Two months have rolled around again and then some… it’s high time for another update at Film Music on the Web, and here it is: http://www.musicweb.uk.net/film/

And in a slightly more accessible indexed format: http://www.musicweb.uk.net/film/2006/jun06/jun06.html

To my knowledge, this is our biggest edition to date, with 50 reviews and/or essays all up. Our reviewers have put in a lot of hard work, and I want to thank them. And what better time to note that here’s a chance to get to know them better: http://www.musicweb.uk.net/film/contrib.html

I’ve tried to put a bit more emphasis this time round on featuring reviews of titles that would normally slip past the radar of soundtrack fans, ranging from past film scores from Australian composers Christopher Gordon and Carl Vine, more non-film score works of interest, and scores for art house and foreign language films – the last category having a surprising number of entries this time round. If you’ve despaired of finding lengthy appraisals of John Foulds’ orchestral works or Christopher Gordon’s Commonwealth Games score, the soundtracks to art house fare as broad as Seven Swords, De Battre mon Coeur s’est Arrete, and The Proposition, or even the deluxe FSM presentation of Goodbye, Mr Chips, you’ll find them in this month’s update, along with many other things.

Accordingly, there are many titles recommended this month. Our featured composers are Alexandre Desplat, Christopher Gordon and Carl Vine: http://www.musicweb.uk.net/film/2006/jun06/ed_featcomp.html

My editor’s choice titles include:
Bernard Herrmann Essential Film Music Collection from Silva Screen (reviewed by Gary Dalkin): http://www.musicweb.uk.net/film/2006/jun06/essen_bherrmann.html
FSM’s Goodbye Mr Chips (reviewed by David Wishart, aka musikco):
http://www.musicweb.uk.net/film/2006/jun06/goodbyemrchips.html
John Corigliano’s Symphony No 2 and Red Violin Suite (moi): http://www.musicweb.uk.net/film/2006/jun06/symph2_rvsuite.html
…and just about anything Ennio Morricone has composed of late: http://www.musicweb.uk.net/film/2006/jun06/ed_morricone.html

Our recommended titles include works by all of our featured composers, as well as works by Marvin Hamlisch (FSM’s The Swimmer), Michael Giacchino (LOST), Howard Shore (Soul of the Ultimate Nation), Elmer Bernstein, and names relatively uncommon in film scoring like John Foulds (Orchestral Works) and Nick Cave (The Proposition). This was a hard list to narrow down, and it could have been twice as long. (My thanks to web designer Tina Huang for putting up with my volatile preferences here, as in all other things.)

Reviewed titles include Firewall, Brothers, Inside Man, Ice Age 2, Salem’s Lot, The Potato Factory, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Essential Charlie Chaplin Film Music Collection, V for Vendetta, The World’s Fastest Indian, Mi3, three recent internet only releases from Movie Score Media, and many more.

This edition has also continued the idea of editorials established in our last edition. The Morricone review (or rather, reviews of six recent Morricone titles) started out as an editorial, until I could no longer tell the difference (http://www.musicweb.uk.net/film/2006/jun06/ed_morricone.html). Also in this edition:
- Music in the Film – considers Carl Vine’s unreleased score for You Can’t Push the River (1993) and Alexandre Desplat’s score for Syriana (2006) http://www.musicweb.uk.net/film/2006/jun06/ed_musicinfilm.html
- Golden Age Column – Tom Kiefner considers the unreleased Miklos Rozsa score for The Lost Weekend (1945): http://www.musicweb.uk.net/film/2006/jun06/ed_gac_lostwkd.html
I’m more than happy to feature responses to any of these pieces in a future update should there be interest.

We’re always looking for new additions to our team of reviewers. If you’re interested, or if any questions or issues or thoughts arise from these musings, please feel free to email me: mclennan.michael@gmail.com

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Originally posted by franz_conrad:
One final bump... a cry for someone to notice maybe...

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I like the site and the reviews. Since you asked for critiques, I thought I'd give you one.

I find the layout of the site a bit confusing. I clicked CD Reviews almost immediately after landing on the site. I would have preferred to see lists of recently reviewed scores as opposed to the categories of dates.

So, I went down to Alphabetical Composer Listing. The format is not bad -- nice and simple (a bit lacking on design). Anyway, I looked around and like the reviews - especially the more detailed ones. I went on over to take a look at Silvestri since his name popped up first in my head and opened up "Contact." This was the most confusing part of the layout because it opened up all the reviews for that date. It took me a little bit to find that the review for Contact was on the second page.