Grammy Nominations for Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media

For those of you who follow the Grammy's, below is a list of this year's nominees from the only category worth caring about.  I still don't get their qualification calendar, mixing releases from two different calendar years.  In fact, it irritates me so much that the Grammy's have become irrelevant to me....but that's me.

Of course, in that reality which exists outside of my own, a Grammy nom is nothing to scoff at, so with some sort of quantum-parallel-sincerity, I give BIG UPS to this years...last years...whatever years nominees!

Good luck to you all when the award show is held.  Is it this year?  Next?  Whenever.  Good Luck.


Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media

Black Swan
Clint Mansell, composer
[Sony Classical/Fox Music]

Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2
Alexandre Desplat, composer
[WaterTower Music]

The King's Speech
Alexandre Desplat, composer
[Decca]

The Shrine
Ryan Shore, composer
[Screamworks]

Tron Legacy
Daft Punk, composers
[Walt Disney Records]

SoundCast 36 - The 70s: Two Steps Above a Lunchbox

Episode 36 - The 70s: Two Steps Above a Lunchbox


Christopher, Marius, and Helen discuss their favorites scores from the decade of the 70s.  We read your tweeted faves and sidetrack on Carter Burwell on his return to the Twilight franchise and finally, react to The Hunger Games trailer and the fact that T Bone Burnett will be collaborating with Danny Elfman for its score.


Episode Highlights

00:00 — 70s Montage
00:31 — Intros and Welcome
03:20 — WHYBLT? (What Have You Been Listening To?): Hugo and Muppets
07:00 — WHYBLT? - The Skin I live In and Puss in Boots
08:10 — WHYBLT? - Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Uncharted 3, Dracula
11:30 — SideTracks: Twilight and Carter Burwell
29:30 — SideTracks: The Hunger Games trailer, T Bone, Elfman
35:52 — Main Discussion: The Best of the 70s
65:33 — Conclusion


Select Music

03:27 — "Winding It Up" (Hugo) by Howard Shore
05:44 — "Me Party" (The Muppets) Original Soundtrack
07:03 — "El Cigarral" (The Skin I Live In) by Alberto Iglesias
07:41 — "Chasing Tail" (Puss In Boots) by Henry Jackman
09:32 — "Icarus" (Deus Ex: Human Revolution) by Michael McCann
14:36 — "Bella's Lullaby" (Twilight) by Carter Burwell
35:20 — "Main Title & Mountian Visions" (Close Encounters) by John Williams
40:41 — "Tales of a Jedi Knight-Learn About the Force" (Star Wars) by John Williams
45:14 — "The Godfather Waltz" (The GodFather) by Nino Rota
45:55 — "Alien" (Alien) by Jerry Goldsmith
46:57 — "Main Title And First Victim" (Jaws) by John Williams
48:36 — "Philadelphia Morning" (Rocky) Bill Conti
50:09 — "The Enterprise" (Star Trek: TMP) by Jerry Goldsmith
54:52 — "Stately Purcell" (A Clockwork Orange) by Wendy Carlos
58:41 — "Dirty Harry's Creed" (Dirty Harry) by Lalo Schifrin
60:52 — "Speak Softly Love" (The Godfather) by Nino Rota
62:31 — "Out To Sea"(Jaws) by John Williams
66:23 — "The Conversation" (Close Encounters) by John Williams
69:45 — "Hotel Nacionale" (Voyage Of The Damned) by Lalo Schifrin

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Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Soundtrack) by Hans Zimmer - Review

"Low Tide"
Review by Christopher Coleman

With PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD’S END in 2007, it was thought that the franchise had done its “trilogical” duty. True. The film itself was a convoluted mess, but it delivered one of the most exhilarating film score experiences of the year and so, in that sense, the trilogy was concluding on a high note. Well, actually there was one other note on which the film proved successful. Let’s call it nearly 1 billion, worldwide notes. With all those notes in mind, when it was announced that Captain Jack would be back, it probably should have come as little surprise. But where would the franchise go from the end of the world?

Four years later, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES would see the return of Jack Sparrow as well as composer Hans Zimmer. However, director Gore Verbinski would not be returning as the romantic tale of William Turner and Elizabeth Swann had come to an end. Instead, Captain Sparrow would now be the centerpiece of the story and this time director Rob Marshall would be calling the shots. The final result is a film that is more straight-forward than its predecessors, but in fact too much so. This fourth foray into this famous world of Disney lacked much of the grandeur, attention to detail, and fun of the first three. A race for the mystical fountain of youth with the likes of Sparrow, Barbosa, and the infamous Blackbeard would seem to provide a big enough splash easily increased, by a decent original score, into a tidal wave of a film. As it turns out, On Stranger Tides, is further evidence that the tide has been slowly receding since the closing credits of the CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL.

HANS ZIMMER returns to high seas hijinks, but this time his shipmates are the amazingly talented guitar-duo of RODRIGO Y GABRIELA. To reflect the inclusion of a Spanish armada and Sparrow’s love interest, Angelica Teach, incorporating the duo was a brilliant call. Most unfortunately, their creative contributions largely go to waste...especially as heard in the film. The soundtrack release itself does offer a better sampling of their work, but, as we’ll look at later, suffers from its own mixups and setbacks.

READ THE FULL REVIEW HERE

Music from the Transformers Trilogy by London Music Works - Review

Reinterpricons!
Review by Richard Buxton

The music of the TRANSFORMERS trilogy is probably not what one might expect to be given a re-recording and compilation treatment, especially seeing as the final part of MICHAEL BAY’S trilogy is merely months old. Yet here is LONDON MUSIC WORKS own interpretation of JABLONSKY’S music for the trilogy.

MUSIC FROM THE TRANSFORMERS TRILOGY consists 17 tracks in total, and those who have followed JABLONSKY’S work in the series will immediately notice that the tracks chosen are certainly the highlights of the three films’ musical offering. This is perhaps the greatest incentive for anyone deliberating over whether to purchase the album. The compilation stands as a useful overview of the music across the three films, enabling listeners to hear the high points and providing assistance in generating an overall opinion of JABLONSKY’S work should one be needed before taking the plunge into the trilogy’s individual soundtracks. Therefore it comes as no surprise that this album is perhaps unsuitable for those who have already experienced the previous three score albums in great detail. As pleasant as the recordings on the album are, they offer very little beyond JABLONSKY’S original recordings and are subsequently a concrete recommendation only for the most devout of Transformers music fans.

One of the pitfalls of re-recordings in film music is the failure to live up to the original. The recent release of HALO: COMBAT EVOLVED ANNIVERSARY is an example of the reinterpreting of a strongly established original musical journey that brings with it legions of dedicated fans. Such was the strength and iconic nature of the HALO score; it was always going to be difficult to live up to the original. This is not the case for MUSIC FROM THE TRANSFORMERS TRILOGY however. There are distinctive differences that are immediately noticeable, but the orchestral performances on offer are consistently sufficient in resurrecting vivid mental images of the Autobot’s clashes with the Decepticons.

READ THE FULL REVIEW HERE

SoundCast - Far East Faves! with Steve Burke (Ep. 35)

Episode 35 - Far East Faves

Composer Steve Burke (Kameo: Elements of Power) joins and Helen San returns to talk Far East favorites from the last decade. Additionally, Steve talks about writing music and recording soundeffects for the Xbox Live avatar menu, the crew hits on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 VS Battlefield 3, Contagion and, yes, Hanna.



Episode Highlights

00:31 — Intros and Welcomes
02:22 — Menus, Avatars, and Burps
10:11 — Fusion Genesis soundtrack in the wild
13:08 — WHYBLT? (What Have You Been Listening To?)
16:20 — WHYBLT? - Modern Warfare 3 VS Battlefield 3
25:33 — WHYBLT? - Uncharted 3 verus its predecessors
30:33 — WHYBLT? - Cliff's Contagion and Hanna's back
39:15 — Main Discussion:  Far East Faves by Richard Buxton
65:33 — Conclusion


Select Music

00:00 — "Beyond The River" (Red Cliff Part 1) by Taro Iwashiro
01:45 — "AvatarsTheme" (Xbox360_Kinect) by Steve Burke
04:10 — "AvatarsTheme" (Xbox360 NXE Nov2008) by Steve Burke
10:14 — "Shadowrift" (Fusion Genesis) by Steve Burke
13:43 — "Angry Birds Main Theme" (The Greatest Video Game Music) by London Phil. Orchestra
16:22 — "Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 Main Theme" (Modern Warfare 3) by Brian Tyler
17:06 — "Battlefield 3 Main Theme" (Battlefield 3) by Johan Skugge & Jukka Rintamaki
24:23 — "Rum Diary" (The Rum Diary) by Christopher Young
25:43 — "07 - Badlands" (Unchared 3) by Greg Edmonson
29:30 — "Entering the Cathedral" (El Gran Milagro) by Mark McKenzie
30:41 — "They're Calling My Flight" (Contagion) by Cliff Martinez
51:13 — "The Echo Game" (House of Flying Daggers) Shigeru Umebayashi
53:02 — "Night Fight" (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) by Tan Dun
55:16 — "For The World - Theme Music" (Hero) by Tan Dun
57:08 — "Sayuri's Theme" (Memoirs of a Geisha) by John Williams
59:38 — "Love and Honor 1" (Yoji Yamada and Isao Tomita: Best Selection) by Isao Tomita
62:45 — "初恋抄"(Semishigure/ The Samurai I Loved) by Taro Iwashiro
67:03 — "Twilight Samurai 1" (Yoji Yamada and Isao Tomita: Best Selection) by Isao Tomita

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The Italian Key (Soundtrack) by Tuomas Kantelinen - Review

The Italian Violin

Review by Helen San

THE ITALIAN KEY is a Finnish English-language feature film about a 19 year old orphan named Cabella who is left homeless after her caretaker, Max, dies. Her only inheritance is a key to an empty, run-down villa in Italy. With nowhere else to go, she moves into the villa, makes new friends, and changes lives, including her own. The picture was filmed on location in the UK, Italy, and India.

In the period before theatrical release, The Italian Key has already won several minor film festival awards, including the Las Vegas Film Festival , Honolulu Film Awards, and Feel Good Film Awards (Best Feel Good Feature Film). What is more relevant to this review is that THE ITALIAN KEY score by composer TUOMAS KANTELINEN also won the top honor (Outstanding Achievement) at the 2011 Park City Film Music Festival for both the director's and audience choices.

This movie is about pulling heartstrings. The score, then, is the quintessential tearjerker, complete with weeping strings, pain-laden piano, and track titles like "Mother's Tears." When you think of a soundtrack to a sob story (homeless orphan, anyone?), you can almost see a violin section magically spring up behind the storyteller. THE ITALIAN KEY would be that soundtrack. Most of the music tends to vacillate between affettuoso (with emotion) and lacrimoso (with tears). But it is a feel good movie after all, so the score thankfully also carries an infusion of hope and mischief, repeated just often enough to make it interesting.

READ THE FULL REVIEW with soundclips

In Time (Soundtrack) by Craig Armstrong - Review

Simultaneous Warmth and Cold Feeling

Review by Richard Buxton

Creating a believable and engaging Sci-fi world requires a balance of both the familiar and the uninhibitedly ambitious. Director ANDREW NICCOL, director of the low-key but invigorating GATTACA, is certainly capable of creating such a world. The musical world of IN TIME is an altogether different prospect to that of the typical Sci-fi. The exploration of Andre Niccol’s visualised future comes in the form of a reflection on human life and most importantly: mortality. As a result, CRAIG ARMSTRONG bypasses the typical overly synthetic soundscape of a visualised future, and has crafted a score that is constantly ticking as its running time counts down.

READ THE FULL REVIEW

SoundCast Interview: Greg Edmonson (Uncharted 3)

Interview: Greg Edmonson (Uncharted 3)

Returning to the world of Uncharted, Marius Masalar speaks again with composer Greg Edmonson, who dives, in detail, into the development process for Uncharted 3 and how the game and score differ from its predecessors.


Episode Highlights

00:00 — Intro & Happy Birthday
01:20 — Projects between Uncharted 2 and 3
02:55 — Uncharted, the pivotal career point
04:55 — Respect toward game audio vs. film
08:00 — Audio implementation & Story in Uncharted 3
14:00 — Flexible development approach
20:05 — Preproduction thoughts and game vs. film acting
24:05 — Goals for Uncharted 3 vs. Uncharted 2
28:25 — Scoring characters (or not!)
29:55 — Subtext vs. 'Mickey-Mousing'
34:05 — Sound effects
40:05 — Best film we've seen all year (cinematic gaming)
42:45 — The instruments and singing of Uncharted 3's score
47:07 — Tone bathing and the ways we listen to music
51:21 — What the future holds
52:32 — Conclusion

MUSIC (Game # - Track #):

00:00 — Small Beginnings (3-3)
06:50 — As Above, So Below (3-5)
09:30 — Boarding Party (3-6)
10:30 — Small Beginnings (3-3)
24:25 — Uncharted Island (1-5)
25:10 — Marco Polo (2-8)
25:25 — Badlands (3-2)
42:10 — Oh No Chateau (3-4)
46:20 — As Above, So Below (3-5)
50:20 — Boarding Party (3-6)
53:10 — Nate's Theme 3.0 (3-1)

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Win the WAR HORSE soundtrack by John Williams!

Become Tracksounds' TRUE FAN of the Month!

You can win the highly anticipated original soundtrack from WAR HORSE by JOHN WILLIAMS.   Simply enter the contest below.  One lucky winner will be drawn at random, but you can increase your odds of winning by following all of the steps below:  Follow us on twitter, like us on Facebook, tweet out that you've entered!  You ear FIVE ADDITIONAL ENTRIES for Liking our Facebook Fan page and FIVE MORE to start following us on Twitter.  You can also earn an addition TWO ENTRIES PER DAY by tweeting about this giveaway!

Please note, you must use the entry form below.  While our Marginize tool remains on the site, it is NO LONGER connected to this contest!

Entries will be accepted until midnight,  November 30, 2011.  The winner will be drawn from all entries and announced with 72 hours of the contest closing.

The Rum diary (Soundtrack) by Christopher Young - Review

"Where the Rum has Gone."
Review by Marius Masalar

No one remembers Hunter S. Thompson as an ordinary figure in the history of journalism, and the cultural contributions he is best known for — “gonzo” journalism, Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas, and of course The Rum Diary — say a lot about what one can expect from the film adaptation of the latter book. While the film’s vaguely hallucinatory plotline meandered in a meaningful way on paper, the transition to film has been a difficult process, this being the third attempt since the book’s publication.

While critics have been ambivalent and generally unimpressed by this eventual cinematic take on the story, there is no denying its authenticity to the source material, for better or worse, and much of the atmosphere’s uniquely convoluted moods are contributed by film scoring veteran, CHRISTOPHER YOUNG. While most people think of CHRISTOPHER YOUNG as the king of horror scoring (which is understandable given his recent credits for Priest, Drag Me To Hell, The Uninvited, etc.), Young’s expertise reaches far beyond the frightening and macabre to encompass a variety of genres. It is thanks to this diversity of talent and considerable film scoring expertise that Young pulls off a successful score to a difficult film...

READ THE FULL REVIEW

SoundCast Interview with Composer Inon Zur (Lord of the Rings: War in the North)

Interview:  Inon Zur (Lord of the Rings:  War in the North)

Composer Inon Zur, a devoted Tolkien and Lord of the Rings fan talks about his latest composing project:  Snowblind's LORD OF THE RINGS: WAR IN THE NORTH.  He talks about how appreciates the differing challenges that such games provide, the experience of conducting 3 live performances of his music at E3 this year, and more!

Episode Highlights

00:52 — Welcome and Intro: Inon Zur

02:35 — How were you feeling the day of the game and score release?

04:38 — conducting the live performances at E3

07:26 — What was your connection to The Lord of the Rings prior to this project?

09:33 — How did you come on to this project?

11:34 — Walking the line of making the music your own but connecting it to Shore

15:09 — Starting from scratch or buidling onto an existing musical world.

19:12 — Concluding thoughts

Music Clips (Select music clips contained in this podcast)

00:00 — "Echoes of Angmar" (Lord of the Rings: War in the North) by Inon Zur

10:43 — "Sons of Forgotten Kings" (Lord of the Rings: War in the North) by Inon Zur

19:12 — "Rivendell Exploration" (Lord of the Rings: War ine the North CE) by Inon Zur

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Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine Soundtrack Winners!

Big ups to KURT MAXWELL, who is our TRUE FAN of the month and to J.E. STONEWAR, our SoundCast listener-winner!  Kurt was a check-in fiend in October and garnered over 90 Marginize Points, while J.E. left us quite the review at iTunes!

Thanks to all of you who entered and be on the lookout for our next TRUE FAN contest very soon! (We're working out some important-technical-back-end-stuff.)  You are going to LOVE the soundtrack prize...so stay tunafished to this blog, our twitter feed (@tracksounds), or our Facebook Fan page (facebook.com/tracksounds) to be among the first to know when the new contest goes live!

*Winners must contact us via email with their shipping information (and or follow and communicate with "Christopher Coleman" on iTunes Ping)

World Soundtrack Awards 2011 - Press Conference: Zimmer, Goldenthal & Korzeniowski

Composers Hans Zimmer, Elliot Goldenthal, and Abel Korzeniowski answer questions at the this years World Soundtrack Awards press conference.