After giving the 2nd CD a first listen, I must say I'm impressed. It's not a regular listen as far as film scores go, becuase of the various contributors, but then again Matrix isn't meant to be a regular film.

The 'Don Davis only' cues are very good (remember I'm still on my first listen). The two short tracks that start of the CD are mostly motifs heard in the first film, and firmly establish that it's a Matrix score you've popped into your CD. The Trinity Dream tracks sounds like a cross between 'Bullet Time' from the first movie and the clanging beats heard during the Theatrical Trailer as Trinity falls out of the window in slo-mo.

The 'Teahouse' cue sounds like a progression of the music used in the training sequence in the first film, and the percussion is great.

Rob Dougan's 'Chateau' starts off as a progression of the cue he supplied for the first film before heading off into new territory. It's fast and complex stuff, but the underlying orchestral piece ties everything together neatly.

The 2 long tracks by Juno Reactor (which both feature input by Davis) are impressive indeed, and from what I gather will underscore the highway scene and the big fight scene (hence the titles). I had no idea what to expect from these two cues, and now I'm dying to hear them during the film. They're hard to describe, and they're unlike anything I've ever heard. I get the impression they'll sound better after repeat listens.

The bassline of the former track is, to use a fanboy term, very cool. At about the 2:30 mark it shifts up a gear and features some impressively rapid percussion (sort of like ES Posthumus' Tikal). When, a few minutes later, the choir kicks in, it's time to let that jaw heads downwards

And just when you thought percussion couldn't get any fatser without becoming unlistenable, Burly Brawl starts. This track also features some great choir, and is just as impressive as the Mona Lisa piece.

The final suite by Davis takes the cake however. This definetely needs a lot more listens to grasp, since it contains so many cues and motifs, but after a first listen the choral outbursts towards the end and the quiet, melodic guitar motif somewhere in the middle are what i remember most.

[see seperate post further down...]
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The Songs on the first CD are quite fun too. The Linkin Park and Rob Dougan instrumental are very good, and the Fluke and Oakenfold ones slightly less. I imagine they'll sound great in whatever scene they're used, just like the various instrumental bits of songs in the first film.

The Marilyn Manson song isn't as bad as some people make it out to be, though definetely not stuff to play at your Granny's bday. A few other tracks didn't exactly tickle my fancy, but anyway most of the songs I didn't like aren't in the film anyway (it says so in the liner notes).

The Dave Matthews song at the end also made me sit up and listen. Pity it's not an instrumental, because when the singing starts the song goes down a notch or two. Most of the songs are good by the standards of their own genres, so it depends on your tastes. It's quite sad when Clemensen over at Filmtracks discards most of these songs as stuff which is not 'tolerable to classical ears'. People have varied tastes, and most score lovers don't only listen to Edith Piaf or whatever it is Clemensen gets his fix from.

Anyway, as he rightly pointed out, us score lovers practically got the song CD for free, and as far as free music goes, I'm very pleased.
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I'm gonna give this a lot more spins in the old player, and maybe my views will change as I warm more to the music and eventually see the score and songs used on-screen. But for now my feelings are mostly mixed. The 2nd CD is obviously laden with sky-high expectations, but I think that Davis and co. have delivered the next level in Matrix music with gusto.

Your thoughts, dear reader?
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p.s. Incidentally, most sites show the front cover as reading "The Matrix Reloaded - The Album", but on the european version I bought, the image on the cover simply reads "The Matrix Reloaded", and then in fine print on the top there's written "Music From and Inspired By The Motion Picture". Just a useless fact.

01. Main Title (from CD2) (1:32)
02. Trinity Dream (from CD2) (1:58)
03. Furious Angels (from CD1) with intro of "Clubbed To Death" (from The Matrix song CD) tagged on to the beginning) (~6:14)
04. Mix of Session & Reload (both from CD1) (6:50)
05. Teahouse (from CD2) with Zion (from CD1) tagged on the end) (5:38)
06. Chateau (from CD2) (3:25)
07. The Passportal (from CD1) (2:57)
08. Dread Rock (from CD1) (4:41)
09. Mona Lisa Overdrive (from CD2) (10:10)
10. Burly Brawl (from CD2) (5:54)
11. "Matrix Reloaded" Suite (from CD2) (17:37)
12. End Credits from original movie mixed before This Is The New **** (from CD1) (5:58)

This is all orchestral/electronic with no vocal tracks except for "Reload" (has some "Matrix effects" in vocals) and "This Is The New **** " (I have used this as a vocal backing for the credits)

In all I think that it holds up quite well and makes for a good listening experience.

Rob Dougan's 'Chateau' starts off as a progression of the cue he supplied for the first film before heading off into new territory. It's fast and complex stuff, but the underlying orchestral piece ties everything together neatly.
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...and sounds alot like David Arnold's Barry/Bond style, gotta say though that I'm loving this CD and I'm already on my second play.

Next track up is "Teahouse". This is such a good track - and I've tied it to the "Zion" track from CD 1 (there's a bit of a taiko drum running through this track). The taiko drums played by Gocoo are excellent. Reminds me a bit of Kodo, the Japanese group of musicians who play taiko drums of varying size.

I especially find this quote interesting:

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Overall, the score for The Matrix Reloaded is less frightening, less dissonant, and less disjointed.

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Originally posted by dgoldwas:
Nicely said Camillu! I found Christian's review at Tracksounds to be interesting, given the amount of back-story he seeems to put forth (some of which isn't exactly accurate, but whatever).

Dan

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Yeah, you know, Filmtracks, Tracksounds, SoundtrackNet, etc., they're all the same...

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Originally posted by John F:
I have a question- is there any score on cd 1 at all? How much score is there total between both cd's?

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No there is no score on Disc 1.

As indicated in another thread, there are 37-minutes of Don Davis-involved material.

Is the Mona Lisa track a suite? or does it actually appear as it is and score a ten-minute sequence?

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Originally posted by Camillu:
Is the Mona Lisa track a suite? or does it actually appear as it is and score a ten-minute sequence?

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It covers part of the car chase.

Dan (UK)

There also info about all the artists on the 2 discs.

(+ There's also the video of the POD song if you're interested)

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Originally posted by Camillu:
There also info about all the artists on the 2 discs.

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....and a link to Don's site!

Look for audio clips there.... soon.....

Did Davis actually want it this way? Cos in my humble opinion I think we could appreciate the score more if it was chopped up a bit into digestable tracks. The suite would have sounded better like this:

Part 1 (2:20)
Military sounding, progressive track.

Part 2 (2:19)
Beautiful track with humming choir. Tension builds towards the end.

Part 3 (2:42)
Very reminiscent of the first film. Great percussion, burst of choir and frenetic strings come into the 2nd half of the track.

Part 4 (1:14)
Starts of quietly before the choir takes over. Very ethereal and impressive.

Part 5 (2:45)
My favourite piece. A slowly rising motif, accompanied by female choir, with occasional burst of brass. Then halfway through, the guitar (is it?) plucking comes in to keep the tempo rising, and choir makes a breif appearance before the loud final burst of brass.

Part 6 (1:07)
Quiet and ethereal again. Mostly wordless choir.

Part 7 (5:07)
Great finale? Starts off loud and bombastic, also very reminiscent of the first film (from Bullet Time onwards). The 'track' has many loud and quiet points, much like 'Anything is Possible' from the first film. The bursts of choir are very impressive, as is the brass. it eventually winds down for a quiet ending.

Very, very good stuff overall.

I think the motif that clocks around the 8:00 to 9:00 mark is a "more" developed version (I say more because I think Davis might even save this theme and use it for Revolutions as a end-cap for the series) of the cue that played from the first Matrix, when Neo decides that he has to re-enter the Matrix to save Morpheous (or what I would like to call the theme of "Indecision Decided."

This particular part of the suite has a real sad and solemn tone, driven by the rhythmic strings which seem to indicate the slightest sense of uneasy valor, as if Neo must once again make an even more difficult decision this time around. I am probably dead wrong on this (those that have seen the film can correct me), but that's just how I interpreted it.

I've been certain since the first Matrix that Don Davis is a genius, and further investigation of his work only made that more clear to me. Reloaded is still more proof. This is a great album as it stands on its own, although I'm sure that after I see the film I'll be whining endlessly about all the great stuff that's missing... I want all that frightening, dissonant, disjointed music!!

As to the first disc, I haven't listened to it. Maybe I should. I'll get to it eventually, I'm sure.

Kirk's right about the missing anagrams for the track titles from Davis this time around, but I think it's just fine (if not perfect) the way it is as a long suite.

Speaking of Davis/Warchowskis anagrams, any chance that the rest of the Trilogy will get isolated scores on DVD as well? Truth be told, I didn't enjoy the first score all too much when I listened to the album release, but when I heard the ISO I completely changed my mind. There's a certain fluidity that comes with listening to the complete score in sync with the movie (and Davis' commentary), wholly altering the listening experience (in a positive way).

quote:

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Originally posted by Norman McCay:
Camillu, thanks for clearing it up a bit. Although I still can't say I completely understand the way you arranged the track, I think your post was great at dissecting the first 5 minutes, but did you leave the last 12 minutes out completely, or did you mean to group 5:00-17:00 into a single track?

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Norman - The times in brackets are the length of the chunks, not the point at which they start.

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Originally posted by Camillu:
Has anyone else noticed how at times it sounds like a modern-day Flight of the Bumble Bee?

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Funny - I was talking with a friend about that the other week, and he pointed out the same thing. I agree wholeheartedly, of course, cause the string runs do evoke that piece.

quote:

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Originally posted by Norman McCay:
Truth be told, I didn't enjoy the first score all too much when I listened to the album release, but when I heard the ISO I completely changed my mind. There's a certain fluidity that comes with listening to the complete score in sync with the movie (and Davis' commentary), wholly altering the listening experience (in a positive way).

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I think the album is nice, but it doesn't do the score justice. It's just like a selection of highlights from a score that's much more cohesive than the albums makes it appear to be. And I have a feeling that it'll turn out to be similar with the Reloaded suite once I've seen the movie. 1) There'll probably be a lot of great music that's simply missing on the CD, and 2) it'll probably show that the suite is rather disjointed compared to the full score.

Anyway, this is a great CD. I picked it up today and am on my 6th listen already (of CD #2 that is). Mona Lisa Overdrive and the suite are my favourites. The rendition of the love theme near the end of if lead me to believe that the reported cliffhinger probably involves Trinity.

Regarding the anagrams: Yes! A shame we didn't get any this time. I intend to finally finish my 2 CD set from the first movie's iso score before Reloaded comes to local cinemas, and I've made some more anagrams for my track titles*. What about these:

Rat Wok
Antigen Gratin
Trimmed Spoons <-- my favourite
Manager's Voice
Havoc Alerter
Mad Nine Rig Chase

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Originally posted by Marian Schedenig:
The rendition of the love theme near the end of if lead me to believe that the reported cliffhinger probably involves Trinity.

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LOL..... funny, the rendition of the love theme near the end of the SUITE shouldn't be an indicator of ANYTHING in the film, since the suite is not exactly in film order.

(Oh, but for the record - and it's not ruining anything - you're wrong.)

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Originally posted by Marian Schedenig:
...but it *would* have made a nice cliffhanger score cue...

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Heh... nah, I think you'll like the actual cliffhanger cue in the film - it's a rather nice throwback to the 1960s TV shows: "dum dum DAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!"

You can read the article here.