Black Dynamite Sound Orchestra
Black Dynamite (Original Motion Picture Score) (Wax Poetics)Every black superhero needs a badass theme to accompany his pimp strut. Credit composer Adrian Younge with outfitting Black Dynamite in the finest sonic furs: “When you see him, don’t have shit to say,” warns “Black Dynamite Theme” over a crawling bassline. “He beat the devil with a shovel three times a day.” While the 2009 film holds the line between homage and parody of the early 1970s blaxploitation cinema that inspired it, the brilliant score by self-taught multi-instrumentalist Younge is an act of absolute reverence. With obsessive attention to detail, the Los Angeles composer recorded the fully analog score on all vintage equipment, playing the laundry list of instruments including cello, harpsichord, and electric sitar on his own. A brooding soul ballad begging to be flipped into a Wu-Tang posse cut, “Shot Me in the Heart” cuts like the deepest Southern soul. Dark, complex, and moody, Black Dynamite is just that. (Thu., 1am, Scoot Inn.)
This article appears in March 19 • 2010.
