David Holmes: Rip Rip, I Think You Flooded It and The Drive to Ripley’s
From Out of Sight Original Soundtrack [MCA, 1998]
After dstill’s post on the fantastic soundtrack work of David Holmes for Ocean’s 11 and 12, I’ve decided to highlight his work for another Steven Soderbergh film, Out of Sight. I remember going to see this as a little dude in high school, before I was into records, djing, or genuine music appreciation for that matter. But this movie was the shit, and I remember digging the music so much that I immediately went out to buy the soundtrack, which was strange at the time because I was mainly a hip hop and alternative rock head. In fact this could have very well been one of my earliest inclinations to the funk. Funny thing after buying it was my mom asking me, “so you like Jennifer Lopez huh?” Well yeah she’s all fine and dandy, but I’m not gonna buy a soundtrack just because one of the stars is hot.
Just like Holmes’ work for Ocean’s 11 and 12, his ability to create drama while sticking with the central themes of the scenes at hand makes the music in Out of Sight nothing short of incredible and really helps solidify it as a complete cinematic experience. While you get kind of a crime jazz feel from his Ocean’s work, the stuff on OOS has a lot of Latin influences as highlighted by “Rip Rip” and “I Think You Flooded It.” Unfortunately the cut dialogue sequences interspersed throughout do a fine job of disrupting any fluidity.
I have a feeling Holmes studied suspense legends like Lalo Schifrin and Roy Budd as you can certainly see a lot of similarities in his work. Take “The Drive to Ripley’s” for example, which sets up the pivotal final scene in the movie through an array of crushing drums, thumping bass stabs, atmospheric keys and tones. It all leads straight to Ocean’s 11 which has obviously already been covered here.
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this is mad nice. love that rip rip. they don`t release this kind of stuff on vinyl do they?
Rumor is that the DFA-team does a lot if not most of the work behind the David Holmes-scenes though…
Willski, I heard that one too, especially about "Bow Down To the Exit Sign." I'm guessing there's probably some truth to it, but it doesn't concern me too much. First of all, the music speaks for itself, and I care more about the quality of the output than who did what. Second, DH has admitted that his role in the studio is more as a director than a musician. He basicly lets players and engineers do their thing, and kind of has the overall say so of what direction the thing is going.
His stuff is mad consistent, and even if it is the behind the scenes folks who make his shit sparkle, I ain't mad at that.
I met David Holmes when I was a young DJ agent in Bristol UK when he DJ'd at the Thekla. Holmes is from Belfast, and he used to be a moderately successful techno DJ during the height of the UK dance music scene in the early 90's. He's released several albums, all of them good, containing a mixture of his own tracks and selected tracks from other artists, most of which have the hallmark Holmes 'tweaks'.
Heres his website:
http://www.davidholmes.tv/