Search - Various Artists :: Chopper

Where most movie scores and soundtracks trade in soppy ballads or the unintentionally funny nodding of some half-wit Ry Cooder wannabe, Mick Harvey (Bad Seeds, Crime and the City Solution, PJ (no relation) Harvey) has created an appropriately creepy musical accompaniment to the filmed autobiography of Australia's most notorious hit man, a fellow known simply as Chopper. The makers of the film could not have chosen a better musician-composer for the job, as Harvey's musical credits include being a founding member of Australia's most notoriously pathological band, The Birthday Party (whose classic "Release the Bats" is included here), and he admirably succeeds in creating an atmosphere of violence and dread. --Mike Johnson