David Mackenzie & Tony Doogan – Starred Up: Film Music Reworked

Even with the film fresh in mind, you could be forgiven for responding to news of Starred Up: Film Music Reworked with the question: what film music? Within the context of David Mackenzie’s searing prison drama, the score played an almost invisible role, residing in the bottom end of the mix and only occasionally making its presence more obvious. Now, however, the material gets a chance at the spotlight, albeit having first undergone significant renovations.

The results don’t need moving images to feel cinematic, particularly more abstract tracks like Respite/Paradise and Violence – the latter of which conjures a palpable air of danger in keeping with its title. Similarly confrontational is Crossing the Line, which opens with a barrage of digital noise before introducing an ominous, pulsating theme straight out of the John Carpenter handbook. But it’s Credit that will keep you coming back, its soaring melody reaching out through the bars to touch the sky. [Chris Buckle]