1. Whalerider (Lisa Gerrard) - ok, but Gerrard makes too little use of her own greatest asset - her voice. Some of the most atmospheric music this year.
2. Solaris (Cliff Martinez) - wonderful. This is a new sound for Sci-Fi scores and I'd like to see Martinez do another before long. Those shimmering bells... fill me with unyielding happiness. (Actually, that probably lays it on a bit thick.)
3. Possession (Gabriel Yared) - very strong work for Yared, and good to know not every director rejects his scores (based on Wings of the Dove and Les Miserables experiences). This is probably what we would have expected to hear in his rejected score to Wings of the Dove, which Shearmur ultimately provided a strong score for.
4. Matrix Reloaded (Don Davis) - brilliant, and I wait for the day with a double CD release that comes with alternative versions of Burly Brawl and Chateau, and perhaps even some tender material for that love scene that was given a ridiculously poor underscore in the film.
5. Samsara (Cyril Morin) - solid epic score with lovely ehtnic instrumentation. I may put a review of this one online as I haven't seen any others - no doubt it has one of the best themes in a score this year.
6. Sleeping with the Enemy (Goldsmith) - nice score I picked up second hand is a little difficult to reconcile with what I've heard about the film...
7. Free Willy (Basil Poledouris) - Makes me eager for The Touch.
8. The Talented Mr Ripley (Yared) - Also second hand, Possession had put me in the Yared frame of mind. The best material is based on the 'Crazy Tom' motif. Good break from Yared's romantic score filled resume.
9. The English Patient (Yared) - Speaking of said resume, finally picking this one up cheap means no more listening that Prague Philharmonic re-recording everytime I feel like hearing the score! Good to hear Rupert Bear, I'll Always Go Back to That Church and As Far as Florence in their original form. The Oscar that year should have gone to Kilar's Portrait of a Lady, with Goldenthal's Michael Collins a close second, but I can understand the judge's decision. This is a thoughtful score if ever was one.
10. The Mummy Returns (Silvestri) - Bang crash more bang and some more crash. Really solid score. Will often play on rainy afternoons when I don't feel like Gladiator or The Thirteenth Warrior.

Naturally, I now have to wait to late June before I can afford to start buying again... Ah, even second hand stuff comes too expensive for infinite desires coupled with a finite budget!

NP Possession (much better than I remember in the film, which was kind of a counter case study to The Hours - how not to make a multiple time-period film with heavy literary baggage)

Superman (expanded) (John Williams)
The Fury (Deluxe Edition (John Williams again)
Heartbeeps (uhm ... Williams)
Sabrina (some dude named Williams)
Close Encounters (JW)
Presumed Innocent (JayDub)
Rosewood (Meastro Williams)
Amistad (again John Williams)
Stanley and Iris (yes yes Williams)
Born on the 4th of July (an old man without ponytail and with beard)
JFK (a 71 year old named Williams)
The Witches of Eastwick (John WWWWWILLLIAMSSS)
Temple of Doom (Indiana Williams)
Always (wish he was my Grandfather, Williams)
Far and Away (some guy with a stick)
Home Alone ( Funnyman Williams)
Catch Me if You Can (Jazzman Williams)
Dreamcatcher (Will....... uhm James Newton Howard)

Today I went to a record fair and got Rosenman's EAST OF EDEN/ REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, but that deserves a thread to itself. And it has!

quote:

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Originally posted by Graham Watt:
Franz, you got some interesting scores. I've got both THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY and SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY. I like the Yared a lot, though I still have to warm to him. Good non-Yared jazz too. The Goldsmith is solid stuff - a particularly nice theme, but the suspense is a bit standard. I loved the SOLARIS music in the film, though I haven't got the album - really interesting long-held chords etc. Oh, and Silvestri's MUMMY sequel score is quite energetic, but I was a bit distracted by the theme's resemblance to Williams' AMAZING STORIES.

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The Mummy Returns reminded me a bit of Goldsmith's King Solomon's Mines' theme. There is a lovely bit of string writing towards the end in Come Back Evy.

quote:

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Today I went to a record fair and got Rosenman's EAST OF EDEN/ REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, but that deserves a thread to itself. And it has!

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Rosenman? Before William's score for Star Wars graced my ears, I watched Bakshi's Lord of the Rings with Rosenman's score for years (rhyme unintended). Now heading to said thread...

THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (Bernard Herrmann, conducted by Joel McNeely) - I'm still not 100% convinced by McNeely's interpretation. I'll try to get a hold on what's bugging me and get back to you.

I never did like the score, it's buried in the fruit cellar with Henrietta, so I'm going off a very unreliable memory here...

Bought this month:

The Others - Alejandro Almenabar. One of the best recordings I've heard in ages, crystal clear, or else it's just beautifully orchestrated. A fine, surprisingly complex little score. Makes me wish Almenabar was a full-time composer.

The Faculty - Marco Beltrami. Great disc even at 29 mins. Probably the best action writing of Beltrami's short career so far.

Darkness Falls - Brian Tyler. One of the freshest sounding action/horror scores in years, which obviously everybody loves.

Urban Legends 2 - John Ottman. A little disappointing, though it picks up in the second half, and to my ears, seems a muddy-sounding recording. Not Ottman's best but not bad.

Toy Story 1 and 2 - Randy Newman. Got this double pack cheap and I had been listening to James and the Giant Peach recently so I thought I'd pick it up. Ok, but a little too much mickey-mousing to really enjoy it - there's no real flow to the music.

State and Main - Theodore Shapiro. Pretty hip. Another discount purchase. A very pleasant laid-back score. Loved Heist by this guy - wish that had been released - he shows signs of promise and could be a composer to watch.

Traffic and Mulholland Drive. Traffic is terrible, just noise and except for the long and beautiful main titles piece, Mulholland Drive is also very ordinary - most of this disc can barely be credited as underscore, it is simply sound design and there are minutes at a time where you wonder if the CD has stopped bloody spinning!

The Wings of a Film - this Zimmer concert is terrific, much better than I expected. Very faithful performances of The Thin Red Line centrepiece and others already collected on CD. And the themes I hadn't heard, like Rain Man and Driving Miss Daisy and Thelma and Louise seemed to work well being very listenable live performances.

• The Truman Show (Dallwitz/Glass/Kilar) - Always wanted to get this.
  
• The Cook, the Thief, the Wife & her Lover (Nyman) - Never heard it.

Anyone know if The Ghost and the Darkness is OOP in Europe? I know Amazon.at/de doesn't have it anymore, and the local Virgin Megastore, where I remember seeing it often, didn't have it either.

The Creature from the Black Lagoon-A Symphony of Film Music (Hans Salter)

Really like this CD. The sound is mono and average quality but the music makes up for it. "The creature" suite is excellent although there is a recurring three note monster motif that does grate on the ears after a while. I'm sure it works well in the film though. "The Incredible Shrinking Man" suite is, well, Incredible..!! and the nicest surprise overall is the music to the movie "Hitler" which is excellent. Apart from the obvious military music incorporating the side drum there are some really nice atmospheric cues here that would fit into other genres. Very atmospheric.
"The Black Shield of Falworth" is a nice swashbuckling suite in the style of Korngold/Steiner but with just enough originality for Salter to call his own.

Quatermass and the Pit-The Film Music of Tristram Cary-Volume one

Only had a chance to listen to this once. The sound is also mono and average quality but the music is definately of interest and worth a few listens. Quatermass is a very difficult listen which requires a lot of attention and the few electronics sound are a bit of a relief from what is quite a lot of atonal music. This will definitely need a few listens.
The other tracks are totally different and represent enjoyable dramatic film music to the long since forgotten films of The Flesh is Weak/A Twist of sand/Sammy Going South/Tread Softly Stranger. Anyone remember any of these Classic movies? Not me, thats for sure. Still the music is one of those enjoyable finds of well crafted, rare film music to pretty obscure films..apart from Quatermass of course. Only time will tell as to the quality of the music, although on first listen, I'm quite optimistic.

Gae

The rest of the CD, particularly QUATERMASS itself, is indeed a bit of a challenging listen. Sometimes I think he goes overboard on the blaring terror dissonance, but some parts are really nice - a favourite of mine is the seafaring A TWIST OF SAND.

quote:

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Originally posted by John Zimmer:
Romeo and Juliet (Nina Rota)

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Nino.

quote:

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Originally posted by Graham Watt:
For feigning niceness so well, my dear sweet wife bought me two presents -

THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (Bernard Herrmann, conducted by Joel McNeely) - I'm still not 100% convinced by McNeely's interpretation. I'll try to get a hold on what's bugging me and get back to you.

No such qualms with LORD OF THE RINGS (Leonard Rosenman) - Absolutely amazing, so much better than Shore's boring efforts (hee hee, I'm hiding behind my computer, so just you dare raise a finger to me). By the way, I wasn't expecting extra music, but a few of the tracks, very few, were unfamiliar to me (I've got the old double LP back "home"). Is there indeed previously unreleased music here? Don't see any indication on the packaging.

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• Star Trek: Nemesis (Goldsmith)

I bought this when I was in the Pitts Symphony store at the JW concert. I was too excited I should have bought the stuff after.

Oh well...