Soundtracks

CD Review: THE BOUNTY soundtrack

The Bounty Soundtrack | ©2010 Buysoundtrax

The idea of having someone else try to re-create the inimitable sound of Vangelis is enough to induce a Vietnam flashback to the infamous New American Orchestra’s “adaptation” of 1982’s BLADE RUNNER, done at the time of the film’s release to cash in on fans’ desperate desire for an official soundtrack that would be twenty-five years in coming. While admirers of his similarly excellent 1984 score to the BOUNTY are still waiting to hear its original tracks release beyond two cuts on Vangelis’ “Themes” CD, Buysoundtrax’ “new” BOUNTY album definitely won’t make the composer’s crew seasick, especially with Dominik Hauser […]Read On »


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CD Review: DEAD RISING 2 soundtrack

DEAD RISING soundtrack

When it seems that just about every last note has been used to dismember, decapitate and blow the brains out of the endless zombie hordes who are attacking via film, TV and videogames, along comes some DEAD RISING 2 dudes named Oleksa Lozowchuk, The Humble Brothers, Jeremy Soule and Klayton to show there are infinitely more variations to this dance of death, which turns into a thoroughly fun slamdance of styles for this game sequel that brings on the flesh eaters in spades. With the action taking place in “Fortune City,” the new RISING satirically starts out with hellbilly rock […]Read On »


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CD Review: FAMILY PLOT (5,000 edition) soundtrack

Family Plot soundtrack | ©2010 Varese Sarabande Records

In his 50-year plus career, Alfred Hitchcock had his macabre way with every top composer from Miklos Rozsa to Dmitri Tiomkin (not to mention Bernard Herrmann). So it seemed fitting that he’d go out with a bang by using John Williams, whose suspenseful career was on the fast track with the just-released JAWS. Instead of turning to the knife-slashing suspense one would expect Hitch to sum up his repertoire with, the director went for far more light-hearted fare about a sleazy psychic and her pursuers, taking Williams down a deliciously twisted road of dark comedy that would serve as a […]Read On »


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CD Review: THE ILLUSIONIST soundtrack

THE ILLUSIONIST soundtrack | ©2010 Milan Records

There have been many terrific, epically in-your-face scores for this year’s exceedingly tasty crop of Hollywood CGI toons. So it’s particularly nice to hear the powerful gentility of his beautifully animated French film, one that just received a deserved Oscar bone nod to the quickly vanishing hand-drawn pictures that used to be the category’s, and industry norm. That’s also very much the theme for director-animator-composer Sylvain Chomet’s fable about the waning days of vaudeville, as embodied by a magician who plies his rabbit about Europe in the early 60’s. Where Chomet’s equally wonderful, and far more antic TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE […]Read On »


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CD Review: THE LIVING DEAD AT THE MANCHESTER MORGUE / HORROR EXPRESS soundtrack

Living Dead At the Manchester Morgue (c) 2010 Quartet Records

That isn’t to say that Spanish horror scores from that period were any less terrifying, or funky, as Spain-based Quartet Records is proving with such releases as Waldo de los Rios’ ISLAND OF THE DAMNED and Fernando Garcia Morcillo’s HOWLING OF THE DEVIL. But perhaps none of their soundtracks has a more unique origin than Giluliano Sorgini’s THE LIVING DEAD AT THE MANCHESTER MORGUE.


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CD Review: THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY soundtrack

House By the Cemetary (c) 2010 Beat Records

Where POLTERGEIST stands as a landmark in how mostly traditional instruments and orchestrations could be used to create an unearthly tone, rock-centric music certainly wasn’t a slouch at digging into those same fear centers, perhaps with even more chilling results. It’s likely no band did it better than Goblin, an Italian group that turned the progressive vibe pioneered by the likes of Pink Floyd and Zeppelin to far darker ends, using acid builds of electronics, strumming guitars and wailing voices to become escalating webs of fear, the big solo usually accompanying some unlucky woman’s evisceration in such classic scores as DEEP RED and SUSPIRIA.


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CD Review: POLTERGEIST Special Edition (10,000 Edition) soundtrack

Poltergeist (c) 2010 Film Score Monthly

Certainly one of the loudest, and most exciting horror scores belongs inside the television set of the Freeling family, as installed by Jerry Goldsmith. Though a master of just about every movie genre, horror had provided a creatively malefic voice for Goldsmith. He’d marry Bartok-esque impressionism and old scratch violins for THE MEPHISTO WALTZ, blow on MAGIC’s unbalanced harmonicas and win his only Oscar for chanting THE OMEN’s black mass.


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CD Review: BATMAN RETURNS: LIMITED EDITION soundtrack (3500 edition)

Batman Returns soundtrack | ©2010 La La Land Records

Few composers have more fun unleashing their devilishly twisted side like Danny Elfman, especially when longtime collaborator Tim Burton truly lets his creativity go bats**t. But if one film takes that cake in their always-eccentric pairings, then it would be the shining piece of comic book coal called BATMAN RETURNS. Sure their first BATMAN was dark, but no one expected the moral bestiality that would result from the pairing of The Bat, The Cat and The Penguin, a ménage a trois complete with whip-wielding S & M, intended child homicide and a very bloody nose- all prancing about to the […]Read On »


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CD Review: FLESH + BLOOD soundtrack (2,000 edition)

Flesh + Blood Soundtrack | ©2010 Intrada Records

Basil Poledouris was at the height of his macho musical glory in 1985 with the likes of CONAN and RED DAWN, so it was no wonder that violence and sex-loving Dutch director Paul Verhoeven sought him out to score his first English language outing. Where this visceral medieval epic about lusty marauders, not-so nobles, and the slutty princess they all desire might have seemed dark age on the surface, the sheer lunacy of Verhoeven’s excesses allowed Poledouris to deliver a surprisingly high-spirited epic score, one based in jaunty medieval plainsong as much as it was knightly melodies. More in the […]Read On »


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CD Review: TRON:LEGACY original soundtrack

Tron Legacy Soundtrack | ©2010 Walt Disney Records

It’s a cold, dark and mesmerizing world 28 years later on the game grid, so don’t expect any of the playfully lush themes that Wendy Carlos gave you geeks the first time out- unless you’re counting Jeff Bridges’ brief A Capella improv at the start of LEGACY. What you will get from electronica superstars-turned-masked composers Daft Punk is an icily epic sound that brilliantly matches the new, austerely Kubrickian imagery on thrilling display, while also delivering on the whiz-bang action pitched towards a young audience whose listening tastes have significantly evolved since the days of 8-bit Atari music- not that […]Read On »


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