CD Review: September Soundtrack Picks
‘True Blood’ is one of the top soundtracks to own for September, 2009
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1) THE BLACK STALLION (1500 edition)
Price: $29.99
What is it?: Filmmaking has been a family affair for Francis Coppola, and his role as a producer here finally allowed his musician dad Carmine to take the long overdue composing reigns he’d dreamed of. Along with composer Shirley Walker, the elder Coppola would produce one of the most unique, and magical scores to grace an “animal” picture (one that debatably remains the best of its breed).
Why should you buy it?: From spare piano to exotic Middle Eastern percussion, bluegrass banjo and rousing orchestral flavors, Coppola’s score is a beautifully intriguing knockout, the music often starting its trot with the simplest, most seemingly esoteric notes before ending up in a gorgeously melodic orchestral gallop. It’s music that conveys the eternal majesty, and mystery of The Horse, as well as mankind’s bond to the animal he can ride, but never truly master. Better yet, it’s about the only thing heard during the film’s first half setting on a desert island. Carmine would also deliver equally memorable soundtracks for his son on NAPOLEON, APOCALYPSE NOW and THE OUTSIDERS- a score that Francis unaccountably replaced for his “director’s cut” a few years ago.
Extra Special: Intrada really delivers the digital hooves with this release, offering the complete original score and its numerous alternate takes over two CD’s, and then the originally released (and remastered) soundtrack on a third. So be sure to grab one of these STALLION sets before they gallop away, or you’re off to the Ebay races.
2) HALO 3 – ODST
Price: $12.49
What is it?: After turning to strategy gaming with HALO WARS, the insanely popular videogame franchise makes a welcome return to its first person-lasering roots, with composers Martin O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori back on board with the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers as they battle The Covenant at the mega-city of New Mombassa.
Why should you buy it?: HALO’s music has always been a definition of intelligent videogame scoring, with the past editions carrying a beautiful, near-religious sound that belied its alien-busting action. O’Donnell and Salvatori’s go for a far grittier approach here, with rock percussion and an ethnic groove in line with the new mission’s African locale. While the soaring, beautiful choral approach of past HALO soundtracks is missed here, the composers succeed in bringing melancholy pianos and jazz horns to the mix, making ODST an effective mission in HALO-noir if you will.
Extra Special: HALO fans will definitely get their groove on as nearly two hours of ODST score is generously spread over this double-disc set in game play sequence.
3) THE HILLS RUN RED
Price: $17.98
What is it?: Up and coming horror-centric composer Frederik Wiedmann (BLOOD RANCH, RETURN TO THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL) gets his goriest musical workout yet as his notes color director Dave Parker’s movie-movie snuff salute.
Why should you buy it?: With so much ghastly stuff happening in this flick to die for, it’s a bit comforting to hear how Wiedmann puts a melodic backbone into the kind of onscreen shocks that usually get anti-musical splatter. Instead, Weidmann’s HILLS run by combining sampling and rock rhythms with a classic orchestral horror sound, from its killer-fleeing suspense to alone-in-the-woods eeriness that add immense production value to this maniac’s underground movie. If anything, Weidmann’s fine thematic polish makes HILLS’ gnarly ghastliness even more cutting.
Extra Special: There’s nothing that gets the nerve endings up in a horror movie like an eerily soothing female voice, and here it’s the wordless, dark angel stylings Ayana Haviv that coo with beautiful evil.
4) TRUE BLOOD
Price: $13.99
What is it?: Nathan Barr’s music has visited such horror-friendly locations as HOSTEL and CABIN FEVER. But it’s the vampire-filled Louisiana locale of this hit HBO series that’s really let the composer sink his usually aggressive fangs into a new, softer tone of erotic bloodletting- scoring that’s helped Barr and Sookie Stackhouse blast off into a TWILIGHT-like stratosphere of undead cult fandom.
Why should you buy it?: Though his use of piano, voices, harmonica, cello and guitar brings out images of sweltering, sensual heat for TRUE BLOOD’s twisted, southern-fried carnality, Barr’s real achievement here is tapping into the jugular of the ancient vampire mythos. It’s a subtle sound that goes beyond the apparent rural atmosphere, conveying the darkly tender loneliness of being a cursed immortal, always hungry for a romantic connection to get through the endless nights. Here this mood mostly enraptures the senses as opposed to terrifying them, shining in a collection, wherein Barr collects his best BLOOD bits, all of which go down as smoothly as the real stuff.
Extra Special: Singer Lisbeth Scott contributes the spiritual “Take Me Home,” broodingly plays the piano for “Love Theme,” then joins in with Barr for the creepy folk vocals of “Sancto Erico.”
5) ZATOICHI: THE BEST CUTS (1500 edition)
Price: $19.98
What is it?: Sight isn’t necessary when it comes to honorably slashing your opponents to bits, as Japanese cinema’s most famously handicapped swordsman-masseuse proved over numerous pictures, ones whose coolest tracks are now featured for this compilation.
Why should you buy it?: Though Zatoichi’s character dated back even further than the Man with No Name, these ersatz westerns took an even more musically outlandish approach to their stories. Composer Akira Ifukube first hears Zatoichi’s throw down against Yojimbo with a mix of sci-fi-like electronics and Baroque music. Then when it’s time for ZATOICHI’S CONSPIRACY, Ifukube arms himself with the kind of lumbering orchestral percussion and melancholy sound that frequently accompanied his GODZILLA scores. But if there’s any musical samurai who wins this showdown, then it’s KIMBA composer Isao Tomita. He first approaches Zatoichi’s trip to a fire festival with percussion and a rocking fuzz guitar. Then when Zatoichi takes on an equally impaired one-armed swordsman, Tomita gives this Monty Python-worthy duel a raging acid-rock guitar sound worthy of a Miles Davis jam session, then tops off the madness with a Spaghetti Western-ready horn. Anyone can see, let alone hear that this is samurai groove at its hippest.
Extra Special: Liner note Ronin Randall Larson provides a masterful walk down the dark side of Zatoichi’s cinematic, and musical legacy.
Also for Your Consideration
THE BAADER-MEINHOFF COMPLEX
If hearing about a German radical group from the 60’s and 70’s seems like an agitprop musical lesson, then composers Peter Hinderthur and Florian Tesslof shake off any bloody dust from the subject to give their COMPLEX the dynamism of a BOURNE score. Using a bombastically percussive approach to play over montages of hostage-taking, explosions, assassinations and everything else on the terrorists’ agenda, Hinderthur and Tesslof’s approach help make BAADER sound as relevant and exciting as any action thriller, all with a driving orchestral sound that’s particularly well played and recorded. Complementing the days of free love and anarchy are cool 60’s surf and pop songs by The Knickerbockers and Teenage Music International, with The Moussekateers and Roachford doing a mean redo of “My Generation,” capturing all the anger of a German new wave that would do far more than vocally defy the system.
THE BELIEVERS (1000 edition)
Few composers could raise synth goosebumps during the 1980′s like J. Peter Robinson, whose scores for THE KISS, THE WRAITH and THE GATE stand out for their malefic, orchestral-like power. But it’s the ritualistic Afro-Cuban percussion, horns and ghostly voices that make 1987′s THE BELIEVERS Robinson’s chilling masterwork for a decade when you could get away with a politically incorrect horror movie like this. As a towering Santeria witch doctor and his white followers curse Martin Sheen around Manhattan, Robinson creates a dark stew of ethnic drumming, sharp electronic stabs and walls of Catholic religioso eeriness, delivering a truly chilling black magic score that will make you want to break out a sacrificial goat- or human for that matter. Only available on Varese vinyl for the past few decades, Perseverance Records now unleashes THE BELIEVERS in its full, sorcerous fury, making this release a must-have for fans of one of horror’s most creative musical decades, and a composer who could summon its darkest magic like the best voodoo priest. Listen while Robinson reveals his secrets in Rudy Koppl’s entertaining liner notes, and you’ll swear that spiders are crawling out of your cheek.
EXODUS
Producer James Fitzpatrick and his Tadlow label follow up their knockout re-performance of Miklos Roza’s EL CID with another epic historical redo, this time for the creation of the state of Israel with Ernest Gold’s score for EXODUS. Finally being able to hear the complete score shows just how much more there is to Gold’s work beyond his iconic main theme, as conductor Nic Raine and the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra deliver a sound as big and proud as Israel and the people who pioneered it. Their EXODUS could be described as a Middle Eastern western with its accent on towering melodic landscapes and homesteading pride, complete with a harmonica at one point. And when it comes time for the heroes to make their big stand against the British occupiers, Gold socks out the excitement with percolating tension, rousing heroics and the Israeli national anthem “Hativkah.” Complementing this two-CD set are more examples of great “Jewish” scores that include John Williams’ SCHINDLER’S LIST, Elmer Bernstein’s CAST A GIANT SHADOW and Jerry Goldsmith’s QB VII, supplements that also manage to slip in a jolly suite from Gold’s other hit epic score for IT’S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD (though it’s doubtful you’ll be hearing this one at high holiday services). Tadlow’s “new,” swooning EXODUS marks another triumph for a label that’s putting new life into the kind of soundtracks they don’t make any more, let alone serving as a musical reaffirmation of Jewish identity as only big Hollywood scoring can deliver it.
GAMER
When those directing dudes from CRANK take on the sci-fi genre, you know they’ll be delivering a brain-frying parade of bloody visuals that some unfortunate musician is going to have to hit. Yet somehow composers Robert Williamson (MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN) and Geoff Zanelli (OUTLANDER) keep pace with the film’s cool insanity, delivering Crystal Method-esque electronica and all other sorts of metallic thrash to the sixty-cuts a second. But GAMER also proves to be high-sugar junk with a surprising amount of food for thought, allowing Williamson and Zanelli to delve into eerier computer realms, creating a sound as cold, exciting and anarchic as a chair-bound dweeb getting his sex and gore jollies with the click of a joystick. Even better, Sammy Davis Jr. shows up for “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” to accompany GAMER’s most inspired bit of skull-bashing mayhem.
HALLOWEEN II
After THE DEVIL’S REJECTS and HALLOWEEN, composer Tyler Bates makes it three for three with HALLOWEEN II for writer-director Rob Zombie’s psycho-killer fiestas. While I don’t know if I’d describe the nerve-shredding sonics here as “music,” Bates certainly shows how to create primal fear from a God-knows-what collection of samples – myriads of metallic percussion whose berserk creativity surely matches Michael Meyers’ talent with blunt instruments. There are some cool melodic bits here involving female voices that play The Shape’s tainted love for Laurie Strode, but their respite is as rare as a time-out for anyone in Meyers’ path. Sure this stuff might not exactly be Montovani, let alone John Carpenter (whose theme and motifs get cool tribute here). Yet HALLOWEEN II is exactly the kind of warped stuff that’s playing on The Shape’s radio frequencies. Tune in at peril to your listening sanity.
I SELL THE DEAD
Having last taken on killer bats with his darkly impressionistic score for the drive-in satire THE ROOST, Jeff Grace shows he can have a far funnier time making light of Hammer horror here. As he accompanies the ghoulish doings of DEAD’s Burk and Hare-style hooligans, Grace brings on goofy whistling, a singing saw, Scottish rhythms and pokey and portentous orchestrations with an accent on the violin and lurching brass. While this is the kind of score that would fit into Vincent Price’s campier efforts, Grace still manages to deliver some serious scares. On its nifty small scale, Grace’s ability to have his creepy cake and eat it too recalls Richard Band’s similarly macabre feat on RE-ANIMATOR. And that’s a nice corpse to be in company with when giving stiffs the raspberry.
VANDE MATARAM
A.R. Rahman continues to run with the Oscar-winning popularity of his SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE sound, preaching his hip Gospel of fusing traditional Indian music with Western pop / trance techniques. And fans of his SLUMDOG work should dig the even more upbeat songs here, a catchy mélange of children’s choruses, thunderstorm sound effects and lite jazz that re-affirms Rahman’s talent for world music grooves. And though this VANDE might not be a movie soundtrack, Rahman’s scoring talents show in how he uses the album’s tunes like themes, especially in the mesmerizing main title spin “Missing,” which brings an a trippy guitar into his cross-cultural mélange.
Find these soundtracks at these .com’s: Amazon, Buysoundtrax, Intrada, iTunes. Moviemusic, Perseverancerecords, Screen Archives and Varese Sarabande
