Premiere: S.C.R.A.M. – Never Could Live Like That
Wham, bam, thank you, S.C.R.A.M.
In the 80’s and 90’s, we were promised a futuristic world full of flying cars, cyborgs, and neo-noir. Everything is grim, but there’s also neon. Lots and lots of neon. If you take a look around, the future still looks and sounds a lot like the recent past. No robo-butlers. No meals in pill form. No c-beams glittering in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. Luckily we have a brand new song from S.C.R.A.M. (Safety Control Rod Axe Man) to transport us to the future we deserve.
The solo work of Pranjal Tiwari (Cardinal Wyrm), S.C.R.A.M. is a cinematic synthscape for the coolest gritty sci-fi movie that has yet to be made. It’s moody, atmospheric, and hauntingly emotional. It’s the background music for a down-on-his-luck detective that used to be someone until this city chewed him up and spat him out. Now, a beautiful but mysterious woman needs his help to find her missing scientist father. What was the scientist working on before he disappeared? What secrets will be uncovered? Who is really pulling the strings? Is this our hero’s ticket out of this dump or the final nail in his whiskey-soaked coffin? Okay, I really need to go write this movie.
What really ties the song together is the ambient rain courtesy of David Brenner (Gridfailure, Diminishing), Nathan Bishop-Bolin’s (also Cardinal Wyrm) gentle piano, and Mac Gollehon‘s (Duran Duran, Blondie) smooth trumpet. By the way, he has a new album Bite Of The Street out tomorrow via Nefarious Industries. To say it’s a mood is an understatement. “Never Could Live Like This” oozes cool and deserves your undivided attention.
About the song, Pranjal says,
I’ve always loved movie soundtracks since I was a kid, I love how you can listen to a good soundtrack album all the way through and conjure up your own images along the way. It flows like a story on its own, separate from any other media.
With this album I envisioned a story set in a Blade Runner type megacity, with the dark brooding atmosphere that environment would create for the characters that find themselves there.
“Never Could Live Like That” is the tenth and closing track of the album, and I feel like it’s the conclusion to the story the album tells. It’s less of a climax than an epilogue – listening to it, you feel the weight of the characters’ journey. They’ve seen some shit, you know, and I imagine them walking through the rainy neon lit streets trying to take in what they’ve just been through.
Mac Gollehon’s bluesy film noir style trumpet on this track really captures the moody atmosphere that I was imagining when I wrote it, gives it that Bernard Herrmann/ Taxi Driver soundtrack vibe. And the keyboard crescendo created by Nathan Bishop-Bolin in the middle of the track is the perfect frenetic build up, like all the images from the characters’ journey firing in their heads until they reach overwhelming levels. I’m grateful to both these musicians for contributing to this album.
I grew up in a giant city and I used to love walking around with headphones on, often in the rain, taking everything in with a soundtrack in my ears. Hopefully there’s a love of that experience conveyed through this track as well.
Are you ready to throw on some shades, hop into your space IROC-Z, and fly until the city meets the clouds? Then click play and let’s roll to save the scientist and maybe save the world.
S.C.R.A.M.’s The Inner City will be released digitally and digipak-ally on October 6th through Tumbril’s Wedge. You can preorder it here and on Bandcamp.
