Musique de Film Imaginé

Composer: Anton Newcombe.Recording information: Berlin (2014).The Brian Jonestown Massacre always took a rather arty approach to their garage-spiked psychedelia, so it stands to reason that as the rock side of their personality begins to fade, the art side comes in to help fill out the spaces. That certainly seems to be the case with 2015's Musique de Film Imaginé, which practically abandons rock & roll altogether in favor of a suite of languid mood pieces inspired by Anton Newcombe's love of French film scores. While Newcombe has name-checked Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut as inspirations for this album, Musique de Film Imaginé sounds more like it would suit some Gallic thriller from the '60s about lovers caught up in a nefarious blackmail scheme, or maybe an early Jean Rollin picture about elegant vampires in the City of Lights. The melodies are elemental but powerfully evocative, while the arrangements (scored for a small ensemble with brass, woodwinds, and strings) and p