Category: 2009

Categories
2009 P Soundtracks Television

The Prisoner – music by Rupert Gregson-Williams

The PrisonerThe soundtrack from AMC’s recent remake of The Prisoner is very much like the show itself: it starts out sounding as though it might go to some interesting places, and ends up plodding along into territory that’s largely pointless and meandering. I’ve tried to give every remake of late a fair shake; V and Battlestar Galactica were probably due for a rethink, and Galactica certainly delivered the goods. The problem with Galactica being so wildly successful is that it’s probably prompted more studio suits to green-light reboots of existing franchises that just don’t need a revisitation. The Prisoner is certainly in that category: while certain elements of the original 1960s series are signal flares for the era during which the show was made, those elements were far outweighed by themes both timeless and troubling. The original show is still universally hailed as a milestone of TV storytelling – as the original DVD releases said on the box, “television’s first masterpiece.” With all of that praise, who was bucking for a remake?

The answer is simple: the studio that still held the copyright on Patrick McGoohan’s original concept and 17 episodes. Surely a modernization of the story would find ample material to dramatize in a post-9/11 world, with the themes of identity, staying in lockstep with the popular majority and bucking the system havingly only gained incredible significance in the intervening years. Instead, what emerged from the new Prisoner was a muddle of half-baked ideas with little or no resonance, failed attempts at fan-pleasing callbacks to the original series that more often than not seemed grafted on at the last minute, and murky vagueness standing in for the original show’s symbolism and mystery. Replace the original Number Six’s seething, barely-able-to-keep-it-from-bubbling-over rage at his predicament with a new Number Six who just really didn’t want to be in the Village (but can’t remember why), and the new Prisoner is just an ill-thought-out mess that isn’t remotely a patch on McGoohan’s show. Hopefully the new show won’t poison the ongoing mystique of its vastly superior forebear.

One of the few things I did find to like about AMC’s Prisoner was its frequently-trippy musical score. Just about every note of original score and library music used in the ’60s version has been released, re-released, stamped, filed, indexed, numbered and critically dissected, and it’s well known that the disorienting near-elevator-muzak tone of the original show’s music was intended as part of its overall unsettling effect. Rupert Gregson-Williams opts for a more modern tone, but keeps some of that unsettling feel in many tracks by layering in backward elements that intertwine with the main melodic and harmonic ideas. Early tracks on the soundtrack CD are quite interesting to listen to, and demand more than one listening to really catch how all the sounds, both forward and backward, fit together.

Sadly, many of the later tracks are bogged down in a kind of non-specific, quasi-Mediterranean millieu, with the appropriate meandering string instruments that have been all the rage of late with non-orchestral scoring. There are still occasional orchestral elements, but the latter half of the CD is quite frankly not really relaxing, but just plain sleepy. The main theme for the series as a whole is a strange mix of ’70s keyboard sounds and modern electronics – and it barely breaks out from the score itself to do what a main theme should (i.e. provide a sonic signature that lets you know, even from the TV in the next room, that The Prisoner is on, and you need to report to the Village immediately).

Ironically, it’s only a couple of source cues which turn out to be the closest that this score comes to the tone of the original show; several songs appeared in the AMC series which aren’t included here, such as selections from Brian Wilson’s Smile.

I can’t muster much more than a 2 rating for this soundtrack; there’s simply too much of it that, rather like the show, loses its way and goes off into the desert, never to return. I can’t even really fault the 2 out of 4composer, as I can’t imagine the scripts and footage providing enough inspiration for anyone to create music that salvages the entire endeavour (see also: the Star Trek: The Motion Picture effect). Sad to say, this soundtrack is probably the most worthwhile thing to come from the 2009 remake of The Prisoner.

Order this CD

  1. Explosion (1:42)
  2. Everybody Knows Everybody (2:29)
  3. The Ocean (5:03)
  4. Two (5:58)
  5. Shadows And Nightmares (3:05)
  6. 909 (3:36)
  7. Tour Bus (0:57)
  8. Walk With Me (2:25)
  9. 313 (2:58)
  10. Lucy (6:17)
  11. Six Investigates (1:30)
  12. Wonkers (0:59)
  13. The Ruins (3:03)
  14. Blackmail (3:28)
  15. Escape Resort (1:21)
  16. One Night Together (4:39)
  17. Wedding Day (3:23)
  18. Waking Up (2:16)
  19. Helen (6:36)
  20. In The Church (5:53)
  21. Suicide (2:48)
  22. I Am Not A Number (3:15)
  23. The Prisoner Titles (0:37)

Released by: Varese Sarabande
Release date: 2009
Total running time: 74:18

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2009 8-Bit Weapon Artists (by group or surname) ComputeHer E Non-Soundtrack Music

8 Bit Weapon & ComputeHer – It’s A Chiptune Holiday!

It's A Chiptune Holiday!A fun little EP released just in time for the holiday season, It’s A Chiptune Holiday! is a selection of traditional Christmas music, done in old-school video game style with 8 Bit Weapon’s usual arsenal of custom-programmed classic console sound chips.

“Deck The Halls” kicks things off with harmonized vocoder vocals – it’s like a cheerful choir of Christmas-caroling robots. “Jingle Bells” and “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” also have robotic vocals, though the latter has a kind of strange diction that makes me wonder if it really is a voice synthesizer as opposed to a human singer’s processed vocals.

The instrumentals are a treat too; “O Christmas Tree” is given a polyphonic arrangement that makes it sound like a “win” tune from Pole Position; “Ave Maria” actually comes closest to what I was expecting to hear from an EP of 8-bit Christmas tunes.

4 out of 4The only problem with It’s A Chiptune Holiday! is that it’s just too short! I instantly thought of about a dozen other Christmas tunes that would sound great with the 8 Bit Weapon treatment; I realize that it’d mean venturing into non-public-domain territory, but I can just about hear a chiptune version of “Christmastime Is Here” from Vince Guaraldi’s Charlie Brown Christmas special soundtrack in my head.

The good news is, I hear they’ve already scheduled Christmas for next year – you’ve got 12 months to get on the case, 8 Bit Weapon!

Order this CD

  1. Deck The Halls (Nos Galan) (1:52)
  2. Hanukkah (Festival Of Lights) (1:01)
  3. O Christmas Tree (O Chanukah) (1:31)
  4. Jingle Bells (One Horse Open Sleigh) (1:14)
  5. Joy To The World (2:09)
  6. Greensleeves (What Child Is This) (1:51)
  7. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (2:13)
  8. Ave Maria (The Well-Tempered Clavier) (3:25)

Released by: 8 Bit Weapon
Release date: 2009
Total running time: 15:16

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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

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2009 Artists (by group or surname) F Neil Finn Non-Soundtrack Music Tim Finn

7 Worlds Collide – The Sun Came Out

7 Worlds Collide - The Sun Came OutThe first 7 Worlds Collide album (and DVD) chronicled an all-star gathering of international musicians who assembled quickly to play a few dates in Neil Finn’s stomping grounds; the album was culled from the live performances, and the superstar band (which included the likes of Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder) disbanded, after its shows raised money for charity. The second release under the 7 Worlds Collide banner retains the all-star band part of the formula, but the resulting double album is a creature of the studio, often under the watchful production eye of Neil Finn and/or the talent to which any given track is credited. There a few old faces and a few new ones as well: many of the guest musicians are drawn from a somewhat more local talent pool, with a number of names who may be well known in New Zealand but perhaps not so much outside of the south Pacific.

Virtually the entire Finn family is present, naturally; Neil Finn duets with his wife Sharon on “Little By Little”, a song about the rapid approach of an empty nest at home, and he also duets with Liam Finn, his son who’s carving out a respectable career as a solo artist, on “Learn To Crawl”. Liam also gets a solo turn in the twisty waltz “Red Wine Bottle”, while his younger brother Elroy (who has already been playing live with Crowded House) gets the studio to himself for “The Cobbler”, and while he hasn’t quite carved out the unique sound that Liam has, Elroy still bears watching – as with his older brother, his voice gives away his lineage. Tim Finn also turns in a pleasant solo song, “Riding The Wave.” Fans of the Finn family tree certainly won’t be disappointed by this collection.

Neil’s signature production style permeates nearly every other track on the album, too. It could be argued that The Sun Came Out is perhaps a little less varied in style than the previous 7 Worlds Collide project; with the whole thing in the studio under Finn’s aegis, it’s easy to tell who was at the wheel. This doesn’t detract from the fact that there are some fantastic songs here: Don McGlashan’s “Make Your Own Mind Up” and the KT Tunstall/Bic Runga duet “Black Silk Ribbon” are two of the best songs I’ve heard out of anyone, anywhere, all year long. Liam Finn’s “Red Wine Bottle” is a low-key number that sticks in your head, while the cheery lead track, Johnny Marr and Neil Finn’s “Too Blue”, is enough to brighten anyone’s mood. I also have to single out Jeff Tweedy’s “You Never Know” for special praise: the tune, the performance and the production almost achingly remind me of early ’70s George Harrison, and this is not a bad thing. At all.

If I have a single complaint with The Sun Came Out, it’s that the first disc is a pure pop adrenaline rush, while the second seems to slow down. It really doesn’t, but somehow the second CD lacks the “oomph” packed by the first disc (which literally doesn’t let up for its entire running time). And disc two is no slouch by any means – we get a new Neil Finn solo number (“All Comedians Suffer”), Tim’s and Elroy’s songs, KT Tunstall’s “Hazel Black”, and another Don McGlashan number, “Long Time Gone”. There’s no letdown in quality but somehow there’s a slight darkening of mood.

4 out of 4But that’s a very minor quibble indeed; with the possible exception of Battlestar Galactica Season 4 (and let’s face it, in most cases these two projects are aimed at wildly different audiences), there’s not another two-disc set that’s going to give you this much enjoyment for the price – and once again, Finn & company are sharing the proceeds with charity, so there’s more feel-good to some of these feel-good songs than you might expect. Very, very highly recommended. (Now get back in the studio with Crowded House, Neil!)

Order this CDDisc One

  1. Too Blue – Johnny Marr with Neil Finn (4:01)
  2. You Never Know – Jeff Tweedy (4:18)
  3. Little By Little – Sharon Finn and Neil Finn (3:18)
  4. Learn To Crawl – Neil Finn & Liam Finn (4:59)
  5. Black Silk Ribbon – KT Tunstall & Bic Runga (3:48)
  6. Girl Make Your Own Mind Up – Don McGlashan (5:29)
  7. Run In The Dust – Johnny Marr (4:23)
  8. Red Wine Bottle – Liam Finn (4:26)
  9. The Ties That Bind Us – Phil Selway (3:22)
  10. Reptile – Lisa Germano (3:53)
  11. Bodhisattva Blues – Ed O’ Brien & Neil Finn (3:55)
  12. What Could Have Been – Jeff Tweedy (3:41)

Disc Two

  1. All Comedians Suffer – Neil Finn (4:28)
  2. Duxton Blues – Glenn Richards (3:35)
  3. Hazel Black – KT Tunstall (3:46)
  4. Riding The Wave – Tim Finn (3:32)
  5. The Witching Hour – Phil Selway (3:03)
  6. Over & Done – John Stirratt (3:41)
  7. A Change Of Heart – Bic Runga (3:14)
  8. Don’t Forget Me – Pat Sansone (3:38)
  9. Long Time Gone – Don McGlashan (4:02)
  10. The Cobbler – Elroy Finn (4:33)
  11. 3 Worlds Collide (3:06)
  12. The Water – Sebastian Steinberg (4:02)

Released by: Sony
Release date: 2009
Disc one total running time: 49:33
Disc two total running time: 44:40

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2009 Artists (by group or surname) F Jason Falkner Non-Soundtrack Music

Jason Falkner – All Quiet On The Noise Floor

Jason Falkner - All Quiet On The Noise FloorYet another Jason Falkner solo album that has so far only been released in Japan (as of this writing, his previous album, I’m OK You’re OK, still has yet to hit our shores as anything other than an import), All Quiet On The Noise Floor may well be the best thing Falkner’s done since Can You Still Feel? Still drenching everything in a guitars-at-the-front-of-the-mix 1970s power pop style, Falkner’s songs are better this time around. Tunes such as “Maybe The Universe”, “Doin’ Me In” and “Emotion Machine” are instantly catchy and hard to get out of your head.

I also have to give a recommendation to the mostly-acoustic “Counting Sheep”, one of the most infectious melodies Falkner has graced us with since his first album. Another catchy number, “My Home Is Not A House”, dates back to Falkner’s well-circulated demo tapes and originated during his brief stint as one of The Grays. “Doin’ Me In” is a fast-paced, talky rocker that lands somewhere between The Clash and The Knack in style (and that’s not something one can say about just any song).

4 out of 4If there’s a single problem with All Quiet On The Noise Floor, it’s that, once again, one has to blow a lot of money (relatively speaking, for a single CD) to get a Japanese import. Falkner himself has implored his fans to hold off an wait for a domestic release, which he assures us is coming – his logic there is that he’ll only land a North American tour if a domestic release generates significant sales. As if his fans are going to hold off that long (and as if his fans won’t go ahead and buy any eventual U.S. release anyway, just for a shot at that tour).

Order this CD

  1. Princessa (4:20)
  2. Emotion Machine (3:12)
  3. Counting Sheep (3:58)
  4. Evangeline (4:02)
  5. The Lie In Me (5:17)
  6. Maybe The Universe (5:17)
  7. Jet Silver and the Dolls of Venus (4:02)
  8. My Home Is Not A House (3:51)
  9. Doin’ Me In (3:49)
  10. Y.E.S. (5:40)
  11. This Time ’09 (4:40)

Released by: Noise McCartney Records / Phantom
Release date: 2009
Total running time: 48:08

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Categories
2009 D Film Soundtracks Soundtracks by Title

District 9 – music by Clinton Shorter

District 9 - music by Clinton ShorterIt’s almost easy to forget, now that we’ve been getting the pan-cultural ethnic musical stew of the recent remake of Battlestar Galactica for so many years, that SF movies were routinely being scored with ethnic percussion and instruments for quite some time before that – it was in vogue as Hollywood’s stand-in sound for “otherworldly”. But the score for District 9 actually has a reason to use African-inspired music: it actually takes place in Johannesburg and deals, at least allegorically, with apartheid. If anyone can get away with it, District 9 and its composer, Clinton Shorter, can.

But the District 9 score isn’t exotic to the bone – underneath it all is an orchestral base, usually rumbling in the lower registers and filling out the bottom end of the mix with slightly more traditional musical portrayals of the darkness running through the story. (And it must be said that it’s pretty dark, but for more on that, check out theLogBook.com’s Movie Reviews.)

I don’t want to dismiss the more contemplative moments of either the movie or its music, but the real highlights are where the ethnic percussion and traditional orchestral backing meld together: tracks like “Exosuit” and “A Lot Of Secrets” show this combination off to best effect. The quieter moments are nice too, but Shorter really shines in the movie’s action scenes. Fortunately, much of the soundtrack draws from the latter 2/3 of the movie; the beginning of the film leans heavily on a documentary “fly on the wall” style and, aside from the opening titles (which are presented on the CD) is a bit light on music. Because of that unusual balance of where/when the music falls in the movie, you can rest assured that most of the cues you remember in the latter half of the movie are present here too.

3 stars out of 4The music from District 9 may not be the most breathtakingly original melding of western and non-western music for a film score, but it’s an enjoyable one, and it services a story that actually pays off its more exotic elements. It’s an interesting listen away from the movie’s visuals, especially if you’re in the mood for dark, thundering percussion.

Order this CD

  1. District 9 (6:30)
  2. I Want That Arm (2:14)
  3. She Calls (1:36)
  4. Exosuit (3:17)
  5. Harvesting Material (1:47)
  6. Heading Home (1:16)
  7. A Lot Of Secrets (2:29)
  8. Back To D9 (1:47)
  9. Wikus Is Still Running (2:58)
  10. Get Him Talking (2:07)
  11. Prawnkus (4:01)

Released by: Sony
Release date: 2009
Total running time: 30:02

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Categories
1965 1966 2009 D Doctor Who Film Soundtracks

Dr. Who & The Daleks / Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.

5 min read

Order this CDLong before Murray Gold drenched the adventures of the TARDIS with lavish orchestral arrangements, and even long before John Debney et al. did the same with synthesized orchestral bombast, there were tales of the Doctor and the Daleks that were accompanied by unabashed, full-bodied symphonic splendor – only the Doctor wasn’t David Tennant then. The Doctor wasn’t even really the Doctor. Doctor Who was played by none other than Peter Cushing, and the Daleks graced the big screen in full color. The latest – and perhaps least-likely-to-ever-exist – Doctor Who soundtrack on the shelves brings together music from Cushing’s oft-derided pair of outings in the TARDIS, Doctor Who & The Daleks (1965) and Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966).

It’s an unlikely release because we’re talking about music from a pair of 40+ year old movies which are generally considered irrelevant by Doctor Who fan canon-keepers. There’s just no way to slot the Cushing movies into the TV series continuity, and between that and the movies’ off-the-scale campiness, the two films tends to be disregarded, perhaps a bit unfairly: even recent Doctor Who has displayed elements influenced by the movies (not the least of which is the beefed-up look for the Daleks themselves). Just as there’s no story continuity with the TV series, there’s also no musical continuity: the two films’ scores sound nothing like anything that had been heard on TV Doctor Who up to that point. Ron Grainer’s immortal TV theme music isn’t even hinted at. Malcolm Lockyer graces Doctor Who & The Daleks with a hypnotic, languid mysterioso theme with an incredibly long melody line. Most of that movie’s score, which takes up the majority of this album, is built around two or three motifs, with the result being that quite a few cues sound similar to one another.

Made a year apart, the two movies don’t even share musical continuity with each other, never mind wishing for any nods to the TV theme. Bill McGuffie takes over the composing duties for Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. and gives that movie’s music a completely different sensibility – generally darker and more aggressive, and yet in some scenes the music plays up farcical comedy. There’s one other issue with the Invasion Earth tracks: they’re drenched in sound effects from the movie. Classic Who remixing and sound restoration maestro Mark Ayres has said that he’s been unable to locate anything but the “music + FX” tracks from the movie; this odd sound mix was kept by the studio so foreign actors could dub the dialogue in their own language, while preserving the rest of the sound mix. As such, the music is interrupted by explosions, spaceship take-offs, breaking glass, and so on – it’s very distracting…but perhaps better than having nothing from that movie.

Things are rounded off by a selection of “related” tracks: vintage singles tied in to each movie, including upbeat “single” versions of the respective theme music. There are also sound effects from each film as well, including a TARDIS interior ambience that’s so typically “’50s/’60s B-movie sci-fi lab sound FX” that it’s nearly laughable; interior FX from the Dalek city are marginally more interesting.

The remastering job undertaken by Ayres for all of the music presented here is impressive, resulting in crisp, clean recordings, marred only occasionally by brass swells which sound like they were “overdriven” (i.e. too loud for the limitations of the recording gear) at the original sessions. Aside from just a few instances of that, it sounds pristine – it could’ve been recorded yesterday. And maybe that’s the best reason to pick up this album: as the first full-blooded orchestral Doctor Who music, it’s not a million miles away, frankly, from the unashamedly bold sounds used by Murray Gold today. Elements of the music act as sonic time stamps: James Bond-esque bass guitar (and equally John Barry-esque brass blasts), for example – but then, doesn’t the “Westminster Bridge” on the first modern-era Doctor Who soundtrack 4 out of 4CD have both of those sonic signatures too? But this was the first time that Doctor Who had been taken into an orchestral context, as opposed to electronic abstraction or the low-key small ensemble sounds of Dudley Simpson and his contemporaries. Perhaps it’s another way in which the two Peter Cushing Doctor Who movies have proven to be influential (if not downright prophetic).

    Dr. Who & The Daleks – music by Malcolm Lockyer
  1. Fanfare and Opening Titles (1:48)
  2. TARDIS (0:48)
  3. The Petrified Jungle (1:58)
  4. The Petrified Creature and The City (0:52)
  5. Four Return to TARDIS (1:06)
  6. The Medicine Box and The Climb To The City (2:24)
  7. City Corridors (1:54)
  8. Captured By The Daleks (1:19)
  9. Susan Leaves The City (1:17)
  10. The Jungle At Night (2:13)
  11. Susan Returns To The City (1:12)
  12. Escape From The Cell (3:05)
  13. The Trap (3:44)
  14. The Swamp (2:37)
  15. The Mountain (2:34)
  16. The Cave (1:57)
  17. The Jump (0:54)
  18. The Thals Approach The City (1:40)
  19. The Countdown (2:39)
  20. The Countdown Stops (2:17)
  21. Finale and End Titles (1:12)

    Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. – music by Bill McGuffie

  22. Smash and Grab (1:43)
  23. TARDIS Departs (0:12)
  24. Opening Titles (1:59)
  25. TARDIS (1:15)
  26. London, 2150 A.D. (0:50)
  27. Daleks and Robomen (5:01)
  28. Message To Grandfather and The Dalek Saucer Takes Off (1:26)
  29. The Mine Workings and The Cottage (1:25)
  30. Preparing the Bomb Capsule (1:22)
  31. Smash and Grab (Reprise) and End Titles (2:09)

    Bonus Tracks

  32. The Eccentric Doctor Who (2:25)
  33. Daleks and Thals (2:09)
  34. Fugue for Thought (2:17)
  35. Fanfare and Opening Titles (with effects) (1:48)
  36. TARDIS Effects (3:06)
  37. Dalek City Effects (6:31)

Released by: Silva Screen
Release date: 2009
Total running time: 75:08

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2009 Artists (by group or surname) Non-Soundtrack Music W

Eric Woolfson Sings The Alan Parsons Project That Never Was

3 min read

Order this CDLet’s start out by pointing out one thing: the title of this album is a complete misnomer. There are, indeed, at least a couple of songs that were pitched as potential Alan Parsons Project numbers, but the bulk of Eric Woolfson Sings The Alan Parsons Project That Never Was is taken up by songs that were intended, from the start, to feature in Woolfson’s post-Project stage musicals. There’s nothing wrong with that – I’ve tried to follow Woolfson’s music as well as Parsons’ – but it just seems that this album’s title is more than just a little bit misleading. Perhaps it should be Eric Woolfson Boosts Sales By Mentioning His Past Association With The Alan Parsons Project.

In a way, the album serves as a Woolfson “best of” collection, drawing from his numerous musical productions. The pieces heard here are not sung by the cast, however: these are demos or fresh recordings of the songs, arranged and sung by Woolfson himself. There are no repeats of known Project material here; if you’re new to Woolfson’s musicals, this material will be new to you. The only pieces I recognized were a couple of songs from his Poe concept album (which was more or less a commercially-released demo to prove the viability of the concept of a musical based on the life of Edgar Allan Poe), but they appear here in very different forms.

Listeners who soaked up the series of remastered Project albums will find two familiar pieces of music here: Rumour Going Round, previously presented as a mostly-instrumental backing track with a very incomplete rough vocal, is fleshed out with full vocals here (though the very 1985 backing track makes it a bit of a novelty by default). And if fans need a further stamp of Parsons Project authenticity, longtime Project guitarist Ian Bairnson lays down some brand new riffs on “Any Other Day”, the album’s only other bona fide Project song that never was.

But there’s plenty more for Woolfson’s longtime fans to enjoy. “Golden Key”, the lead track, bears more than a passing resemblance to 1983’s minor Project hit “Don’t Answer Me”. One of the best songs on the album, “I Can See Round Corners”, is an ethereal song with some haunting multitracked harmonies. “Nothing Can Change My Mind”, heard originally on Poe, is perfectly suited to Woolfson’s vocal range and his unique delivery. One of the most intriguing demos is a rootsier, raw rock version of Poe‘s “Train To Freedom”, here titled “Train To Wuxi” (after the Chinese tin-mining city Woolfson was visiting when he wrote the song); not only does the song have an unusually stripped-down sound, but Woolfson himself plays a decent guitar riff throughout.

The title may be a bit of a misdirection, but the music here is still solid. I’d really like to hear Woolfson cook up another album like Poe, but along the lines of classic Project concept albums 3 out of 4like I Robot and The Turn Of A Friendly Card. With this album, he’s demonstrated that he has musical colleagues he can call upon to instrumentally make up for the other half of the Project. It may never be the production piece that it would be with Parsons aboard, but I’d like to hear some more original music from Woolfson. This album shows he could do it.

  1. Golden Key (4:12)
  2. Nothing Can Change My Mind (4:00)
  3. Rumour Goin’ Round (4:39)
  4. Any Other Day (3:08)
  5. I Can See Round Corners (5:15)
  6. Steal Your Heart Away (3:20)
  7. Along The Road Together (3:21)
  8. Somewhere In The Audience (4:36)
  9. Train To Wuxi (4:19)
  10. Immortal (6:02)

Released by: Limelight Records
Release date: 2009
Total running time:

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Categories
1980 2009 A Film Soundtracks

Airplane! – music by Elmer Bernstein

3 min read

Order this CDIn 1980, the majority of the movie-viewing public that had missed Kentucky Fried Movie got to know the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker production team by way of their big-budget, big-screen debut, Airplane!. Like ZAZ’s later (criminally short-lived) TV spoof Police Squad!, Airplane! had the virtue of starring Leslie Nielsen, whose businesslike demeanor and unshakeable poker-faced deadpan sells the whole endeavour.

And then there’s an absolutely brilliant score by the late, great Elmer Bernstein, which alternates between being just as straight-faced dramatic as Nielsen, and delivering musical punchlines unashamedly. It’s hard to overemphasize how important Bernstein’s music is to Airplane! – it straddles the fine line between truly dramatic music and schmaltzy cheese, and more to the point, Bernstein seemed to have an unerring instinct for which extreme was needed in a given scene. Many cues on the long-overdue soundtrack release could come from just about any big-screen drama, but occasionally, the music gets away with the kind of clowning that the directors told the cast to carefully avoid.

A prime example of this is the love theme – it’s a nice enough piece of music, but it’s arranged almost like elevator music; any true passion inherent in the tune itself gets wrapped up in a gooey layer of cheese. Later in the movie, as the tension picks up, the music does things that would be unthinkable in a straightforward dramatic context, building up the melodrama and then coming to a dead stop to let the cast get a punchline in. But the beauty of it is that it’s all so deadly serious-sounding until those moments arrive.

How this translates to a listening experience sans dialogue is largely down to how much of an Airplane! fan you are. I’ve loved this movie since I was about 10 years old, so yeah, I love the soundtrack. I only have one real complaint with the score. What is it? (It’s the music in a movie that the audience can hear but the characters can’t, but that’s not important right now.*) My only beef is that I had to wait this long to get it (between this score’s overdue release and the recent complete-score release of Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan, there’s clearly been a sea change at 4 out of 4Paramount’s music department regarding exploitation of the back catalogue). I’d never before given serious thought to the possibility of an Airplane! score album…but I’m glad that someone at La-La Land did. It’s a great listening experience altogether.

* Strictly speaking, this CD also contains source cues as well – i.e. music that the characters do hear, including folk songs that are worth having your IV tube yanked out.

  1. Main Title (contains theme from Jaws) (1:53)
  2. Kiss Off (0:48)
  3. Ambulance Arrives (0:32)
  4. Hari Krishna / Ticket / Nervous (2:44)
  5. Lisa / Farewell / Take Off / Another Meeting (3:17)
  6. Fighting Girls (0:47)
  7. Love Theme From Airplane! (1:07)
  8. From Here To There (2:08)
  9. Head / Memory (1:13)
  10. Shimmer / Molumbo (1:02)
  11. Zip / Eggs / Roger, Take Over (2:34)
  12. Wild Violins / Sickness / Idea (2:25)
  13. Thar She Blows / Flash / Panel (2:23)
  14. “Where The Hell Is Rex Kramer?” / Trouble (1:02)
  15. Mayday (0:56)
  16. Punch-Up / Kramer (1:14)
  17. Clumsy (0:55)
  18. Dog Fight / Failure / Pep Talk / Victory March (3:45)
  19. News (0:56)
  20. “Runway Is Niner” / “The Gear Is Down And We’re Ready To Land” (1:03)
  21. Crasher (4:02)
  22. Resolution / Tag (1:52)
  23. Notre Dame Victory March (2:01)
  24. Tavern (0:35)
  25. Everything’s Coming Up Roses (0:20)
  26. Instruments (0:13)
  27. Disco (0:30)
  28. Kiss Off (Alternate) (0:47)
  29. Fighting Girls (Alternate) (0:44)
  30. From Here To There (Instrumental) (2:08)
  31. Molumbo (Alternate) (0:52)
  32. Zip (Original Version) (0:31)
  33. News (Alternates) (1:48)
  34. Dog Fight (Alternate) (0:37)
  35. “Runway Is Niner” (Alternate) (0:30)
  36. “The Gear Is Down And We’re Ready To Land” (Alternate) (0:30)
  37. Tag (Instrumental) (1:44)

Released by: La-La Land Records
Release date: 2009
Total running time: 52:28

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Categories
2009 Artists (by group or surname) F Non-Soundtrack Music

Liam Finn + Eliza Jane – Champagne In Seashells

Liam Finn + Eliza Jane - Champagne In SeashellsAn EP to keep his fans satisfied after his successful (to say the least) indie debut, Champagne In Seashells isn’t so much a continuation of I’ll Be Lightning as it is a continuation of Finn’s celebrated live show, in which he uses multiple looping effects pedals and multiple instruments to perform stunning feats of live multitracking, building his grooves up right before his delighted audiences’ eyes. Along for the ride this time is E.J. Barnes, who’s been integral to his live show for some time now.

With only five songs, you probably wouldn’t expect dizzying experimental heights from Champagne In Seashells – but it manages to deliver them anyway. The highlights of this quintet are the distinctly ’80s-flavored “Long Way To Go”, and the final track, “On Your Side”, with Barnes’ beguiling lead vocals lending a whole new feel to Finn’s experimental palette of sounds. I don’t know if the two are 4 out of 4planning on forging ahead as a double act, but with songs like, that, it certainly can’t hurt to consider it.

“Won’t Change My Mind” also reminds us that Liam Finn has stepped out from the not-inconsiderable shadow of his musical dad and uncle not because of studio trickery, but because he’s a gifted songwriter and performer in his own right – really, the whole EP is a testament to that, and as such comes highly recommended.

Order this CD

  1. Plane Crash (3:43)
  2. Long Way To Go (2:45)
  3. Won’t Change My Mind (6:34)
  4. Honest Face (3:42)
  5. On Your Side (3:02)

Released by: Yep Roc
Release date: 2009
Total running time: 19:46

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