Soundcast Episode 31 - Preview of the Autumn Hallows: Part 1

Episode 31: Preview of the Autumn Hallows Part 1


Richard joins Marius, Christopher and Tom to discuss expectations for the upcoming Fall movie and soundtrack season.  In part 1, they cover movies being released between October 1 and November 15th.  In addition to the "What Have You Been Listening To" segment, the Soundcast debuts a brand new segment called "Sidetracks" where each offers at least one news story related to film, television or game music.

Episode Highlights

00:00 — Fall montage and Intro
02:45 — What have you been listening to?
15:35 — NEW Segment - Sidetracks
27:22 — Top films from Summer 2011
48:14 — Top film scores from Summer 2011
17:20 — The original goal for the short film
22:30 — No Deadlines?
24:40 — Twitter and Facebook questions

Music Clips (Select music clips contained in this podcast)

04:27 — "They're Calling My Flight" (Contagion) by Cliff Martinez
09:03 — "Opening" (Legend of the Four Gods) by Joe Hisaishi
09:54 — "Wuji (Main Theme)" (The Promise) by Klaus Badelt
11:45 — "Nero" (Archangel) by Two Steps from Hell
12:53 — "Prelude To War" (Space Marine) by Sascha Dikiciyan, Cris Velasco
14:49 — "No Man's Land" (Space Marine) by Sascha Dikiciyan, Cris Velasco
15:35 — "Focus Beam" (for Sidetrack segment) by Marius Masalar
16:48 — "Skyward" (Star Command) by Marius Masalar
27:49 — "Opening Titles" (Modern Warfare 2) by Hans Zimmer, Lorne Balfe
60:00 — "Islands In The Stream" (Islands in the Stream) performed by Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers

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Alexandre Desplat Scores The Ides of March

ALEXANDRE DESPLAT SETS MUSICAL POLITICAL TONE FOR IDES OF MARCH
SCORE AVAILABLE ON VARESE SARABANDE NOVEMBER 1ST

(LOS ANGELES, CA) Award-winning composer Alexandre Desplat scores Columbia Picture’s political thriller Ides of March, directed by George Clooney. The film marks the third time Desplat has scored a Clooney project, and the first time he has scored a Clooney directed film. Desplat’s other Clooney projects, Syriana and Fantastic Mr. Fox, earned the composer Golden Globe and Oscar® nominations. Desplat is fresh off scoring the summer blockbuster, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II and scales things back a bit in Ides of March, taking a darker tone for his insightful and revelatory look at the world of politics. Ides of March opens October 7th. Score album available on Varese Sarabande November 1st.

Ides of March is based on the Beau Willimon’s political thriller play “Farragut North.” During the frantic days before a heavily contested Ohio presidential primary, an up-and-coming campaign press secretary (Ryan Gosling) finds himself involved in a political scandal that threatens to upend his candidate’s shot at the presidency. Clooney also stars as the anointed candidate, and the supporting cast features Paul Giamatti, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Marisa Tomei, Jeffrey Wright, and Evan Rachel Wood.

Alexandre Desplat adds Clooney to an impressive roster of director collaborations which includes Roman Polanski (Ghost Writer), Terrence Malick (The Tree of Life), Stephen Frears (The Queen, Tamara Drewe), Jacques Audiard (The Prophet, The Beat that My Heart Skipped), David Yates (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts I and II), David Fincher (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Nora Ephron (Julie & Julia), and Ang Lee (Lust, Caution).

Having scored over 60 films in his native France, Alexandre Desplat made his Hollywood breakthrough in 2003 with his stately score for Girl with a Pearl Earring, which garnered him a Golden Globe nomination. In 2011, his score for The King’s Speech won a BAFTA and received Oscar®, Golden Globe and Critics Choice nominations. Next up for Desplat is The Spider’s House which marks his second collaboration with director Peter Webber.

In addition to his film work, Alexandre Desplat has conducted the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, The Czech Philharmonic, and he has given master classes at La Sorbonne in Paris and London’s Royal College of Music.


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SoundCast #30 - Flame Up! 2011 Summer Recap with Alex Billington

Episode 30:  Flame Up!  Summer 2011 Recap

Alex Billington (Firstshowing.net) joins Christopher, Marius and Tom to look back at the films and film scores from the Summer of 2011.  They discuss their faves and disappointment and compare 2011's Summer offerings with 2010's.  Lastly, they talk about their expectations for next Summer which is chalk full of potential with the release of The Dark Knight Rises, Prometheus, and The Avengers!

Episode Highlights

00:00 — Summer Montage and Intro
10:35 — What have you been listening to?
26:08 — Welcome Alex Billington
27:22 — Top films from Summer 2011
48:14 — Top film scores from Summer 2011
17:20 — The original goal for the short film
22:30 — No Deadlines?
24:40 — Twitter and Facebook questions

Music Clips (Select music clips contained in this podcast)

00:13 — "End Credits" (Pirates/ On Stranger Tides) by Hans Zimer
11:27 — "Ancient China- Story of Shen" (Kung Fu Panda 2) by John Powell and Hans Zimmer
12:38 — "Gears Keep Turning" (Gears of War 3) by Steve Jablonsky
17:15 — "Movement Four" (The Lord of the Rings Symphony) by Howard shore
18:47 — "Hanna's theme" (Hanna) by The Chemical Brothers
20:00 — "Container Park" (Hanna) by The Chemical Brothers
22:57 — "Special ops" (Hanna) by The Chemical Brothers
47:29 — "Source Code Main Titles" (Source Code) by Chris P. Bacon
48:51 — "Earth to Asgard" (Thor) by Patrick Doyle
50:04 — "Super 8" (Super 8) by Michael Giacchino
53:54 — "Motherhood" (Tree of Life) by Alexandre Desplat
57:25 — "The Tunnel" (Harry Potter/Deathly Hallows 2) by Alexandre Desplat
60:05 — "First Class" (X-Men: First Class) by Henry Jackman
60:49 — "Captain America Main Titles" (Captain America: First Avenger) by Alan Silvestri
61:50 — "Picnic and Beehive Chase" (Winnie the Pooh) by Henry Jackman
62:55 — "Abin Sur Attacked" (Green Lantern) by James Newton Howard
63:44 — "rologue" (Conan the Barbarian) by Tyler Bates
79:05 — "Main Title Sequence" (Winnie The Pooh) by Zooey Deschanel, M Ward

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Interview with Composer Sam Hulick (Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad)

Composer Sam Hulick shares about his technological path to the world of video game music composition - from MASS EFFECT to RED ORCHESTRA 2 - HEROES OF STALINGRAD.

Interview conducted by Marius Masalar

MM - You grew up in something of an interesting environment. A custom-designed geodesic dome? Tell us a bit about how your younger years prepared you for your current path.

SAM HULICK - Yeah, my dad played in a lot of bands throughout his life and even produced an album, but he earned his living as a contractor doing construction. He designed and built the house where I spent about twelve years of my life. For a while, we had a normal living room, but eventually it was converted into a music studio complete with a mixing board, microphones, keyboards, guitars, the works (much to the disappointment of my mother who didn't get much peace and quiet). Definitely a music-centric household to say the least.

I started off in my early teens with a strong interest in computers, in a broad sense. I was really into video games, of course, on both console systems and computers, but I was interested in programming and learning how software works. I have fond memories from college of spending a lot of time in the computer labs, one of which was full of NeXT computers which ran an operating system that was essentially a very early version of Mac OS X. I guess it's kind of funny how things have come full circle and now I work pretty much exclusively on Mac OS X. I'm also a pretty big Linux geek, but that's another story.

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Sascha Dikiciyan and Chris Velasco's WARHAMMER 40,000: SPACE MARINE Soundtrack

SUMTHING ELSE MUSIC WORKS RELEASES 

WARHAMMER® 40,000®: SPACE MARINE®

THE SOUNDTRACK

Epic Sci-Fi Fantasy Score Composed by

Sascha Dikiciyan and Cris Velasco

New York - September 15th, 2011 - Sumthing Else Music Works, Inc. proudly presents Warhammer® 40,000®: Space Marine® - The Soundtrack featuring the original music score from Relic EntertainmentTM's critically acclaimed 3rd person action/shooter published by THQ Inc. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine - The Soundtrack is scheduled for release on September 20th, 2011 to retail outlets through Sumthing Else Music Works www.sumthing.com, and for digital download at www.sumthingdigital.com, Amazon MP3, iTunes® and other digital music sites.

In Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine you are Captain Titus of the Ultramarines, humanity's last hope for survival in a war-ridden future. Step into the armor of this superhuman warrior and use a lethal combination of deadly weapons to crush overwhelming alien forces. Fight against the savage Orks and the unholy forces of Chaos in a brutally violent world based on one of the most popular science fiction fantasies.

Inspired by the stunning cinematic visuals and visceral gameplay of Space Marine, the renowned duo of composers Sascha Dikiciyan (TRON: Evolution) and Cris Velasco (God of War Series) crafted an expansive emotional score featuring anthemic orchestral compositions and contemporary Hollywood music production, reflecting the epic scale of this rich, sci-fi fantasy.

Set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe created by Games Workshop®, Space Marine is now available for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and Windows PC. For more information please visit http://www.spacemarine.com.

For more information on Sumthing Else Music Works and its complete catalog of video game soundtracks, visit www.sumthing.com and www.sumthingdigital.com.

Hanna (Soundtrack) by The Chemical Brothers - Reviewed

Hanna, Bana, Foe, Fairy
Review by Christopher Coleman

With a Joe Wright film, we have come to expect creative storytelling, memorable visuals, and soul pleasuring musical scores from the hands of composer Dario Marianelli. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE and ATONEMENT well rewarded both director and composer in 2005 and 2007 respectively. In 2010, Wright began to venture out, leaving the romantic shores of Jane Austen and Iwan McEwan behind, to deliver the coolly received film, THE SOLOIST. Despite the film's critical failure, Wright nonetheless maintained his working relationship with Marianelli and gave us one of 2010's more inventive scores. Wright's latest effort, HANNA, boasts a brilliant cast of Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana, and Cate Blanchett in a location-hopping, modern-day, fairy tale, that just so happens to have a "Jason Bourne" playing the little princess. A brave and intriguing combination. No?

But what sort of musical score would a movie comprised of such divergent parts demand? For HANNA, Wright tests the waters of experimentation even further by bringing on the famous DJ/Dance producers, THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS, to score their first-ever picture. The big question, then, is whether Wright's visual storytelling and the Brothers hard-edged, electronic, explorations work well for a feature-length film and well enough to make audiences happy ever-after.

That question is answered at about the 30 minute mark of the film.

If you haven't seen HANNA yet, it might surprise you that there actually is no score for the first 30 minutes. Now, this is something I might be inclined to complain about - but in truth, these scenes set in the seclusion in or near the arctic circle are the most engaging of the film and promise a more direct and traditional brand of storytelling than the rest of the film delivers. As the story progresses “Little Assassin Hanna,” who's lineage and existence appears dubious at best, must leave the safety of her confines and is swept into a world she only knows through books and her father’s instruction. She sets out on a modern-day-Grimm-fairy-tale. Not only is Hanna thrust into a strange new world, but Wright's choices in the telling of her tale, sweep the audience along for the violently magical ride.

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Top Ten Scores from Composer Hans Zimmer

Back in 2009, I did a little Top 10 list for composer James Horner.  It wasn't very easy to narrow it down to just 10 scores, but that was nothing in comparison to the torment of compiling this latest list.  Hans Zimmer, or perhaps more accurately, his style of music, is one of the more polarizing things in the world of film music fans.  Directors and studios are clearly still infatuated with what the man can produce...and, I say, that's well justified.  While bludgeoned for "not having enough originality" or for spawning off "clones," even a moderate examination of Zimmer's portfolio shows that he (and his crew) are capable of a great deal of diversity....especially when looking back a couple of decades across his full body of work.

So I've taken on the daunting task again...this time giving you my top 10 Hans Zimmer scores to date.  To make things a little "easier" I've eliminated from contention most of his projects where there are multiple composers credited (ie. The Rock, Kung Fu Panda, The Road to El Dorado, etc.)...with one notable exception, which you'll, no doubt, notice below.  Evenso, it was still a very difficult task and let me just give you a few that could have very well made this list...but didn't:  THE LION KING, BACKDRAFT, CRIMSON TIDE, THIN RED LINE.

So what IS on the list then?  Proceed, see, and listen...

#10 -  Sherlock Holmes

For those that say Zimmer doesn't do anything innovative then they simply haven't heard SHERLOCK HOLMES yet.  This 2009 release couldn't be any stronger evidence to the contrary. Save for a few elements from Pirates of the Caribbean and perhaps RANGO, there is hardly another score in the composer's portfolio that even comes close to this off-kilter and playful score.

#9 -  Inception

Inception features one of the most clever moves made in a film score in recent memory.  The use of a note from Edith Piaf's song "Non, je ne Regrette Rien," is more than an audio-easter-egg, but has a direct tie to the plot and structure of the film.  The more dream-levels we dive into, the slower the note is played...as those in the successive dreamworlds would hear it. While the overall score may not be his most unique, it ranks #9 due to its cleverness and perfect fit for  the film.

#8 -  Spanglish 

Not a score you hear much talk about, but Zimmer (along with Heitor Periera's mesmerizing guitar) crafts his best score for a romantic comedy.  Spanglish is a charming score further proving the composer actually has more variety than given credit for.

#7 - Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

The lucky #7 slot is filled by the best score of the Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy.  According to Zimmer, at the time, this was to be the last of the film's so he and his cohorts could truly let loose on the score...and my hearties, did they ever.  At World's End is a rousing and adventurous and unforgettable romp and was duly honored at the Tracksounds Cue Awards of that year.  Obviously, the Pirates world didn't end there, but On Stranger Tides doesn't reach the heights or depths of the third film.

#6 - Gladiator 

Gladiator debuted while I was actually in Italy and so it will always have a special place in my listening-heart.  Whenever I hear it I'm instantly transported.  While Lisa Gerrard's contribution is considerable, even without that element, Zimmer brings an ancient power to life and helps to make a number of movie moments absolutely unforgettable.

#5 - Beyond Rangoon 

This is an often forgotten about score going way back to 1995.  Beyond Rangoon features one of Zimmer's most exotic and mesmerizing main themes.  While it echoes a number of his recognizable stylings of the era, his use of flute and wordless vocals sets it apart.

#4 - The Prince of Egypt 

Simply put - one of the best scores for an animated film to date.  While Stephen Schwartz's original songs provide such great character for the film, Hans Zimmer's score is deep, soulful, and inspiring.  Both the film and score have never received their due - at least as deserving as the Oscar winning score from The Lion King.  Once again his ability to graft in culturally appropriate instrumentation and keep the score  generally consumable by the masses is on display.  The Prince of Egypt is at once an incredibly nuanced score but and excitingly exotic and emotional ride.

#3 - The Da Vinci Code

A tour de force.  There's no other way to put it.  Zimmer simply holds nothing back for The Da Vinci Code.  Unfortunately, the film didn't live up to the book...nor to it's own score, but read the book while listening to this and see just what sort of experience you have.

#2 -  The Last Samurai

If it weren't for the dominance of The Lord of the Rings, I'm quite certain that The Last Samurai would have received much more attention than it did back in 2003.  Both the film and it's score, like many others that year, were simply squashed by The Return of the King.  Peter Jackson's film and Howard Shore's score just slammed the door of possibility on everyone.  Zimmer embellishes his recognizable style with Japanese taiko, shakuhachi, and even Native American vocalists - the end result remains poignant after countless listens.

#1 -  The Power of One 

Anyone who knows me, this site, or our podcast, will not be surprised at this title coming in at number one.  I have lauded it for years.  As great as The Lion King seems to be in the minds of many, The Power of One was a powerful predecessor that scars and takes just a bit of the pride out of the 1994 Disney score.  With the marvelous vocals provided by Lebo M and company, The Power of One is a score that simply oozes with the rarest commodity, heart.  All hail the true king of Zimmer scores!

Mr. Popper's Penguins (Soundtrack) by Rolfe Kent - Review

Not Much Pops
Review by Richard Buxton

A score in the style of MR. POPPER’S PENGUINS presents somewhat of an ambiguous challenge for a reviewer. On the one hand, one’s internal feelings towards it can be summed up in with remarkable ease, yet putting those feelings into words proves more of a task. ROLFE KENT’S music is just there. It does very little to stand out in any way, positively or negatively, merely acting as a simple backdrop, rather than something to be truly remembered. Of course, this can be said for many a comedy score. Very few offer cues that threaten to linger in the memory once the credits roll, exceptions being a small handful of DAVID NEWMAN scores perhaps. A run–of-the-mill such as this clearly doesn’t require a forceful score, or one that almost becomes an individual character in itself, but once a score is released certain expectations arise, often to never be met.

KENT’S score is all very pleasant, joyful and will lift the spirit of a listener at least momentarily. Beyond this MR. POPPER’S PENGUINS offers little and eventually becomes a chore in its unending enthusiasm. The themes present lack the substance for any inspired variations and therefore tend to meld together.

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SoundCast Interview: Dan Trachtenberg, Mike Zarin (Portal No Escape)

Interview with Dan Trachtenberg and Mike Zarin (Portal No Escape)


Dan Trachtenberg (Director) and Mike Zarin (Composer) come on to talk about their immensely popular, recent project, PORTAL: NO ESCAPE.  The 7 minute short has already received over 6.2 million youtube views.  The two discus the origins of the project; how they came to work on the project together, and the musical influences found in the Zarin's original score.

Episode Highlights

00:26 — Introduction and welcome
03:05 — What brought you two together?
07:10 — The "Inception" phenom
09:37 — Mansell, Nails, and 2001
14:20 — What was your working process like?
17:20 — The original goal for the short film
22:30 — No Deadlines?
24:40 — Twitter and Facebook questions

Music Clips (Select music clips contained in this podcast)

00:00 — "Portal No Escape" (Portal No Escape) by Mike Zarin
06:25 — "Mind Control" (Inception Teaser) by Sencit Music
21:53 — "Portal No Escape" (Portal No Escape) by Mike Zarin
28:06 — "Portal No Escape" (Portal No Escape) by Mike Zarin

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