Geoff Barrow & Ben Salisbury – DROKK: Music Inspired By Mega-City One

Geoff Barrow of Portishead and film score composer Ben Salisbury have created something truly original in DROKK, their soundtrack for Mega-City One, home of UK comics' ultimate lawman, Judge Dredd. The most obvious reference points are John Carpenter's 1970s scores, Giorgio Moroder, The Goblins' work on Suspiria and Vangelis' work on Bladerunner. By using vintage equipment (three Oberheim Two-Voice synthesisers, hooked up in parallel), DROKK are not seeking to imitate these Old Masters of synth music. Rather, they are exploring their techniques and approaches, and breaking new ground in the process.

The duo create a soundscape of interlocking melodies and rhythms which are completely absorbing and hypnotic. The sounds on this album are the most intense, huge, rounded synth tones you will hear on any record this year: like the last minute of Portishead's Machine Gun, but expanded to fill a whole album; they delineate an entire, imagined city. DROKK does an incredible job of capturing the feel of Dredd's dystopian, overpopulated megalopolis, and the dark, dangerous alleys and streets it contains. This will appeal to anyone with a love of original synth music, 70s films, or 2000AD.