FILTER ALBUMS
Sin city
Fourth soundtrack in the on-going collaborative relationship between the brothers Matt and Gerard Johnson.
By Andrew Male.
The The ★★★★★
Odyssey
Perfect timing: The The’s Matt Johnson ups the nocturnal tension on his brother’s film.
CINÉOLA/EARMUSIC. CD/DL
GERARD JOHNSON’s films are not for the squeamish. Since his 2009 feature film debut, Tony, about a locked-in Hackney serial killer, he has established a name for himself as a purveyor of low-budget metaphysical horror films centred around the occupants of London’s grubby hinterlands. Following 2014’s corrupt cop drama Hyena, came 2019’s astonishing Muscle, a chilling update of Pinter’s The Servant in which the life of a miserable tele-sales op is overtaken by his unhinged personal trainer (an incredible Craig Fairbrass). His latest, Odyssey, involves the travails of Natasha Flynn (Polly Maberly), a coke-fuelled estate agent sucked into a spiralling nightmare. As well as being thematically and emotionally linked, Johnson’s films are also connected by their scores. As composed by Gerard’s brother, Matt, these minimalist soundtracks work as both colour and commentary, designed to pull the viewer ever deeper into Gerard’s world of urban dislocation and uncertainty.