The Best Record You’ve Never Heard: The Murder Capital recommend the other side of Phillip Glass

Posted On March 5, 2025March 5, 2025

We often attribute the title of musical genius to traditional artists who craft songs across the spectrum of genres that all speak to a structural familiarity. Be it The Beatles, Aretha Franklin, or Elvis Presley, the modern format of verses and chorus with a vocal lead is usually the environment we look to remark greatness in. But what about the legends of film? Ennio Morricone, John Williams, and Philip Glass are artists who have tapped into a deep sense of humanity, compounding the emotional impact of any moving image.

The latter, in particular, is somewhat of an unknown entity to many but has played a crucial role in pioneering expansive cinematic music. Glass’ contributions on The Truman Show, Notes on a Scandal, and Woody Allen’s Cassandra’s Dream has seen him forge a reputation as an artist who can seamlessly combine comedy, drama, and tragedy.

Perhaps the ability that lends itself so deeply to cinematic scoring is Glass’ in-tune sense of humanity. His key learnings came outside of the blank walls of traditional classrooms and instead from the loving hallways of his family home. “My father was self-taught, but he ended up having a very refined and rich knowledge of classical, chamber, and contemporary music,” Glass stated in Words Without Music: A Memoir, adding: “Typically he would come home and have dinner, and then sit in his armchair and listen to music until almost midnight. I caught on to this very early, and I would go and listen with him.”

His observational depth and artistic adaptability that’s hinged on the emotional trigger of a piece of music has made him one of music’s great collaborators, working with Allen Ginsberg, Paul Schrader, Ravi Shankar, David Byrne, Linda Ronstadt, Leonard Cohen, Patti Smith, David Bowie and Brian Eno. With these legends, he laid the foundations of expansive music’s influence on the contemporary, influencing the likes of Radiohead and Aphex Twin.

While the latter-mentioned artists showcase the crossover between classical and contemporary in a more obvious way, Glass’ realm of influence expands further into the alternative, for he was a master at generating a feeling, which, regardless of genre, is the ultimate aim. So when The Murder Capital’s deeply emotive and poetic frontman James McGovern heard a particular piece, its sonic impact was equally as profound as, say, the works of Nick Cave would have been on the Irish band: “The one that kind of sticks out for me is a song called ‘Floe’ by Philip Glass,” McGovern said, when we asked him to recommend a song outside the heavily relied upon streaming algorithms.

“Philip Glass is more well known for his piano pieces,” he added, “but this tune has all these brass instruments and organs. It just sounds like the sound of entering or exiting the world – at the beginning or end of your life.”

Continuing, “I remember listening to it in La Frette where we recorded Gigi’s Recovery, and they had these massive BBC speakers from the ‘70s in the studio, and man, I put that track on, and it literally blew my mind.”

On The Murder Capital’s stunning third album, Blindness, McGovern ponders the state of mortality, most notably in ‘Death of a Giant’. Harnessing the death of Shane MacGowan and the indelible mark of artistic influence he left on the world; they stare the realities of death right in the face. And there’s no doubt that while more grand and expansive in its palette, Glass’ ‘Floe’ stirred a kernel of emotion that grew into the band’s own expression of a similar topic.

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