Cory Strand — River Edge-A Reinterpretation
The set is themed Rivers Edge- a gritty 1986 teen drama that told of a high school slacker who kills his girlfriend, and then shows off her dead body to his friends. However, the friends' reaction is almost as ambiguous and perplexing as the crime itself. The film featured Crispin Glover & Keanu Reeves, and is seen as an effective study of teenage apathy at it’s most extreme. Over the years the film has gained some what of a cult following, and it’s certainly one of the more shocking & realistic teen movies of the 1980’s
This four disc CDR set finds Strand manipulating the films mainly trash metal & hardcore punk based soundtrack into huge wall’s of all engulfing & hopeless HNW. The first three discs in the set find Strand offering up three tracks a disc; and each of these tracks come in near the twenty five minute mark. For each ‘wall’ Strand selects a single track from the soundtrack, then manipulates it into a huge billow, roaring or churning mass of noise which really has little or no connection to the original track. Each and every one of these nine tracks portrays a feeling of stark unflinching emptiness & extreme/ brutal apathy that of course mirrors the films vibe & subject.
Of the nine tracks on offer over the first three discs I’d say that each has it’s own subtle take of intense emptiness, yet all of the tracks together create a very singular feeling of staring into a abyss of pure hopelessness. As each track really locks down for most of it’s run-time into a focused & mostly unchanging landscape of thick walled noise. Yet instead of these becoming repetitive or dull Strand imbeds each track with it’s own distinctive yet brutal quirk, making each rewarding in it’s own right over their near on thirty minute span. A few tracks on these first three disc’s move towards a stark & fixed form of ambience, but once again they are very much focus in on the brutal & shapeless feeling of teenage emptiness.
The forth disc in the set just features two tracks- a thirty seven minute re-mould of the films main theme music, and a slowed down version of the Slayer track “Tormentor”- which featured on the soundtrack album, and on the bands first album “Show No Mercy”. The films main theme departs from the rest of the soundtracks focus on angered & intense guitar based music, and instead consists of a mixture of descend & doomed sorted of locked acoustic guitar strumming & darting moody bass work. These elements are surrounded by smoky yet stark swooning horn work & subdued film sound tracking string work. For his reinterpretation of the films main theme Strand reducers & distances the soundtracks main shape & eerier unfold to a far away hum ‘n’ buzz, and instead focuses in on this grey & muffling mass of slowly churning ambient fog- to start with I found the track somewhat lacking & underwhelming, but give it a few minutes & it really starts to pull to into to it’s subtle grey sonic landscape, and it’s near on forty minute run-time seems to fly by. The slowed version of “Tormentor” is entitled “Are You afraid Of The Night”, and it slows the almost NWOBHM gallop of the original Slayer track to a sluggish almost off-key doom chug with Tom Araya’s vocals reduced to deformed billow & grunts. The tracks a kind of quirky end to what is really a very bleak & nihilistic release, but I guess it shows that Strand has got a more playful side too.
On the whole this four disc set is another effective reinterpretation from Strand, that finds him managing to recapture the films themes and ideals, yet also putting his own distinctive spin on it. Sadly this is long out of print, as it appeared in a edition of just five copies back in October 2012, but who knows Strand may reissue it, or put it on his band camp page, as this is another worthy piece of work that needs to be heard by more than just five people.