[Closed] Now Playing XLIV

Every couple of months or so I HAVE TO play Outland. I love it!

With Durango receiving a recent digital release there has been a bit of a buzz about this one.

I listened to it for the first time yesterday and for me there's definitely highs and lows in it.

Any of the score that minimises the stock Celtic instrumentation is a plus: when it is used it seems to be quite unsubtle. But the more sweeping and emotional (romantic) music is very good.

Also, if I had of heard this before Shore's music for The Lord of The Rings, I would have been struck by the similarities. I've noticed similarites but out of chronological order: and these similarities go deeper than just Celtic instrumentation.

You should play the Elfman version -- the best soundtrack recording out there, even including Herrmann's own.

I am going to play

Shane - A Tribute to Victor Young The Ney Zealand Symphony Orchestra conducted by Richard Kaufman, RKYOUNG, 2010

I aquired this album upon recommendation by JBlough over at filmtracks.

Volker

Herrmann's original score IS available. It was released digitally quite recently and can be found in iTunes and stores such as Amazon.

I think that it's one of these releases so hated by most people outside Europe, taking advantage of the differences in copyright laws around the world. This version hasn't been remastered or cleaned up in any way (hence the relatively poor sound quality) but it's not unlistenable.

I suspect that many people aren't aware that Tim wasn't aware of that. In fact nobody was aware.

I'll wait for a cleaned up version thank you very much.

Given the time that has passed, the FSM lable has already gone out. (On "King Kong Special Edition", no bad thing.) No 250 will be more of a short revival.

As I'm not an Elfman fan I wonder if I would like this? I've enjoyed quite a bit of Elfman's more recent output.

It didn't do much for me. I listened to all the sound clips, for me it was back to the Elfman I'm not enamoured with, tracks that sound promising and not delivering, meandering all over the place like Danny has got itching powder in his pants or something. Still, I shouldn't be too damning as I have only heard clips and the full CD may be more revealing? What say you after a full listen Erik?

NP: Psycho - Bernard Herrmann

Perhaps the only good thing to come out of the 1998 remake of Psycho was the opportunity for Danny Elfman and Steve Bartek to revisit Herrmann's score. And for that I am grateful to the director!

This, for me, is a great interpretation of Herrmann's original. That "gritty" sound turns out to be my clumsy way of highlighting the close-miking of the various sections of the strings as having the microphones so close to the instruments removes much - if not all - of the interaction of the sounds with the recording space.

Tempos seem to be good and this, together with the in-your-face sound, makes for a great representation of the score. It's not a note-for-note reproduction of the score though. As well as a new "Intro/Logos" tracks (that does hint at several of the musical devices of Herrmann's score) Elfman/Bartek have added a few embellishments to the score: most notably, additional music elements to tracks such as "The Curtain" and "The Hill" and have added significant amounts of the music for the shower scene to the "Discovery" cue (which also features music omitted from the OST). But this is not a criticism as the score wasn't meant to be a faithful reproduction.

I only wish that this version was complete.

This is my favourite recording of the score and I treasure it. For some reason I'm not entirely sure of I prefer re-recorded Herrmann to the originals, it may be that the clarity of more recent recordings allow his amazing orchestrations to shine. I'm immensely grateful to Varese, Intrada, Tribute and many others for their efforts over the last 15 or so years. To me the lush sound of the strings is a positive and one of the things that makes me prefer this recording but I completely understand why you prefer the grittiness of other recordings. The film itself is one of my favourites too, pretty much perfect in every regard.

I'm pretty much the opposite - my previous regard for him has rather faded over the past couple of years. I can't really remember the last score of his that I can truly say I loved, though various ones have been decent enough.

NP: Regarding Henry - Hans Zimmer

It's good music. It's a very relaxing album that's high on thematic and melodic material. And yet the score is mixed behind everything else in the movie. I don't know why they hired Hans in the first place. I understand that it was to replace Delerue's good music, and then undermine the choice with the mix.

You hit the nail right on the head with the meandering all over the place comment. Oz is schizophrenic... but that's expected coming from a composer who wrote a symphony called "Serenada Schizophrana." Oz doesn't really have focus. However, the last few tracks are quite good but as a whole the album left me disappointed and rather bored. It's a slog of an album. 67 minutes feels like hours! And the "O Canada" quote is

Die hard Elfman fans will love this score though. I think every single Elfmanism is in the score. But I think I too am starting to get tired of the la la la la's and oooooohoooooooh's from the children's choir! That sort of thing has lost its charm over the years, IMO.

-Erik-