, Future Pilot AKA, Hood, Psapp, James Yorkston, Bil Wells trio, Juana Molina, Cinema, Woodbine and Movietone.
A good soundtrack on cd is in my definition a collection of songs that sounds good with and without the moving images. A good soundtrack should also give the listener a feeling of the mood in the film. The Hallam Foe-soundtrack fulfills all my wishes for a good soundtrack, and it makes me want to see the movie. As a cd-compilation, all the tracks sound really good together, and it could have been a very good label sampler for Domino. For me, the most interesting songs on the cd are the few songs I haven’t heard before (Woodbine and Movietone), but I must say I am impressed by the collection as a whole. Upbeat rock songs from Sons & Daugthers or Clinic fits perfectly side by side with PSAPP or Junior Boys’ electronica, James Yorkston and Juana Molina’s almost acoustic /folky songs or Bill Wells trio’s jazzy instrumental.

[rating: 5/6]

Check out the directors own blog here.

View a trailer for the movie here: