Music

CD Review: FROZEN PLANET soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/23/2013
FROZEN PLANET soundtrack | ©2013 Silva Screen Records

Englishman George Fenton seems to have conquered the market on scoring every nook and cranny of the globe with a series of sweeping nature documentaries that have included EARTH, LIFE, PLANET EARTH and THE BLUE PLANET. And while the genre has technically evolved in light years from the dinosaur-age days of MUTUAL OF OMAHA’S WILD KINGDOM, the basic spectacle of watching animals being cute, or killing each other certainly hasn’t. That age-old struggle for survival is often mirrored in the artist’s challenge of going for the uncondescending beauty of God’s ice-covered earth, or choosing to play it with the family-friendly […]Read On »


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CD Review: SHE DEMONS / THE ASTOUNDING SHE-MONSTER

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER
THE ASTOUNDING SHE-MONSTER soundtrack | ©2013 Monstrous Movie Music

When you want the best in shrieking, old-school genre music, then Monstrous Movie Music has been the place for any Famous Monsters fan to geek out to, as the label has gone from sumptuous re-recordings of the likes of GORGO, DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS and THIS ISLAND EARTH to releasing the original recordings of fairly prestigious genre fare like ROCKETSHIP X-M and KRONOS. They’ve even dared to branch out with such distinctly non-monstrous Ernest Gold releases as SHIP OF FOOLS and THE McCULLOCHS. Now MMM goes digging into the vault of 1 AM Chiller Theater fare, not to mention whatever […]Read On »


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CD Review: THE CARPETBAGGERS soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/22/2013
THE CARPETBAGGERS soundtrack | ©2013 Intrada Records

Elmer Bernstein was a composer who could wear many stylistic hats to fit his often over-sized characters, whether it was conjuring a biblical symphony for Moses or gun-blazing western music for John Wayne. But if I have a personal favorite approach, then it’s the Bernstein of the late 50s and early 60s, a time when jazz stood for bad behavior. Bernstein mainlined that hep, untamed sound with the more mainstream sound of an orchestra to create the defining sound of “movie jazz.” It was a deliciously swaggering approach that captured the morally bankrupt doings of heroin addicts (MAN WITH THE […]Read On »


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CD Review: PATRICK DOYLE: IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICA

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/21/2013
PATRICK DOYLE: IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICA soundtrack | ©2013 Varese Sarabande Records

After sojourning in Hollywood for a blockbuster career renaissance that’s included BRAVE, THOR and RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, the sprightly Scotsman musically visits the real America to satisfy his own inner muse in this expansively impressive concept album PATRICK DOYLE: IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICA. Paying tribute to his ancestors who immigrated to Alabama, Doyle captures their destination with equal parts rousing beauty and wide-eyed affection. Of course he opens with “Washington DC’s” noble horns and symphonic sweep that also effortlessly conveys an Aaron Copland’s sense of Americana. Yet the nation that Doyle surveys is mostly on a smaller […]Read On »


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CD Review: GOD OF WAR ASCENSION soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/20/2013
GOD OF WAR ASCENSION soundtrack | ©2013 La La Land Records

Tyler Bates knows a thing or two about playing Spartan vengeance after his seminal score for 300, which made sword-and-sandal music hip again by incorporating a heroic orchestra with anachronistic metal guitars and time specific ethnic instruments. Now after showing ancient sword and sorcery vigor with the videogame THE RISE OF THE ARGONAUTS and the underrated reboot of CONAN THE BARBARIAN Bates once again proves that crossing a muscular death-dealer will be hell to play, especially when it’s a titan-slayer named Kratos. Bates furiously delivers again for this popular berserker’s latest button-mashing adventures in GOD OF WAR ASCENSION. It’s a […]Read On »


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CD Review: STARCRAFT II: HEART OF THE SWARM soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/19/2013
STARCRAFT II: HEART OF THE SWARM soundtrack | ©2013 Azeroth Music

WORLD OF WARCRAFT‘s band of scoring brothers Neal Acree, Glenn Stafford, Derek Duke and Russell Brower get their sci-fi grlll power on for the Queen of Blade’s great escape in this score to STARCRAFT II: HEART OF THE SWARM that accompanies the expansion pack of WINGS OF LIBERTY. Its exceptional cut scenes generate one of the more crazily stylized scores for the genre, starting off by mashing a galaxy-spanning orchestra by way of the grunge sensibility of its sword and spine-slinging heroine. Sarah Kerrigan’s treated like an ersatz Lisbeth Salander, bringing on the lizard beast hurt with industrial metal rock […]Read On »


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CD Review: WAR GODS OF THE DEEP / CROSSPLOT (1,000 edition) soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER
WAR GODS OF THE DEEP / CROSSPLOT soundtrack | ©2013 Quartet Records

In addition to releasing current international scores like Alberto Iglesias’ I’M SO EXCITED and Pino Donaggio’s PASSION, Spain-based soundtrack label Quartet has also been digging into some of the 60s and 70s loopier scores like Dominic Frontiere’s HAMMERSMITH IS OUT and Riz Ortolani’s WOMAN TIMES SEVEN. But where said American and Italian were lucky enough to get some LP albums out long before a time when silver age soundtrack CD’s became hip, the equally prolific British musician Stanley Black (VALENTINO) had unaccountably never had one original title available. That makes this two-fer of WAR GODS OF THE DEEP and CROSS […]Read On »


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CD Review: THE WILD BUNCH End of the Line Edition Soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/18/2013
THE WILD BUNCH END OF THE LINE EDITION soundtrack | ©2013 Film Score Monthly Records

Collector labels had been around long before Film Score Monthly magazine launched their soundtrack offshoot with THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE back in 1996. Founder Lukas Kendall’s fastidious attention to detail and shrewd mix of popular and obscure titles from the golden and silver ages of film music ensured FSM’s longevity over the course of 249 titles and nearly two decades, Now as if he were the grizzled leader of a bunch of ragtag outlaws, Kendall has chosen to take out FSM on his own terms in a big, gloriously bloody bang for number 250. Given Kendall’s biting […]Read On »


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CD Review: THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/17/2013
THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES soundtrack | ©2013 Milan Records

Indy movies, and their scores can smack you upside the head with their high-minded pretentiousness, especially when attempting to grasp the epic with music that screams attention as to how outside the box it is. Yet what often provides pitfalls for those movies proves to be terrific assets in the cases of THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES, a decades-spanning American crime saga graced by an impressively big, WTF score by Mike Patton. Here the former Faith No More singer makes an auspicious jump in quality from the mindlessly fun electro-carnage of CRANK: HIGH VOLTAGE using a voice that’s just as […]Read On »


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CD Review: JURASSIC PARK 20th ANNIVERSARY soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/16/2013
JURASSIC PARK: 20th ANNIVERSARY soundtrack | ©2013 Geffen Records

By this point in a nearly four decade collaboration, John Williams’ DNA is as inseparable from the magic of Steven Spielberg as a moth encased in million-year old amber. And given a gigantic body of work whose themes are as instantly memorable, whether played with two notes (JAWS), five notes (CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND) or a plethora of them, it’s hard nailing down just what might be Williams’ finest melody for the director. But when it comes to his most singable theme, the award must go to JURASSIC PARK. God forbid this movie had come out when Meco […]Read On »


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