Blade Runner: Capturing the imagination of electro music across the generations
Hipnosis – End Titles (Blade Runner)
OK! So after a wild weekend of beer, burlesque and BMX, the Cold Crush mob is back in action!
One of the most common themes in electro funk music, especially in the early 80s, was the future. Themes of cyborgs and cosmic cars, future cities, space travel, and robotic voices talking about futures then only dreamed about were a constant recurring theme.
So it is no surprise that Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner has caught the imagination of the electro funk scene ever since it’s release in 1982. Based on Philip K Dick’s Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep, it is a bleak neo-noir tale set in a dystopian Los Angeles, 2019. Rick Deckard – a retired Blade Runner, is enlisted to hunt down four replicants: super humans manufactured for use as slaves, superior in strength and agility to humans, but otherwise physically indistinguishable. As a safeguard against rebellion, replicants were created with a four year life cycle as a attempt to prevent them from developing the desire for independence.
In an act of desperation, led by the enigmatic Roy Batty, the four replicants made their made their way from an offworld colony to Earth to track down their creator, Dr. Alden Tyrell in an attempt to bargain for – or claim by whatever violent means necessary to extend their rapidly ending lives.
From the beginning until the explosive climax, Blade Runner explores themes of morality, compassion, and of what it means to be human. The replicants – or skin jobs, as they are derogatorily referred to throughout the film, are portrayed as showing genuine compassion and concern for one-another, are juxtaposed against emotionally cold human characters, impersonal and lacking in empathy.
Deckard – who despite being a Blade Runner, used to brutally “retiring” rogue replicants, winds up in a romantic with Rachel – an advanced prototype replicant built by Dr. Tyrell who believes she is human. The movie also goes as far as to raise the doubt as to whether or not Deckard himself is even human.
If you havn’t already seen it, do yourself a favour and get a copy, dim the lights and enjoy. It is definitely a favourite with Zerohour staff I know for a fact we are not the only ones!
Apart from it’s amazing visual imagery and special effects, Blade Runner also boasted an amazing soundtrack by Vangelis, which combined classical influences with synthesizer parts. The deep and dramatic End Titles was covered by Hipnosis in 1983, released on ZYX Records. A little more melancholy than the typical electro funk of it’s time, it keeps the beautiful string section from the original but adds adds kicking drum machine beats and a bouncier arpeggio melody.
In fact, the Pulstar record beat the official release of the Blade Runner soundtrack by 9 years! Despite being hugely popular, and bootlegged and covered many times over the years, it didn’t gain an official release until 1994.
Hipnosis – End Titles (Blade Runner)
The original 1982 Blade Runner theatrical trailer
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