The Heart is a Drum Machine is a documentary film that explores humanity’s primal urge to create music.  The soundtrack, composed by The Flaming Lips’ multi-instrumentalist, Stephen Drozd, is comprised primarily of instrumental soundscapes of the sort that helped propel the Lips toward a late-career renaissance. The only song that features a lead vocal is a cover of Elton John’s “Rocket Man” sung by Tool’s Maynard James Keenan.  The backing track is a marvel of electronica that evokes the cosmos even better than the original, but Keenan’s vocals sound processed beyond recognition.

“Born,” the album’s opener and best song, lives up to the film’s title, beginning with a pulsing drum machine beat, then adding layers of swirling synths and falsetto vocals.  “Born” sounds like it could have been an outtake or song sketch from the Lips’ seminal 1999 album, The Soft Bulletin.   The same can be said of “Get On,” a track that begins with one panning fuzz tone, which Drozd then builds into a full-scale composition by adding layer upon layer of synthetic and organic textures, incorporating organ, xylophone and a driving backbeat.

But just as the Johnny Greenwood’s soundtrack for Bodysong was an album that featured many of the trademark compositional elements of his band, Radiohead, Drozd’s soundtrack suffers from the same lack of collaborative effort.   Of course, no one expects the work of one man to equal the greatness of full band compositions, but the limitations of the soundtrack format can be frustrating to the casual listener.

The soundtrack to The Heart is a Drum Machine provides a glimpse into the compelling genius of Drozd, allowing the listener to hear the constituent parts of Drozd’s compositions inside a wider expanse of aural space. Hardcore Lips fans, as well as fans of Brain Eno’s and Harold Budd’s series of ambient compositions, will find much to appreciate on this album, but in the end this is strictly atmospheric music, and without the benefit of the images it accompanies, lacks the emotional wallop of the Lips’ best work.

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