[Closed] Now Playing XVI

You know, I think it all depends on the music you were brought up by. Sweeping themes (say, Willams, Jarre, Barry, Horner) are of course attractive and you hear them in films. Today Barry by the kids getting to film music is seen is seen as boring and I mean it. I knew about 10 people who hate Barry's music almost with a passion!

How is MV attractive? Rock rhythms, rock melody. It's not about the complexity of melody - nothing rivals Legends of the Fall or Dances with the Wolves, or Lara's theme here. But it sounds like a rock hit, it has the syncopated rhythm that is seen as exciting, is percussive, with very rhythmic backdrop. And it's loud as hell.

Of course, people's tastes have diminished. Today, the demands are much smaller than even 10 years ago. Few years more and pop music will sound like an electronic version of a simplistic Stravinsky wannabe, without half of the inventiveness of the original work. That's the sad truth.

I, myself, started with the bloated MV sound - my first score was The Rock.

Man, I really need to give this El Cid thingamajig a spin, because A) I haven't heard a single golden age score in my life and B) everyone is praising this as it being the Star Wars of that era. But isn't 3 CD's a little too much of a good thing? It's really what is putting me off a little. I need some serious pushing from the experts here to move my hand over the 'Purchase this item' button and click...

All your comments Erik are great summary on Goldsmith's score for this first Star Trek movie, but it's the quoted comment that does it for me. There are so many examples of where Goldsmith's music carries the movie. To be honest, this film is so slow and watching the movie without Goldsmith's music would have the movie progressing on geological time scales. The whole cloud sequence is, for me, one of the greatest melds of visuals and music in movie history.

Over the last few months I've tended to listen to favourite cues from my CDs. And over the last hour or so there's been the usual mixed bag of scores and styles:

"Dunkin Donuts" - The Astronaut Farmer - Stuart Matthewman
Quirky Americana in small doses is fine and this fits the bill.

"Manhattan Skyline" - Saturday Night Fever - David Shire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqYZE-sHL68 A great disco tune!

"Cue Bill Conti" - Tropic Thunder - Theodore Shapiro
I'm not too familiar with Conti's work but I'm sure that this is some sort of homage to Conti's work. Whatever, there's great string writing in this short cue. But it echoes the top quality of the CD as a whole.

"Summer 78 (Instrumental)" - Goodbye, Lenin! - Yann Tiersen
Love the piano line to this cue and the way that the various instruments in the small ensemble enter as the cue progresses. A great companion to the vocal version.

"Going Out" - Kikujiro - Joe Hisaishi
Another distinctive piano-led cue. This is a prime example of how the clip contests can showcase scores that I would otherwise not hear.

"Transformation" - Tin Man - Simon Boswell
Powerful brass passages and frenetic strings provide an exciting 3-4 minutes. I find this whole score a very entertaining listen but it seems to have passed most people by?

"Granny and Wes Unite" - Walking Across Egypt - Marco Beltrami
A very different sound to Beltrami's trademark percussive scoring of today. Small ensemble and slight Americana feel.

"Dogen & Rhodes Drive" - Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn - Richard Band
Reminds me a lot of early James Horner (e.g., Krull) with the driving string ostinato and brass fanfares.

"Barn Burn" - xXx²: State of The Union - Marco Beltrami
Packed full of growling electric guitars and drum kit, the combination of these and great brass lines suggests that Beltrami would provide a great Bond score if given the chance.

"Finale" - Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull - John Williams
Brought together in this finale, the various aspects of Williams' score gel well with the rest of the series of films. This movie was playing on the plane on the way out to Malta the other day. The movie looked like fun...but the ending? Maybe I should have forked out the £5 for the headphones so I could watch the movie with sound?

"Battle of The Pics" - George and The Dragon - Gast Waltzing
Anyone know why this one sounds so classical? Reminds me of something like a Slavonic or Hungarian dance.

"Opening Titles" - 25th Hour - Terence Blanchard
For me, one of the saddest but most beautiful themes in movie scoring.

...and then my mp3 player's battery ran out.

A lot of annoying things happened after I was away from home 2 weeks... my bedclothes got moldy, the shower doesn't work well, CD player refuses to throw out CDs, and this rainy weather!

So I need something fun to listen today...


NP: Pom Poko - Shang Shang Typhoon

Perfect.

Sadly it's out of print.

Bangkok Dangerous | Brian Tyler

Freakin' rules. Add it to the list of the best Tyler action scores!

Playing it as well: one word:

DAMN!

NP: Jumper: Griffin's Story - Chris Tilton

Much, much, MUCH better than Powell's effort. This is really good stuff.

While parts of it are directly ripped from War, I can enjoy this a lot more as it doesn't have any of the R&B crap in.

NP: Ben Hur (2cd edition)~Miklos Rozsa
Just one phrase:
Oh my God!!!

One of THE greatest scores EVER!

What is 2nd edition??

Ah, comprende

The Phase IV is fantastic, unfortunately I don't have it on CD.

Will do. It's been on my ever expanding lists for some time.