“You despised I Stand Alone. You hated Irreversible. You loathed Enter The Void. You cursed Love,” teases the poster for Gaspar Noé‘s new film. “Now try Climax.” The Paris-based Argentinian director sure has a sense of humour, even if it isn’t always apparent in his shocking work. His latest offering, Climax, is a deranged dance film inspired by Parisian voguing balls if someone spiked the punch. Groove is in the heart and music is truly at the centre of this film, whose soundtrack is a total winner.
“I knew from the start that I wanted music for the duration of the film,” the director told us back in May after screening his new project for the first time during Cannes. “So the very first thing was to negotiate the rights for music — it was impossible to make a movie about dance otherwise!” Although it was his first choice, he had to let go of Donna Summer’s I Feel Love after rights-holders didn’t want the singer “associated with a film about drugs.”
Too bad. So let’s instead celebrate the release of Climax by listening to the best of what actually did make it into the soundtrack.
Cerrone, Supernature
Supernature is a symphony of synthesizers on acid. When the song was released in 1977 it must’ve sounded like a hymn from the future. Today, it has added melancholy that makes it even more heady. Oscillating between good and evil, dream and reality, Supernature is the ultimate soundtrack to the night out you’ve been waiting for all week and never want to end.
Chris Carter, Solidit
Let’s drift back to 1980 now and the release of The Space Between featuring this song, Solidit. Don’t be fooled by its title. Despite its apparent stability, Chris Carter’s sound breaks up and heads off in endless directions, exploring all possible auditory nooks and crannies.
Kiddy Smile, Dickmatized
Imagine: you wake up one morning and instead of people’s heads, you see dicks. They’re absolutely everywhere. There’s only one explanation for this evil. You have been “dickmatized”.
Neon, Voices
Another forgotten gem of the 80s. Hypnotic and sexy, it’ll plunge you into an endless dance tunnel where the lines between excitement and danger blur. The perfect accompaniment to a weird user-generated Sim striptease then!
The Rolling Stones, Angie
Although it took forever for the world to figure out who this cult piece of Stones discography was written for, we’re pleasantly surprised to find it on this soundtrack. Was it written by Keith Richards for his companion Anita Pallenberg? Or was it about Bowie’s love story with his wife Angela? Less sweet than it seems, Keith plucked the name out at random while writing the song.
Aphex Twin, Window Licker
Directed by Chris Cunningham, the visually wonderful nightmare sums up the duality of the musician: setting sun, deserted streets, gleaming limo and tight mini-shorts. Everything starts out alright but, like Climax, the reality soon turns twisted.
Lil Louis, French Kiss
This is basically 9 minutes and 41 seconds of sexy disco loop. Drag that out a bit and add a multi-coloured checkerboard dancefloor, some party people and a bowl of drugged sangria, and so is Climax, tbh.
This article originally appeared on i-D FR.