Anonymous Rejected Filmscore

John Murphy

 
" Rejected doesn't necessarily mean bad "

Written by Thomas Glorieux - Review of the download only release

Rarely do we get to hear what composers envisioned for a project, a project that ultimately never made the final cut. But somehow composer John Murphy felt it was time to tell the world what he personally envisioned so many years ago. Through the release Anonymous Rejected Filmscore, people get the chance to hear what Mr. Murphy himself calls 'the soundtrack album based on a film score I had thrown out five or six years ago. And even though the score hit the cutting room floor, I always felt it was one of my better, more original efforts. In my head it became the 'lost score'. The score without a film'.

Who am I to deny it is one of John Murphy's more original efforts, but you'll hardly mistake this work for any other composer's work once you've wandered through the first 12 minutes of this album ("3.59" and "1-2-3-4"). Yes don't mind the track titles as they don't tell us much, but what we get is the unmistakable pulsating rhythms of a composer most of us fell in love with during 28 Days Later and Sunshine. His 2 best works for me. Ano doesn't reach that level, but it does offer the same resonating emotional goosebump moments during several moments. More original is "8mm Dream", sounding like an emotional cue from the 80's, almost made to sound like a lesser sound quality piece from a more dated soundtrack era. But here I never would have thought about John Murphy in the first place. Same for the much better sounding "Dead Ballerina".

In the end though, most of the selections do feel like a John Murphy sampler, evoking the talents for sampled voices, dreamy rhythms, pulsating beats, you name it. The way you remember John Murphy, it's all here. Perhaps a bit more dreamy and mystical. For instance "How to Leave your Body" is a great hypnotizing track, evoking the same kind of emotional quality of scores such as Sunshine, without stating that incredible theme of course. The cool tunes in "California" and the emotional pulsating climax "In Extremis" it's all textbook John Murphy material.

Meaning Ano is a score made for John Murphy fans. It has a couple of surprises for sure, but it above all has the expected necessary attractions that will please those that can't get enough of them. Personally, I'm somewhere in the middle. It's good stuff when it needs to be, it's a bit one sided once I don't see it developing some pretty strong ideas. I mean there's genuine John Murphy quality here, and somehow I still feel it limps behind when we hear the better stuff like Sunshine and 28 Days / Weeks Later. I don't mean that's why it's probably rejected, because it's too good a music to get rejected in the first place. But perhaps it wasn't suited for the film. A film I want to know (read understand) so I can understand the music better too.

Favorite Moment - How to Leave your Body (2.45 - 5.06)
There it is, the hypnotizing emotional elevating rhythms of one Mr. Murphy. I for one love it.

Track Listing

1. 3.59 (8.21)
2. 1-2-3-4 (6.52)
3. 8mm Dream (4.02)
4. Ghosts (4.30)
5. How to Leave your Body (6.17) Excellent track
6. Dead Ballerina (6.14)
7. Automatic (3.11)
8. Boy (5.32)
9. California (4.58)
10. Sacrifice (4.26)
11. In Extremis (5.41)
12. Fade To ... (7.07)

Total Length: 67.11
(click to rate this score)  
 
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(total of 29 votes - average 4.74/5)

Released by

Taped Noise No catalogue number (download only release 2014)