Category: T

Categories
1987 2023 D Doctor Who Music Reviews Soundtracks Soundtracks by Title T Year

Doctor Who: Time And The Rani – music by Keff McCulloch

5 min read

Order this CDSo, picture this if you can: it’s the end of 1987, and my local PBS station presents the four-part Doctor Who story Time And The Rani in “movie” format during a pledge drive, talking about how viewer support keeps imported shows like Doctor Who on the schedule. Wow! I’m getting to see Sylvester McCoy’s first episode as the Doctor the same year it premiered! And the following week, Doctor Who was no longer on the schedule, leaving my home-recorded VHS tape of Time And The Rani as my only specimen of the seventh Doctor’s adventures until a tape trade in 1991 or so brought the rest of his televised adventures to me. By the time I saw any more of McCoy’s Doctor Who tenure, I had to experience it via Target novelizations and soundtracks such as the 25th anniversary album and the 1991 release of The Curse Of Fenric soundtrack. I’d go back and rewatch Time And The Rani a lot in that time, too, just trying to envision what the rest of the shows were like. Its soundtrack was burned into my brain.

And now, at least, it’s burned on a CD for everyone to hear independent of the dialogue and sound effects. I’ve always held the view that, for all of the awkwardness of Time And The Rani as a whole (not only is there a new Doctor, but incoming script editor Andrew Cartmel‘s influence was hardly felt on the scripts, which were originally conceived for Colin Baker’s Doctor), it holds a lot of charm as well, and one of my favorite elements was the soundtrack. It was Keff McCulloch’s first score for the show, as well as his first film or TV score of any kind, and it’s both identifiably ’80s and very atmospheric. In the CD liner notes, McCulloch pleads guilty on perhaps overusing the “orchestral stab” sample, and while that may be true, he’s hardly the only composer working during that period whose work over-relied on that sound. (I used to have a Yamaha keyboard with “orchestral stab” on it, and I too used the hell out of both that and the “handclaps” which would feature prominently in later McCulloch scores.)

The most interesting thing about the score for Time And The Rani, in hindsight, is that it brings a pop music sensibility to Doctor Who’s music that hadn’t been heard since, arguably, the last time Paddy Kingsland had scored the show during the BBC Radiophonic Workshop’s early ’80s heyday of handling all of the series’ music. The various iterations of “Future Pleasure” have vocal samples that may sound whimsical now, but were still part of the Art of Noise‘s playbook when this music was first heard on TV – pretty cutting-edge stuff for television scoring. But the numerous musical visits to “The Tetrap Eyrie” and especially “Cliffhanger In The Eyrie” have a superbly eerie atmosphere. In an admittedly synthesized way, some of these tracks hint at an orchestral future for Doctor Who’s sound.

Bonus tracks reveal the evolution of McCulloch’s take on the Doctor Who theme from demo to the version used on the show, as well as the evolution of elements of the score. In particular, the gradual cluttering-up of what was a perfectly good piece of music for the new Doctor picking his new wardrobe was eye-opening; I wonder who made the decision that what that scene really needed was the sound of breaking glass as punctuation. (There was no breaking glass as part of the scene itself, where the sound comes across as a comedy affectation that really didn’t boost the scene’s chances of being taken seriously.)

4 out of 4With its mind-bendingly colorful cover artwork and the sounds within, this long overdue release is a reminder that, regardless of what some fans might claim, all was not lost when it came to late ’80s Doctor Who. I still have a lot of love for this score, orchestral stabs and all. It may be a more challenging listen for those who have been raised on 21st century Doctor Who’s less-sampled orchestral sound, but for those of us who watched the show in something not far removed from real time, this was the sound of the Doctor’s travels, and it’s a delightful nostalgia trip.

  1. The Rani Takes the TARDIS (Sound Effects) (0:22)
  2. Leave the Girl, It’s the Man I Want (0:23)
  3. Doctor Who (Opening Theme) (0:54)
  4. Einstein (0:21)
  5. A Nice Nap (0:34)
  6. Urak and Ikona (1:12)
  7. The Death of Sarn (1:05)
  8. Bull in a Barbershop (0:24)
  9. Not Your Enemy (1:52)
  10. The Tetrap Eyrie (1) (0:46)
  11. Landscape (0:25)
  12. New Wardrobe (1:27)
  13. Mel and the Bubble Trap (1:04)
  14. Mel and the Bubble Trap (continued) (1:33)
  15. The Tetrap Eyrie (2) (0:44)
  16. Wait Here (0:56)
  17. Memory Like An Elephant (1:18)
  18. Faroon, Ikona and the Mourning (1:34)
  19. Urak Nets The Rani (1:39)
  20. Pulses (0:26)
  21. The Rani’s TARDIS (1:03)
  22. You’re a Time Lord (0:39)
  23. She’s Coming (0:29)
  24. Cliffhanger in the Eyrie (1:30)
  25. Doctor on the Loose (Part 1) (0:55)
  26. Doctor on the Loose (Parts 2-4) (1:28)
  27. Doctor on the Loose (Part 5 – The Bubble Trap) (0:33)
  28. Faroon Forlorn / Doctor on the Loose (Part 6) (0:46)
  29. Future Pleasure (4:58)
  30. Beez (0:47)
  31. Hologram Mel (1:29)
  32. Just the Expert (0:24)
  33. As Sentimental as He Is (0:17)
  34. Fixed Trajectory (0:48)
  35. Second Bluff (0:47)
  36. All as Planned (0:20)
  37. The Brain (2:08)
  38. The Brain (reprise) (1:19)
  39. Dissidents to Heel (0:40)
  40. March of the Tetraps / Anklet Death (1:48)
  41. The Rani Explains (1:48)
  42. Urak Overhears (0:27)
  43. Loyhargil (1) (0:48)
  44. As You Snore So Shall You Sleep (0:38)
  45. Loyhargil (2) (0:14)
  46. Where there’s a Will (0:27)
  47. Loyhargil (3) (0:24)
  48. The Rani Leaves (0:20)
  49. Undoing The Rani (2:08)
  50. Fingers Crossed (0:21)
  51. Not Forgotten (0:54)
  52. Time and Tide Melts the Snowman (0:15)
  53. Doctor Who (Closing Theme) (1:13)
     
    Bonus Tracks
  54. Doctor Who 1987 (2:40)
  55. The Death of Sarn (part, alternative version without rattle) (0:22)
  56. Two “stings” (1m10 and 1m12) (0:18)
  57. New Wardrobe (original mono mix without overdubs) (0:57)
  58. New Wardrobe (overdubs) (0:57)
  59. New Wardrobe (original mono TV mix as used) (0:58)
  60. She’s Coming (unused version 1) (0:43)
  61. Cliffhanger in the Eyrie (unused version 1) (1:30)
  62. Cliffhanger in the Eyrie (Part Two Reprise edit) (1:18)
  63. Future Pleasure (original master) (4:32)
  64. The Brain (25th Anniversary Album edit) (3:03)
  65. Doctor Who Theme 1987 (original demo) (2:54)
  66. Doctor Who Opening Title 1987 (original demo) (0:43)
  67. Doctor Who Closing Title 1987 (original demo) (1:16)

Released by: Silva Screen Records
Release date: November 24, 2023
Total running time: 76:05

… Read more
Categories
2023 Music Reviews Soundtracks Soundtracks by Title T Video Game / Computer Game Year

Tron: Identity – music by Dan le Sac

4 min read

Order this CDI’ve never really understood Disney’s attitude toward Tron as a potential franchise. It seemed to loom large in the studio’s future plans until they purchased Lucasfilm, and then it’s like “Tron? What’s a Tron?” Every so often they actually draw some attention to it – hey, one hears there’s a new ride that’s cool – and then something like this pops up. The soundtrack to a new Tron game? What new Tron game? I’m a fan, I’d normally be pre-sold on this. Why didn’t I know about this?

But hey, I get it, Disney’s a huge corporation with a lot of concerns, such as failing themed hotel attractions and fending off the performative harassment of governors who want to be (but under not circumstances should ever be) presidents. They can’t market everything equally. So there’s a new Tron game that almost nobody knew was coming. How’s the music?

Dan le Sac has a background in remixing and hip hop, but has also started to plant his flag in some soundtrack work, including such games as Subsurface Circular and Quarantine Circular, whose developer is also behind Tron: Identity – aha, mystery solved! What’s interesting about this album is that, from the standpoint of 2023, the sound Wendy Carlos established for Tron is over 40 uears behind us in the rear-view mirror, but to help you feel even older, Daft Punk’s Tron Legacy soundtrack is nearly a decade and a half behind us as well. Is anyone scoring a new Tron project under any obligation to sound like…well…either of them?

It took me a few listens to arrive at an answer, because at first I thought, “well, there’s some vaguely Daft Punk-esque stuff in there, but not even much of that.” The soundtrack from the animated series Tron Uprising noted that its composer (Daft Punk collaborator Joseph Trapanese, who did some significant-but-only-quietly-credited heavy lifting on the Legacy score) was using synth patches designed by Daft Punk. This made sense, since Uprising was telling a story that happens between Tron and Tron Legacy. But where you see credit, you’re probably also seeing someone get paid extra, so that probably answers why nothing since Uprising has gone out of its way to hew to the Daft Punk sound.

And Identity’s score doesn’t do that either. Tracks like “Antiques”, “First Impressions”, and “A Really Big Door” give the strong impression that this game’s music is trying to meet both of the franchise’s films in the middle, where the music inhabits an interesting middle ground with electronics deployed in a manner that reminds you a little of Tron Legacy, but also choral pads that hearken all the way back to the almost-religious sound Wendy Carlos used in key scenes of the original film, when the score was hammering home the “programs regard the users as gods, but they are neither gods nor worthy of that worship” metaphor that the script didn’t dare put into words in 1982. It’s an interesting mix. Tracks such as “Upcycled”, “Last Steps”, “Breakout”, and “Back On The Grid” bring in beats that have more of a connection to the composer’s previous work than they do to anything we’ve heard in a Tron property before. And some tracks – looking at you, “Bloom Effect” – find a mesmerizing middle ground between the two styles.

4 out of 4But when Disney waits so long to do anything with a franchise that clearly has significant fan interest and public recognition, the passage of time makes it a nearly ridiculous exercise for anyone to claim that the “sound of Tron” is thing thing, but definitely isn’t that other thing. The music of each fleeting entry in the franchise has had an outsized influence on defining its universe. Tron can be Carlos, Daft Punk, and trap beats. It doesn’t harm its fictional universe. That makes this soundtrack an interesting listen.

Now to find out what this game’s actually about. Really good job, Disney Marketing Department, really good job. But I know y’all are busy right now.

  1. Opening Up (01:41)
  2. Antiques (03:43)
  3. Upcycled (01:46)
  4. First Impression (03:27)
  5. Last Steps (02:06)
  6. Back On The Grid (02:09)
  7. A Really Big Door (04:01)
  8. Breakout (02:07)
  9. Bloom Effect (03:07)
  10. Imposition (04:40)
  11. Getting Comfortable (01:52)
  12. Consequences (End Credits) (02:16)

Released by: Disney Music
Release date: April 11, 2023
Total running time: 32:50

… Read more
Categories
2017 Film Non-Soundtrack Music Soundtracks T

Twister – music by Mark Mancina

3 min read

Every once in a while, a soundtrack appears that you just kind of order on sight. This was one of those. I was no stranger to Mark Mancina’s propulsive, all-American-sounding score from the 1996 tornado disaster flick Twister, as I already had the original release of the score from that year, but the thought of a complete Twister score release was enough to lighten my wallet a bit…mainly for the love of a single piece of music omitted from the ’96 CD.

One of the film’s best sequences follows a somewhat introspective series of vignettes that nail home, none too subtly, the emotional stakes for the movie’s characters. After a hasty retreat from a decidedly southern meal, the ragtag storm chasers led by Bill Paxton’s character do a bit of ill-advised off-roading without being entirely sure where they’re going to wind up. The orchestral part of the soundtrack begins churning in a steady rhythm with the signature battery of cellos that anchor the entire score, eventually transitioning into “Humans Being”, the song Van Halen contributed to Twister‘s “songtrack” album. It’s quite possibly the best integration of score and tie-in song I’ve ever heard Hollywood pull off, and…it was missing from the original album.

That track, “Walk In The Woods”, tapers off rather than crashing into rock music territory (the Van Halen song can still be found on the readily available song CD), but it sold me on this whole remaster. Unlike some past reissues which doubled the amount of music available or blew our minds with alternates or unused takes, there are probably fewer than ten minutes of truly “new” music to be found on this reissue. But in conversing with fellow soundtrack afficionados, I found that “Walk In The Woods” was the tipping point for them picking this one up too.

4 out of 4The familiar tracks from the original album are renamed and shuffled around a bit from the original 1996 release, but it’s all there – with one exception. Missing from this new release is the snippet of movie dialogue (well, singing, really) in which a couple of the storm chasers sing a bit of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma (particularly badly); if you’re a fan of that few seconds of silliness, you need to hang on to the 1996 release as well as this one.

Order this CD

  1. Wheatfield (film version) (1:25)
  2. The Hunt Begins (3:50)
  3. The Sky (1:03)
  4. Dorothy IV (film version) (1:57)
  5. The First Twister (0:49)
  6. In the Ditch / Where’s My Truck? (2:00)
  7. Waterspouts (2:49)
  8. Cow (5:42)
  9. Walk In The Woods (2:05)
  10. Bob’s Road (2:13)
  11. Hail No! (2:43)
  12. Futility (film version) (2:17)
  13. Drive-In Twister (2:57)
  14. Wakita (film version) (5:19)
  15. Sculptures (film version) (3:06)
  16. House Visit (4:47)
  17. The Big Suck (film version) (1:47)
  18. End Titles (2:25)
  19. Wheatfield (alternate) (1:28)
  20. Waterspouts (alternate) (2:50)
  21. The Big Suck (alternate) (1:14)
  22. End Title / Respect the Wind (9:20)

Released by: La-La Land Records
Release date: January 20, 2017
Total running time: 64:07

… Read more
Categories
Artists (by group or surname) D Daft Punk Film Soundtracks T

Tron Legacy (North American edition)

Tron LegacyOne of the things announced fairly early on about Tron Legacy was that its music would be composed by Daft Punk. Now, I like “Robot Rock” as much as the next guy, but was this French techno/DJ duo up to composing the score for an entire film from a franchise whose fan base was very much attached to the synth-orchestral sound of the original movie?

As it turns out, Daft Punk was more than up to the challenge, and more than a few moviegoers are likely to snap up the soundtrack while quietly asking themselves “Who did the music to the original Tron? Carlos somebody?” Just as Wendy Carlos‘ expansive, at times almost abstract electronic music was a perfect fit for the original Tron, Daft Punk nails the sound that accompanies the new movie. It’s a giddy mix of synth and orchestral textures, with only a couple of tracks that hint at Daft Punk’s more typical sound. It’s a much more foreboding sound than Carlos’ music, which did a great job of establishing Tron‘s computer world as a wondrous, almost magical setting. The new movie’s setting is darker and more dangerous, and Daft Punk’s music is a perfect fit for that.

But you don’t just hear Daft Punk on the soundtrack – there’s also an orchestra of over 100 players here, and the CD credits make a note of an orchestration assist by veteran Hollywood composer Bruce Broughton – normally a name you see headlining his own soundtracks. There are also “special thanks” for advice on the art of film scoring listing names like Harry Gregson-Williams and Hans Zimmer (again, not exactly B-list names). Daft Punk chased after this assignment, admitting along the way to being fans of classic Tron, and they obviously also sought some help from some of the most prolific film composers in the business.

The result is a soundtrack with plenty of motifs for specific characters and situations, and an album that, while it isn’t necessarily in the chronological order of scenes in the movie, makes for a very satisfying listen. Helping things considerably is that the movie’s rookie director (at least as far as directing for the big screen goes) trusted his rookie composers enough to dial the film’s atmospheric sound mix back and let the music carry key moments. One of the best musical moments in the score – a piece that’s been getting rapt attention as far back as the movie’s trailers – is “The Game Has Changed”, but its quiet, moody intro lands on an unusually quiet moment at the beginning of the showy (and otherwise noisy) light cycle competition. It’s a surprising combination of scene and music, and it’s incredibly effective.

The closest Daft Punk gets to sounding like Wendy Carlos may be the mostly-electronic “Son Of Flynn”, which somewhat surprisingly accompanies scenes that take place in the “real” world rather than the electronic realm. Other highlights include “Nocturne” (a much more sedate take on the same basic melody as “Son Of Flynn”), the techno anthem “Derezzed”, “Rinzler” and another moment where the music dominates the movie’s sound mix, “Adagio For Tron”. Those pieces that are mostly orchestral are surprisingly good – not a bad film scoring debut for a couple of guys whose primary output is electronic dance music.

There is one big bone to pick, but it isn’t with Daft Punk. Listeners in the UK and Europe got a two-disc version of the Tron Legacy soundtrack with several extra tracks, and even more extra tracks were spread out among online music stores ranging from iTunes and Amazon.com to Wal-Mart and Nokia (!). The scavenger hunt approach might have been neat for the “Flynn Lives” alternate reality game that helped to build buzz leading up to the movie’s release, but don’t make it such a chore for us to get a complete soundtrack for the movie. The additional tracks will be covered in another review.

As a single-CD experience, however, the Tron Legacy soundtrack delivers most of the movie’s key scenes in musical form. I really don’t know if this score hails the beginning of a whole new career for Daft Punk, or just a brilliant way to get a new audience interested in their back catalogue and future works, but I would bet money on one thing: 4 out of 4Tron Legacy‘s soundtrack will become a frequent flyer in movie trailers for the next decade. Its dark ambience and rhythmic sense make for some pretty catchy music, either with or away from the movie for which the music was originally constructed. And that, naturally, makes it a pretty good soundtrack listen too.

Order this CD

  1. Overture (2:28)
  2. The Grid (1:36)
  3. The Son of Flynn (1:35)
  4. Recognizer (2:37)
  5. Armory (2:03)
  6. Arena (1:33)
  7. Rinzler (2:17)
  8. The Game Has Changed (3:25)
  9. Outlands (2:42)
  10. Adagio for TRON (4:11)
  11. Nocturne (1:41)
  12. End of Line (2:36)
  13. Derezzed (1:44)
  14. Fall (1:22)
  15. Solar Sailer (2:42)
  16. Rectifier (2:14)
  17. Disc Wars (4:11)
  18. C.L.U. (4:39)
  19. Arrival (2:00)
  20. Flynn Lives (3:22)
  21. TRON Legacy (End Titles) (3:17)
  22. Finale (4:22)

Released by: Disney Music
Release date: 2010
Total running time:

… Read more
Categories
1983 2009 Film Soundtracks T

Twilight Zone: The Movie – music by Jerry Goldsmith

5 min read

Returning full-circle to the early days of his career as a contract composer working for one studio or another, Jerry Goldsmith was no stranger to The Twilight Zone, having devised the music for some of its classic television installments. By the time he was tapped for the big-screen re-interpretation of it, however, Goldsmith was one of the major players in movie music…and in 1983, just a few years after Aliens and Star Trek: The Motion Picture and their knockout scores, that’s putting it mildly. According to the information-dense booklet that’s become a hallmark of Film Score Monthly’s impressive CDs, Goldsmith was more than happy to return to this particular dimension of sight and sound. This CD gathers, for the first time, every note of music recorded for Twilight Zone: The Movie, including background source music and even leaving room for the suites that were specially recorded or edited together for the original 1983 album release (in the back of the booklet, a running order is included for those who wish to program their CD players to reflect the original LP running order).

If there’s a composer better suited to this unusual movie – which did its best to reflect its short-story-length episodic roots – I can’t imagine who it would be. Goldsmith is called upon to deliver, effectively, four distinctly different scores for one film, as well as framing sequences bookended by Marius Constant’s immortal Twilight Zone theme. What’s all the more impressive is that Goldsmith doesn’t seem to have changed a thing about the original theme, completely forgoing the opportunity to update it or broaden it for the big screen. This is one of the elements that really works toward making the film an integral chapter of the franchise: whether you’re talking about the music or the scripts, it doesn’t completely betray the source material just to cash in on the name (which it very easily could have – the movie languished in development hell for some time as its structure was endlessly debated at the studio).

The first story in the movie’s four-episode format, Time Out, receives a deceptively old-fashioned score: heavy on rumbling piano bass notes and an occasional snare drum cadence, it’s nothing that couldn’t have been done with the meager musical resources at Goldsmith’s command in the original TV series. Kick The Can, the second story, has a broader musical palette, but it accomplishes this by way of synths which were, even then, obviously synths.

The third story, It’s A Good Life, receives an unusual musical treatment to say the least – there are moments of beauty and wonder that sound like they might’ve emerged from the Star Trek: The Motion Picture score, and then there are Carl Stalling-inspired slices of cartoon whimsy that inevitably descend into something with a much more sinister feel. Jarring, but effective; “The House” is one of my favorite pieces of Goldsmith music from this epoch of his career.

The fourth and final story, Nightmare At 20,000 Feet, is the crowning glory of Twilight Zone: The Movie, revisiting a segment of the original series that starred William Shatner. In the big-screen iteration, however, John Lithgow is the increasingly paranoid passenger who rants and raves that he’s seen “a man on the wing of the plane!” Nightmare is one of my favorite pieces of early ’80s genre cinema, and it gets a devilishly devious musical treatment with plenty of scratchy fiddle and wavering, almost-theremin-like synthesizer to signify the gremlin that’s tearing the plane apart before Lithgow’s eyes. And speaking of gremlins, in between the big, brassy suspense cues, the creature also gets a musical signature that one can tell was rhythmically built upon by Goldsmith for Gremlins a year later – though not madly similar melodically, the rhythmic resemblance is undeniable. In Gremlins, the same rhythm gained a playful-but-sinister tone, but here, it’s just plain scary.

The bonus tracks include the edited-down suites from the original LP, previously unreleased songs recorded for the backgrounds of certain scenes (which, while seemingly out of place next to the orchestral score, were still written by Goldsmith), and a few alternate takes. It was mentioned at the beginning of this review, but the booklet is an outstanding source of behind-the-scenes info about both the movie and its music, including the original LP liner notes. Twilight Zone: The Movie was a major release from a major studio, and Film Score Monthly’s presentation more than does it justice.

3 out of 4

Order this CD

  1. Main Title: The Twilight Zone Theme (0:48)

    2. Time Out

  2. Questions / The Ledge (4:03)
  3. Yellow Star (3:57)

    4. Kick The Can

  4. Harp and Love (1:27)
  5. Weekend Visit (1:34)
  6. Kick The Can (0:37)
  7. Night Games (1:54)
  8. Take Me With You / A New Guest (10:13)

    9. It’s A Good Life

  9. The House (2:30)
  10. The Sister / I Didn’t Do It (1:22)
  11. Carbon Monster (3:08)
  12. That’s All, Ethel (1:48)
  13. No More Tricks (3:57)

    14. Nightmare At 20,000 Feet

  14. Nervous Pills (2:39)
  15. No Smoking (2:07)
  16. On The Wing (1:21)
  17. A Face In The Window (2:11)
  18. Engine Failure (1:38)
  19. Overture: Twilight Zone Theme and End Title (6:03)

    20. Bonus Tracks

  20. Nights Are Forever (3:36)
  21. Anesthesia (3:04)
  22. Questions / The Ledge (album edit) (3:03)
  23. Take Me With You / A New Guest (album edit) (5:03)
  24. That’s All Ethel (album edit) (4:29)
  25. Cartoon Music (1:27)
  26. A Face In The Window / Hungry Monster / Twilight Zone Theme (album edit) (4:58)

Released by: Film Score Monthly
Release date: 2009
Total running time: 78:57

… Read more
Categories
2009 Literary Soundtracks T

Tripods: The Pool Of Fire Suite – music by Ken Freeman

Tripods: The Pool Of Fire SuiteIncluded as a bonus feature of the long-delayed (and long, long overdue) compelte series DVD set of the 1980s BBC SF series The Tripods, and also available as a download for those with no interest in the DVDs, the Pool Of Fire Suite is an interesting experiment: original Tripods TV composer Ken Freeman, a master of synthetic textures, composed new music for key story points in the season of the show that was never made. Despite the fact that over 20 years have passed, Freeman makes an effort to make it sound as though this music is coming out of his synth rig circa 1986/87 – with minimal hints of the massive advances that have been made in synthesizers and/or sampling in the intervening two decades.

“A Plan Of Action” immediately sets the tone with an extended, minor-key statement of the Tripods theme, but this time slowed down to a dirge: it’s easy to imagine this music covering the scenes picking up from the second season’s cliffhanger, in which Will and his friends discover that the base from which their resistance movement has been fighting the Earth-dominating Tripods has been laid to waste. As easy as it is to picture these things, Freeman is free to explore the material without the timing constraints of composing to picture.

Freeman delves into a surprisingly bluesy, guitar-centered sound with a percolating ’80s-style synth backing in “A Drink With Ruki”, an a similarly upbeat brass riff lightens things up in “The Pool Of Fire” itself. “Summer Wind” also keeps things light for a portion of the story involving the view from a hot air balloon.

After the triumphant strains of “Freedom”, “The Conference Of Man” brings the Tripods theme back to the fore, this time in a much more confident (and less mournful) interpretation, but there’s still dissonant unease waiting in the wings: without the Tripods to unit humanity in a fight against a common cause, the newly freed human race risks splintering into factions fighting over its own resources. Where this storyline could have gone is anyone’s guess: there were no further books carrying the story forward, and of course there were no further TV adventures. So we’re still treated to an unresolved cliffhanger – albeit a purely musical one.

4 out of 4I’ve always been a huge fan of the original Tripods music, so the very notion that the BBC would commission Ken Freeman to provide music for adventures never filmed is a huge hit with me. The music is sensational – and I’m sure I’m not the only one thinking that it’s the BBC’s (and the audience’s) loss that a third season wasn’t made that could have featured music like this.

Order this CD

  1. A Plan Of Action (3:46)
  2. The Green Man (6:40)
  3. A Drink With Ruki (7:32)
  4. The Pool Of Fire (6:31)
  5. Summer Wind (4:40)
  6. Freedom (5:30)
  7. The Conference Of Man (5:33)

Released by: BBC Video (as part of The Tripods: The Complete Series DVD box set)
Release date: 2009
Total running time: 40:12

… Read more
Categories
2009 Soundtracks T Television

Torchwood: Children Of Earth – music by Ben Foster

Torchwood: Children Of EarthFor the truncated (five episodes airing on consecutive nights in a single week) third season of Torchwood, the series delved into some very dark territory, and composer Ben Foster, already entrenched as the de facto maestro of Torchwood’s quirky earthbound adventures, seems to have relished the opportunity. The music of the five-episode Children Of Earth event has no problem going dark. Foster sets up several themes early on (including one for Ianto), while also building on some of the themes established in previous seasons (particularly the Captain Jack theme).

The early tracks seem like business as usual, but “We Are Coming” is a discordant, snarling wake-up call that accompanies one of the creepiest scenes in the entire five-hour cycle. It’s not a piece of music you need to be listening to in a dark room at two in the morning. The tension quickly ratchets up from there; the climax of the first episode leads into several tense action cues from the second episode, punctuated by the slightly-out-of-sequence cue “Gwen’s Baby”. A very brief “Ianto Jones” theme is established here as well, which is developed more fully later in “The Ballad Of Ianto Jones”.

Much of the soundtrack is taken up by the show’s musical action set pieces, with slower moments only occasionally getting the spotlight if they’re major scenes, including a lovely operatic theme that appears in the fourth and fifth episodes. For the most part, the music is sequenced in order of appearance, from the beginning of Day One to the end of Day Five, but there are a few out-of-sequence tracks (at least in the digital download edition of the album).

If I have one nit to pick with Children Of Earth from a musical standpoint, it’s actually a nit that I have to pick with the music of both Torchwood and Doctor Who: the reliance on the orchestra-playing-to-a-rock-beat sound has been stretched about as far as it can possibly go on either show. As the orchestrator for Murray Gold on Doctor Who, Ben Foster has a strong influence on both shows’ sounds, but whoever the architect of the “Who universe rock orchestra” sound is, they should know that the sound has reached its peak…and isn’t too far from reaching its nadir.

4 out of 4Children Of Earth is a fine soundtrack, and damned unnerving in places. In rewatching the episodes, it becomes obvious how much of the story’s impact is down to the music, and quite a bit of the music stands alone nicely as well. If there’s any more story to tell with Torchwood (the ending of the season leaves the notion of picking up the story more than a little ambiguous), it’d be nice if both the storytelling and the music could stay at this level.

Order this CD

  1. The First Sacrifice (1:25)
  2. What’s Occurring? (2:10)
  3. Jack’s Daughter (1:28)
  4. Diplomatic Cars (1:20)
  5. We Are Coming (1:12)
  6. Thames House (1:53)
  7. Double Crossed (1:26)
  8. Countdown To Destruction (1:52)
  9. The Crater (1:00)
  10. Torchwood Hunter (1:42)
  11. Gwen’s Baby (1:03)
  12. On The Run (1:13)
  13. Jack In A Box (1:34)
  14. Ianto Jones (0:50)
  15. Tractor Attack (2:21)
  16. Resurrection (1:11)
  17. Clement MacDonald (2:05)
  18. Something’s Coming (1:35)
  19. Eye Spy (1:20)
  20. Trust Nobody (1:46)
  21. The World Looks To The Skies (2:10)
  22. Jack’s Secret (1:36)
  23. Clem Remembers (1:34)
  24. Judgement Day (4:05)
  25. Requiem For The Fallen (1:23)
  26. The Ballad Of Ianto Jones (4:36)
  27. The Final Day (0:40)
  28. Calm Before The Storm (3:22)
  29. Phase Two Has Begun (1:50)
  30. Requisition 31 (2:38)
  31. He Was A Good Man (1:39)
  32. The Children Of Earth (3:27)
  33. Breaking The Connection (2:25)
  34. Fighting Back (2:02)
  35. Run For Your Lives (1:13)
  36. Sacrifice And Salvation (1:39)
  37. Redemption (3:13)
  38. I Can Run Forever (3:28)
  39. Here Comes Torchwood (2:24)
  40. Next Time On Torchwood (0:31)

Released by: Silva Screen
Release date: 2009
Total running time: 77:21

Note that the above tracklist reflects the digital download edition of the album, and the running order may be different for the CD.… Read more

Categories
2008 Soundtracks T Television

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles – music by Bear McCreary

Terminator: The Sarah Connor ChroniclesSince making a splash in the film music scene with his distinctive music for the new Battlestar Galactica, Bear McCreary has earned not only acclaim, but a very busy schedule on the scoring stage. In addition to direct-to-DVD horror movies like the Rest Stop series, McCreary has also taken over the musical duties on Sci-Fi’s Eureka, and in each case, he’s done so in such a way that the results don’t scream “This is the guy who does the music for Battlestar Galactica” – and really, that’s a good thing. That’s the sort of diverse talent that keeps composers employed.

For those wishing that there was more music in the same vein as Galactica’s percussive moodiness, though, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles fits the bill. The series itself kicked off with the same kind of world-weary hope-in-the-face-of-a-fatalistic-future tone that Galactica has carried throughout its run, but let’s face it, it’s almost certain that Galactica’s wall-of-percussion action scenes are what landed McCreary this job. The Sarah Connor Chronicles utilizes plenty of metallic percussion, though often sampled and processed heavily – appropriate for a show that deals with robotic assassins from the future.

Galactica fans will also find this show’s use of a small string ensemble familiar, appearing at several points in the soundtrack to deliver low-key, almost mournful moments in stark contrast to the pounding percussion. Both elements come together in the show’s end title theme, with an effect that’s equal parts apocalyptic and Celtic. Unlike the main title theme, which is heavy on percussion and light on melody, the end titles are based on “Sarah Connor’s Theme” (heard in full on track 3).

On the opposite end of the spectrum from that theme, there’s the busy, almost Art Of Noise-like “Motorcycle Robot Chase”, loaded with scraping metal percussion, stuttering electronic sting notes, and just plain noise. Needless to say, this track goes nuts in a way that wouldn’t fit on Galactica – it’s uniquely Sarah Connor Chronicles, and easily the busiest track on the entire album by miles.

Two songs are included, “Samson And Delilah” (performed by Shirley Manson of Garbage, who joined the cast as part of a rethink of the show’s format in season two), and the raucous “Ain’t We Famous”, performed by Brendan McCreary and his band (also responsible for some of Galactica’s more mainstream musical moments, such as “All Along The Watchtower”). “Samson And Delilah” didn’t really strike me as radically different from anything I’ve heard from Ms. Manson before, but “Ain’t We Famous” is a fun, rockin’ number that stands up to repeat listening better. An homage to Carl Stalling – about the last thing I expected to hear here – is included as well (“Atomic Al’s Merry Melody”).

4 out of 4I’m going to fess up that I’m not a huge fan of the show itself, but its music is certainly worthy of attention. Fans of Battlestar Galactica’s music will enjoy this one, whether they’ve followed the series or not, because it’s on very familiar ground (and yet slightly different) musically. This’ll tide you over until the next Galactica soundtrack quite nicely.

Order this CD

  1. Samson And Delilah (4:58)
  2. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Main Titles (0:45)
  3. Sarah Connor’s Theme (3:17)
  4. Cromartie In The Hospital (1:10)
  5. Andy Goode’s Turk (3:11)
  6. Central America (1:34)
  7. John And Riley (2:27)
  8. Derek Reese (2:53)
  9. Ain’t We Famous (3:36)
  10. Motorcycle Robot Chase (2:50)
  11. The Hand Of God (3:10)
  12. Prisoners Of War (6:26)
  13. Miles Dyson’s Grave (2:43)
  14. Atomic Al’s Merry Melody (1:23)
  15. The Reese Boys (1:41)
  16. Removing Cameron’s Chip (3:15)
  17. Ellison Spared (2:23)
  18. I Love You (2:30)
  19. Catherine Weaver (2:05)
  20. Derek’s Mission (1:47)
  21. There’s A Storm Coming (3:02)
  22. Highway Battle (3:58)
  23. Perfect Creatures (2:15)
  24. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles End Titles (0:35)

Released by: La-La Land Records
Release date: 2008
Total running time: 63:54

… Read more
Categories
2008 Doctor Who Soundtracks T Television

Torchwood – music by Ben Foster & Murray Gold

4 min read

Featuring the darker, moodier music of Doctor Who’s darker, moodier and decidedly more “adult” spinoff, the Torchwood soundtrack album is full of surprises, but some listeners may be dismayed to find that part of the surprise is what isn’t on it.

From the beginning, Torchwood’s musical score has been the work of two composers, Doctor Who maestro Murray Gold and Ben Foster, who has served as his orchestrator for several years. Foster steps into the limelight here, as the Torchwood CD concentrates almost entirely on his work. However, what this means is that some of the most recognizable pieces of music associated with Torchwood are missing from the album. Many of Gold’s themes, established in the series premiere, were reused throughout season one, and they’re absent from the album, including the drum beat lead-in to the opening teaser (over which John Barrowman explains the show’s premise), and an energetic, pulsating theme that often accompanied the appearance of the team’s trademark black Land Rover in season one. There’s one suite of music from the premiere episode, Everything Changes, and it’s hardly the most striking music from that episode.

What is on the CD is no slouch, mind you; there isn’t anything that’s so bad that I’m reaching for the skip track button. But sometimes it all seems to blend together – there are lengthy stretches of fairly similar music that reach across several tracks. There are some standout cues: “Sleeper”, “Look Right, Then Leave” and the one-two punch of “Jack Joins Torchwood” and “Captain Jack’s Theme” are action-oriented highlights. The best of the lower-key fare includes “Out Of Time”, “Owen’s Theme” and the eerie back-tracked piano work on “Pearl And The Ghost Maker.” Some pieces, like “Into The Hub”, straddle the fence between gentler orchestral music and the show’s trademark electro-inspired action music. A nicely expanded version of the Torchwood theme (which is almost painfully short on TV) rounds out the collection.

Compositionally, there are some incredibly clever things about the music from Torchwood – in the track “Owen Fights Death”, it’s possible to hear how the themes for the various characters are in a common key, making it possible to interweave the themes for Jack and Owen in this track, or the themes for Owen and Toshiko in “Goodbyes”. Toshiko’s theme also finds its way into the extended version of the show’s main theme.

3 out of 4I can understand that it vastly simplifies things to limit an album to one composer almost exclusively. But the problem here is that there are memorable major themes that have been left out in the cold. Casual fans may not notice…but then again, how many truly casual fans will bother to pick up the soundtrack? Perhaps some of Gold’s compositions should be piggybacked onto a future Doctor Who soundtrack release (particularly the rumored “best of the first four seasons’ music that didn’t make it onto any of the other CDs” album that, like the TARDIS, may or may not materialize), or offered as download-only pieces; without his work from the first season, as nice as Foster’s music is, the Torchwood CD just seems to be missing something.

Order this CD

  1. Everything Changes (1:24)
  2. The Chase (3:28)
  3. Ghosts (2:00)
  4. Sleepers, Awake! (1:14)
  5. Toshiko And Tommy (3:09)
  6. Into The Hub (2:08)
  7. The Mission (2:36)
  8. Gray’s Theme (2:45)
  9. Jack’s Love Theme (1:53)
  10. Another Day, Another Death (2:48)
  11. Look Right, Then Leave (2:50)
  12. Welcome To Planet Earth (1:54)
  13. The Plot (3:25)
  14. Out Of Time (1:31)
  15. The Death Of Dr. Owen Harper (2:13)
  16. King Of The Weevils (4:12)
  17. Owen Fights Death (1:52)
  18. The Woman On The Roof (2:26)
  19. Owen’s Theme (3:13)
  20. Pearl And The Ghostmaker (2:28)
  21. Flat Holm Island (2:12)
  22. A Boy Called Jonah (4:55)
  23. Toshiko Sato: Betrayal And Redemption (3:49)
  24. Gwen And Rhys (1:15)
  25. Jack Joins Torchwood (1:37)
  26. Captain Jack’s Theme (3:20)
  27. I Believe In Him (1:34)
  28. Memories Of Gray (2:32)
  29. Goodbyes (2:23)
  30. The Death Of Toshiko (2:23)
  31. The End Is Where We Start From (2:28)
  32. Torchwood Theme (1:36)

Released by: Silva Screen
Release date: 2008
Total running time: 79:33

… Read more
Categories
2007 Film Soundtracks T

Transformers: The Score – music by Steve Jablonsky

Transformers: The ScorePerhaps no score album has caused as much consternation and anticipation as Jablonsky’s contribution to Dreamworks’ live action take on the venerable 1980s toys. In fact, the whole story of how the album has come to be is as unbelievable and convoluted as any summer blockbuster. Despite the fact that Jablonsky asserted that a score album was in the works…by the time the movie was released there was no word on when it was going to come out. Days and weeks passed and still nothing. It eventually reached a point where someone started an online petition to get the ball rolling…garnering over 5000 signatures. (I must admit to putting my name to it.) Thus, when it was finally released in early October (a week ahead of the DVD) getting a copy proved a challenge at best, with Amazon.com projecting a minimum two days just to get it shipped out.

So, the question on everyone’s mind right now is probably this: Was it really worth all the trouble and fuss it took to get it out? The answer is a defiant hell yeah!

Even though half the tracks on the album are a little different than what eventually ended up on film, what’s there is still worth a listen…splitting the line between character-specific and scene-specific pieces. “Autobots” reflects the nobility and heroism of the ‘bots as a whole…with a cello reflecting the power and strength of “Optimus”, and an electric guitar suggests the speed and loyalty of “Bumblebee”. On the other end, a male chorus accentuates the menace and threat the “Decepticons” represent…with “Frenzy” sounding rather Stravinsky-esque. “Scorponok” can cause ones heart to pound as it slowly and methodically makes its’ way towards the soldiers in the film.

It’s not all big action however. “Sam at the Lake” is one of the quieter pieces, while a funeral dirge best describes the state of “Cybertron” and the war’s toll on that far away world. “Breaking the Signal”, meanwhile, 3 out of 4struck me as being a little too similar to what often plays on similar sequences on 24, but if that’s the only fault, it’s a small one.

Bottom line: if you’re one of the many people to have caught the movie in the multiplex, you have to get this album…get it any way you can.

Order this CD

  1. Autobots (2:33)
  2. Decepticons (3:51)
  3. The All Spark (3:34)
  4. Deciphering The Signal (3:08)
  5. Frenzy (1:56)
  6. Optimus (3:15)
  7. Bumblebee (3:58)
  8. Soccent Attack (2:07)
  9. Sam At The Lake (1:59)
  10. Scorponok (4:57)
  11. Cybertron (2:45)
  12. Arrival To Earth (5:26)
  13. Witwicky (1:57)
  14. Downtown Battle (1:32)
  15. Sector 7 (2:05)
  16. Bumblebee Captured (2:17)
  17. You’re A Soldier Now (3:27)
  18. Sam On The Roof (2:02)
  19. Optimus Vs. Megatron (3:59)
  20. No Sacrifice, No Victory (2:57)

Released by: Warner Bros.
Release date: 2007
Total running time: 59:56

… Read more