Dan McRae: "Rumpy"

The Soho evolver technique: punk bass player > electrohead > IDM auteur > composer. Dan McRae is a confirmed Phase IV these days, done with his hell-raising electrolysis years to now focus on pitching for pilots. Here we have a cut from the vault he’s opened up in anticipation of his first paying job: pondering piano piece “Rumpy,” the definitive skit for those “surprise” butt-in-the-moonbeam walks as modeled by Emilio Estevez in Loaded Weapon 1. McRae’s matured fingers skirt across the ivory in twitches, a hundred times more delicate and rested than when they were back throwing breakers for Thin Films. It’s ironic, then, that whereas his back-catalogue showed him unafraid to recite poetry to a flashing battlefield (or lend strings to satirical zombies), his output these days is more Buddhist, content to happily sit in the corner and smile at its little gold belly. Whether that’s a good thing or tragic depends on your fear of retirement, but it’s nice to see a UK composer for film who isn’t just biding his time until Bond calls. Here’s hoping that late-night documentary about fucked-up couples at the needle exchange comes knocking for him very soon.