CD Review: RIDDLE soundtrack (1000 edition)

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 04/13/2013
RIDDLE soundtrack | ©2013 Varese Sarabande Records

Having gone from the anime world of ROBOTECH to consistently produce impressive orchestral scores for such smaller genre films as HACK! THE GENE GENERATION and LO, Scott Glasgow goes down a Herrmann-esque road to solve the RIDDLE of a Pennsylvania town, wherein a woman’s search for her missing brother will of course unlock dark secrets that once A-list actors would rather stay buried. But if it’s a job for any indie-centric composer to make their projects seem bigger, Glasgow again shows that he’s capable of taking on far bigger thrillers with his talent for intriguing melody. With the Bratislava players […]Read On »


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CD Review: NAPOLEON AND EUROPE (500 edition)

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 04/12/2013
NAPOLEON AND EUROPE soundtrack | ©2013 Music Box Records

Just before he’d briefly invade Hollywood with his spectacularly ominous score for 1992’s DRACULA, esteemed Polish composer Wojciech Kilar would wave the colors for France’s self-appointed Emperor for the Gallic television series NAPOLEON AND EUROPE. Those American fans used to the elegant, brooding quality of Kilar’s work on DEATH AND THE MAIDEN and WE OWN THE NIGHT might be pleasantly surprised by the sometimes joyful quality of his main theme as it revels in triumphant orchestral splendor, sprightly marches and even a bit of Baroque harpsichord comedy, all setting the stage for a little man’s sense of greatness, and the […]Read On »


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CD Review: JACK THE GIANT SLAYER soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 04/07/2013
JACK THE GIANT SLAYER soundtrack | ©2013Water Tower Records

Make no mistake that composer-editor John Ottman can adventurously lighten up when in the sole musical seat to provide dynamically fun work on ASTRO BOY and two FANTASTIC FOUR flicks. Yet when he teams up with director Bryan Singer, the results usually skew towards the dark side, from the outrightly oppressive VALKYRIE and APT PUPIL to the brooding super-heroics of X-MEN UNITED and SUPERMAN RETURNS. So it’s a pleasant surprise that the duo have chosen an entertainingly inconsequential project like JACK THE GIANT SLAYER to finally sit back and have some fluffy, creative popcorn with. Yet ironically, JACK impressively proves […]Read On »


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CD Review: GLADIATOR soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 03/24/2013
GLADIATOR soundtrack | ©2013 Intrada Records

Jerry Goldsmith was arguably the greatest composer to hit Hollywood. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t capable of producing delightful cheese as much as he was a true masterworks. Case in point is his score for 1992’s GLADIATOR, an inner city boxing melodrama long forgotten in the wake of the Russell Crowe picture whose stakes were life and death. In this case, it was a TKO for Goldsmith when ROADHOUSE director Rowdy Herrington kicked his score to the curb in favor of Brad Fiedel, a composer whose electronic abilities were likely more “with it” than the veteran musical fighter. Yet […]Read On »


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CD Review: HOUSE OF CARDS soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER
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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CD Review: MAGIC CITY soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 03/04/2013
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: ESCAPE FROM PLANET EARTH soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 03/03/2013
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

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 03/02/2013
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

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER
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: CONAN THE BARBARIAN soundtrack – 3 discs

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 01/10/2013
CONAN soundtrack | ©2012 Intrada Records

What is best in life? How about getting just about every note of one of the greatest film scores ever written, as spread over three CD’s for 1982’s score to CONAN THE BARBARIAN. Ever since the 1982 CONAN THE BARBARIAN LP on MCA (also included here), just about every label from Varese to Milan has been trying to solve The Riddle of Steel with fits and starts of additional music, most recently with an admirably inclusive re-performance by Tadlow Records. But it’s Intrada that has gloriously mustered the full scope and lusty power of the Might that is Poledouris, his […]Read On »


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