Every year in New York City, people gather at Corona Park, and take part in a tradition over 140 years old. Called The Self-Transcendence Six Day Race, they run around a one-mile paved track, as many times as they can, night and day, for six days.
If that sounds like your idea of personal hell, but you’d like to watch other people do it, Mika Taanila‘s short film, Six Day Run, might be up your street. Finnish experimental rockers Circle have provided the soundtrack, and it’s exhausting.
Made up of six instrumental tracks, or days, they each cover about five minutes and have their own distinct identities. ‘Day One’ is the indie rocker, ‘Day Two’ the industrial beat, Days Three and Four the jazz and desert rock days. What they all have in common is the relentless drums beats. The drums open each song, and loop continuously.
The band cover a range of styles, and concept is undoubtedly avant-garde prog at its core. The minimalism of each song is built slowly in layers. Starting with the pounding drums, then adding simple guitar and bass loops gradually, building the intensity, often inviting waves of synth and ambient sounds accompany the march.
The whole experience can be quite hypnotising and disorientating. The beat may stay the same but it’s very easy to get lost within it all, latching on to the electronic beats and xylophone of ‘Day Six’ or the pop and reverb of ‘Day One’s guitar loops. Whatever you get lost in, the drums are always there, running constantly.
It can be hard to evaluate film soundtracks without the context of the accompanying film, but the relentlessness of the songs replicate the feel of a marathon perfectly, and the density that the layers and layers of loops create leaves you feeling fatigued by its end. Though Six Day Run is an interesting listen, but lacks enough replay value to be anything more than a curio.
7/10
Dan Swinhoe