REVIEW: The Art Of Flight Soundtrack

The Art of Flight
Soundtrack
(out of 5)

I like music. I like snowboarding. It is no surprise then that I really like the soundtrack to The Art of Flight – the snowboarding film to change all snowboarding films (apparently). I haven’t seen the film yet, but merely watching the trailer has excited a few snowgasms. I am thoroughly looking forward to seeing it in feature length; the soundtrack will definitely do for now. Watch the trailer for the film below.

Ever since the release of Travis Rice’s game-changing film That’s It, That’s All, French-electro pioneer M83’s dreamy tracks have been synonymous with all things snowboarding. His monstrous hit ‘We Own the Sky’ sat behind some of the biggest riding the world has ever seen; it is somewhat predictable then that a few of the tracks off his latest record Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming (‘Intro’ w/ Zola Jesus, ‘Outro’, ‘My Tears Are Becoming A Sea’) are on Rice’s follow-up film (seriously, go and watch the trailer).

The film’s soundtrack is quite dazzling really; the mysticism of Icelandic tundra-warriors Sigur Ros sidles contently next to Nero’s massive take on deadMau5’s hit ‘Ghost’s and Stuff’. The creativity of German producer Apparat shines through the tradition electro-fusion of ‘Ash/Black Veil’; Hum throw out some grunge rock to remind us all of the 90s; The Album Leaf charm us all with the electro-pop; and Okkervil River slow things down a bit with their melancholic forest folk (‘West Fall’).

Closer to home, our very own Naked and Famous get to showcase some of their recent material (‘No Way’, ‘Young Blood’). I wouldn’t say the band basically copied M83’s style, but I can see their home-grown electro-rock sitting nicely behind Travis Rice and Co as they race an avalanche to the bottom of some out-of-the-way precipice.

There are a bunch or artists I have yet to really hear (The Black Angels, Blockhead, Defrag, all the rest!), but if the rise of M83 post-That’s It, That’s All is anything to go by, any of these artists could be getting a lot more time in the sun – that is the power of the internet, and big shaka snowboarding.

Anyway to summarise, the soundtrack to The Art of Flight has made the right song choices. It doesn’t really require too much imagination to picture them behind a big bold adventure sports film. It’s inspiring. It will definitely get you through the boring day-in-the-office you’re having right now.
 

The Art Of Flight Track list
Defrag - Element L
M83 - Outro
Hendrickson/Dick/Harry - Before The Storm
Deadmay 5 - Ghosts and Stuff (Nero Mix)
Oswin Macintosh - Passion Victim
The Naked and Famous - No Way
Apparat - Ash/Black Veil
Klaus Badelt - Nowhere to Run
Blockhead - Sunday Seance (Loka Remix)
The Album Leaf - Another Day
The Naked and Famous - Young Blood
Mel Wesson - Motional Rescue_Pulse
Mel Wesson - Stark Light
Sigur Ros - Sigur 6 (Untitled)
M83 - Intro
Hum -  Iron Clad Lou
The Black Angels - Young Men Dead
M83 -  My Tears are Becoming A Sea
Okkervil River -  Westfall
Chapel Song | We Are Augustines
 

The Art Of Flight trailer
 

By Theo Sangster