TRON: Legacy
Daft Punk
" It's not a new revolution, it's just a symphony of awesomeness "Written by Bob den Hartog - Review of the regular release
If there's one score last year that seems to have polarized audiences the world over, it must be Daft Punk's debut score to Disney's sequel of an '80's culthit, TRON: Legacy. Although initially heralded by the filmscore community as one of the most fresh retro-surprises of the year, the Daft Punk fans don't seem to share their enthusiasm. Which begs the question: is TRON: Legacy Punk, or just simply Daft?
During the first discussion director Joseph Kosinski had with the Daft Punk boys, he realized that these French electro-veterans had the ability to create something for his film that was 'unique'. That had 'never been done before'. He was talking about the fusion of electronics with a real life orchestra as if it was a whole new concept. While, let's face it, composers have been doing this ever since the early seventies. So to understand the freshness of the created sound for TRON: Legacy, we need to separate two things: electronics and electro, the latter being the musical style also known as Electro Funk.
The former is of course the Hans Zimmer way of composing, or: the sampled instruments and synthesizers. He uses them in order to create a sound that's often very close to an orchestra or can be mixed with a live orchestra for extra power, yet has its origins from a period in which there was simply no budget for the real thing. As soon as he did get a budget for a full orchestral performance, he started to record and mix it in a way that's not too big a jump from his synthetic works; he deepened the bass, muffled the sound and made sure there were not too many organic solo-instruments sticking out, so it would successfully fuse with the sampled instruments without them being too obviously, y'know, electronic.
When it became known that Daft Punk would record and mix the score over at Hans Zimmer's Remote Control studio, Zimmer-critics feared the worst ('yet another Zimmer-clone to be added to the Black List of RC'ers'), while Zimmer-lovers were still critical towards Daft Punk. However, the Daft duo surprisingly did not approach matters the Zimmer way, as they seem to leave the orchestral sound intact in all its organic glory. The classic emotion of the cello as heard in "Adagio for Tron", or the warmness of the strings creeping up in the otherwise cold soundscape of "The Son of Flynn", even the inventiveness of the threatening strings in the aggressive "Rectifier", are something we rarely hear in a score created by the Remote Control team, let alone by composers working for the first time with organic elements.
On top of this, they've added a layer of their trademark electro music – which takes us to the Electro Funk aspect, basically the part that's splitting the audience in two. What's causing much of the criticism in the world of Electro, is the lack of a new evolution in Electro Funk. Ask any Daft Punk enthusiast, and they'll tell you this is the Punk boys in autopilot mode. It's what they do, and they do it well, yet they've done it for the past years many times already. In short, for the Electro Funk lover, it's as if they're listening to a Steve Jablonsky score. And that's a valid criticism.
When looking at the bigger picture, it might be remarked that this was also caused by a misrepresentation of the album in its initial marketing: using just "Derezzed" as an appetizer, an all-electro, old-school Daft Punk track, people were expecting a return of their much loved group, one that released it's former album way back in 2005. Yet on album that track stands alone (together with "End of the Line") as one of the very few tracks that doesn't feature any orchestra. And it's only 1:44 min. long.
Another criticism, one that might prove valid for Daft Punkers and scorefans alike, is the fragmented nature of the album. While the duo normally get to develop their ideas for a 5 to 10 minute track, TRON: Legacy features several 2 or 3 minute ideas, passing a motif over to the next track as if it were a relay race. What's more, many of the tracks exhibit a very simple structure: a build-up towards an inevitable and predictable conclusion. Yet what's elevating these simple compositions to awesomeville, is their rhythmic force, the attention to orchestration, and, yes, the fusion of all this with Electro Funk. While at the same time, the many short tracks prove a blessing, since every other track, a new idea for either the orchestral performance or the fusion with their electro counterpart is introduced.
Because, once again, the freshness is not in the composition nor the Electro Funk per se – it's in the way this purely retro sound is clashing with a fully organic, unprocessed orchestra that makes the retro nature of the electro stick out. Sometimes the electro is laid on top of the orchestra, at other times it's complementing the orchestral performance underneath, but it's always fresh and often surprising. In other words, it's the lack of Zimmer's immersive fusion that makes the created sound for this specific score so fresh.
For those uninitiated in Electro Funk, this adds another benefit; Electro music is given an emotional and warm basis that's otherwise lacking (though any fan of the genre won't admit to this), and as such is made a lot more accessible for a wider audience. Yet the nods to original TRON composer Wendy Carlos (in tone in a track like "Nocturne", thematically in the closing "Finale") and synthesizer King Vangelis should keep Electro enthusiasts entertained, as long as they're able to accept that the Electro Funk is meant to be Old-Skool, in a deliciously tongue-in-cheek kind of way, and that it's meant to be enjoyed as a single listen. After all, it's not a compilation of clubtracks, neither is it a new revolution, it's just a symphony of awesomeness.
Tracklisting
1. Overture (2.28)
2. The Grid (1.37)
3. The Son of Flynn (1.35)
4. Recognizer (2.38)
5. Armory (2.03)
6. Arena (1.33)
7. Rinzler (2.18)
8. The Game Has Changed (3.25)
9. Outlands (2.42) Excellent track
10. Adagio for Tron (4.11) Excellent track
11. Nocturne (1.42)
12. End of Line (2.36)
13. Derezzed (1.44) Excellent track
14. Fall (1.23) Excellent track
15. Solar Sailer (2.42)
16. Rectifier (2.14) Excellent track
17. Disc Wars (4.11)
18. C.L.U. (4.39)
19. Arrival (2.00)
20. Flynn Lives (3.22)
21. Tron Legacy (End Titles) (3.18)
22. Finale (4.23)
Total Length: 58.38
During the first discussion director Joseph Kosinski had with the Daft Punk boys, he realized that these French electro-veterans had the ability to create something for his film that was 'unique'. That had 'never been done before'. He was talking about the fusion of electronics with a real life orchestra as if it was a whole new concept. While, let's face it, composers have been doing this ever since the early seventies. So to understand the freshness of the created sound for TRON: Legacy, we need to separate two things: electronics and electro, the latter being the musical style also known as Electro Funk.
The former is of course the Hans Zimmer way of composing, or: the sampled instruments and synthesizers. He uses them in order to create a sound that's often very close to an orchestra or can be mixed with a live orchestra for extra power, yet has its origins from a period in which there was simply no budget for the real thing. As soon as he did get a budget for a full orchestral performance, he started to record and mix it in a way that's not too big a jump from his synthetic works; he deepened the bass, muffled the sound and made sure there were not too many organic solo-instruments sticking out, so it would successfully fuse with the sampled instruments without them being too obviously, y'know, electronic.
When it became known that Daft Punk would record and mix the score over at Hans Zimmer's Remote Control studio, Zimmer-critics feared the worst ('yet another Zimmer-clone to be added to the Black List of RC'ers'), while Zimmer-lovers were still critical towards Daft Punk. However, the Daft duo surprisingly did not approach matters the Zimmer way, as they seem to leave the orchestral sound intact in all its organic glory. The classic emotion of the cello as heard in "Adagio for Tron", or the warmness of the strings creeping up in the otherwise cold soundscape of "The Son of Flynn", even the inventiveness of the threatening strings in the aggressive "Rectifier", are something we rarely hear in a score created by the Remote Control team, let alone by composers working for the first time with organic elements.
On top of this, they've added a layer of their trademark electro music – which takes us to the Electro Funk aspect, basically the part that's splitting the audience in two. What's causing much of the criticism in the world of Electro, is the lack of a new evolution in Electro Funk. Ask any Daft Punk enthusiast, and they'll tell you this is the Punk boys in autopilot mode. It's what they do, and they do it well, yet they've done it for the past years many times already. In short, for the Electro Funk lover, it's as if they're listening to a Steve Jablonsky score. And that's a valid criticism.
When looking at the bigger picture, it might be remarked that this was also caused by a misrepresentation of the album in its initial marketing: using just "Derezzed" as an appetizer, an all-electro, old-school Daft Punk track, people were expecting a return of their much loved group, one that released it's former album way back in 2005. Yet on album that track stands alone (together with "End of the Line") as one of the very few tracks that doesn't feature any orchestra. And it's only 1:44 min. long.
Another criticism, one that might prove valid for Daft Punkers and scorefans alike, is the fragmented nature of the album. While the duo normally get to develop their ideas for a 5 to 10 minute track, TRON: Legacy features several 2 or 3 minute ideas, passing a motif over to the next track as if it were a relay race. What's more, many of the tracks exhibit a very simple structure: a build-up towards an inevitable and predictable conclusion. Yet what's elevating these simple compositions to awesomeville, is their rhythmic force, the attention to orchestration, and, yes, the fusion of all this with Electro Funk. While at the same time, the many short tracks prove a blessing, since every other track, a new idea for either the orchestral performance or the fusion with their electro counterpart is introduced.
Because, once again, the freshness is not in the composition nor the Electro Funk per se – it's in the way this purely retro sound is clashing with a fully organic, unprocessed orchestra that makes the retro nature of the electro stick out. Sometimes the electro is laid on top of the orchestra, at other times it's complementing the orchestral performance underneath, but it's always fresh and often surprising. In other words, it's the lack of Zimmer's immersive fusion that makes the created sound for this specific score so fresh.
For those uninitiated in Electro Funk, this adds another benefit; Electro music is given an emotional and warm basis that's otherwise lacking (though any fan of the genre won't admit to this), and as such is made a lot more accessible for a wider audience. Yet the nods to original TRON composer Wendy Carlos (in tone in a track like "Nocturne", thematically in the closing "Finale") and synthesizer King Vangelis should keep Electro enthusiasts entertained, as long as they're able to accept that the Electro Funk is meant to be Old-Skool, in a deliciously tongue-in-cheek kind of way, and that it's meant to be enjoyed as a single listen. After all, it's not a compilation of clubtracks, neither is it a new revolution, it's just a symphony of awesomeness.
Tracklisting
1. Overture (2.28)
2. The Grid (1.37)
3. The Son of Flynn (1.35)
4. Recognizer (2.38)
5. Armory (2.03)
6. Arena (1.33)
7. Rinzler (2.18)
8. The Game Has Changed (3.25)
9. Outlands (2.42) Excellent track
10. Adagio for Tron (4.11) Excellent track
11. Nocturne (1.42)
12. End of Line (2.36)
13. Derezzed (1.44) Excellent track
14. Fall (1.23) Excellent track
15. Solar Sailer (2.42)
16. Rectifier (2.14) Excellent track
17. Disc Wars (4.11)
18. C.L.U. (4.39)
19. Arrival (2.00)
20. Flynn Lives (3.22)
21. Tron Legacy (End Titles) (3.18)
22. Finale (4.23)
Total Length: 58.38