Steve Moore - Cub - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

2015 has been a busy year for Steve Moore, the increasingly prolific electronic film composer, music producer, and one-half of horror-drenched space-rock duo Zombi. In February, he released a new single on Ghost Box Records, while in May his score for 2014 thriller The Guest saw a vinyl only release via Death Waltz Records. Now Moore will round-out the year by releasing a new Zombi record (Shape Shift) and his score to the 2014 Belgian horror film Cub – both out October 16 through Relapse Records.

Except for a few brief moments of pounding tribal percussion, Moore’s score for Cub is primarily an exercise in epic 1970s Berlin School synthesizer drones similar to the work of ambient pioneer Klaus Schulze (Tangerine Dream). As with The Guest, the synthesizer motifs found repeating throughout Cub draw heavily from John Carpenter & Alan Howarth's 1982 score for Halloween III, especially with its use of sudden detuned metallic clangs that often signal the beginning or end of a climatic event.

Much of Moore’s solo material has a similar tone to that of Carpenter’s, though far more muscular and progressive. Intro & Credits, The Truck, Werewolf, and Finale contain the most musical cues, while Arrival & The Treehouse are atmospheric passages that layer strings and organ to grim effect. Casselroque, Sam vs Kai, and The Hunt deliver the unsettling ambience previously explored on Moore’s two-part drone epic Vaalbara (2008).

What’s most impressive about Moore’s compositions is his ability to extract human emotions through minimal synth textures, while creating an anachronistic vibe unique to his own material. When experienced on a good pair of headphones Moore’s productions can be quite moving and in the case of Cub’s dark tone - disturbing. It’s a hypnotic journey that’s effectively unnerving.

While the niche market of horror soundtrack collectors will no doubt continue to be the primary fan base for this sort of thing, fans of minimal electronic as well as synthesizer enthusiasts will find much to appreciate with Steve Moore’s latest solo offering. At the very least, Cub is an amazing display of the warmth and texture only vintage analog synthesizers can provide.