What A Good Score! – #34: Blade Runner by Vangelis

What A Good Score is a new series here at Off The Tracks – looking at movie soundtracks, the good, the band and the astounding…

Blade Runner is legendary, so is the book it is taken from, so too of course is the music. An early example, in my life, of the power of film music, I feel like I knew about Vangelis and his score for Blade Runner before I knew about the film, certainly before I knew about Philip K. Dick and his source material. To me, for a while, Blade Runner was all about the music. And only about the music.

I do like the film. I’m not a big sci-fi guy, but when it’s right — it’s great. I am a big sci-fi film-score guy though; they’re often great even if the film isn’t…

Blade Runner though. Chef’s kiss. It’s ambient, and soft and stirring. But it’s also striking, and pulsing and moves from electronic through what I call soft-porn jazz (imagine satin-sheets of sound). In the 1990s, we’d watch erotic thrillers, too young for porn, too embarrased to try for anything, erm, harder at the video store. We’d watch these films with their pastel tones and soft lighting and faux-noir storylines. And I was the only one in the room always comparing the music to the gold standard of Blade Runner; since the film is part noir in its way. A kind of sci fi noir, its only soft porn or erotic thriller moments being in the score though.

When Vangelis passed, a couple of years ago (R.I.P.) I went on a kick, listening to his entire catalogue. A small handful of amazing soundtracks, and a double handful of brilliant albums that all feel like soundtracks in their way; essentially they are self-contained soundtracks, a movie for the ears.

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I also finally bought Blade Runner on vinyl — the Vangelis version. I’d had it on CD, and deluxe edition CD and triple-disc (this is actually a bit much for me) CD. But I had never owned the LP. All I had was the New American Orchestra rendition of the score. Which was fine, it did the job in some way, but not in all ways.

I have grown to love the film more with each watch, and to just think about its world and colours without even needing to watch it. But this is all because of the music. A character in the film, but far too subtle to ever dominate, more a guide, a way of steering through. Which, to me, is the perfect compliment to truly great film score. Some say if it’s doing its job right, you shouldn’t notice it. But I don’t know. We wouldn’t collect it or listen back to it, or even know about it on any level if it was “doing its job right”. So how can that actually be right? To me, one of the great joys in life is sitting up — either early or late — with the Blade Runner score. And…whisper it in front of the fanboys…I prefer that to the actual film. True.

One of the best gigs I ever attended, was an orchestra performing the score in its entirety. This was about a decade ago. And I still think about it. And about how lucky I was to see that.

What A Good Score is a new series here at Off The Tracks – looking at movie soundtracks, the good, the band and the astounding…