Interview: THOR composer Patrick Doyle wields the mighty musical hammer

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/26/2011
Thor soundtrack © 2011 Buena Vista Records

Save those puny electronic action scores for mere mortals. For if there’s one composer who’s brought down the symphonic thunder of the composing gods, then his name would be inscribed as Patrick Doyle. Receiving his musical and acting education in his native Scotland, Doyle’s dual artistic threats would strike up a winning collaboration with Kenneth Branagh, whom Doyle beat for an actual billing when both starred in CHARIOTS OF FIRE. Branagh would scantly toil in the background for long, as his theatrical flair allowed him to take a 9 million dollar gamble behind, and in front of the camera with […]Read On »


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CD Review: FIRST KNIGHT original soundtrack (5,000 edition)

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/21/2011
FIRST KNIGHT Original Soundtrack | ©2011 La La Land Records

By 1995, Jerry Goldsmith was nearing the winter of his years, age which meant nothing when it came to the youthful passion he’d invest in his work for almost another decade. Yet it was precisely Goldsmith’s mature, melodic energy that made this king of Hollywood composers a natural to sit on the throne alongside Sean Connery in FIRST KNIGHT, a sweeping re-telling of the Arthurian legend that deserved a more noble reception. Now the regal, resounding brass is here to announce a two-CD set of Goldsmith’s complete score, the magnificence of his accomplishment soaring with symphonic heroism worthy of the […]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: HANNA original soundtrack by The Chemical Brothers

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/04/2011
HANNA original soundtrack | ©2011 The Chemical Brothers

It’s appropriate that a killer kid who represents the feared future of America’s fighting forces also is given a beat by The Chemical Brothers (aka Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons), the industrial-electronica trance band whose pernicious influence on such rock chord n’ computer bleep scores represent all that’s unholy about the future of movie scoring to old-school score fans. So it’s almost a small wonder that it’s taken the duo this long to do their first true movie score with HANNA, not that much of it truly hits to picture anyway. Yet this wash of beats and atmospheres is completely […]Read On »


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CD Review: SUPER original soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER
SUPER original soundtrack | ©2011 Lakeshore Records

Tyler Bates has proven himself as a master of seditious super hero scoring with the likes of WATCHMEN and EL SUPERBEASTO, upending the sound of muscle men with batshit rock and roll and power-pondering strings. But it’s doubtful if he’ll get quite a screwed-up heroic wannabe as the righteous grill cook of SUPER, his new, enjoyable affront to good musical taste with writer-director James Gunn after scoring that filmmaker’s mass of protoplasm for SLITHER. Bates’ deliberately grungy approach is caught somewhere between making fun of the twisted sight of a tights-wearing Rainn Wilson and teaming up with him. Garage synths […]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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Interview: THE CONSPIRATOR composer Mark Isham is the true Lincoln Lawyer

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 04/15/2011
Composer Mark Isham

If there’s a filmmaker concerned with the American conscience, then it would be Robert Redford. Like another pop movie star-turned-director, many of Redford’s deliberately paced, and deeply dramatic films seek out the bonds of family, love of country, and the adherence to its supposed values- whether it be in the Montana fly fishing of A RIVER RUNS THOUGH IT, the subversion of the nation’s favorite QUIZ SHOW, and the tragedy of our Middle Eastern involvement that switches LIONS FOR LAMBS. These are the four pictures among Redford’s eight films (including THE MILAGRO BEANFIELD WAR, THE HORSE WHISPERER, THE LEGEND OF […]Read On »


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