Industrial / Noise

Review: When Italian film director Luca Guadagnino commissioned long-term collaborators Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross to write and produce the soundtrack for Challengers, he had a clear idea in mind: music rooted in Berlin techno and 90s rave'. Reznor and Ross undoubtedly delivered, creating heavily electronic music that veers between guitar-laden nu-rave ('Yeah x10'), throbbing peak-time workouts (the Moroder-goes-to-Berghain flex of 'Challengers'), tech-tinged nu-disco ('The Signal', 'The Points That Matter'), pitched-black EBM-techno fusion ('Brutalizer') and acid-fired insanity ('Pull Over'). There are occasional nods to more classical movie soundtracks - see the choral versions of Benjamin Britten's 'New Year Prayer' - but for the most part it is a thrill-a-minute ride through deliciously heavy rhythms, basslines and electronics.