Ryuichi Sakamoto's done plenty of stuff in his career, from new age antics and big- time film scores to ambient noodling and quirky new wave stuff. Well, go ahead and add "general experimentalism" and "more ambient noodling" to that list, because that's exactly what comprises his soundtrack to John Maybury's arthouse drama "Love is the Devil."

The disc is definitely darker than Sakamoto's other recent recordings. 1998's Discord was a tremendous classical achievement, exploring four seperate movements that represented human emotions. On the soundtrack to Brian DePalma's cheesy "Snake Eyes," Sakamoto revealed his action movie streak. The record had all the makings of a conventional late '90s film score-- blaring horn sections, rumbling timpanis, soaring strings, and lots of loud, dramatic bursts of excitement. Love is the Devil, on the other hand, is simply a creepy soundscape for a film that looks inside the mind of a tortured artist.

Over the course of the album's 28 tracks, Sakamoto fools around with his computers and keyboards, producing tons of different atmospheres. You get the soothing Antarctic sterility of "Bathroom," the bugs- crawling- on- your- face magic of "Boxing," the mutant cricket mating call of "Switch," the warped, underwater orchestra on "Sex," the sound of Satan's doorchimes on "Toilet," the sound of a leaky faucet on "Water Drop," tons of plinky horror film pianos, and on the disc's closer and title track, an inescapable spiraling vortex of madness that... um... sounds neat... and stuff.

But y'know, your stereo is most likely not gonna get too comfortable with this record. Sure, you might play it occasionally on Halloween, or sometimes when you're feeling like a tortured artist. But it's not incredibly listenable or anything. In fact, it's kind of hard to listen to for extended periods of time. I guess what I'm trying to say is: Sakamoto fans only.

-Ryan Schreiber