Constantly developing his musical style, interests, influences and collaborations, Damon Albarn is a songwriter, performer, composer and producer who still remains able to produce engaging and original work even after over twenty years in the business (as is evidenced by a Mercury Prize nomination for his latest project, solo album Everyday Robots). It is perhaps surprising, therefore, that Albarn has not worked more in film with just downbeat Icelandic drama 101 Rekyavik and this 1999 darkly comic cannibal western as examples of his ability as a film composer. Ravenous was a troubled production, with original director Milcho Manchevski leaving a few weeks into the shoot, and, like the films already listed, it was a box office failure that gained some cult following later. Nevertheless the innovative score did gain a certain amount more media attention. Manchevski had been replaced as director by Antonia Bird at the suggestion of Robert Carlyle, who delivered a delicious scenery chewing turn as the lead cannibal. Carlyle had worked with Bird on her previous film, crime drama Face, which featured a britpop-y soundtrack and Albarn's acting debut. For Ravenous Bird now wanted Albarn to provide music unlike most film scores. Coming at a time when Blur's 13 had introduced more lo-fi and electronic influences to the band's sound and the plans for his other band - electronica, alternative hip-hop based "virtual band" Gorillaz - were developing, Ravenous gave Albarn a chance to spread his wings creatively. The score's collaboration with minimalist composer Michael Nyman was more of a sense of Albarn writing a bunch of music and Nyman adding some more than a working partnership, although it all works together in the film. Albarn's compositions are loaded with distorted sounds and repeated samples and set him on a more experimental musical path that would later include not just Gorillaz but also operas Monkey: Journey to the West and Dr. Dee.
