Robin Hood by Marc Streitenfeld (Review)

Marc Streitenfeld is an interesting composer to look at. He started out as an assistant to Hans Zimmer and served as music editor on many of Hans’ scores the past decade. Through Hans is where he met Ridley Scott. After working on 7 films together Hans and Ridley took their separate ways, which some people still wonder about. Honestly, it was most likely a friendly separation than some of the “creative differences” separations you hear about between directors and composers.

Anyway, after the one night stand with Harry Gregson-Williams (his brother's composer) on Kingdom Of Heaven it was Marc Streitenfeld who stepped in. Marc has composed 4 films for Ridley Scott, which brings his total amount of scores to 4. Yes, Marc Streitenfeld has only worked with Ridley Scott (and 1 film with Ridley’s son Jake Scott). So 5 scores total.

Ok, so to the score. This was considered Marc’s true test as a composer since it was his first huge scope film. Does he succeed? Immensely. The score is tremendous as it’s a lush mix of grand orchestrations, subtle intrigue and a dollop of fantastical epic. It’s also 100% Streitenfeld. The man does have a style and it is unique. His sound is unmistakable if you’ve heard his past scores and it manages to flourish here in full glory. The track “Killing Walter” will call to mind Body Of Lies and American Gangster. His German background seeps through here with some of the action cues. I wouldn’t call them reminiscent of anything Zimmer has done, but there is a touch of that good old Zimmer sound especially in the heroic theme of the film and the battle scenes. We have a touch of celtic flavor in here as well.

Overall this is such a colorful score that swells with so much character. Sides of it bring us to the menacing darkness of Godfrey’s character while at other points we have delicate tragedy such as in “Nottingham Burns”. Then the grandiose heroism of the story is interwoven into it. I think the only think lacking is some sort of cohesive emotional journey. While I know the CD isn’t a full representation of the score I can’t help but feel that the score has slight trouble progressing the story as an accompaniment to the narrative. It does the job, but alas won’t leave a long lasting impact on you. I also felt this way while watching the film. Nonetheless, it was fun and entertaining summer fare. It definitely enveloped me and grasped me, but it just missed the mark of being something incredible.

LOST: Season 5 by Michael Giacchino (Review)

People who have stuck with LOST all the way through have witnessed something special. They witnessed THE greatest television score start, develop and ultimately bring us to its emotionally walloping end. When that first episode of the pilot aired it had such a visceral impact because of the music. The danger, the isolation, the hope and the mystery of the entire show flooded into us through Giacchino’s score. It can be intense, it can be tragic, it can be heartwarming but most of all it’s thematically grounded.

Season 5 was an amazing emotional accomplishment, and before seeing the final season I was dubbing it his greatest work on the series thus far. Although now I can say season 6 his is true master brushstroke. In this season the score is heavily influenced with Benjamin Linus’ theme. It pretty much takes its stake as the main theme of the season since so much revolves around that character. Towards the end of the album we get introduced to Jacob's music and some new thematic material while familiar themes pop in and out through the journey.

The only problem I have with these LOST score releases is how they’re mixed and recorded. What we have here on these discs from Season 2 beyond are live recording sessions (season 1 clearly was studio mixed for the final dub). Now again, I don’t know what the decision is behind this but it leads to some distracting “air” in the tracks. By “air” I mean all the sounds of the musicians. You hear rustling, breathing and moving around. For instance at 1:17 in the track “For Love Of The Dame” you get a full blown sniffle from someone. The fact that got recorded in the final mix is kind of mind blowing. Now, I know I’m nitpicking here and these are really minor distractions, but they are distractions nonetheless. If I were sitting and watching a movie and someone was sniffling and rustling behind me I would turn around and tell them to pipe down. Same goes for my score listening experience, except I can’t tell the musicians to stop knocking about.

In the long run the fact that I am listening to another chapter in the greatest television score ever composed makes me forget about the rush mixing job. It’s a must buy and will give your tear ducts a good draining.

Guidelines For The Summer Moviegoer

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A Nightmare On Elm Street by Steve Jablonsky (Review)

The one thing I’ve noticed about the horror genres are that they go through fads. We all remember the “PG-13 Japanese Remake Fad” that we all had to endure and suffer. Then we had the “Torture Porn Fad” with the Hostel movies and all the Saw films. Why? Why so many Saw films? Now we’re in the midst of the “Michael Bay Produced Remake Fad” where we’re seeing all of our favorites being remade into crappy studio money making products. The only constant with these Michael Bay produced remakes other than Bay himself is Steve Jablonsky. Steve has scored every one of these things: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Amityville Horror, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, The Hitcher, Friday The 13th and now A Nightmare On Elm Street.

Now, I love Jablonsky but I can honestly say every one of his horror scores to these remakes have been boring and pretty much not enjoyable. You can call them atmospheric, but you can be atmospheric and still be really good (see Yamaoka’s work on the Silent Hill game franchise).

Here, Jablonsky actually hits a home run after striking out so many times. He delivers a terrific horror score full of brooding strings, chilling vocals and pulsing electronic percussion. There were parts that reminded me of Hans Zimmer’s The Ring, which was without a doubt the last great horror film score composed.

With A Nightmare On Elm Street we get a nice theme that carries us through the film and never leaves us lost in the middle of dreadful ambient scoring, which many of his previous horror scores were. He pays homage to Charles Bernstein who composed the original film’s score, but still makes it a Steve Jablonsky score. Now, the film itself is pure dreck. The only redeeming qualities I found were to be Jablonsky’s score and Jackie Earl Haley doing a pretty decent (if different) Freddy Kruger.

Don’t let your experience from Jablonsky’s past horror scoring attempts deter you from checking this one out. It’s really quite good even if the film itself is pure Hollywood product.

P.S. I'm pretending the track "One More Nap" doesn't exist. Luckily it wasn't used in the film, which is why I'm not too angered by it.

Babies by Bruno Coulais (Review)

Bruno Coulais is a great composer, and while you may not recognize his name he has been composing since the late 70’s. The French composer has also had experience in the documentary genre with his scores to Winged Migration and the recent Oceans.

For Babies the score doesn’t so much act as an emotional backdrop as it does just a backdrop. Little spurts of music here and there, and while it has a character and an identity it never comes into its own. The score release is evident that there was not much music in the final film since the total running time clocks in around 27 minutes, and that counts the song by Sufjan Stevens which was heard in the trailer.

As a standalone experience it fails. It hooks you with its charm, its sound and its warming use of vocals but it never reels you in. Quite honestly, I was listening to it waiting for it to grasp me and then I heard hollow vocals chanting “Agnus Dei”. I realized that Babylon A.D. (which is next alphabetically in my iTunes) had begun playing. I was surprised that the score was already finished.

So, the score has all the charm and character in the world, but goes nowhere with it. It never hooks and feels monotone at times with no real change in the pacing. Maybe this was all the film required, and in the end it is the composer’s job to service the film not the album release. That’s something I always keep in mind, but when I feel no emotional connection to the score I usually tend to forget it.

Save An Angel

Save An Angel, by 17-year-old LA high school student Rachel Eskenazi-Gold, is a beautiful and inspiring song about the love of a mother for her child and how each of us can help ease the suffering of women and children around the world. It is the centerpiece of a fundraising campaign for Mother’s Day (May 9th) that will focus on the plight of women and children globally.

The song will be available to download on iTunes beginning Monday, May 3, 2010 in time for Mother’s Day. The money raised from the sales of the song will be distributed by the Remote Control Charitable Foundation, which supports the vital work of these international, non-governmental organizations and charities: the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, mothers2mothers, ENOUGH Project, Human Rights Watch, Aid Still Required, TheCommunity.com and DoSomething.org.

Award winning composers Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe produced the song and were joined by a group of international musicians, all of whom will donate 100% of their royalties from the sale of the single. The artists who have committed their time and talent to this campaign include: Rachel Eskenazi-Gold, singer/songwriter; Lorne Balfe, producer; Hans Zimmer, producer; Martin Tillman, musician; Lili Haydn, musician; Heitor Pereira, musician; Michael Levine; Nico Abondolo; Satnam Ramgotra; filmmaker Rachel McDonald and editor Kevin Klauber. Global distribution of the song will be provided by Ingrooves.

Zimmer first heard the song when he offered his studio to Rachel to record Save an Angel for a community service project. After hearing the song, he suggested bringing in his colleagues to fully produce a song that could be downloaded from iTunes in order to raise money for the organizations.

Quotes:

"This is a song that offers hope and inspiration with its powerful message that one person can make a difference in the lives of the most needy and vulnerable in society. By downloading this song, you show Mom how much she means to you by helping women and children around the world – in her name," said Hans Zimmer.

Rachel Eskenazi-Gold said, “I was inspired to write the song and use it as a fundraising project by the work of mothers2mothers, and other international organizations who help empower, encourage and support women to become independent and help themselves and other women in their communities. To offer women in the poorest villages in Africa, for example, the tools, knowledge and ability to help themselves, to help create a grass roots movement to support families.”

For more information about the Save an Angel Campaign, and to obtain a copy of the song, music video, photos and promotional materials, please contact: Bonnie Abaunza and Tiffany Bordenave at 310-401-6770.

So, do something special. Save an angel.

Clash Of The Titans by Ramin Djawadi (Review)

The remake of Clash Of The Titans made news headlines for several reasons. The big one was that Warner Brothers decided to revamp the film in 3D at the last second just to get the inflated ticket pricing despite the fact that 3D was never ever planned for it in any creative sense. The second headliner was that Craig Armstrong’s score was rejected and he was replaced by Ramin Djawadi.

A lot of people were disappointed by this, but the fact is that score rejection is becoming a huge thing. After The Wolfman fiasco and recently Atli Örvarsson being kicked off The Karate Kid we’re seeing that score rejection is becoming more common.

From the time Ramin Djawadi was hired till the first dub he had 3 weeks to compose the score. So of course in the Hans Zimmer tradition of collaboration he had a few of his friends and collaborators help out. Neil Davidge, Geoff Zanelli, Dominic Lewis, Noah Sorota and Bobby Tahouri came on board to help with the insurmountable task of composing a feature score to a massive action film in only 3 weeks.

I fell in love with the score. It has the sound I love, sweeping ascending cues that carry you, a grounding and emotional main theme. All in all it is a great score. Is it anything new? Absolutely not. You can hear the Zimmer influence throughout it. At times I heard a touch of Pirates Of The Caribbean and some King Arthur style cues. However, It carries Ramin’s sound that you heard in Iron Man but without the “rock n’ roll” mentality. People wonder if he paid any homage to Laurence Rosenthal’s score to the original, which he didn’t. I see it as a good thing. I don’t know why people want composers to reference the original scores for remakes. I love it when we get an original voice.

So, if you want a good old fashion Zimmeresque action score then here it is. Enjoy it because it’s tons of fun. The only drawback is the inclusion of Niel Davidge’s full on 10-minute grunge rock cue. It sticks out like a sore thumb and I would have much rather gotten some more story propelled score. I’m not complaining though because the album is packed as it is. Also, just an interesting side note. At the very end of the credits of the film they credit “Io’s Theme” by Craig Armstrong. So it looks like just a snippet of his score survived the final cut.