Enter the Dragon's new soundtrack

BY TOM CARDY

It's one of the trends of the 21st century - bands composing alternative soundtracks to their favourite films and performing them live. Tonight in the festival it includes Karsh Kale's take on Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon.

No-one raises an eyebrow when they hear songs by bands - popular or otherwise - on movie soundtracks, or even rock acts composing original music for a movie. For years the movie industry has known that not only can a good soundtrack make a hit movie (Mamma Mia! made $866 million in 2008), it can also make up for a film's other deficiencies and broaden its appeal.

But in the 21st century, a trend that's been gathering momentum is for bands and recording artists to compose entire alternative soundtracks to their favourite flicks. It's been an eclectic mix, from big hits, cult films and revered cinema classics.

Avant garde rock veterans Pere Ubu set a benchmark in 2004 when they performed a live score to B grade sci-fi classic It Came from Outer Space, and a few years later Asian Dub Foundation tackled the Paris mean streets drama La Haine and Gillo Pontecorvo's docu-drama The Battle Of Algiers. Indie band British Sea Power also recorded a soundtrack to Robert O'Flaherty's 1934 documentary The Man of Aran.

In Britain in May the silent 1928 film The Passion of Joan of Arc will screen with a new live soundtrack by Adrian Utley from British band Portishead and Will Gregory of synth pop duo Goldfrapp. The French film has been popular with today's musicians. In 1999 American singer- songwriter Cat Power performed at screenings, and electronic music acts Ugress and In the Nursery have also composed alternative soundtracks to the film.

At the Sydney Festival last year, British electronic band the Bays played the score for German chase flick Run Lola Run, while the psychedelic French animated adventure Fantastic Planet had a new sound courtesy of Australian percussionist Ben Walsh. Each film was projected on to a huge, floating screen moored in Sydney Harbour, with the band performing on a barge in front of the screen.

It also included London-born and New York-raised composer, producer and tabla player Karsh Kale and his band Midival Punditz's alternative soundtrack to chop- socky classic Enter the Dragon, which gets a new airing in Wellington tonight.

Kale is a huge Bruce Lee fan and says Enter the Dragon is a favourite film. "I'm a second-generation south Asian so it was so cool to have an Asian hero like Bruce Lee when I was growing up," he said at the production's Australian debut.

"The score I've done has a bit of ancient China and some classical India mixed into a hardcore, driving electronic soundtrack. If you're a Bruce Lee fan you're in for a real treat because you'll see a new version of an old film and those who've never seen it before will just be wowed."

Kale has also performed his soundtrack with screenings of the 1973 film to 10,000 people in Brooklyn, New York, who stood and cheered when Lee first appeared on screen.

Kale, 35, was born in London and raised in New York in an immigrant Indian family. He has worked with Ravi Shankar's daughter Anoushka, who performed in the Wellington festival with her father last week. Kale's father, an anaesthetist, is also a singer and tabla player, who exposed his son to myriad music, from The Beatles and Elvis to Indian classical. At New York University Kale studied music performance and production and began performing with local bands, showing off his drumming. He later toured with electronica D J Spooky (who performed in the 2006 festival) and made his debut album in 2001.

Kale said that performing live to Enter the Dragon at festivals made sense. "We've loved the idea of doing a film but we've been very selective.

"It's a project that only works when it's presented correctly and where it makes sense to do it . . . We try to dissolve ourselves into the film as opposed to sitting in front of it performing."

And scoring an alternative soundtrack for Enter the Dragon has had a not so surprising spinoff for Kale and Midival Punditz - they are composing the musical score for a Bollywood movie, Calling Karthick.

Enter the Dragon with Karsh Kale and Midival Punditz, Pacific Blue Festival Club today at 8pm and tomorrow at 10.15pm.

NOT THE ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK

Those with long memories will remember that the idea of composing an alternative soundtrack to a movie isn't a new idea - and over the years the Wellington Film Festival has screened several silent films with new music performed live.

* In 1984 Fritz Lang's silent classic sci- fi film Metropolis, made in 1927, was restored, re-edited and re-released with a soundtrack composed by Giorgio Moroder - best known for Donna Summer's synth pop hit I Feel Love - which included contributions from Freddie Mercury and Queen.

* British dance rock band Primal Scream's 1997 album Vanishing Point was inspired by the 1971 film and the band see their album as an alternative soundtrack. "The music in the film is hippy music, so we thought, 'Why not record some music that really reflects the mood of the film?'," said frontman Bobby Gillespie.

* In 2003 an alternative soundtrack was released for Brian De Palma's 1983 gangster classic Scarface - which was a cult hit in the hip-hop community - with compositions by hip-hop artists, including The Notorious B.I.G. and using classic rap songs like Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's White Lines (Don't Do It). Moroder had composed the original Scarface soundtrack.

* For years, Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon has been seen as an alternative soundtrack to The Wizard of Oz, with speculation that the band composed it to fit scenes in the film. The band deny any link, but people continue to play the album alongside the film, which even aired on American TV and in a Wellington film festival a few years ago to Dark Side of the Moon.

* Occasions when Kiwi bands have performed alternative soundtracks to Kiwi movies are rare, but to much applause Dunedin band0 The Clean used to perform their music at gigs in the early 80s to the backdrop of 80s movies Flash Gordon and Altered States.

- © Fairfax NZ News