- Still haven’t picked up a copy of Vincent Pereira’s elegantly arranged CD soundtrack to “A Better Place”? It’s definitely worth a listen, featuring a unique mix of score, vocals, and dialogue tracks. We plugged in the headphones and spun up the disc for a first-hand review. The disc is now available for purchase through the Stash website (signed) and Gig Records. The film hits home video & DVD this summer.
All clips run about 15-20 seconds and are in MP3 format.
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Vincent Pereira’s “A Better Place”, the first of the spinoff films from Kevin Smith’s View Askew Productions, has become one of the most sought-after screenings in independent film as of late, especially amongst fans of View Askew. The film, written and directed by Pereira, a longtime friend of Smith’s since the days the two worked together in Leonardo’s Quick Stop convenience store (the inspiration for “Clerks”). While Smith’s films were designed as mainly comedic in nature, ABP departs from that almost completely, with a very serious, shocking, and personal suburban tale. Fans who have seen the film at festivals and screenings have been surprised and delighted, and anxious to view it all again. With a newly remastered version coming to home video, Gig Records have compiled an all-new soundtrack, containing remixed music tracks, original songs, and dialogue from the film itself.
The soundtrack opens with a very prolific and attention-grabbing quote from actor Eion Bailey, who plays Ryan in the film. From there, we bleed into “Walker Road”, a moody and instrumental Mikael Jorgansen composition that sets the tone for things to come. The Amazing Meet Project, who along with fellow Gig artist Auto Vs. Pedestrian, provide several new songs. The standout of these, “Stupid of Me”, captures the listener’s attention with a catchy, foot-tapping guitar riff, though the darker tones of the underlying lyrics again coincide well with the themes of “A Better Place”.
Much like other classic soundtracks, ABP’s layout has been carefully crafed to mesh dialogue, score, and original songs together to take the listener through the world of the film. Music tracks flow into one another, from Love In Reverse’s brooding “Life Is Fun” into a mellow acoustic guitar arrangement, finally followed by one of several uncredited dialogue clips. This method is used throughout the disc quite effectively. As a warning, though, some of the dialogue may be considered spoiler material for those of you who have yet to see the film, though nothing very major especially considering there’s not much of an exposition.
Delving further into the disc, Auto Vs. Pedestrain’s “Asbury Park” and “Pariah”, for example, are memorable tracks, reminiscent of early score work done in the films of Dario Argento (Goblin) or David Lynch (Angelo Badalamenti) that stimulate the senses and bring memorable moments and moods from the film to mind. Following these quiet moments, things briefly kick into a heavier mode with a synthesized, off tempo tune from the Stereo Mother-Fuckers. Pereira himself has stated that the film’s sound remix was very Lynchian and it shows, particularly in the haunting “Dieyousonofawhore” and the eerie “Whipporwill”. It’s the melding of words, atmospheric score, and dialogue that give the soundtrack its distinct personality. Things end with “Pomp”, an interesting 3 minute mix of dialogue and music from the film.
This is a very impressive achievement for a film that deserved a theatrical release, where it certainly could have fared quite well. The original soundtrack to “A Better Place”, from Gig Records (www.gigrecords.com), contains 16 tracks of original songs, score, and film dialogue. It’s available for direct purchase from Jay & Silent Bob’s Secret Stash for $16 (signed by Vincent Pereira) or via e-mail through Gig Records (orders@gigrecords.com) for $15.00.
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