The Matrix
Music from and inspired by the motion picture
Warning! Listening this CD with headphones can cause serial damage of your hearing (but it sounds great). No kidding. :)
01 Marilyn Manson "Rock is dead" 03:10
You probably already know this song. This clip is played quite a lot on musical TVs (at least Viva2). The most dominating instrument in this tune is guitar which is supported by good vocals and a lot of electronical sounds. The song is catchy, has great breaks in it and it is one of the best on this disc.
02 Propellerheads "Spybreak! (short one)" 04:01
Superb bassline introduces this song. Also drumline which comes into song after while is great. This in combination with other instruments gives to the song a bit of "James Bond" feeling, but the song remains still unique and doesn't try to copy or plagiarize anything. Again a great song.
03 Ministry "bad blood" 04:59
Scream and heavy guitars start the track and show exactly what will follow. Vocals are shout into guitar noise supported by a few drums. Change comes after more then 2 mins, but it is not much significant and doesn't affect style. I didn't like this one much, but it nicely contrasts with the next song.
04 Rob d "clubbed to death (kurayamino mix)" 7:26
Probably best tune of the whole CD. Try to imagine a mix of classical music with slow Moby. I know that it sounds crazy, but that is what this tune is about. It contains classical instruments like strings or piano combined with modern percussion and samples in composition which is typical for Moby (only slower). This song has really much power in itself and changes quite a lot, so it doesn't become boring.
05 Meat Beat Manifesto "prime audio soup" 06:17
Electronical blips and another metallic sounds begin this electronical tune (probably most of the whole disc). It is without form and it's only a bit more than a random sequence of different parts joined by sounds which are for the whole tune common. It has an interesting sound, but when you'll hear it more times, you'll find out that it's too long.
06 Lunatic Calm "Leave you far behind" 03:12
This tune contains a lot of electronical material and there is also hearable influence by Underworld along other. But it isn't a simple copy, the drumline changes much more often, the sound is more freq. full, more energic. One of the better tunes on the disc.
07 Prodigy "mindfields" 05:41
My friend who lent me the disc said, that he was disappointed by this track. I personally don't listen too much to Prodigy, but compared to their tunes I've heard, this one is less energic and distinct. Not a hit, but it calms down the sound of the album a bit and highlightes the difference between the tracks.
08 Rob Zombie "Dragula (hot rod herman remix)" 04:37
The intro of this tune is great, but after a minute it turns out to something I would compare to "almost Offspring" (I don't like their music). The sound of the track moves between the electronical and guitarish sound and it creates a great contrast that gives to the song more power than it would have with guitars only. But as I said, you have to like that "Offspring" style of the music to really enjoy it.
09 Deftones "my own summer (shove it)" 03:35
The beginning of the song sounds like from Garbage. Later the vocals and the whole sound of the tune turns into shouting and screaming 'shove it'. I don't like the way song evolves in the 2nd part and I think that a song with full "Garbage" sound would give to this soundtrack more interesting sound. But to be rightful to the song, the differences between the more calm and the shout part make it also interesting.
10 Hive "ultrasonic sound" 04:54
Even when I hear this track for 6th time, I still don't remember how it will continue. It's a typical dnb track, any exceptional idea that would force you remember it. It's only average song, which gets lost between the other hits which are on the CD.
11 Monster Magnet "Look to your orb for the warning" 04:43
"Ozzy" like sounding song gives to the album a different and richer color and it belongs to the top songs of this disc. It's quite a normal guitar tune, no screaming, drums are used only when necessary. I like it.
12 Rammstein "du hast" 03:54
This group starts to appear on the soundtracks more and more. They know how the German language sounds to the people who speak other languages and they know what to do with it - they write depressive and heavy tunes. They favourite instruments are guitars, their voices and electronical/mechanical sounds. One of the top tunes on the disc again. "Willst du traurig sein für alle Tage?"
13 Rage against the machine "wake up" 06:03
And here's a final. Rage agains the machine closes this great CD with 6 minutes long song guitar song. It starts great with a part which repeats later with the vocals but rest of first 3 minutes is filled with rap (which I don't like). After surviving 3 minutes you get to my favourite part. The sound rises, grows and again rises to explode and bring the soundtrack to the great end.
The music on this CD is nothing you could listen when you're coding or when you want to meditate. It's aggressive and it's great when you need to get rid of the stress (I've played NFS4 in hot pursuit mode with it and it was cool). For this soundtracks is typical that almost all songs on it start with their best part (when it's possible, because some songs have too many great parts) and they often constitute on the contrast of the calm and aggressive sound. That gives to the soundtrack a real power and even when it's quality is only 90% of the quality of the film, it surely belongs to the top film soundtracks. It's worth listening.
I would like to say thanks to Mantir for lending me the CD, thanks.
[Comment from Dendrite: Having seen the film I bought this CD, too. In
the cinema, I was too busy looking at the on-screen action to follow the
sound closely, but I remembered things to match pretty well. The
soundtrack was thus not exactly what I expected, but it is still a great
lot of hard/industrial music. The only problem was that all my mates
wanted to borrow it! "... und ich hab' nichts gesagt."]