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View Full Version : A.O.S - "History (Repeats Itself)" - Does anyone have any info about this band?



Jg23666
07-15-2015, 09:43 AM
The soundtrack to Natural Born Killers features a beautiful song by A.O.S. titled "History (Repeats Itself) (Edit)". I can't find any information about this band, but I love this song and would love to hear the original non-edited version of it, as well as any other material they've recorded. Can anyone help shed some light on this mystery?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8Myb8i13qY

sheepdean
07-15-2015, 09:50 AM
Discogs shows they pretty much only made one track, but also gives all the band members http://www.discogs.com/artist/227845-AOS

Dutch/German trio who seem to have their own large music catalogues in their own right

fillow
07-15-2015, 09:53 AM
It's mentioned briefly at Wikipedia talk page for the soundtrack
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Natural_Born_Killers_(soundtrack)

Discogs doesn't have too much info
http://www.discogs.com/artist/227845-AOS

Jg23666
07-15-2015, 10:02 AM
According to the Wikipedia talk page, "This is a piece of stock music that Reznor apparently licensed for use on the NBK soundtrack." I didn't expect that answer!

mqhanlon
07-22-2015, 04:31 PM
Long time lurker, first time poster. A few years back I flirted with having a blog, and I wrote a little about the soundtrack. I really love this song, so I tried to find out as much as I could. After writing to Fay Lovsky, this is what I learned:

One of the best songs on the album, but also one of the most obscure. All these years later, the only clue to the origins of the track lies in the song credits for Wilbrandt, Buhlert, and Lovsky. Are those the members of A.O.S.? Fay Lovsky shed some light for me.
“Klaus Buhlert and I made this song together for a project,” she described over email. "He sent me the instrumental … I thought of a melody to sing and I wrote the words.“ Buhlert built the instrumental side partly by using loops of a recording session he produced for the 1991 album "Alone, For a Second,” a collection of Erik Satie compositions arranged by Thomas Wilbrandt. Buhlert gave a copy of “History (Repeats Itself)” to Wilbrandt as a thank you for use of his arrangements in the loops.
A few years later, Wilbrandt found himself in a position to submit an audition tape to Oliver Stone and Budd Carr for use in Natural Born Killers, and "History (Repeats Itself)” found its way onto that tape. Stone and Carr rejected the rest of Wilbrandt’s submissions, but loved the song. Despite having precious little to do with the song’s creation, Wilbrandt took ownership of the song and got it onto the soundtrack.
Buhlert wasreally the brain behind A.O.S., and had recorded a full album. Lovsky contributed vocals to a few other songs, but Wilbrandt had no other connection to it. Unfortunately for A.O.S., Lovsky explains, “Klaus’ project, involving cooperation with other artists besides me, didn’t seem to catch on with any recordcompany."

I tried to track down Buhlert as well, but I'm only an amateur sleuth. If anyone else wants to try, maybe we could find out more about the "album" that was apparently recorded. Hope this is helpful.

My abandoned blog. (http://mqhanlon.tumblr.com/post/35502837117/nothing-records-part-vi-soundtracks)

botley
08-11-2015, 10:30 PM
WOW, that's amazing sleuth work! I remember reading in a book about Oliver Stone how his music supervisor would make mixtapes for the early-morning car rides, when they were driving to set ups at the filming locations, and that's how certain pieces of existing music ended up being chosen for the movie. If you can imagine Stone driving through the desert like a crazy man at 7 o'clock in the morning yelling along with the lyrics to L7's "Shitlist" at full volume, you get the idea. I believe "Something I Can Never Have" was on one of those tapes (which is how Stone learned about NIN and eventually hooked up with Reznor), and probably this piece was as well.

bberdan
05-29-2018, 05:43 PM
I just pulled up this song and again enjoyed it after 25 years or so.
I remember receiving Thomas Wilbrandt's submissions- I still have some of the files, I believe. I was one of the picture editors on the film, and I just want to clarify something: Reznor, a very talented guy, was hired to compile the music for the album. He did not have a hand in choosing the music for the film. That was a joint effort, mostly consisting of Oliver, Budd Carr, myself and the other picture editor, Hank Corwin.
Funny story- one day, one of the 'junior' producers on the film burst into the cutting rooms and asked, plaintively, "who do I have to f*** to get some decent music into this film!?" We didn't change anything- it's a great score.

mqhanlon
05-30-2018, 11:28 AM
I just pulled up this song and again enjoyed it after 25 years or so.
I remember receiving Thomas Wilbrandt's submissions- I still have some of the files, I believe. I was one of the picture editors on the film, and I just want to clarify something: Reznor, a very talented guy, was hired to compile the music for the album. He did not have a hand in choosing the music for the film. That was a joint effort, mostly consisting of Oliver, Budd Carr, myself and the other picture editor, Hank Corwin.
Funny story- one day, one of the 'junior' producers on the film burst into the cutting rooms and asked, plaintively, "who do I have to f*** to get some decent music into this film!?" We didn't change anything- it's a great score.

Neat! What else could you tell us about Wilbrandt's submissions? Fay suggested that the rest had nothing to do with her, Buhlert or "AOS." Can you confirm that? Did anything else sound remotely similar, or was it mostly classical music done with synthesizers? Are any of his other submissions available elsewhere? I'm obsessed with this song, so I have lots of questions. Thanks for joining the conversation!

botley
05-30-2018, 04:04 PM
I just pulled up this song and again enjoyed it after 25 years or so.
I remember receiving Thomas Wilbrandt's submissions- I still have some of the files, I believe. I was one of the picture editors on the film, and I just want to clarify something: Reznor, a very talented guy, was hired to compile the music for the album. He did not have a hand in choosing the music for the film. That was a joint effort, mostly consisting of Oliver, Budd Carr, myself and the other picture editor, Hank Corwin.
Funny story- one day, one of the 'junior' producers on the film burst into the cutting rooms and asked, plaintively, "who do I have to f*** to get some decent music into this film!?" We didn't change anything- it's a great score.
Brian, thanks so much for taking the time to chime in on this thread. I've always loved your "BB Tone" music on the soundtrack underneath Robert Downey Jr.'s Highway 666 monologue. Would you still have any other stuff from the scoring sessions which didn't make the soundtrack? Maybe you could put up a Bandcamp album of any unheard outtakes for us... I'm sure some of the completist fans here would really go for it!

Jon
05-30-2018, 08:33 PM
Brian, thanks so much for taking the time to chime in on this thread. I've always loved your "BB Tone" music on the soundtrack underneath Robert Downey Jr.'s Highway 666 monologue. Would you still have any other stuff from the scoring sessions which didn't make the soundtrack? Maybe you could put up a Bandcamp album of any unheard outtakes for us... I'm sure some of the completist fans here would really go for it!

This isn't meant in any disrespect, sir:

I realize the credits say what they say, but I'm 99.9% sure that the piece playing under RDJr is tomandandy. There's 7 tracks listed on IMDB (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110632/soundtrack?ref_=tt_trv_snd), only one of which I was able to find on YouTube ("Control Room"). One of the submissions is named "Interview".

henryeatscereal
05-31-2018, 11:02 AM
I just pulled up this song and again enjoyed it after 25 years or so.
I remember receiving Thomas Wilbrandt's submissions- I still have some of the files, I believe. I was one of the picture editors on the film, and I just want to clarify something: Reznor, a very talented guy, was hired to compile the music for the album. He did not have a hand in choosing the music for the film. That was a joint effort, mostly consisting of Oliver, Budd Carr, myself and the other picture editor, Hank Corwin.
Funny story- one day, one of the 'junior' producers on the film burst into the cutting rooms and asked, plaintively, "who do I have to f*** to get some decent music into this film!?" We didn't change anything- it's a great score.
So you guys gave all your music to Trent and then he just created the "pro tools" collage that ended up being the main soundtrack?

Who suggested the mash-up of Janes Addiction with Diamanda Galas? was it Trent's or your idea?