In a new interview, the filmmaker talks about the soundtrack for latest set of films.
Adam Curtis’ new BBC series, Can’t Get You Out of My Head: An Emotional History of the Modern World, premieres exclusively today (11 February) on BBC iPlayer. Not only is the BAFTA Award-winning filmmaker known for his collage style of archive footage, but also his narration and use of music.
In an interview with AnOther, published today, Curtis touches upon his use of Aphex Twin in the soundtrack for the six-part series. “What I think is brilliant about Aphex Twin is that he does two things,” Curtis said. “He combines in his lyrical work a wonderful expression of that yearning for something beyond. But then also expresses in other pieces the fractured and uneasy mood of the present moment.”
“And to combine the two together is really what art should do I think. Showing you in a heightened way the mood of now – and the feeling of what might be beyond that.”
He also linked Aphex to SOPHIE: “I think that that is also what SOPHIE did beautifully as well, jumping back and forth between the two without having to bother with the old idea of transitions.”
The soundtrack, however, doesn’t use Kylie’s famous hit Can’t Get You Out of My Head, which it’s named after. “It’s one of the great pop songs of all time,” he said. “I can’t use it in the film, it wouldn’t be right. It would be too obvious.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Curtis talks about how culture has become self-referential, the sci-fi literature he’s been reading and Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy You.
Revisit our cover stories with Aphex Twin and SOPHIE.