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 | Title : Long Walk Home: Music from the Rabbit-Proof Fence
Author : Gabriel, Peter
Release Date : 20020618
Binding : Audio CD
Regular Price : $17.98
Amazon.com Price : $12.95
(28
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Editorial Reviews :
Aside from a multimedia pastiche he did for England's millennium celebration, this soundtrack for Philip Noyce's film marks Peter Gabriel's first full slate of original recordings in nearly a decade. In the meantime, Gabriel's globally ambitious Real World musical mini-empire has taken precedence; the knowledge the musician gleaned there is immediately apparent in his film cues here. While the booming electro-tribal rhythms of previous Gabriel work come instantly into play, there's a sense of spacious mystery that's perfectly emblematic of the story's Australian outback setting. Gabriel's penchant for dense aural construction gives way to an ambient soundscape punctuated by Aboriginal percussion, didgeridoo, and bird song, and occasionally washed over by lolling tides of synth and samples. It's an atmosphere that, like the Aboriginal world it evokes, is nearly devoid of traditional melody, but one infused with a gripping, almost subliminal power. 'Cloudless' then brings in haunting indigenous voices as well, intertwining them with a wordless, Westernized choral to emphasize Gabriel's compelling world music vision.
Buyer Reviews :
The single word that went through my mind most while listening to Peter Gabriel's soundtrack to 'Rabbit Proof Fence' was 'arbitrary.' While his earlier revolutionary soundtrack album 'Passion' wove beautiful melodies with intricate and textural rhythms, the only thread of musicality continuous throughout RPF is the sonic palette of the instruments Peter uses. They are occasionally interesting, rarely melodic, rhythmically uninteresting, and often indistinguishable. While the droning bass note is common throughout 'Passion', it was an additive foundation to the melodies and grooves. RPF uses the bass drone in nearly every song, nearly the same note, and when stripped of the beautiful and inspired compositions of 'Passion', just sat there reminding you how random (arbitrary) the entire album is. It reminded me of the much less talented Stewart Copeland's soundtracks, and really just soundtracks in general: lovely, perhaps inspired while watching the movie, but not strong enough to stand up on its own as a musical composition. I actually found 'Passion' to be so musically involving that I think it's a worse soundtrack - that is while watching The Last Temptation of Christ, while Peter's music was fitting it was distracting to the movie. I wanted occasionally to turn the movie off and lose myself in the soundtrack. The opposite is true with RPF. I haven't seen the movie, but the PRF soundtrack seems lost (wandering throughout the Outback?) without something else carrying it. RPF seems to perform the impossible: keeping Manu Katche's drumming simplistic and boring, and the Blind Boys of Alabama annoying and inappropriate.
Sonically, this is an exquisitely well recorded album. If you're an audiophile with a Stereo of the Gods, then several cuts of this album will make your reference demo list. There are tones that are foundation-shaking deep, and a couple notes that step below my system's 22Hz limit. But like too many audiophile recordings of interesting sounds, I will instead look forward to playing the inferior recording of 'Passion' (haven't heard the remastered version, though.) Sonically, it gets 5 stars. Musically, it gets 2 stars and since that's what's really important, the result is 3 stars.
(by Chris Seymour)
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