Various ArtistsHallam FoeReview

Movie soundtracks can be cynical old things; mediocre anthologies of forgettable tunes slapped together to create extra revenue and/or additional promotion.

But once in a blue moon, a real soundtrack comes along that has been well thought out and sounds as good on the home stereo as it does in the cinema.

Hallam Foe – a slightly sideways flick based on a teenager who lives in a treehouse, spies on his neighbours through binoculars and builds a shrine to his dead mother – has been getting rave reviews not only for its visual content, but also for its choice of music (it recently won the Silver Bear award for Best Soundtrack at the Berlin Film Festival).

The key to this success is down to an astute decision by the movie’s producers/director to work alongside one of the UK’s most dynamic independent labels: Domino.

Known for their staggeringly diverse and impressively constant output of great and 'interesting' music, the label boasts an enviable roster of artists able to cook up an entire range of dramatic tension and cinematic introspection.

Thus Orange Juice’s swaggering "Blue Boy" gets the soundtrack underway with a sharp rock rhythm and addictive undercurrents of psychedelia, and is followed swiftly by U.N.P.O.L’s explosive (and slightly jarring) "Here On My Own" and King Creosote’s meandering folk ballad, "The Someone Else".

Things continue in this same schizophrenic vein, chopping between Sons and Daughters' sparse, post-punk-esque "Broken Bones," the song-based electronica of Junior Boy’s "Double Shadow," Psapp’s whimsical "Tricycle" and the gorgeous, textured ambience of Bill Wells Trio's "Also In White".

You’ll recognize other Domino stalwarts here too, such as Clinic, Future Pilot AKA, Hood, James Yorkston, Juana Molina, Movietone and the appropriately named Cinema; you may also recognize many of the tunes, since they’re all previously released – all, that is, except Franz Ferdinand’s specifically commissioned (and classily emotive) "Hallam Foe Dandelion Blow".

The end result is a long and varied collection that avoids sounding like a Domino Best Of and succeeds in creating a series of compelling musical atmospheres.