Soundtracks

CD Review: PHASE 7 soundtrack

PHASE 7 soundtrack | ©2011 Howlin' Wolf Records

A pandemic in Argentina causes a quarantined condo to go bananas with expectedly arch, gun-toting anarchy. But if you were only trying to decipher this disease’s effects from listening to PHASE 7‘s score, then you might think it was musical bacteria that caused you to chew bubblegum and kick ass. That’s how spot-on composer Guillermo Guareschi’s south-of-the-border replay of John Carpenter and Alan Howarth’s THEY LIVE is, from a slow, military march to its eccentric blues vibe. Thankfully, the score gets significantly more interesting as civilization really begins to break down, and Guareschi’s well-played homage starts to develop its own […]Read On »


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CD Review: HIDEAWAYS soundtrack

HIDEAWAYS soundtrack | ©2011 Movie Score Media

French composer Eric Neveux (INTIMACY, SITCOM) goes into the English woods with HIDEAWAYS, where a young man with death-dealing powers has chosen to hide from those he might unintentionally harm. That is until his solitude is interrupted by a girl already at the grim reaper’s door. Thought the sight of the couple’s love blooming as flowers wilt about them lets us know this will be the stuff of ill-fated fairy tale romance, Neveux’s work is far more about hope, tenderness and even whimsy. His score conjures a magical Garden of Eden for these two lost souls, as gentle bells, soothing […]Read On »


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CD Review: STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME: Ultimate Edition soundtrack

STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME soundtrack | ©2011 Intrada Records

Hardcore fans might be loathe to admit that the most popular entry in the STAR TREK film series (at least until J.J. Abrams re-booted it) was the “save the whales” picture STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME that had the least to do with Gene Roddenberry’s mythology – let alone the movies’ majestically adventurous musical character that had been established by Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner. But dismissive purists aside, there’s no denying the one-off pleasures that abound in the lightweight, character-driven VOYAGE HOME especially in director Leonard Nimoy’s decision to bring a seriously avant-garde composer like Leonard Rosenman aboard […]Read On »


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CD Review: BATMAN FOREVER: LIMITED EDITION soundtrack (3,500 limited edition)

BATMAN FOREVER soundtrack | ©2012 La La Land Records

Where it seemed that the first two scores in the BATMAN franchise were as crazy as you could get with the Wagnerian approach to superhero scoring, then Elliot Goldenthal’s next two entries made Danny Elfman’s brilliant, demon circus takes seem positively somnambulant in comparison. If anything, Goldenthal’s BATMAN FOREVER and BATMAN AND ROBIN scores are like two alarm clocks, screaming through your senses as they mash together the 60’s jazz kitsch that Neil Hefti gave to the television show, along with the brash, brassy experimentalism of John Corigliano’s concert hall works in the 80’s- modernism that changed the face of […]Read On »


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CD Review: THE BEYOND / MANHATTAN BABY soundtrack

THE BEYOND soundtrack | ©2011 Beat Records

When it comes to the blood-soaked explosion of Italian horror, or the combos of orchestral suspense and progressive rock that accompanied these films’ stylish vivisections, two of the names that come to fans’ minds (or the gaping holes through their heads) are Roman gore auteur Lucio Fulci and his frequent composer Fabio Frizzi. For if Fulci’s makeup effects weren’t enough to unsettle even the most stomach-hardened genre addicts, it was Frizzi’s moaning, borderline-psychedelic soundtracks that made them far more disturbing and eerie- as if the images were being telegraphed from a truly unhinged mind in the underworld. Both men ventured […]Read On »


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CD Review: CONAN THE DESTROYER

CONAN THE DESTROYER soundtrack | ©2011 Prometheus Records

If you’re a composer going into battle with one of the worst sequels of all time to protect the sanctity of your original masterwork, then you might as well hold your sword high, scream “Crom!” and produce such symphonic blood and thunder that the one thing to come out of the destruction will be your music. Such was the power of Basil Poledouris as he swung his mighty CONAN into DESTROYER‘s woeful death pit. The fact that Nic Raine and The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus are back nearly thirty years later to re-perform Poledouris’ gloriously manly score […]Read On »


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CD Review: MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: GHOST PROTOCOL soundtrack

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: GHOST PROTOCOL soundtrack | ©2011 Varese Sarabande Records

Of all the television knock-offs that James Bond inspired during the height of the 007 craze in the 1960’s, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE was the spy show that ingrained itself in the public consciousness like no other. Creator Bruce Geller took the Bond franchise’s ever-increasing love of futuristic gadgets to the next techno-fetish level, with the unusual caveat of having its agents rely far more on their brainpower than seductive fisticuffs to take down the villains. And no small amount of IMPOSSIBLE’s iconic staying power through multiple TV revamps was due to the Lalo Schifrin theme, a white-hot jazz countdown that varied […]Read On »


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CD Review: TOWER HEIST soundtrack

TOWER HEIST soundtrack | ©2011 Varese Sarabande R

Brett Ratner might not have the best tastes in p.c.-friendly sound bytes, but he certainly can make fun movies like three RUSH HOUR pictures, let alone have the geek love to get a legit movie jazz master like Lalo Schifrin to score those Chan / Tucker buddy cop pairings. For whatever reason, Schifrin’s not among the crew of TOWER HEIST picture that stands at the height of Ratner’s multiplex-pleasing skills. But if you can’t get the old pro, then a relatively Young Turk like Christophe Beck will do nicely. Beyond being the king of Hollywood’s party down, rock-funk sound with […]Read On »


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CD Review: SHAOLIN soundtrack

SHAOLIN soundtrack | ©2011 Movie Score Media

Composer Nicholas Errera (SLEEPLESS NIGHT) might hail from modern Paris as opposed to feudal China, but you’d think he was musically trained by Master Po himself, given the gentle sweep of SHAOLIN. Where many Hong Kong period action films rely on fancy percussive footwork, Errara delivers both the requisite drum hits and an unexpectedly gentle Zen spirit that’s got more than fancy rhythmic footwork on its mind. Credit that to a story centered on personal transformation instead of gaining mad fighting skills, as SHAOLIN’s warlord undergoes a spiritual conversion in the company of the famed martial arts monks, As he […]Read On »


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CD Review: CHILLERAMA PRESENTS ZOM-B MOVIE soundtrack

ZOM-B MOVIE soundtrack | ©2011 Buysoundtrax

Though he’s done a crazed job on the hellbilly scores of the REST STOP films and WRONG TURN 2, Bear McCreary’s zanier supernatural tastes have been held in check to the point of brain dead-ness by the muted tone of the inexplicably popular WALKING DEAD series (a show whose initial promise has admittedly kept me in slave-like thrall). Thankfully, the composer’s creative horror-scoring shackles were finally ripped off of this year for ZOM-B MOVIE music that makes for the wrap-around segments, and climactic gore-a-thon of the drive-in horror spoof  CHILLERAMA (check it out on Netflix instant). It’s a musical mash […]Read On »


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