CD Review: A MAN CALLED HORSE soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 06/12/2011
A MAN CALLED HORSE soundtrack | ©2011 Film Score Monthly

From the emotionally turbulent breakwaters of EAST OF EDEN to the experimental innards of FANTASTIC VOYAGE and the primal tones that lay BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES, Leonard Rosenman continues to stand as the harbinger of applying avant garde techniques to film scoring- music whose clash of Stravinsky-esque dissonance with traditional melody was just as suited for the concert stage as it was a movie screen. So when given the task of applying a truly authentic American Indian sound to this classic 1970 wilderness adventure, the last thing Rosenman was going to do was go for the soaring, symphonic […]Read On »


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CD Review: THE KNACK original soundtrack (1,000 edition)

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER
THE KNACK original soundtrack | ©2011 Quartet Records

John Barry was surely one composer who had this score’s titular gift as he prowled swinging 60’s London with best mate Michael Caine. So it’s a given that his score for this surreal 1965 film about a lad hunting for English birds would get the clever, lush bounce that Barry used to impress an audience far bigger than the era’s lovely ladies. Arguably the best score to make use of the composer’s free-style jazz origins with The John Barry Seven, and definitely more mature than the sexed-up teen pop energy he gave to his first score for BEAT GIRL, THE […]Read On »


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CD review: CRYSIS 2 original soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 06/05/2011
CRYSIS 2 original soundtrack | ©2011 La La Land Records

EA’s biomechanical warrior returns to the ruins of New York to take on all comers, aliens and humans included. And just as warrior and futuristic firepower are merged, the explosive work of main game composers Borislav Slavov and Tilman Sillescu seamlessly join with Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe into one mean musical machine. And  it must say something about Slavov and Silescu’s first-gen music to entice Hollywood’s most formidable composer to throw down in a big way with one of his own well-regarded warriors. Yet together, the resulting onslaught of high-tech samples, gnarly guitars, explosively accelerating percussion, slithering alien motifs and […]Read On »


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CD Review: YOUR HIGHNESS original soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/28/2011
YOUR HIGHNESS original soundtrack | ©2011 Varese Sarabande Records

After the somewhat unintentional hilarity of the TRANSFORMERS movies, Steve Jablonsky gets to score an outright gonzo take on ’80’s sword and sorcery films, with all of the sound and fury he usually applies to Optimus Prime. And that’s perfect when it comes to playing this unabashedly rude fantasy spectacle for real. Like a composer who’d been subjected to CLOCKWORK ORANGE-like viewings of THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD, THE PRINCESS BRIDE, KULL THE CONQUERER and WILLOW, then turned loose on the world, Jablonsky wreaks loud havoc with every musical cliché in the genre book, as reworked for a rock orchestral […]Read On »


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CD Review: THE WORLD OF WARCRAFT: CATACLYSM soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/26/2011
THE WORLD OF WARCRAFT: CATACLYSM soundtrack | ©2011 Azeroth Music

While I don’t know if I’ll ever be a WORLD OF WARCRAFT addict in line for a pwn’ing, there are certainly enough gigantic stylings on this album to suck in a game music novice, let alone anyone who appreciates operatic fantasy scoring. That’s fitting for a CATACLYSM which unleashes a dragon who’d give Smaug a run for his money into WOW’s massive on-line universe, allowing the composing team of Russell Brower, Derek Duke, Neal Acree, David Arkenstone and Glenn Stafford to suit up in ragingly melodic armor. CATACLYSM is awash in a thrilling tone familiar to anyone who’s ever imagined […]Read On »


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CD Review: TESTAMENT original soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/15/2011
TESTAMENT original soundtrack | ©2011 Film Score Monthly

Film Score Monthly releases another early, auspicious score by Horner centered on youth. 1983’s TESTAMENT remains one of the saddest films the composer would score, its devastating emotional impact heightened by playing the end of the world with a near-chamber music approach. A latter-day ON THE BEACH, TESTAMENT has a family learning about a nearby atomic war, avoiding immediate devastation only to perish from the effects of radiation poisoning. Somehow, Horner hears Armageddon as a gentle Americana lullabye, his bells, flute, piano and angelic female voices making for simple, deeply affecting melodies that hush the little ones to ultimate peace. […]Read On »


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CD Review: FAST FIVE Original Score Soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER
FAST FIVE Original Score Soundtrack | ©2010 Varese Sarabande Records

If there’s a composer whose street rep is of the brash, Young Turk, then it would be Brian Tyler. Possessed of movie star looks and an ability to incorporate a rock-pop rhythm into even his most orchestral film scores, Tyler is more than a double-threat when it comes to seemingly scoring every major youth-action picture out there, the kind of plum-buck assignments most composers with a grey hair can’t seem to get arrested for nowadays. Even if they might feel like screaming as he hot rods it past them in the Hollywood popularity race, the fact is that Brian Tyler’s […]Read On »


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CD Review: PAUL original soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/09/2011
PAUL original soundtrack | © 2011 Universal

After showing his deadly serious Bond action grooves were a slam-bang fit for the buddy cop tribute HOT FUZZ, David Arnold now finds his background blasting aliens for INDEPENDENCE DAY comes in just as handy for a far nicer E.T. named PAUL– his second satirical film homage score for actor-writers Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. If there’s a recipe to this duo’s winning movie-movie formula, it’s walking a fine line between spoofing their source material and just going with their unabashed love of it. Ditto David Arnold right from the start with a winking 50’s sci-fi Theremin and a dark […]Read On »


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CD Review: HOP original soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/08/2011
HOP original soundtrack | ©2011 Varese Sarabande Records

Composer Christopher Lennertz could open up a pet store for wiseacre talking animals based on how many of these critters he’s given speedy energy to, but amidst cages filled with chipmunks, dogs, birds and cats, it’s the bunny who’s got the best pedigree. For in a genre that often turns out to be a dragged-along parents’ equivalent to cleaning up after a hyper puppy, HOP is a pleasingly seditious all-ages delight in every department, its Easter bill paid in style by Lennertz’s rambunctious stylings. His thematic melodies run like a mad dervish through HOP’s double-entendres and slapstick gags instead of […]Read On »


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CD Review: MEGAFORCE soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 04/17/2011
MEGAFORCE Soundtrack | ©2011 Buysoundtrax

Sure there’s THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, but Barry Bostwick’s most outrageous exercise in retro-camp might just be 1982’s MEGAFORCE, a proto-G.I. JOE exercise in souped-up spandex do-gooding, blessed with extra oh-so ’80’s musical oomph by composer Jerrold Immel. Immel had the macho sound of TV scoring down with the likes of HARRY O and POLICE WOMAN when America’s first line of motorized defense came knocking at his studio in the tight-fitted form of Bostwick as “Ace” Hunter. Immel rose to the not-too-serious challenge with the rocking synth pads that any connoisseur of the decade’s action cheese would dig- “dated” […]Read On »


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