In the 25 years since Twin Peaks was canceled, David Lynch’s surreal murder mystery has only grown more popular. Maybe it’s Laura Palmer, maybe it’s Lynch’s characters born from a fever dream, maybe it’s where pies go when they die, but fans know Angelo Badalamenti’s soundtrack is what brought the show together into an odd tapestry that disturbs your existence. Flying Lotus knows the work by Badalamenti is iconic, so ahead of Twin Peaks‘ season three revival, he dropped a remix of the main theme. Listen:
If you haven’t seen the show or heard its “cool jazz” soundtrack, you might think Flying Lotus’s track was almost tongue-in-cheek, but FlyLo’s sometimes-jazzy stylings are perfect for the synth-heavy themes of darkness and despair written by Badalamenti all those years ago. Like the original, Flylo’s track induces visions of the Pacific Northwest’s idyllic forests while something sinister lies beneath.
The genius of Twin Peaks, especially when it first aired, or even on someone’s first viewing, is its slow burn weirdness. No one knows what’s coming for them. It seems like it should be a typical early ’90s crime thriller, then sh*t gets weird. Flylo’s track, like the original theme it remixes, seems like it could play over just about anything and work, but the knowledge that we’re about to enter a David Lynch mind-melt of freakiness makes the floaty theme almost scary.
Here’s the original for reference. It’s still a banger.
Now comes what is arguably the best part of this article — the mandatory embedding of composer Angelo Badalamenti‘s explanations of how he wrote the unforgettable themes:
Let’s hope Flylo and Badalamenti can get together and knock out a few tracks, and damn it, this version of the song deserves to be in the revival, which is coming to us on Showtime May 21st.
