[Closed] Now Playing XLVIII

NP: Spacecamp - John Williams

A glorious, thematic, grand, heroic, warm adventure score! It's faaaaar from being a paint-by-numbers score that a few around here claim it to be! This is spectacular film music!

-Erik-

It certainly has Williams' magical touch. Amazing what he did for this pretty small and ridiculous movie - he gave it a heart.

NP: Under Siege 2 - Dark Territory - Basil Poledouris

It's amazing how effective Basil could be with the smallest of efforts. Certainly, this abysmal movie didn't deserve any kind of attention to scoring at all, but as it's often the case, composers seem to like the challenge. Since I never saw the first movie (and know the second one only because of an annoying turn of events at a sneak preview), I can only assume that Basil even recycled his original theme for this, but what he did with it is an exercise in how to provide an engaging action score with only one tiny, little main theme and the abilty to drive a whole train of terrorists and... cooks... with it, ever forward. While a lot of the stuff from the beginning is forgettable, there are great action highlights later on which will only grab you if you sit through the earlier material.

Poledouris composed enough fantastic, great scores that it's easy to overlook his smaller efforts, but unlike those of many modern composers, even his smaller ones are worth your time.

Apropos of what you two gentlemen are discussing, I just made the acquaintance of Starship Troopers for the first time (!).

KICK. ASS.

The Man from UNCLE - Daniel Pemberton

Really rather brilliant. I'm going to listen to this a LOT.

Yeah, it does, but some of its action tracks are pretty engaging anyway.


Nope. RoboCop is miles ahead of Under Siege 2.


I have HS2, but it doesn't do anything for me. IE I simply don't know.


I know many people will disagree, but I always try to enjoy it more than I effectively do. It has a great theme and style, unquestionably, but something is missing. That said, this one, too, is ahead of Under Siege 2. But RoboCop's better, both the score and the movie.

NP: Searching for Bobby Fisher - James Horner
It's been decades since I've listened to this one, Geez. I imagine this is what people call Horner in stand-by mode, and I agree. Doesn't change the fact that Horner's stand-by mode was in many ways superior to what many other guys produce on their best days.

The expansion is disastrous, the original release is superb -- perfectly tailored to the type of music it is. They are basically worlds apart.

As for ROBOCOP, I love the film (a rightful classic of its genre, especially with all the extra layers of satire), but never liked the score outside the main theme. It's rather grating, IMO, with a few exceptions (like "Rock Shop").

Certainly superior to Fiedel's TERMINATORs as a listening experience, but it's like choosing between senewy meat and rotten eggs -- the first is better than the latter, but I'd rather not have any of them.

NP: Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (Joe Kraemer)

This is really good, actually. The way he's handled the Schifrin legacy is impressive. The score benefits from the lighter, allegro texture relative to Giacchino and Zimmer's more bombastic approach. (Which makes this also the closest to Elfman's as well.)

Skyfall - Thomas Newman

It's been too long since I listened to this. So damn good. Really looking forward to the next one.

It's a terrific score! And a nice recording too.

What's with all this recent spate of good old fashioned, fully orchestral scores?!
It's been a good year for music thus far!

Me too! I gave this a spin a recently and although it certainly divided people, I'm still impressed by it - not least because Newman is last person I ever thought would do a Bond film. Great to hear him using this much brass!

NP: Trailer Music 2 - Kerry Muzzey

Trailer music albums tend to wear me down after a while. Despite the great stuff they often feature, an hour of one epic ear attack after another is simply too much.

This one is a bit different, since we're getting stuff for many different kinds of genre. It also includes some tracks which made the composer "rich and famous", as they say, "Bernini's Angels" being one of them. I swear I've never seen a single episode of Dancing with the Stars, but I hear Muzzey is very successful with adapting his tracks for that show, and having provided lots of smaller and independent films with some nice music.

If you want a sample of what he's capable of, this is it. It does nothing special for me, though. Some tracks make me look at their title, but most of it flows just by while I'm working... so at least it makes for nice background music.

NP: The Terminator (1984) - Brad Fiedel

The theme is as iconic as any sifi film music theme. But you cant say this album (Definitive Edition) is an altogether pleasant listening experience, can you?

Volker

I does foreshadow those Trent Reznor kind of scores.