Sometimes it may go over our heads how important music is to a film. Take the legendary 1978 Halloween for example – a film originally noted by a producer to not be that scary until said producer viewed the film with its now-iconic score. Music’s presence within a film has the power to elevate mood and action; it not only has the means to provide heightened emotion for the audience to digest, but can also impact the emotions of the characters within a narrative.
The Runner, written, directed, and produced by darkwave act Boy Harsher, “Follows a strange woman as she travels to a small, forested town where her violent compulsions are slowly revealed.” Accompanying the film is the official soundtrack from Boy Harsher, featuring vocals from Kris Esfandiari of King Woman, Cooper B. Handy of Lucy and Mariana Saldaña of Boan. While the record works to provide additional depth to the film, it also stands as a riveting work of industrial electronica – able to stir one into dance, while also working its way under the skin.
Darkwave is an intriguing genre of electronic music, given its duality of evocative dance flair, while also striving to capture ominous energies. Jae Matthews and Augustus Muller of Boy Harsher are geniuses when it comes to establishing and maintaining this quality throughout their material. From the opening cut of “Tower”, the act lulls the listener into a ride of hypnotic ease and eeriness; the ethereal nature of Esfandiari’s voice plays off the high-pitched keys and low tones of synth, creating a progression that feels dream-like. Each sonic element works together in minimalism and abundancy to create a psychic tangibility to the music, but also, existing apart to present something surreal.
The poppier side of things can be heard in tracks like “Give Me a Reason” (which continues playing to an underlining air of darkness), as well as “Autonomy” (the drum clap and key work providing more of an upswing in vibrancy, while keeping a touch of eeriness within the mix). Vocally, Esfandiari, Handy and Saldaña bring an added depth to these cuts, their respective singing building upon a given composition’s haunting or exhilarating direction.
While the music straddles these two categories of atmospheric presence though, there is a strong variety to be found throughout the album. Matthews and Muller use a range of industrial and electronic blends that allow for compositions to flow with entertaining and enchanting fluidness. This is music to get lost to, but it also serves as an added emotional vehicle for the film’s narrative. Moving to and from tracks, the soundtrack does tremendous work immersing the audience – the serenity of one cut bleeding its way into the intensity and thrill of the next, aiding in progressing the emotional story being told.
The grim, catchy appeal of Boy Harsher’s music is present throughout The Runner soundtrack. The progression throughout The Runner soundtrack carries the listener through moments of pulse-pounding bliss, to those of unsettling darkness.
