Soundtracks

CD Review: HOUSE OF CARDS soundtrack

HOUSE OF CARDS soundtrack | ©2013 Varese Sarabande Records

Though he’s relatively young, it seems that composer Jeff Beal has been at TV series like FAMILY LAW, ROME, UGLY BETTY and MONK with the entrenched dependability of a continuously elected senator. If that’s an apt metaphor, then it’s no wonder that HOUSE OF CARDS just might end up being Beal’s biggest hit in the medium- even if the “network” it’s on happens to be Netflix. You might also find it hard to believe that the English came up with the idea first for such a distinctly American show about a devious politician out to step up the broken ladder […]Read On »


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Interview: Composer Jeff Rona dives deep to score PHANTOM

PHANTOM soundtrack | ©2013 Milan Records

Throughout the manly genre of “submarine” films from RUN SILENT RUN DEEP to GRAY LADY DOWN and DAS BOOT, the claustrophobic, gear-filled surroundings, depth-charge tension and constant life-or-death stakes have often yielded symphonic scores that sought to be as big as the ocean depths in conveying radar-pounding excitement and the psychological warfare between rival captains. Once again taking the Russian “enemy” perspective in the tradition of THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER and K19: THE WIDOWMAKER, PHANTOM posits an escalating Cold War conflict that threatens to ignite a nuclear holocaust as an old salt Soviet captain Demi (Ed Harris) faces off […]Read On »


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CD Review: MAGIC CITY soundtrack

MAGIC CITY soundtrack | ©2013 Silva Screen Records

When it comes to 60s retro music, few composers have shown an ability to conjure the decade’s diverse vibes like Italy’s Danielle Luppi. He’s rocked with HELL RIDE‘s biker guitars, dropped a martini in the hep jazz of THE WOMAN CHASER and cooed with the psychedelic eroticism of his country’s Shagadelia for the concept album “An Italian Story.” So it’s no surprise to see why Luppi’s been plunked in the middle of a late 50s crime-and-sex ridden Miami hotel for his biggest scoring shot yet in America with the Starz series MAGIC CITY. But what is a shock given the […]Read On »


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CD Review: SILENT HILL: REVELATION 3D soundtrack

SILENT HILL REVELATION 3D soundtrack | ©2012 Lakeshore Records

Just like every zombie-hardened heroine who inevitably gets pulled into a Japanese video game-turned-movie nether-realm, composer Jeff Danna has racked up enough points to start his own tour guide business after his contributions to RESIDENT EVIL: APOCALYPSE and SILENT HILL. Now six years after he abetted the original game themes of Akira Yamaoka, Danna returns to the town with SILENT HILL: REVELATION 3D that dare not speak its name to give even more original musical meat to the eerie fairy tale bells that’ve stood for the franchise long before it became film. Danna certainly has his crash-bang percussion work cut […]Read On »


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CD Review: ESCAPE FROM PLANET EARTH soundtrack

ESCAPE FROM PLANET EARTH soundtrack | ©2013 Sony Music

Though he’s most often called up to be the go-to guy for terrestrial chick flicks, Aaron Zigman’s gorgeous, sumptuously orchestral score for the goblins running across the BRIDGE TO TEREBITHIA showed the composer’s more fantastical stylings were just waiting to take flight. It’s finally taken his first foray into animation to unleash Zigman’s inner John Williams, not to mention Carl Stalling, James Horner and a host of other wonderful stylistic diversions to create his best score yet for ESCAPE FROM PLANET EARTH. Full of enough good humored, full-blast military patriotism to launch an Apollo Mission to the Looney Tunes planet, […]Read On »


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CD Review: TRON UPRISING soundtrack

TRON UPRISING soundtrack | ©2013 Walt Disney Records

Oft times when the next-big-thing techno / pop artist is brought in to “score” a film, it’s usually a relatively uncredited composer who makes matters musical, not to mention score-like. So if you’re judging by how electrifying Joseph Trapanese’s cue collection from TRON UPRISING from this CGI toon spin-off of Disney’s TRON LEGACY is, then it’s likely you’ll regard him as the real Flynn of this soundtrack grid. Trapanese and Daft Punk evolved Wendy Carlos’ already Avant-garde approach for the original TRON to the next, 21st century level by mixing a monolithic orchestra over state-of-the-art trance and techno club beats, […]Read On »


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CD Review: GANGSTER SQUAD soundtrack

GANGSTER SQUAD soundtrack | ©2012 Varese Sarabande Records

Take a composer whose good guys are out to bust metal heads, then throw him into the late 40s Los Angeles. Chances are you’re not going to get a score like CHINATOWN, which is exactly the point of hiring one of Hollywood’s big rhythmic guns to musically envision a rogue LA sheriff’s department as Autobots pitted against the Decepticon mob goons of Mickey Cohen in the new film GANGSTER SQUAD. While film noir purists might cry foul at a score that fits nicely into Jablonsky’s TRANSFORMERS cannon as opposed to Jerry Goldsmith’s, Michael Bay’s go-to musician has accomplished his mission […]Read On »


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CD Review: JOURNEY soundtrack

JOURNEY soundtrack | ©2012 Sony

As innovatively great as videogame scores have proven to be, they’re often anything but relaxing. But then, the musical Zen equivalent of a Japanese water garden isn’t exactly apropos to accompany the slaughter of first person combat or raging fantasy battles that are the stuff of the major game studios. So it’s no wonder that the relaxingly adventurous score of JOURNEY and its flowing robe figure was originated by the indie Thatgamecompany, who’ve given composer Austin Wintory the opportunity to compose a soundtrack that’s taken the genre to a new level of melodic poetry, not to mention acclaim by a […]Read On »


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CD Review: MAMA soundtrack

MAMA soundtrack | ©2013 Quartet Records

If hell hath no fury like a familial ghost scorned, then one quickly rising composer who knows how to play a potent mix of the demonic and paternal is Spain’s Fernando Velázquez. First impressing with the chilling score for a mother’s encounter with ghostly tykes in THE ORPHANAGE,  and then opening up a world of satanic suspense within the confines of an elevator for DEVIL, Velázquez has lately explored the real-life terror of THE IMPOSSIBLE, wherein a family’s bond overcame a Tsunami’s catastrophe. The elements of shock and emotion mix very well for MAMA, who’s not exactly welcoming of her […]Read On »


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CD Review: IDENTITY THIEF soundtrack

IDENTITY THIEF soundtrack | ©2013 La La Land Records

Ask Danny Ocean and David Holmes, and they’ll tell you that r & b funk goes with comic crime like a blowtorch and a safe, or in the case of IDENTITY THIEF‘s Internet skills and some poor shmuck’s I.D. There’s also no better way to play a sad sack in way over his head in the white trash boonies than a rocking country-western sound, as Danny Elfman more than proved with MIDNIGHT RUN. Both musical caper sounds combine to rambunctiously enjoyable effect for Chris Lennertz, who’s paying far more homage to these styles than scoring a big rip off. Where […]Read On »


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