A Colourful Storm's Fleetway Tapes series follows classic entries from Time Is Away, Vladimir Ivkovic, Felix K, Young Sparks and others with a heart-stopping selection put together by Berlin-based film journo Florence Scott-Anderton, a fathoms-deep, laser-focused mix that doesn't come around often, engulfing high-art/low-culture TV samples with a series of cues excavated from film - think of it as a sort of Blockbuster Video nostalgia-tinted answer to Time Is Away's flawless thematic mixes.
Florence knows her shit. Not only does she provide words and sounds for MUBI's international film mag Notebook, where she's covered Tōru Takemitsu and crafted an ode to Derek Jarman, but she's a resident on NTS's ace Sounds on Screen. Nose through her archive and you'll find a deep dive into the sonics of lesbian cinema, an exploration of Aussie icon Nicole Kidman's filmography, a mix dedicated to Japanese vanguard Satoshi Kon, a history of the sounds of Iranian cinema and loads more (really, there's so much). And it's this same anti-hierarchal level of expertise and passion she brings to 'A Requiem for Prime Time', a very personal journey thru her memory banks that collages dialog samples, TV ambiance, art oddities and various soundtrack selections that eschew the usual narrative. We'll be honest, we've gotten pretty fatigued with the OST industrial complex and its parallel stream of repetitive, hyper-referential shovelcore outings from genre dorks whose interest in music peaked with 'Stranger Things'. Thankfully, Florence opts to sail down a completely different channel, not avoiding the mythologised synth wave completely (Simon Boswell's killer 'Hardware' cue 'It's Horrible... I Love It... What Is It?' shows up as a bonus like a peanut in caramel) but concentrating on dislocated, provocative and often completely overlooked sounds that drift far from the established "score bro" cult canon.
"It's not like you want to be an accountant," a muffled Australian voice narrates over ketamized SFX on the opening side. "You, like me, want something that is creative, that is out there a little bit." A clip from Peter Mullan's 2002 drama 'The Magdalene Sisters' appears, pulling us right back to that moment when trip-hop aesthetics bled into Hollywood's mainstream, and before long we’re riding a different train of thought, stitching cavernous twee rock with pastoral post-Glass minimalism and scratchy, evocative environmental recordings. Canned sax solos and airy guitar plucks fade into cuts from Mike Figgis's notorious experimental film 'Timecode', and somehow Woijciech Kilar's end credits from Francis Ford Copolla's 'Bram Stoker's Dracula' show up for some thematic relief. On the flip, Florence opens the side with waved, Eno-style psychedelic ambient that's ruptured by a beat isolated from Joe Delia's sordid score for Abel Ferarra's famously abhorred erotic thriller 'The Blackout'. From here, we're catapulted across Christophe Beck's 'Bring It On' soundscapes, a cloudy, sub-heavy ambient marvel from Brooklyn artist Alex Bienstock and even Joe Jackson's aborted theme for 'Mike's Murder', a 1984 Debra Winger vehicle that had its entire soundtrack replaced with a more palatable one from John Barry.
Really, we can't say enough about this one. If you've been following Scott-Anderton's mixes (if you want just one, we recommend her Krzysztof Kieślowski selection), you'll already know how vital her point of view is, but she takes us to a completely new zone with this one. It's a head-scratcher that'll have you wondering what it is yr actually listening to - a way to contemplate the Y2K era as it completely vanishes into popular mythology.
