A beautiful nightmare 

Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein may be familiar names, probably because they scored one of the biggest TV shows of the decade, Stranger Things. Now moving to the big screen, Dixon and Stein’s original motion picture score for HBO’s Native Son solidifies that these guys are pretty versatile within their own playgrounds of dreamy, suspenseful and frightening music production.

The job of a composer for a film is to enhance the emotion felt from the visuals so as to amp up everything you see, and Dixon and Stein’s score does just that. One of the tracks on the record “Affluenza” has these outlandish, electronic synthesizer pads generating rich and sustained tones. Almost sounding like high pitched murmurs, the track turns chaotic as the murmurs get engulfed in a sea of frequencies.

Throughout the record, it seems Dixon and Stein play with the concept of sounds not making it back as they once were. First initiating a sound, warping it, and returning it back to its original state, the ending tones of most tracks become more estranged than before. “Furnace Master” has dreamy sound waves that then turn into scratchy strings over fuzz.  It’s eerie and suspenseful, and Dixon and Stein effectively manipulate the volumes to create movement in the track. To break up the pattern, high-pitched, almost scream-like notes play out and the once dreamy tones become terrifying.

You can hear a slight Stranger Things influence throughout the record within the synths used. “Not the People” speaks loudly in its slow ascent to several single notes played by the electronic synths. It sounds watery and alien-like, truly dramatic. “Manhunt Master” then has these synth pads that are slowly met with darker distorted versions of themselves, and the buildup is ominous and full sounding. Dixon and Stein try new things in the more experimental track, “Pussy Oreo Master.” Perhaps a weaker melody, the off-putting structure and sound sources save the day and are truly enticing.

Dixon and Stein’s score for Native Son is evocative, professional and versatile, and though it can be a bit unassuming at times, the score is scarily beautiful. An impressive addition to their repertoire.