Mica Levi presents her latest, stunning soundtrack, this time to the Phil Collins-directed anime short Delete Beach (2016), on Demdike Stare. Following on from the maverick pop auteur and film composer's European Film Award-winning score to Under The Skin (2013), and her Jackie soundtrack (2016), this is Mica's first musical accompaniment for animation, by revered designer Marisuke Eguchi, animated by STUDIO4ºC.
Delete Beach is a sci-fi anime set in a near future where carbon-based energy is outlawed. The film supposes a paradoxical scenario, one where fossil fuels -- the ostensible accelerator of humanity's progress and decline -- become energy for the toil against state oppression and enforced inequality. In doing so, it resonates with anime's strong tradition of exploring eco-feminist themes and power dynamics, both socio-political and technological.
Using a signature palette of dissonant strings and combustible electronics laced with skeletal percussive treatments, Levi paints a series of sweeping backdrops to the short's blend of classically-schooled anime and up-to-the-second CGI designs. The central Delete Beach theme, a diaphanous section of airborne synth-string contours and charred guitar distortion carved in pirouetting turns-of-phrase, appears in Japanese and English narrated versions and an Instrumental mix.
They are divided by the beat-driven "Interlude 1" and "Interlude 2" parts, recalling a mix of string slashes mixed with opiated chopped 'n screwed rhythms comparable to Micachu & The Shapes deconstructions of London Sinfonietta. After her work underlying and exploring complex characters in Jackie, a biopic of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and the alien-woman metaphors of Jonathan Glazer's Under The Skin, her Delete Beach soundtrack follows suit with an impendingly tense, viscerally affective sound that reflects and conveys a sense of independence in the face of uncertainty, of a struggle against imposed forces or control systems. It's another beguiling testament to Levi's role as one of the most original and eminent composers of her generation. Gatefold jacket printed on reverse board; Includes 10" x 10" 12-page color booklet of cells from the film. Master and cut by Matt Colton.
| A1 | Delete Beach (Japanese) |
| A2 | Interlude 1 |
| B1 | Delete Beach (Instrumental) |
| C1 | Interlude 2 |
| D1 | Delete Beach (English) |
