CD Review: THE THREE MUSKETEERS soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 11/12/2011
THE THREE MUSKETEERS soundtrack | ©2011 Milan Records

Whether you’re a composer doing a new take on pirates from the Caribbean or England’s most famous detective, it seems impossible now to play it straight for movies determined to hip up the look, and sound of historically iconic characters. Hence, a plethora of soundtracks that apply the incongruities of electric guitar-topped orchestras and satirical ethnic stylings to accompany multiplex costume spectaculars. So make no mistake that Paul Haslinger’s latest iteration of Alexandre Dumas’ swashbucklers is going to give you the gloriously traditional symphonic strains that Herbert Stothart applied to the 1948 version of THE THREE MUSKETEERS, let alone the […]Read On »


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CD Review: THE THING (1982) soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 10/30/2011
THE THING soundtrack | ©2011 Buysoundtrax Records

No, we’re not talking about a stillborn prequel here, but the one and only. Jack-of-all-trades filmmaker John Carpenter had served as a writer-director-composer on all of his films until his first studio production of THE THING. It was a bigger budget that allowed Carpenter to get his composing idol Ennio Morricone to provide the director with his first “real” orchestral score. That didn’t mean that Carpenter and his “in association” collaborator Alan Howarth wouldn’t give THE THING’s soundtrack more teeth by sweetening it with the icily sharp electronics that marked the auteur’s distinctive brand of horror. The result was a […]Read On »


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CD Review: FUNERAL HOME soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER
FUNERAL HOME soundtrack | ©2011 Intrada Records

Though best known for giving a dark, psychological edge to the violent western stylings of Sam Peckinpah’s THE WILD BUNCH, Jerry Fielding’s twisted talent for combining dissonance and melody was equally effective in enclosed spaces, whether said abodes were being besieged by English rednecks (STRAW DOGS), a deviant handyman (THE NIGHTCOMERS) or a crazed computer (DEMON SEED). Fielding’s constant, mesmerizing sense of unease would ironically climax inside the FUNERAL HOME, an independent Canadian horror flick that proved to hold the composer’s last score.  Where a musician with Fielding’s studio resume would’ve turned their nose at being reduced to a PSYCHO-influenced […]Read On »


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CD review: LORD OF ILLUSIONS (1,200 edition) soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 10/29/2011
LORD OF ILLUSIONS soundtrack | ©2011 Perseverance Records

Having done standout, and distinctly offbeat synth-centric work for such twisted auteurs as Dario Argento (PHENOMENA), Alejandro Jodorowsky (SANTA SANGRE) and Richard Stanley (DUST DEVIL), Simon Boswell would ironically compose one of his most symphonically straightforward horror scores for Clive Barker’s unnerving, oddball take on Chris Angel, as ruled over by a Manson Family-esque demigod. With the English composer given a new Hollywood presence at the time of LORD’s 1995 release (a year that almost marked his noteworthy, if more rhythmically fun studio score to HACKERS), Boswell showed he could certainly bend the traditional orchestral tableau to his warped desired, […]Read On »


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CD Review: DREAM HOUSE soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER
DREAM HOUSE soundtrack | ©2011 Varese Sarabande Records

It’s been a while since John Debney got to score a body count thriller after the savage likes of I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER, END OF DAYS and THE RELIC, as well as the more beatific spirit of the underrated DRAGONFLY. Now as he enters a DREAM HOUSE that holds the spirits of a murdered family, Debney’s ghost leads with both the heart and raised hair follicles. It’s a nicely measured approach whose musical flooring ranges from the spiritual to the foreboding. Sorrowful violins, girls’ voices, and plaintive themes all make for a nicely melodic visitation, with even […]Read On »


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CD review: SPELLBINDER (1,200 edition) soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 10/24/2011
SPELLBINDER soundtrack | ©2011 La La Land Records

Though Basil Poledouris was better known in the 1980’s for the uber-heroic orchestral damage of such scores as CONAN, RED DAWN and ROBOCOP, some of the late composer’s most creative scores were being done for synths, from the wildly percussive car chases of NO MAN’S LAND to the eerie sci-fi western stylings of the HARLEY DAVIDSON AND THE MARLBORO MAN. If there’s one electro-centric score of Poledouris’ that truly held hypnotically evil sway, then it would be 1987’s SPELLBINDER. This little-seen, but very effective chiller cast TOP GUN’s Rick Rossovich as the hunk who falls bad for uncanny hottie Kelly […]Read On »


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CD Review: OUR IDIOT BROTHER soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 10/23/2011
OUR IDIOT BROTHER soundtrack | ©2011 ABKCO

A pleasant LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE vibe fills the soundtrack of a movie that’s far more human comedy than the stoner one its ads would lead you to believe. IDIOT’s band of loveable losers gets a similarly ironic, if more low-key vibe on their path to self-actualization, especially with this pleasantly eclectic soundtrack. BROTHER certainly starts on the right foot with Eric D. Johnson’s whimsical interpretation of the Tony Orlando and Dawn hit “Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree,” with plenty of pointed strumming to follow with Johnson’s “2 Roadrunners” and “The Fruit Bat’s “Lightning Bug.” But is […]Read On »


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CD Review: A LONELY PLACE TO DIE

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER
A LONELY PLACE TO DIE soundtrack | ©2011 Movie Score Media

You wouldn’t think of the Scottish highlands as a place abounding with cliffhanging thrills better suited for Sylvester Stallone. Yet promising action composer Michael Richard Plowman (SPLINTER CELL) gives his all to build a convincing, musically formidable mountain for A LONELY PLACE TO DIE – kidnapping thriller-cum-wilderness adventure. Having last given Union Jack-waving glory to the WW2 AGE OF HEROES on the Movie Score Media label, the English composer is back on MSM to deliver more noteworthy thrills. With just a bit of pipes and flutes to get across the Celtic location, Plowman uses an engaging number of approaches for […]Read On »


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CD Review: THE SPACE CHILDREN / THE COLOSSUS OF NEW YORK soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 10/22/2011
THE SPACE CHILDREN / COLOSSUS OF NEW YORK soundtrack | ©2011 Film Score Monthly

Music for a beneficent space brain and a giant killer robot packed with some screwed-up dura mater fill up this impressive double feature of great sci-fi music, composed by the strikingly-named Van Cleave (first name Nathan). While better known (if uncredited) for the underscore of WHITE CHRISTMAS, it’s Van Cleave’s sci-fi scores for the likes of ROBINSON CRUSOE ON MARS (also put out by Film Score Monthly), CONQUEST OF SPACE and numerous TWILIGHT ZONE episodes that stand as career highlights. But where Van Cleave used CONQUEST and ROBINSON to play the heroism and peril of the outer limits, 1958’s THE […]Read On »


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CD Review: SQUANTO: A WARRIOR’S TALE soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER
SQUANTO soundtrack | © 2011 Intrada

Sure October might be one of the best Intrada-Disney months ever with the release of such long-awaited hardcopy treasures as 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA and THE BLACK HOLE, but if there’s a new title in their Disney bunch that represents some of the best music The Mouse House has ever gotten, then it’s from a movie the studio devoted to an American Indian. However, we’re not talking about the Oscar-winning score that was bestowed on POCAHONTAS, but the rousing music given to a live action brave named SQUANTO, who pre-figured that soundtrack by just a year. No offense meant […]Read On »


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