1. Oscar and Lucinda (Newman) - Very good. Very very good. Not quite The Horse Whisperer of Meet Joe Black, but a well-rounded score that features some very unique choral work. It would be nice to hear more of this kind of thing from Newman. (Then again, it would be nice to see more films as beautiful as this one. I seem to remember Armstrong's film got left in the wake of a certain film about a boat. DiCaprio and Winslet could hope against many million odds for Blanchett and Fiennes' chemistry.)

2. Farewell My Concubine - Great Themes from Modern Chinese Cinema (Various - rerecordings by City of Prague Philharmonic) - OK, I'm only halfway through this, but I can't help but feel that the choice of cues favored tracks with a stronger Western influence, making me want to reach for that compilation from Zhao Jiping, Electric Shadows.

3. Lion King - found it cheap, which was good - finally replaced that old cassette tape.

4. Till Human Voices Wake Us - score for an Australian film starring Guy Pearce and Helena Bonham-Carter. I haven't listened to it yet, but I recall in the film it was a nice score in the chamber style. Looking forward to listening to this while exam marking...

5. The Living Daylights (Barry) - Oh, doesn't Die Another Day look pretty bad when placed next to this? Kara's theme is a John Barry theme, so it gets full marks for beauty and zero for originality. But Barry is like Glass in this respect - he has found a formula that noone does better. Long may he continue to do so, and maybe when he dies the left side of his brain will be transplanted to David Arnold... (Just kidding there, I love Tomorrow Never Dies and The World is Not Enough)

6. The Mexican - (Silvestri) - A lot of fun to be had here, as in Gore Verbinski's under-rated film.

7. Officium (Jan Garbarek and the Hilliard Ensemble) - great fusion of Garbarek's mercurial saxaphone technique and Gregorian chant. The rendition of Christobal de Morales 'Parce de Morale' is the definitive saxaphone piece of my listening experience. Full marks for all concerned.

8. Hail to the Thief (Radiohead) - the soundtrack to a very angry, cynical movie gives all power to the one who was thief from the beginning. In that respect, I find it hard to enjoy, and tracks like 'We Suck young Blood' and 'Myxomotosis' are truly chilling. There are others though, 'There there', 'Sail to the Moon', 'Sit down Stand Up', 'Where I end ...' and 'Punchup at a Wedding' that commend this band as truly great.

9. Pieces in a Modern Style - (William Orbit trashes the classics) - It was cheap, but that was so not an excuse to buy this ambient reworking of Gorecki, Barber, Mascagni, et al. Straight to the back row of the bottom shelf. The man may be a good producer of pop music, but this album is lethal.

10. Moviola (Barry)- Barbra Streissand showed her manifest lack of touch with film-making when she rejected Barry's score if his main theme in Moviola is anything to go by. Lovely, lush, I feel like going out and buying every Barry score I don't own. Starting with Across the Sea of Time, where I've heard he develops the Moviola theme. Cash constraints may hold me from that goal for some time to come.

11. First Knight (Goldsmith)- Some films just make you feel blue, but rarely is that because Giorgio Armani is let loose on the costume department. Forever remembered for it's tailoring, the film was also blessed with this masterful piece of Goldsmith scoring.

NP Farewell My Concubine (Various)

Fire Water Paper: A Vietnam Oratorio - Elliot Goldenthal
Arnold Schoenberg - Chamber Symphonies 1 & 2, Verklarte Nacht
Georges Bizet - Carmen
Olivier Messiaen - Quartet for the End of Time/Igor Stravinsky - Symphonies of Wind Instruments, Octet
Bela Bartok - Piano Concertos
Bela Bartok - Concerto for Orchestra, Music for Strings, Percussion & Celese
Paul Hindemith - Symphony 'Mathis der Maler', Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes of Weber, Violin Concerto
Charles Ives - Symphony 1, 2, Variations on America

Mercury Rev - Deserter's Songs
Mercury Rev - All is Dream
Sigur Ros - ()

DVD:
Adaptation
Cold Feet - Season 1
All About My Mother
The Game
Die Another Day
Jerry Maguire SE

I'm expecting by Saturday I'll have bought T2:SE DVD, Sigur Ros' Agaetis Byrjun album and possibly Brazil or Far from Heaven DVDs.

I should point out that July is Birthday month for me, hence so many purchases, although most of the classical CDs I bought last month.

NP: One Hour Photo

Hulk is quite enjoyable but I like Red Dragon, Spider-Man, and POTA more... some of Hulk tracks made me want to listen to those soundtracks again, especially Spider-Man End Credits, powerful...

Yeap, it has been a good day!

Philipp

NP Till Human Voices Wake Us (Dale Cornelius)

THE CAT: THE INCREDIBLE JIMMY SMITH (arranged and conducted by Lalo Schifrin). This is a CD release of an old (1964) Verve recording, featuring jazz organist Jimmy Smith and a whole bunch of jazz personnel under the direction of Schifrin. Most interesting for us lot here are two Schifrin pieces form the film JOY HOUSE and, best of all, a terrific rendition of Elmer Bernstein's exciting theme for THE CARPETBAGGERS. I'm thinking now that the Schifrin/Smith version is the one which the BBC has been using for the past forty years (or so it seems) as the theme for the fascinating financial affairs prog "The Money Programme." Anyway, of course Elmer created great excitement by having a superb, searing sax solo in the middle - the musician's rapid fingering of his horn being quite frenzied. Jimmy Smith just runs his fingers up and down his organ to spine-tingling effect...(surely too much puerile innuendo here, kindly stop it):

Jz