Sound Check — Geoff Carter: Examining ‘Movement in Still Life’

Friday, June 30, 2000 | 9:23 a.m.

Geoff Carter's music column appears Fridays. Reach him at carter@vegas.com

"Movement in Still Life," the exceptional new record by BT (nee Brian Transeau), was released overseas well in advance of its stateside debut. On that side of the Atlantic, the cover depicted an infant silhouette, floating in negative space. When the record came out over here, the infant was gone -- replaced by BT's inoffensively handsome, Rob Lowe-ish face.

There could be several plausible explanations for the change, but the real one is obvious enough: BT's American management plainly wants to make him a star outside of the clubs. For several years now the techno/trance maven's tracks have been a staple of nearly every DJ's set, from Sasha to Sandra Collins; now his tracks are appearing on movie soundtracks. Madonna should notice him any minute now.

"Movement in Still Life" proves the heavy-handed promotion to be fully warranted. It's a firecracker of a CD, and just in time for the fourth. Like recent breakthrough releases by the Chemical Brothers and the Crystal Method, "Movement" tempers its hardcore club aspects with a few accessible, genuinely memorable melodies -- the stuff of movie soundtracks.

Two of the best tracks on the record have already made the leap. The title track appeared in Doug Liman's "Go"-- for which BT provided the score -- and the fabulous "Never Gonna Come Back Down" appeared in Dominic Sena's "Gone in 60 Seconds." The latter sounded great in context, even without its strongest element -- the wild rhymes and beatnik bluster of former Soul Coughing vocalist M. Doughty.

BT's adrenaline-charged track might have winded a lesser vocalist, but Doughty proves too cagey, and entirely too clever, to knock himself out. As BT cranks out some of the tightest breakbeats this side of Norman Cook, Doughty lets fly a colorful fusillade of words and phrase and clauses. "It was in my belly bitter," he howls, "but in my mouth, it was sweeeeeet."

"Movement in Still Life" also collects almost all of BT's recent club hits into something that will sound like a greatest hits collection to serious clubbers. The beautiful "Godspeed" appears here, and lifts the listener as surely and as high with headphones as it does with enormous discotheque speakers. "I'll Go Dreaming" and "Mercury and Solace" retain their tension and epic scale outside of the club environment.

However, no mammoth hit record can truly be a mammoth hit record without a mammoth power ballad, and BT has one readymade in "Satellite." Imagine Bon Jovi in "Blade Runner" and you get the idea. It's a bit too much -- how badly does he want it, anyway? -- but there's enough wild invention on "Movement in Still Life" to drown out this maudlin, ham-fisted Very Special Episode. Welcome to the cult of celebrity, Mr. BT.