Conveyor “Theme XIII”

20 Jun 2014 — Henry Schiller

Last December, Brooklyn art rock / guitar manipulation act Conveyor composed their own score for George Lucas’ THX 1138 (1971) and performed it live alongside two midnight screenings of the film at Brooklyn’s Nitehawk Cinema. The score was subsequently recorded (live) at Bushwick DIY space Silent Barn, and the resultant album, Prime, is set for a July release.

“Theme XIII” is based predominantly around a violent swell of gravelly guitars, which seem to suggest the mounting of significant tension. This tension is brought to the fore by the repetition of a single note that sounds more like the twang of a bowstring releasing an arrow than the methodical plucking of a guitar string. Meanwhile, drums crash into a workmanlike frenzy, echoing the resilience and efficiency of German proto-postpunkers Neu!

Eventually, the track bursts into all out war: the gravel is raining down like the hailstorms you hear about on the news that allegedly result in totaled cars and cracked skulls. The bowstrings tighten into a vicious friction and fire in grand, harmonic chorus against the gates of their previous austerity. THX 1138 is an Orwellian tale about the chaos of conformity in a not-so-distant future; “Theme XIII” feels like a piece of Iron Age military equipment being thrown at the screen of the theater in disgust at what humanity might become.

Prime is out July 15 on Gold Robot Records.