CD Review: THE BEYOND / MANHATTAN BABY soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 02/18/2012
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

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER
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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Composer Interview: Dickon Hinchliffe goes RAMPART with new score

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 02/11/2012
Dickon Hinchliffe | ©2011 Dickon Hinchliffe

Where once it was unthinkable for film music to be anything but symphonic, the last few decades have seen a surrealistic explosion of composers hailing from the rock-pop world, many of who have taken their roots way beyond a simple drum roll, or strum of an electric guitar to picture. Among an alt. score tribe whose sounds have ranged from hallucinatory washes of electronics to minimalistic percussion and uses of humans on instruments undreamed of, one rising avant garde-ist with an especially unique voice is Englishman Dickon Hinchliffe. Founding, and fronting the group Tindersticks, Hinchliffe’s often seedy, beautifully surrealistic sound […]Read On »


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CD Review: MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: GHOST PROTOCOL soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 02/02/2012
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

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 01/30/2012
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

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 01/29/2012
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

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER
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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CD Review: A VERY HAROLD & KUMAR 3D CHRISTMAS soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 01/28/2012
A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas soundtrack | ©2011 Varese Sarabande Records

It’s part of this seditious series’ way of twisting straight-laced society that the latest HAROLD & KUMAR movie – A VERY HAROLD & KUMAR 3D CHRISTMAS –  has gotten William Ross to do a lushly melodic score for number three in 3-D. After all, this is the THUMBELINA composer who’s also orchestrated the warm, fuzzy, child-friendly sound of Alan Silvestri’s THE POLAR EXPRESS and A CHRISTMAS CAROL.  So it’s fitting he’d apply said holiday magic to a VERY special yuletide film filled with s pot-crazed super baby, a sadistic Russian and an ornery Mexican hombre. But it’s in how well Ross nails that […]Read On »


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CD Review: SCROOGED (3,000 edition)

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER
SCROOGED soundtrack | ©2011 La La Land Records

Danny Elfman has never made any bones that the holiday has always been a dead man’s party for him, particularly with his cheerfully demonic, and demented holiday score that updated Ebenezer into a miserly, public-hating and altogether sleazy TV executive. Just as circus music is ingrained into Danny Elfman’s musical DNA, the holiday trimmings of sleigh bells, caroling and snowflake-like melodies have kept showing up in the Hanukkah-celebrating composer’s work, even when his scores weren’t about Christmas. But among the soundtracks that have directly dealt with the holiday like EDWARD SCISSORHANDS, BATMAN RETURNS, THE NIGHMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS and FAMILY MAN, […]Read On »


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CD Review: SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 01/27/2012
SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS soundtrack | ©2011 Water Tower Music

Sherlock Holmes was always a bit of a stuffed British shirt before Guy Ritchie gave him a rock and roll, martial arts attitude that re-invigorated the character with his SHERLOCK HOLMES franchise and its latest installment SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS. Part and pipe of Ritchie’s in-your-face makeover was Hans Zimmer’s audacious score, whose crashing player pianos, scratchy strings and bombastic orchestra gave a terrifically fun, steampunk attitude to Holmes, in much the same way as his defiantly anti-historical music brought unexpected juice to the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN soundtracks. Now Holmes and his ever reluctant partner Watson are […]Read On »


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