Music

CD Review: SAFE HOUSE soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 03/27/2012
SAFE HOUSE soundtrack | ©2012 Varese Sarabande Records

SAFE HOUSE is risk-free in more ways than one as it follows most of the same story beats of a CIA dude movie on the run, a genre that was made so popular by the BOURNE IDENTITY franchise. Yet that doesn’t mean this espionage suspenser is lacking for propulsive danger, especially given a tensely effective score by Ramin Djawadi. Though set in South Africa, the German / Iranian composer avoids an ethnic sound and gets straight to the heart of the rhtymic action, with a driving, rock-accented talent he’s already impressively displayed in two MEDAL OF HONOR videogames. Here Djawadi […]Read On »


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CD Review: MASSACRE AT MARBLE CITY

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER
MASSACRE AT MARBLE CITY soundtrack | ©2012 Beat Records

 When Americans hear “Spaghetti Western,” Ennio Morricone stands as the lone gunslinger. But thanks to Italy’s Beat Records label, other practitioners of this mythic, self-referential craft are getting their time in the sagebrush spotlight, especially Francesco De Masi. While his one English-language modern martial arts oater would be LONE WOLF McQUAID, De Masi was as prolific as Morricone on their home turf with the likes of ARIZONA COLT, ANY GUN CAN PLAY and RINGO, THE LONE RIDER. Beat now unleashes a De Masi fusillade in the genre (far from the only one practiced), two bullets of which include MASSACRE AT […]Read On »


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Blu-ray Review: THE MUPPETS – THE WOCKA WOCKA VALUE PACK

By CARL CORTEZ 03/26/2012
THE MUPPETS Blu-ray - THE WOCKA WOCKA VALUE PACK | ©2012 Walt Disney Home Entertainment

Stars: Jason Segal, Amy Adams, Walter, Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo the Great, Scooter, Rowlf, Swedish Chef,  Statler, Waldorf, The Electric Mayhem Writer: Screenplay by Jason Segal & Nicholas Stoller, Characters by Jim Henson Director: James Bobin Distributor: Walt Disney Home Entertainment Suggested Retail Price: $49.99 For a while there, it looked like the Muppets were a dying franchise, plucked by the Walt Disney Company for merchandising purposes, but lacking the focus to re-energize them and bring them into the 21st Century. Thank goodness for Jason Segel – a self-professed Muppets fans who along with fellow screenwriter […]Read On »


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CD Review: THERE BE DRAGONS soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER
THERE BE DRAGONS soundtrack | ©2012 Varese Sarabande Records

It’s no easy task scoring a movie as singularly over the top, in that romantic 1930’s kind of way as Roland Joffe’s THERE BE DRAGONS, a film whose overly passionate intentions managed to turn the Spanish Civil War into a soap opera. Even an accomplished musician can slip from the dramatic into the maudlin when given this kind of florid scope to accompany, as could be heard in the over-emphatic score by the film’s original composer Stephen Warbeck during DRAGON‘s brief theatrical run last year. Thankfully, the producers’ commitment to salvage one aspect of the film afterward turns out to […]Read On »


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CD Review: HAUNTED OR HUMORED soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER
HAUNTED OR HUMORED soundtrack | ©2012 Christopher Young

Few composers have been as diligent about getting their work out there as Christopher Young, whether his music accompanied blockbusters, unreleased indies, concert pieces, shorts, or scores that weren’t used at all. Based on dozens of albums and promos, Young has been one very busy man over the decades. Yet even his most obscure releases have shown the same dedication to quality and creativity, no matter the project’s music budget or studio politics. Now Young’s relentless musical drive has inspired his own record label to put these scores onto, beginning with the compilation HAUNTED OR HUMORED. As a composer whose […]Read On »


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CD Review: THE GREY soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 03/25/2012
THE GREY soundtrack | ©2012 Lakeshore Records

Joe Carnahan’s previous films like NARC, SMOKIN’ ACES and THE A-TEAM have had no shortage of headbanging action for composers to play. But those kinds of opportunities are in short supply for his esoteric man-against-nature film THE GREY, which instead offers shades of macho-talk colors for Marc Streitenfeld to play with when wolves don’t occasionally show up to kill its Alaska-stranded characters. Yet for a film so intent on making this situation “real” in pseudo-Hemingway docudrama fashion, the THE GREY gets the most color, and emotional impact when Streitenfeld’s is hovering about the Deadly White North. Pretty much avoiding overt […]Read On »


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CD Review: RED TAILS soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER
RED TAILS soundtrack | ©2012 Sony Music

Terence Blanchard has been fighting the good fight when it comes to scoring the black experience in any number of scores for Spike Lee, including his look at negro soldiers in the WW2 Italian conflict for the MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA. But if this composer hasn’t progressed in Hollywood as far as he should have long ago, it’s because Blanchard’s complex, jazz-inflected orchestral writing for Lee’s films, not to mention his pigeonholing as a composer best suited to urban-themed pictures (thankfully excepting his awesomely nutty Kung Fu score to BUNRAKU) hasn’t made him as easily clichéd as a whitebread ‘action […]Read On »


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CD Review: FOOTNOTE soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 03/15/2012
FOONOTE soundtrack | ©2012 Milan Records

Who’d have thought that the seemingly boring process of Talmudic translation would result in pokey pizzicato music that makes you think you’re listening to the score of the latest dumb multiplex pratfall fest, as mixed with the zanier stylings from THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK. However, what you’re actually experiencing is the ever-maddening Tom and Jerry sound of a cat and mouse battle between hyper-intellectual father and son, the smarts behind this seemingly goofball soundtrack brilliantly captured by Israeli composer Amit Poznansky. Where so many ultra-serious pictures from the Holy Land are as dramatically dry as its sands, FOOTNOTE turns out […]Read On »


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Concert Review: Peter Case and Paul Collins of The Plimsouls, The Beat and the Nerves – March 7, 2012 at the Echo, Los Angeles, CA

By CARL CORTEZ
Peter Case performs with Paul Collins on March 7, 2012 at the Echo in Los Angeles, CA | ©2012 Assignment X

Steeped in 1950s and 1960s rock music, but channeled through the power pop sheen of the late 1970s and early 1980s, the music of Peter Case and Paul Collins is still relevant today. Whether together as The Nerves and The Breakaways or separately fronting The Plimsouls and The Beat, respectively, they had a knack for writing great hooks that have stood the test of time. Early into the eighty-minute concert by Peter Case and Paul Collins at the Echo in Los Angeles, CA on March 7, 2012 where they performed hits from their various groups, Case admitted that they wrote […]Read On »


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CD Review: JOURNEY 2: THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 03/11/2012
JOURNEY 2 THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND soundtrack | ©2012 Water Tower Music

If you’re a teen heading off to explore a Vern-nian wonderland, a more powerful wingman to have at your side than even The Rock is composer Andrew Lockington. Truly burrowing onto the scene with 2008’s JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH, Lockington impressed with his ability to conjure a wide-eyed sense of orchestral wonder for these kid-friendly re-jigs of their parent’s fantasy classics. Now after a slightly more foreboding tour through THE CITY OF EMBER, Lockington returns to the series with JOURNEY 2: THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND with his most impressive score yet. Just don’t expect any hints of life-imperiling […]Read On »


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