Ethan Boyd - Coney Island OST

​Ethan Boyd

Coney Island OST
self-released; 2017

​3.4 out of 5

By Dan Weston

My first thoughts when listening to Coney Island OST by Ethan Boyd was that around five-and-a-half minutes of music would probably work better in a short film rather than stand-alone songs. I somehow initially missed the text explaining that these songs were indeed for a film.

Boyd starts with ”A Monkey’s Heart” which sounds a lot like the band The Boy Least Likely To if they were really lo-fi and did not write lyrics. It felt like an impromptu performance revolving around a couple of banjos, handclaps, bass and some “oooing and “aaahhing.” That's really about it in nutshell.

“The Abduction / De-humanization” simply felt like a mood piece built for a film to create atmosphere. It’s a bit of L.A. noir vibe meets murky alien abduction vibe. The music stops and the distorted guitars ring out while the sound of wind passes you by. It gets a little bit chaotic at the end with computer code giving the final send off.

Funny enough “Coney Island Interlude” is the closest piece to a song. I was immediately reminded of the band Grizzly Bear between the vocal delivery and the banjo. There is a very similar baroque pop type vibe here. The song just sort of ends before it really gets any energy.

I’d say the best way to consume the music is just to watch the short David Lynch-esque film which simultaneously attempts to be absurd and maybe funny. It’s a little hard to judge Boyd’s potential given the music was made to fit the film.

​I’d be interested to hear what Boyd could do when concentrating on solely creating music.

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