Speaking of Lynch, the infamous filmmaker employed Adamson to score the original music for Lost Highway, a fact that only strengthens the case being made here. Adamson employs faux-spy movie orchestrations, a dark lounge glamorismo, and particularly selective sampling. Produced by Adamson and occasionally assisted by mega-mixmaster Flood, As Above, So Below includes references to the electronic punk sounds of the '70s band Suicide as well as the songwriting of Doc Pomus.
On songs like "The Monkey Speaks His Mind" and "Jazz Devil" Adamson displays a penchant for surrealistic wordplay and relentless self-reference. With superb musicianship, splendid sound production and damn clever imagery, Adamson stays in character throughout and provides a unified, cohesive soundtrack to a movie that has yet to be made. I guess the only thing left to say about As Above,So Below is that I give an enthusiastic two thumbs up.
Mitch Myers writes about music for the Metro Times. E-mail [email protected].
