Originally rumored to be an unused score for Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive, Johnny Jewel (Glass Candy, Desire, Chromatics) began production for many of the tracks on Themes For An Imaginary Film in 2008. Jewel had been approached by Refn after seeing him perform to compose the score for the movie. However, due to miss-communications and the Hollywood machine the project fell through. Nevertheless Jewel and Nat Walker (Desire, Chromatics) had written a few songs that were intended for the soundtrack, four of which have found their way on to the debut release from their project, Symmetry, along with a myriad of other material. The 37 tracks that make up the album seem to stand apart from whatever imaginary film they were truly for. Obviously and expressly inspired by the film soundtracks and composers of the 1970s, the music evokes many moods and emotional overtones over its two hour running time. Jewel and Walker avoid the pitfalls of making an outright disco soundtrack like Goblin or going the John Carpenter route. Instead they have crafted an album that is uniquely their own with or without the film that never was.

• Music Label: Italians Do It Better 2012

reviewed by Joey Coco 10/2012