There’s a scene in the movie Children of Men that I think of often. Michael Caine and Clive Owen are hanging out getting high – perhaps the only worthwhile pastime in an impossibly grim, grey future where humans have lost the ability to reproduce. Michael Caine plays what he jokingly calls “a little zen music” and we hear a brief snippet of music from the future. It sounds like audio samples of Guantanamo torture played over skittering digital glitches. It’s incredibly abrasive, and therefore fitting for a harsh world. I often wonder, what will music sound like in the future? What would my great-grandparents have thought of the music of Lamb of God or Skrillex? It probably wouldn’t have sounded like music to them at all.
Michael Caine plays air guitar in ‘Children of Men’
Daze, the new album from British electronic musician Brood Ma, sounds like music from a dystopian future. It will force you to take notice simply because it’s so different from everything else you’ll hear today. It’s extremely cinematic; one track has a sample that reminds me of the zombies from 28 Days Later and another sounds like Michael Bay’s Transformers fucking. Portions of Daze are spellbinding and visceral. There are other portions that might not be music at all – but any time you listen to something that makes you question the very nature of music, I figure that’s probably good.
Just imagine if you could take a time machine back to 1910 and bring a boombox loaded with Brood Ma. You could walk onto a crowded street with it and say, “Hear ye, hear ye, gather round! This is what music sounds like in the future!” Then push play and watch peoples’ heads explode.
Here’s a track from Daze:
Here’s the Children of Men scene I mentioned (there’s a snippet of music around 2:40):
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