Tag Archives: soundtrack

Soundtrack News: Milan Records to Release Original Motion Picture Soundtrack for ‘I Carry You With Me’ on June 25

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Milan Records is excited to announce the June 25 release of the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack from the Sony Picture Classics and Stage 6 Films’ drama I Carry You With Me composed by Jay Wadley (I’m Thinking of Ending Things, Driveways). The soundtrack is composed of 19 lush tracks, which Entertainment Weekly calls, “a wrenching score that swells and fades to the rhythms of these men’s lives.” Making their debut today exclusively via Vehlinggo ahead of Friday’s wide release are two tracks from the soundtrack – listen to “One Year” and “Ivan’s Chance” HERE. Coinciding with the film’s theatrical debut, the soundtrack will release on June 25, 2021.

A two-time winner of the Charles Ives Award from the American Academy of Arts and letters and featured in IndieWire’s 2020 and 2016’s 10 Best Scores of the Year, Jay Wadley is a NY-based composer and music producer. He recently scored Charlie Kaufman’s phycological drama/thriller I’m Thinking of Ending Things, featuring an original ballet. Other recent projects include Heidi Ewing’s I Carry You With Me, Emma Tammi’s Blood Moon (from Hulu/Blumhouse’s Into The Dark Horror Anthology Series), and Season 2 of Amazon’s Emmy®-nominated series Modern Love. 

“In the score for ‘I Carry You With Me,’ I aimed to create a vibrant sense of nostalgia and longing using a combination of textural electronics and piano, string orchestra and some familiar sourced sounds from the streets of Mexico,” says composer Jay Wadley.  “[Director] Heidi [Ewing] sent me a collection of sounds she recorded in the streets to inspire the sound world and make unique connections to the specific sense of time and place. One of the most prominent sounds you can hear woven into the score is the sound of the Camotero whistle from the food trucks in Mexico. I tuned and stretched out the whistle to use as a musical punctuation and thematic device to help call back to Ivan’s childhood memories working the streets with his father.”

Premiering at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, and based on true love, I Carry You With Me is a decades spanning romance that begins in Mexico between an aspiring chef (Armando Espitia) and a teacher (Christian Vázquez). Their lives restart in incredible ways as societal pressure propels them to embark on a treacherous journey to NYC with dreams, hopes, and memories in tow.

I CARRY YOU WITH ME (ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK)TRACKLISTING – 

  1. I Carry You With Me
  2. Bar Franco
  3. Chiles En Nogada
  4. Sandra
  5. Complicated Boyfriend
  6. Gerardo’s Flashback
  7. You Can’t Take Him From Me
  8. Take That Off
  9. One Year
  10. We Are Not Going To Die
  11. The Letter / New York
  12. I’m Proud of You
  13. He Should Come Back
  14. Reunited
  15. Ivan’s Chance
  16. You Came To Me
  17. I Just Can’t See It
  18. Dad’s In the Hospital
  19. There’s No Path

The soundtrack album for I Carry You With Me will be released on June 25, 2021.

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Soundtrack News: ‘The Reason I Jump’ hybrid OST Is Out Now!

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Mercury KX has released the OST of the Sundance 2020 winning feature film The Reason I Jump composed by award-winning composer Nainita Desai.
This is a soundtrack that has already been nominated for both a BIFA and Cinema Eye Honors Award for Best Music Score.

Based on the best-selling book by Naoki Higashida, The Reason I Jump is an immersive cinematic exploration of neurodiversity through the experiences of non-speaking autistic people from around the world, directed by Jerry Rothwell. The film blends Higashida’s revelatory insights into autism written when he was just 13, with intimate portraits of five remarkable young people. It opens a window for audiences into an intense and overwhelming, but often joyful, sensory universe.

Like the book upon which the film is based, Desai’s score opens a door to a constellation of divergent ways of experiencing reality. The aim was to evoke the intense sensory worlds described in the book with a Dolby Atmos 360 soundtrack. Distinctions were made between the musical worlds of the different characters in the soundtrack, using different instrumentation. True to the film’s themes, Nainita sought authenticity towards Autism and Neurodiversity, Elisabeth Wiklander, cellist with the LPO is autistic and a cultural ambassador for the National Autistic Society and her contribution brought great sensitivity and perception.

“This piece is my most personal musical reflection from the film and interpretation of the characters’ experience of neurodiversity. The lyrics are inspired by text from the original book where I gave a voice to the non-verbal characters, breaking their ‘silence’. I wanted the lyricism of the strings, the delicate piano and purity of the voice to shed a gentle light on all the facets of autism explored in the film, tying Naoki’s final words together with understanding and empathy”, says Nainita Desai about the focus track ‘The Reason I Jump’

The Reason I Jump is Desai’s 7th soundtrack release but also her most personal; a hybrid OST and personal album ‘the album embodies my roots in sound design, the human voice, electronic and sonic exploration of acoustic instruments that hint at the journey I am embarking on my own with my own personal music’.

Track List

  1. Time Has No Boundaries (2:23)
  2. Beauty Is In The Detail (2:40)
  3. I, Too, Exist (3:51)
  4. Floating Into Focus (3:01)
  5. Shaking The Ropes Loose (1:24)
  6. Memories And Images (1:27)
  7. Outside The Flow Of Time (2:27)
  8. Drowning In A Sea Of Words (3:04)
  9. The Reason I Jump (3:32)
  10. Green Boxes (1:44)
  11. The Prettiness Of A Dandelion (2:08)
  12. Imaginings (1:48)
  13. Forever Swaying (3:06)
  14. Permission To Be Alive (1:42)
  15. Faulty Robot (1:34)
  16. The Sensory World (3:54)

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Soundtrack News: Luca (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) by Dan Romer is Available Now!

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Walt Disney Records releases Disney and Pixar’s Luca Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, available today. The score is composed and produced by Dan Romer (“Beasts of the Southern Wild”). A story about two teenage sea monsters who experience a life-changing summer, Disney and Pixar’s “Luca” is now streaming exclusively on Disney+ (where Disney+ is available).

The score was recorded with an 82-piece orchestra at the Newman Recording Stage, and was orchestrated and conducted by Mark Graham. Romer performed on accordion and acoustic guitar.

Dan Romer is an award-winning composer, songwriter and music producer based in Los Angeles. Romer’s scores include Disney and Pixar’s feature, Luca (Disney+) coming out Summer 2021, four-time Oscar®-nominated Beasts of the Southern Wild (Searchlight),” “Maniac” (Netflix), “The Good Doctor” (ABC), “Beasts of No Nation” (Netflix), “Atypical” (Netflix), “Ski” (A24) Wendy (Searchlight) and Emmy® award-winning series “Ramy” (Hulu). In 2018, Romer composed the music for Ubisoft’s flagship video game Far Cry 5.

Luca director Enrico Casarosa turned to Romer to help set the stage and convey the youthful point of view of the main character, Luca. “I love his style—his accordion skills—and his ability to blend his style with the nuances of Italian music for this score,” said Casarosa.

The film is set on the Italian Riviera during the late 1950s, early 1960s. However, said Romer, “Enrico wanted something that felt like more of a nod, or a memory, than something that felt historically accurate. He told me what he really wanted was a more Italian-sounding version of the style of music I already make, which was very exciting and freeing!”

The composer especially liked working on the film’s dream sequences where Luca soars to great heights—feeling the freedom he craves. “They called for the most lush instrumentation, and usually the most wild rhythms,” he says.

Romer added, “It was an absolute joy getting to make such a melodically driven score and I’m excited for everyone to see the film.”

Track List

1. Meet Luca (4:08)
2. Did You Hide? (1:04)
3. The Curious Fish (1:39)
4. You Forgot Your Harpoon (0:39)
5. Phantom Tail (2:09)
6. Walking Is Just Like Swimming (2:02)
7. Vespa è Libertà (1:42)
8. You Hold the Ramp (0:59)
9. Silenzio Bruno (0:41)
10. That’s the Dream (2:05)
11. The Bottom of the Ocean (1:52)
12. Take Me, Gravity (1:44)
13. Portorosso (1:36)
14. Signor Vespa (1:17)
15. This Isn’t Any Old Race (2:55)
16. Buonanotte, Boys (1:27)
17. Land Monsters Everywhere (0:55)
18. Buongiorno Massimo (3:03)
19. The Out of Town Weirdo Tax (1:48)
20. Rules Are for Rule People (1:08)
21. How Humans Swim (1:03)
22. Not Our Kid (0:49)
23. Telescope (2:46)
24. Beyond the Solar System (1:02)
25. We Don’t Need Anybody (1:54)
26. The Sea Monster (3:33)
27. I Wish I Could Take It Back (4:01)
28. The Portorosso Cup (7:34)
29. How to Find the Good Ones (5:14)
30. Go Find Out for Me (1:39)

You can digitally download the soundtrack for Luca through any major digital music service. Enjoy!

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Soundtrack News: Varese Sarabande Releasing ‘Paycheck’ (The Deluxe Edition) on CD

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John Powell burst into film scoring with a magnificent, emotional and modern soundtrack to John Woo’s iconic hit, Face/Off (1997). Six years later, Woo and Powell reunited for Paycheck (2003), a sci-fi techno-thriller based on a 1953 short story by Philip K. Dick (Blade Runner, Total Recall).

Ben Affleck stars as a programming engineer who undergoes a voluntary memory wipe to protect his client’s secrets—but upon going to collect his paycheck, he is given an envelope of seemingly random trinkets and items. He must use these clues to unearth the terrible secrets of his own project.

By 2003, John Powell had already scored The Bourne Identity and had his finger on the pulse of the modern action-thriller score. Paycheck blends synth and pop-rhythms with orchestral scope and, most importantly, Powell’s impeccable sense of taste. Despite almost non-stop action and suspense, he focuses on emotion and utilizes melody to elevate the proceedings.

“I’ve always wanted to do a ballet, so I had been fascinated by choreographers and dance for quite some time. I utilized that conversation with John [Woo] as an inspiration to create the drama of a danced story,” says John Powell.

He explains, “This album has everything on it. It gives me a slight panic attack looking at how much music there is on this album. It all sounds very good to me and at the same time like utter nonsense. I’ve always tried to be better at harmony. A lot of composers I admire have this incredible sense of harmonic flow and flexibility. When I achieve that on occasion, it makes me happy.”

Paycheck was released by Varèse Sarabande at the time of the film. This 2-CD set Deluxe Edition greatly expands the playing time to over 95 minutes, and features new liner notes by Daniel Schweiger, incorporating new interview comments with Powell.

PURCHASEU.S. – https://www.varesesarabande.com/products/john-powell-paycheck-the-deluxe-edition-2-cd 

Int’l – https://intl.varesesarabande.com/products/john-powell-paycheck-the-deluxe-edition-2-cd

Paycheck (The Deluxe Edition): Original Motion Picture SoundtrackMusic Composed by John PowellDisc One:

  1. Paycheck: Main Title From The Motion Picture (3:29)
  2. A Kiss Of Flexible Morality (1:10)
  3. Memory Wipe (0:54)
  4. A Good Life (1:05)
  5. Party Of Two (0:32)
  6. Portents Of Crystal Balls (2:11)
  7. Injection (0:32)
  8. A Second Chance (1:54)
  9. You’re Done (1:16)
  10. Freeze Frames (1:59)
  11. Hot Seat (7:39)
  12. The Ring (0:42)
  13. That’s You (0:31)
  14. Twenty Items (5:39)
  15. Lucky Number (2:01)
  16. Wolfe Pack (4:01)
  17. The Third Rail (3:28)
  18. Reservations (3:25)
  19. Mirror Message / Imposter (8:43)

Disc Two:

  1. Hog Chase, Part 1 (3:18)
  2. Hog Chase, Part 2 (4:06)
  3. I Don’t Remember (1:33)
  4. I Don’t Remember (Alternate Version) (1:35)
  5. Tomorrow’s Headlines (4:27)
  6. Return to Allcom (3:13)
  7. Future Tense (7:58)
  8. Bio Lab Bash (3:08)
  9. Fait Accompli (6:39)
  10. One Big Payback (5:37)
  11. Uma’s Tune (Bonus Track) (2:55)

You can check out (and purchase) the deluxe edition soundtrack for Paycheck now!

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Soundtrack News: Quinceañero Original Motion Short Film Soundtrack Out Now

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PHX Music has digitally released the Original Motion Short Film Soundtrack to Justin Floyd’s vision come to life, in the musical Quinceañero. The music is composed by Max Aruj and Steffen Thum, with lyrics by Antonio Sol, and songs performed by cast of the film. The album comprised of eight richly melodic Latin songs, including the film’s focus track “Ve El Momento” (“See the Moment”). The film recently premiered at Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF), as part of its Latinx Inclusion Series, in partnership with Netflix.

Max Aruj is a composer born and raised in Los Angeles. His latest feature release is Crawl, produced by Sam Raimi, and directed by Alexandre Aja. Aruj joined the Assassin’s Creed universe for the recently released Wrath of the Druids. Other upcoming releases this year include Eytan Rockaway’s Lansky, starring Harvey Keitel, and Jonathan Hensleigh’s The Ice Road, starring Liam Neeson. Aruj co-produced Gryffin’s Deluxe orchestral album (2020). He composed additional music on Mission: Impossible – Fallout for Lorne Balfe, and on The Crown, for Hans Zimmer and Rupert Gregson-Williams. This past year he wrote additional music on HBO’s His Dark Materials.

Steffen Thum is a composer for film, TV, games, commercials and mixed media, based in Berlin. He wrote the scores for feature films Crawl (Paramount) and iBoy (Netflix), as well as TV series This Is Football (Amazon) and Story of God (National Geographic), among others. Steffen’s music can be heard in over 60 international productions, including Mission Impossible: Fallout, Bad Boys for Life, Ad Astra, The Lego Batman Movie, The Crown, and His Dark Materials.

In the 20-minute whimsical musical, Gabriel is on the verge of his 15th birthday and dreams of having his own quinceañera, a tradition reserved for girls. When his father – steeped in tradition – sets himself against the quinceañero, the timid boy will have to rally his family to make his dream come true.

Composer Max Aruj had the following to say:

“Having director Justin Floyd entrust us to bring his vision to life in a new style was both exciting and horrifying. But having an amazing team in Steffen and Antonio, made the process a blast. Additionally, writing a song like ‘Ve El Momento’ was a first – I never thought I’d get to do that, but here we are!”

Steffen Thum added:

“Writing a musical is a particular kind of challenge, going beyond just scoring to picture, as we’ve done before, so it was a bit of a daunting task. It was Justin’s vision and strong ambition that pulled us in, while Antonio’s expertise was crucial in getting the lyrics right. It all grew from there, and our actors and dancers brought the songs to life beautifully.”

Track List: 

  1. Ve El Momento
  2. The Magic of Youth
  3. La Quinceañera
  4. Can I Be
  5. Brother My Brother
  6. Symphony in Q
  7. I’m Proud of You
  8. El Quinceañero

You can find the soundtrack album for Quinceañero on iTunes here.

Let me know what you think about Quinceañero and its music in the comments below and have a great day!

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Soundtrack News: Varese Sarabande Releasing ‘The Matrix’ (The Complete Edition) on CD

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Varèse Sarabande Records is thrilled to announce one of its June 2021 CD Club titles: The Matrix (The Complete Edition) by Don Davis. This title is available as of June 11, exclusively on VareseSarabande.com and internationally on Intl.VareseSarabande.com.

Few blockbusters can claim to be as influential as The Matrix (1999), written and directed by the Wachowskis. From its super high concept that has wormed its way into the public’s imagination (what if we’re all just living in a computer simulation?), to Keanu Reeves’ iconic hero Neo, to the brilliant, jaw-dropping and story-based visual effects, The Matrix delivered on all fronts. Its three films grossed over $1.6 billion worldwide, and a fourth is on the way.

The Matrix demanded a score that was as unique, sophisticated and imaginative as its concept and action—and that’s exactly what composer Don Davis delivered. Davis, who scored the Wachowskis’ Bound (1996), reinvented the symphonic language of the action blockbuster by drawing on cutting-edge concert-hall minimalism and his own background as an avant-garde composer, while maintaining the energy, pace and density required of a studio action film.

From the clashing-brass “reflections,” to the racing strings, pounding percussion and flittering, repeating musical “cells,” the Matrix score fits hand-in-glove with the film’s concept of a computer-controlled reality—and offers a unique musical thumbprint that is recognizable sometimes only from a single note or chord. It is the rare commercial triumph that is also an artistic landmark.

“One thing the Wachowskis did want was something new and different. Every director will tell you they want that something new and different until they actually hear it. But I took that to heart, and it was clear that a unique approach really was right for that film. I’ve kept my hand in composing concert music from the beginning, so I was aware of what was going on in that arena. [We] were working in a style that some were calling ‘postmodern,’ which seemed to be fitting for a postmodern film like The Matrix. And I saw this as an opportunity to take it in a stylistic direction that wouldn’t work in other films but specifically did work in this film,” says composer Don Davis.

The Matrix was released by Varèse Sarabande at the time of the film, and then in a Deluxe Edition that fit as much of the score as possible on one CD. By popular demand, this new 2-CD set presents the complete score. This version is also available through Record Store Day 2021 as a 3-LP set releasing on July 17. Visit RecordStoreDay.com to find a participating retailer. Liner notes feature a new interview with Don Davis conducted by Kaya Savas.

*Standard CD limited to 2,000 copies *SACD limited to 1,000 copiesPURCHASE

U.S. 2-CD – https://www.varesesarabande.com/products/don-davis-the-matrix-the-complete-score-2-cd 

U.S. 2-SACD – https://www.varesesarabande.com/products/don-davis-matrix-the-the-complete-score-2-sacd 

Int’l 2-CD – https://intl.varesesarabande.com/products/don-davis-the-matrix-the-complete-score-2-cd?currency=USD 

Int’l 2-SACD – https://intl.varesesarabande.com/products/don-davis-matrix-the-the-complete-score-2-sacd

The Matrix: The Complete Edition (Regular and SACD): Original Motion Picture Score Music Composed, Orchestrated & Conducted by Don Davis

Disc One:
Logos / The Matrix Main Title (0:55)
Trinity Infinity (6:00)
Neo Con Brio (0:32)
Follow The White Rabbit (0:15)
Neo On The Edge (3:24)
Through The Surveillance Monitor (0:59)
Unable To Speak (1:14)
Bait And Switch (3:16)
Switched For Life (3:36)
Switched At Birth (2:43)
Switches Brew (2:27)
Cold Hearted Switch (1:40)
Nascent Nauseous Neo (4:00)
A Morpheus Moment (1:39)
Bow Whisk Orchestra (1:23)
Domo Showdown (1:13)
Switch Or Break Show (1:05)
Shake, Borrow, Switch (0:39)
Switch Works Her Boa (0:56)
Bring Me Dinner (0:39)
The System (0:37)
Freeze Face (1:52)
Switch Woks Her Boar (2:07)
Cypher Cybernetic (0:59)
Ignorance Is Bliss / Cyber Cyphernetic (1:51)
See Who? (0:26)

Disc Two:
Switch Out (3:01)
Boon Spoy (1:08)
Oracle Cookies (1:30)
Threat Mix (6:05)
Exit Mr. Hat (2:57)
On Your Knees, Switch (4:43)
Mix The Art (2:10)
Whoa, Switch Brokers (4:01)
The Cure (1:35)
It’s The Smell (1:57)
The Lobby (0:27)
No More Spoons (1:02)
Dodge This (1:08)
Fast Learning (0:44)
Ontological Shock (4:16)
That’s Gotta Hurt (5:17)
Surprise (4:06)
He’s The One Alright (6:56)

Enjoy experiencing the complete score of The Matrix courtesy of Varese Sarabande Records!

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Soundtrack News: ‘Occupation Rainfall’ Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Now Available on iTunes

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Kaleido Sound is excited to announce the release of the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack for the Lionsgate action sci-fi film, Occupation Rainfall, composed by Frederik Wiedmann (The Dragon Prince, Acts of Vengeance).

Wiedmann has been inspired by film composition since he first heard John Barry’s score to Dances With Wolves at the age of 12. Wiedmann is the composer behind the hit Disney Junior show Miles from Tomorrowland, as well as the critically acclaimed Netflix animated fantasy series The Dragon Prince, which is from the writers of the popular series: Avatar: The Last Airbender. Wiedmann has been a main stay in the DC cinematic universe, starting with his work on Green Lantern: The Animated Series, for which he earned two consecutive Annie Awards nominations. His success on the series led to further popular Warner Bros’ DC projects such as, Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, Son of Batman, Death of Superman, Justice League: Gods and Monsters, Batman: Gotham by Gaslight among others.

Directed by Luke Sparke, Occupation Rainfall takes place two years into an intergalactic invasion of earth. Survivors in Sydney, Australia, fight back in a desperate ground war. As casualties mount by the day, the resistance and their unexpected allies, uncover a plot that could see the war come to a decisive end. With the Alien invaders hell-bent on making earth their new home, the race is on to save mankind.

Regarding the soundtrack for Occupation Rainfall, composer Frederik Wiedmann had the following to say:

“This project was a huge musical canvas with a lot of room for creativity left for the composer, which made my heart race with excitement. From the first moment I saw a few snippets of it, I knew that this was going to be one epic ride. 

Luke Sparke, the director, and I spotted about 117 minutes for this 2-hour Sci-fi film, for which we both agreed that we’d need a big orchestra. It wasn’t an easy task to organize an orchestra of this scale due to COVID-19, but we managed to record in London at AIR studios, as well as in Macedonia at the FAMES scoring stage to create the sound we both wanted. 

The movie is certainly action-packed, with stunning visual effects and performances by the actors. But underneath the blood-pumping, adrenalin-spewing blockbuster facade of the film, lies a bigger, more philosophical question of “how far would you go for the greater good?”. I did my musical best to accompany the depth of this theme, using an array of thematic material, to underline the difficult choices that our characters inevitably face, as well as their emotional journey throughout the film.”

TRACK LISTING

  1. The Worst Is Yet To Come (2:10)
  2. Taking Fire (2:13)
  3. You’re Our Last Chance (2:42)
  4. Freed (2:09)
  5. Sydney (3:19)
  6. Gearing Up (2:46)
  7. Hail Of Fire (4:07)
  8. Ambushed (3:04)
  9. Sydney Destroyed (1:21)
  10. In The Outback (2:31)
  11. Hit Them With The Crossfire (2:16)
  12. Alien Pursuit (3:25)
  13. Red Sky (3:01)
  14. Apex Predator (4:18)
  15. The Village (1:53)
  16. Restricted Area (4:32)
  17. The Mob (3:15)
  18. The Command Ships (2:37)
  19. They Are Here (3:02)
  20. An Evolutionary Accident (4:19)
  21. Project Rainfall (2:09)
  22. Overrun (2:47)
  23. Avoiding Disaster (2:50)
  24. Guns And Blades (2:05)
  25. Kal’i Attack (1:35)
  26. The Standoff (1:38)
  27. Wing Commander Heyes (2:56)
  28. Behind Closed Doors (2:11)
  29. The Ascend (2:24)
  30. For Humanity (2:27)
  31. Reunited (3:10)

Check out the soundtrack for Occupation Rainfall, available on iTunes, and have a great day!

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Soundtrack News: ‘The Longest Road on Earth’ Original Soundtrack Available Now

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Sony Music Masterworks has released The Longest Road On Earth (Original Soundtrack), an album of music from the new PC and mobile indie video game.  Available everywhere now, the album includes twenty-four original songs written and performed by game developer & artist Beícoli, marking her first-ever album release. Beícoli (Beatriz Ruiz-Castillo) is a Spanish songwriter and videogame developer based in Madrid, Spain. She has been creating music on her own and for games for the past five years, but The Longest Road on Earth is her first full album-length endeavor.

Created by Brainwash Gang and published by Raw Fury,The Longest Road on Earth is available now on PC and mobile. The Longest Road on Earth is a deeply personal and meditative narrative title. Play in the songs of four short stories featuring stripped down mechanics and no words. Each story is up for interpretation – what story lives inside you for each character and the world around them?

Of the soundtrack, Beícoli says:

­”The Longest Road on Earth has turned out to be something I needed and didn’t even know it. It was a blank slate on which I have learned to use music as a journal. To me it is a long road — One of self-discovery and self-acceptance that I hope to keep walking for the rest of my life.”

THE LONGEST ROAD ON EARTH (ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK)

TRACKLISTING – 

  1. The Hill
  2. It is
  3. On my own
  4. I can’t see you
  5. BB
  6. Trip to the Lake
  7. The Picture
  8. The Bird
  9. The Dreamer
  10. The Human
  11. The Goodbye
  12. The train that goes Nowhere
  13. The Remedy
  14. Highway
  15. Healing
  16. 100 Miles
  17. Waves
  18. Let it go
  19. Feels like home
  20. Play Pretend
  21. The Shape of Clouds
  22. Break and Make
  23. Forever and More
  24. The Longest Road on Earth

You can check out the soundtrack for The Longest Road on Earth now!

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Soundtrack Review: Army of the Dead (2021)

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Milan Records has released Army of the Dead (Music From the Netflix Film) by multi-platinum producer, musician, composer and educator Tom Holkenborg aka JUNKIE XL.  

Available everywhere now, the album features music written by Holkenborg for director Zack Snyder’s zombie heist film.  The project is the latest in a longstanding creative partnership between Snyder and Holkenborg, who most recently collaborated on Zack Snyder’s Justice League, but started their relationship in 2014 with the Snyder-written and produced 300: Rise Of An Empire. The duo have also worked together on Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.  2021 has already been a major year for Holkenborg, whose epic score for Zack Snyder’s Justice League was one of the longest ever recorded, and was swiftly followed by him scoring the record-breaking Godzilla vs Kong blockbuster.  Army of the Dead is now available to watch in select theaters and to stream on Netflix. 

Of the soundtrack, composer Tom Holkenborg says:

“A zombie heist movie in Vegas with Zack and Netflix, how could I say no? Army of the Dead was a chance to start something very new and fresh, which is certainly ironic for a movie about the undead! It was such a fun project as we got to rip up the rule book, and really re-examine what a zombie movie could sound like. It’s a LOT of fun!”

From filmmaker Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen, Zack Snyder’s Justice League), Army of the Dead takes place following a zombie outbreak that has left Las Vegas in ruins and walled off from the rest of the world. When Scott Ward (Dave Bautista), a former zombie war hero who’s now flipping burgers on the outskirts of the town he now calls home, is approached by casino boss Bly Tanaka (Hiroyuki Sanada), it’s with the ultimate proposition: break into the zombie-infested quarantine zone to retrieve $200 million sitting in a vault beneath the strip before the city is nuked by the government in 32 hours. With little left to lose, Ward takes on the challenge, assembling a ragtag team of experts for the heist. With a ticking clock, a notoriously impenetrable vault, and a smarter, faster horde of Alpha zombies closing in, only one thing’s for certain in the greatest heist ever attempted: survivors take all.

Now while I found the film itself to be quite underwhelming, I was still willing to give the soundtrack on its own a chance. However I really should have known better because the soundtrack for Army of the Dead did absolutely nothing for me. Except for one moment in ‘Not Here’ where I like how the music comes together, the soundtrack for Army of the Dead is dull, dead, downright boring, and so on. The biggest crime of them all is how boring most of this music is. I’ve said many times that it’s hard to screw film music up, and in a zombie heist film, the process should be fairly simple: all you need is an action-y score to back up what’s happening on the screen.

Um, clearly someone missed that idea because most of this soundtrack does the complete opposite. Most of this music is ploddingly slow and thoughtful which is not what you need for a zombie heist film. I get that Holkenborg wanted to re-examine what a zombie movie sounds like but….they’re really not supposed to sound like this. Put more simply: if the music in a film soundtrack bores me, then something has gone terribly wrong.

I can now definitely chalk up Army of the Dead as one of my biggest disappointments of the year, because not only was the film bad, but the soundtrack is equally as bad. Though, as I mentioned before, there is the one bright spot of ‘Not Here.’ In THAT track at least, I like how the music crashes together in a rising crescendo that, if it takes place in the moment I think it does, is the one moment in the film where music and picture work together perfectly.

In good conscience, I can’t recommend the Army of the Dead soundtrack, but if you check it out and happen to like it, then I am happy for you. For me personally, it doesn’t work and is one of the worst soundtracks I’ve heard in a long time.

ARMY OF THE DEAD (MUSIC FROM THE NETFLIX FILM)

TRACKLISTING –

  1. Viva Las Vegas
  2. Scott and Kate Part 1
  3. Scott and Kate Part 2
  4. Scott and Kate Part 3
  5. Toten Hosen
  6. Swimming Pool
  7. Not Here
  8. 3 Flares
  9. Battle Hallway Part 1
  10. Battle Hallway Part 2
  11. Zeus and Athena Part 1
  12. Zeus and Athena Part 2

Let me know what you think about Army of the Dead and its soundtrack in the comments below and have a great day!

See also:

My Thoughts on: Army of the Dead (2021)

Film Soundtracks A-W

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Soundtrack Review: Panic (2021)

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Milan Records has released Panic (Music From the Amazon Original Series) by composers Isabella Summers and Brian H. Kim.  Available everywhere now, the album features score music written by the duo for the latest Amazon Original series based on the best-selling young adult novel by Lauren Olivier.  

Best known as “the Machine” of Florence and the Machine and an Emmy®-nominated composer in her own right, Isabella Summers brings her extensive writing, producing and recording experience to the project, joining forces with classical pianist turned composer Brian H. Kim to create the show’s soundscape.  The resulting 15-track collection is an intensely visceral and emotionally evocative soundtrack that encapsulates the show’s narrative of desperate teenagers competing for a chance to escape their small town roots.  Also included within the soundtrack is a new original song performed by breakout pop singer-songwriter Tate McRae entitled “Darkest Hour.” Panic premieres all 10 episodes exclusively on Amazon Prime Video on Friday, May 28 in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide. 

Panic is a new Amazon Prime Video one-hour drama series, written and created by Lauren Oliver (based on her bestselling novel).  It takes place in a small Texas town, where every summer the graduating seniors compete in a series of challenges, winner takes all, which they believe is their one and only chance to escape their circumstances and make their lives better.  But this year, the rules have changed — the pot of money is larger than ever and the game has become even more dangerous.  The players will come face to face with their deepest, darkest fears and be forced to decide how much they are willing to risk in order to win. 

Of the score for Panic, co-composers Isabella Summers and Brian H. Kim had the following to say:

“The score for Panic needed to be visceral and modern.  The story is told through the perspective of 21st century teenagers, but the stakes are life and death, with challenges that border on tribal.  We used aggressive synths — tons of Virus, distortion and effects — combined with huge war drums and attacking strings.  Many synth arpeggiations bordered on abstract, but everything was always grounded in the emotion of the characters.  We were able to branch those sounds into more subtle cues about family strife, tension between friends, and romance, as the show explored more personal themes.  We are thrilled with how the music turned out.  We think it is like nothing else out there.  It is a gut punch.”

Wow, the music for Panic is really good. I was already intrigued by the premise of the series: an almost dystopian setting where high school seniors compete in a twisted competition for enough money to go to college; but hearing the music raises my interest to another level. This is the kind of music I can sink my teeth into: it is indeed quite visceral (as the composers said) and almost manic in places due to the intense synths that can be found throughout the score.

Appropriately, those aggressive synths give Panic the feeling of a horror story in many places, which, given the premise of the series is more than appropriate. I mean the concept is somewhat horrific isn’t it? The idea that teenagers feel compelled to compete in a twisted competition just for the opportunity to go to college and leave town, like there’s no other options, if that isn’t a horror story I don’t know what is. And with these synths, you can almost feel the raw emotions that they represent. This isn’t a clean or pretty score like you might find in Game of Thrones, this is very rough around the edges and gritty and I love every single moment.

To repeat what I’ve said before, the soundtrack for Panic is really good, one of the best I’ve heard this year for a series. I highly recommend checking this soundtrack out if you get the opportunity to do so.

Track List

1. Headed to the Farm (0:57)
2. Don’t Know What to Believe (1:39)
3. Cortez Will Joust (3:33)
4. The Spurlock House (5:18)
5. Falling (1:59)
6. We’re Both Trash (1:25)
7. Darkest Hour – Tate McRae (2:41)
8. Invitation Was From Cortez (2:29)
9. Marquee Clue (0:37)
10. It’s Starting (1:13)
11. Graybill Legend Murders (2:14)
12. Joust, Part 1 (5:18)
13. Joust, Part 2 (3:33)
14. Tiger Lilly (3:10)
15. Heather Jumps (4:12)

Let me know what you think about Panic and its soundtrack in the comments below and have a great day!

See also:

TV Soundtracks

Become a Patron of the blog at patreon.com/musicgamer460

Check out the YouTube channel (and consider hitting the subscribe button)

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