Dead End Drive-In: Now Showing – ‘The Heart is a Drum Machine’
Written by Gaz E
Sunday, 07 June 2015 04:00
‘The Heart is a Drum Machine’ (2009 – Lightyear Entertainment in association with ZU33, Dreamy Draw, Twinkle Cash & Speakeasy Films)
Director Christopher Pomerenke’s 2009 documentary, ‘The Heart is a Drum Machine’, has just been reissued in the UK by Wienerworld, so there can be no better time to look at the new DVD release of what is best described as “a documentary about music.”
From the producers of ‘Moog’, this film, as with the best documentaries, asks the hardest questions; this one couldn’t be harder, surely?
“What,” it asks a massive cast of musicians, actors, artists and scholars, “is music?”
Yeah, pretty straightforward there.
With the talking heads interviewed against a black backdrop, and obviously asked to wear dark clothing, they appear to be more of the floating than talking variety at some points, but the list of people involved is mightily impressive: Elijah Wood, Fairuza Balk, Jason Schwartzman, Juliette Lewis, Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips, Matt Sorum, Wes Borland, Billy Morrison, Helmet’s Page Hamilton, George Clinton, half of the Dandy Warhols, John Frusciante, former Redd Kross drummer Brian Reitzell, Jimmy Eat World’s Jim Adkins and seemingly hundreds more offer their opinion on just what music truly is.
It sounds ridiculously ambitious, yet is an incredibly satisfying watch.
Accompanied by retro futuristic graphics, the film plays out like a rock ‘n’ roll version of one of those tech programmes that you find yourself watching in the small hours on the only English language channel of a foreign hotel, and, given the wealth of musical talent on display, is surprisingly subtle with its own soundtrack: Steven Drozd of The Flaming Lips provides the understated OST, which also includes a version of ‘Rocket Man’ that has him teamed up with Tool’s Maynard James Keenan.
Some cool rock ‘n’ roll tales float to the surface – Billy Morrison talking of shagging in the back seat of a car in Camden with Adam and the Ants playing on the stereo; Juliette Lewis revealing that her teenage make-out music was housed in a Depeche Mode cassette – but there’s generally a weird collision of worlds that shouldn’t work, but does: NASA talk one minute, Parliament Funkadelic the next.
The best part of the whole film? The scholar explaining how the ear works, but not demonstrating it on any old ear, just the ear of über producer and engineer Eddie Kramer, a wealth of his famous works’ cover art flashing past the eyes as he does so.
This is a real curio, though one that doesn’t stand a snowball’s chance in Hell of getting its main question answered definitively… because there really is no correct answer. Check the film out and discover which artist’s views are nearest to your own.
With an extended, unedited interview with the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ John Frusciante added as a bonus feature, this DVD is a worthy release.
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