First track from Mad Max Fury Road by Junkie XL/ Tom Holkenborg

Water Tower Music give us a taste of one of this summer's most hotly anticipated films, MAD MAX FURY ROAD.  Tom Holkenborg (Junkie XL) has composed the original score for the film and this is the first track to find its way to the internets.

It's definitely big ... and bold, just as the film looks to be itself.  Sounds like things are going to match up in that regard, but dare we hope for some memorable character moments underscored by some equally memorable motifs and themes?

What do you think of this track, "Escape"?

Return of the Audio Soundtrack Reviews? Maybe.

You might have noticed that my latest review for PACIFIC RIM includes an audio edition. (Ok...maybe you hadn't, but there it is above.)  You might also remember this being a more common feature on our reviews about a year or so ago as well.

And then...they disappeared.  But why?

A couple of reasons.  First, while I have loved SoundCloud since the first time I laid eyes on it, and while we were graciously accepted into their beta-podcast program, that beta-period closed and we just had more content than the free plan allows.  So in order to not add any additional costs to running the site, I elected to just not add any more audio reviews.  Second, the fine folks at SoundCloud asked that we night include any music clips in our episodes (something I very much wanted to do...and got quite a few requests for).  Still, I wanted to abide by their rules and so did not include any material that could cause a problem.  Oddly enough, it wasn't too long after that I noticed, not just clips, but full tracks, not owned by the individual who posted it, being added all over the site.   Later, I found plenty of podcasts with music clips in them, too.  That was a bit frustrating and my inquiries to SoundCloud went unanswered.

So as great as SoundCloud is, I was left with little choice than to find another solution.  Still, as you can see, some of our past audio reviews got a few ears on them.  Moving from the SoundCloud platform was far from ideal, but sometimes one never knows what other great services are out there until you are forced to look.

All my wanderings and journeys finally landed me at Mixcloud ... and I could hardly believe it was true. Since their platform was created for the specific purpose of music line-ups and mixes, this suited the requirements of our audio-reviews perfectly. We've been using them for a while now, as an additional outlet for our SoundCast episodes and have been quite happy with the service.

So now, I've published the first of what could be many audio-reviews.  As we have always tried to do at Tracksounds, we want to provide soundtrack-geniuses around the world, as many easy ways to ingest soundtrack-centric content as possible.  I believe the audio format to be he most convenient, flexible, and in our subject matter's case, the most relevant means of doing so.  It seems only natural to be able to listen to the music being referred to in a review. No?

As great of an idea as I think it might be, you, the soundtrack-genius community, have a huge-say.  If you find these audio-reviews valuable, here's what I'd like for you to do.  Simply head over to our Kickstarter page and ... I kid.  I kid.

No Kickstarter here, just let us know you're listening by:



1) Actually listen to the review. (As you can see there is a "listens" counter next to the headphone icon.

2) Hit the little like/favorite/heart button on the player.


If we can get at least 100 listens and/or likes/faves by this coming Sunday (10/20), then we'll take that as a "Yes." from the you.



To be clear, you're not listening/liking/faving because of the content of the review.  You're "voting" on continuing the reviews in this format..


How easy is that?

Pretty painless, but very, very valuable to us. We greatly appreciate you taking the time to listen and click and maybe even sharing.  Of course, if you'd like to say a little sum'n-sum'n about all of this audio review business, please use our handy comment section below...or dare I mention our Speakpipe, voice-mail widget?


We greatly appreciate your feedback!

Christopher

Listen to "Clary's Theme" from The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones Soundtrack by Atli Orvarsson

Milan Records has released a very promising track from Atli Ovarsson's upcoming score for THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS: CITY OF BONES.  The soundtrack will release on August 20, 2013, but you you can pre-order Ovarsson's original score now!

At Amazon.com

At iTunes

So what do you think of this trick?  Pretty promsing, eh?

Soundclips from Olivier Deriviere's Game Score for Remember Me

Composer Olivier Deriviere recently posted a few new clips from his work on the upcoming, CAPCOM game, REMEMBER ME.  The five clips give us a peek at, what sounds to be, a fairly eclectic blend of styles and techniques.  From the heroic, yet mysteriously futuristic vibe of "Nilin the Hunter" to electronically edgy "Fragments" to the Don Davis-like "Memory Recontruction," Deriviere's work here promises much and looks like it could end up being one of the most interesting games and game scores of 2013.

So what's your take on these clips?  Digging the sound or what?

If you're really into it you can pre-order REMEMBER ME (PS3) at Amazon.

Listen to Music from Star Wars: Kinect by Gordy Haab and Kyle Newmaster

Listen to 16 tracks by composers Gordy Haab and Kyle Newmaster. In STAR WARS: KINECT, the duo truly capture the spirit of John Williams well-known works for the Star Wars film franchise, the prequels in particular. This score is begging for an official release. Have a listen and tell us what you think of it.

The SoundCast Vault - James Horner and the 80s w/ Doug Adams

So are you loving our "Best of the Decade" series of podcasts?  Believe it or not...as long as they have been, there are bits that don't make the final edit, so to wish you a Happy New Years, we offer you this almost-13 minute section where Doug Adams joins the SoundCast crew to talk about his feelings about James Horner's scores from the 80s.

So if you like these cool bits of edited goodness, please let us know and will crank out more of the same.

As always, you can find our full SoundCast episodes here

And connect with us over on SoundCloud directly!

The SoundCast Vault is Open

Many of the Tracksounds interviews conducted with composers and other industry professionals have only been available as written transcriptions and others have never been published before!  So for the first time that vault is being opened up and made accessible to your curious ears.

The SoundCast Vault will feature interviews with composers such as:

Howard Shore

BT

Hans Zimmer

Conrad Pope

Christopher Lennertz

and many others!

Our very first edition is with composer ALAN MENKEN, who shares about receiving his very own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and his most recent feature film project TANGLED.

Thanks to SoundCloud's new beta podcasting program, you have several means to follow these exclusive interviews:

1) By following this blog

2) Following us at our official SoundCloud page 

3) Subscribing to our dedicated RSS Feed

(Of course you can still follow our original SoundCast podcasts here.)

You can listen to our inaugural SoundCast Vault interview with Alan Menken here:

The SoundCast Vault with Alan Menken by tracksounds

Do take a minute to let us know what you think!