Music Reviews

The latest real-time strategy PC gaming experience from Petroglyph Games is also the latest epic soundtrack from veteran game composer Frank Klepacki, and while I’ll admit I haven’t had a chance to check out Universe At War itself (something strange happens to my urges to blow stuff up when I have to bottle-feed a baby every few hours), the music alone makes me want to.

Which may be a big part of the reason why the game’s entire soundtrack – three CDs’ worth clocking in at over two hours – is available free online. As with many of the previous games scored by Klepacki, there are several factions with whom players can ally themselves, and each faction has its own robust selection of music, ranging from raging action to more menacingly low-key music while building up resources for the next attack (or the next last-ditch defense). And as with many of his past projects, the music for each playable side kicks butt in its own way.

The Hierarchy music is the sort of thing that Command & Conquer Players will remember well – crunchy guitars, percussion that doesn’t take prisoners, and driving beats aplenty. If that’s what you’re coming for, you won’t go home disappointed. The selection of music for the Novus faction is more electronica-driven, with a mysterious sound. There’s still plenty of distorted guitar in here, but the emphasis is on more obviously synthetic instruments and motifs. The dreamy “Technical Data” and the aggressive “Zap” are highlights here.

But by far the real meat and potatoes of the Universe At War score is the Masari music, which includes the game’s opening theme and end credits. The Masari tracks are blow-the-walls-down, theatrical orchestral-operatic epics – while listening to “Divine Intervention”, I was thinking “someone hurry up and make a great kick-ass action movie to go with this great kick-ass music.” This stuff knocks it out of the park repeatedly, and reinforces my total bewilderment as to how the man has managed to dodge a major movie assignment. Sooner or later, that’s gotta catch up with him. The end credits suite, combining elements from all three factions’ themes with a thundering techno beat layered in for good measure, makes me want to jump up out of my seat and empty a clip of ammo into something – it’s some of the best action music I’ve heard in years. (And I’m not prone to wanting to get up and fire away, so that should tell you something!)

It’s hard to go wrong with some free music, and for the sheer quantity of tracks that you get for a little bit of download time here, you’re almost certain to find something you like. Since this is a free download in support of a commercially available product, it’s only fair to recommend that you support the composer and developer by buying Universe At War: Earth Assault in theLogBook.com Store if you’re so inclined.

Hierarchy
1. Damage King (3:43)
2. Doom of the Aliens (3:26)
3. On Edge (2:20)
4. Anticipating (2:41)
5. Slithering (3:09)
6. Schematic (1:45)
7. Mechanical Brain (3:53)
8. Strangers Attack (3:22)
9. Impending Doom (2:58)
10. Prepare For Oblivion (3:09)
11. Surrounding (5:00)
12. Haunt (3:55)

Novus
1. Modern Design (3:53)
2. Act On Invasion (3:19)
3. Electrode (4:04)
4. Calculations (2:23)
5. Bass Case (3:43)
6. Moving Forces (3:05)
7. Technical Data (3:30)
8. Roots (3:38)
9. Hit And Run (3:05)
10. Fog Of War (3:44)
11. Composite (3:23)
12. Resources (3:08)
13. Zap (2:41)

Masari
1. Divine Intervention (theme for Universe At War) (3:26)
2. Reanimation (3:35)
3. Surveying The Land (2:34)
4. Resurfaced (3:00)
5. Mind In Motion (2:28)
6. Display Of Power (2:41)
7. Disturbance (3:48)
8. Dark Intrusion (2:52)
9. The Gathering (3:53)
10. Ancient Presence (3:06)
11. Masari Suite (Suspended, Architecture, Masari Victory) (3:45)
12. Credits: Universe At War Remix Suite (3:40)

Released by: Petroglyph Games / Frank Klepacki
Release date: 2008
Total running time: 121:45

As much of a fan of Betchadupa as I’ve been, I’m going to fess up that I wasn’t sure what to expect from Liam Finn’s first solo effort. I’d heard a live recording, and the songs were plenty catchy, but it’s so hard to tell from a live recording what the final product will be like. I needn’t have worried. We are, after all, talking about the son of Neil Finn of Crowded House fame, and after listening to I’ll Be Lightning a lot in recent weeks, I think we can say without reservation that he’s picked up his dad’s ear for crafting a great song and giving it a great performance. And when I credit Liam Finn with the performance, I’m not being disingenuous or oversimplifying things: he plays and sings every note you hear on the album.

Liam’s style is guitar-and-loop-driven, with a kind of lo-fi charm to it. He aims more for atmosphere than for high-end production, so things are occasionally a little bit fuzzy, but not to the point that it doesn’t sound good. The effect is more often mesmerizing than not. I’m going to go out on a limb and nominate “Gather To The Chapel” as the catchiest song on here. There are far faster and more densely-produced tunes on this album, but something about this song is just insanely catchy – I’ve honestly had sessions where I’ve listened to it over and over for a stretch of about half an hour. It’s just so peaceful, and I’ll be damned if I haven’t found myself whistling, singing, or humming it long after the last time I heard it. “Energy Spent” and “Music Moves My Feet” are close runners-up for the catchiest song here, in the finest Finn tradition.

While I love “Gather” and “Music Moves My Feet”, don’t go thinking that everything on here is slow/mid-tempo. “Energy Spent” and “Wise Man” are downright jaunty, while “This Place Is Killing Me” and “Lead Balloon” are balls-to-the-wall rockers. “Second Chance” and “Better To Be” are no slouches either. Young Mr. Finn’s overdubbed vocal harmonies are nothing short of astounding on some of these songs, and he’s got a great range to his singing voice.

The more I listened to I’ll Be Lightning, “Energy Spent” emerged as a song whose lyrics I identified closely with my experiences as a new father. To realize that those lyrics and the accompanying insights, in whatever original spirit they were intended, came from a young man in his twenties, is frankly humbling. I’m not sure I’ve mentioned how much I enjoyed the lyrics as well as the performance of them. To play an entire album like this entirely solo is the result of hard work, intense concentration, and what may be the best rock ‘n’ roll apprenticeship anyone could hope for. I could go on and on about where I think I hear the influence of Neil or Tim here, but Liam Finn is his own man, and this is his own album, and it’s a fantastic piece of work. With such a well-crafted and polished debut album, Liam has more than earned his own spotlight out from under anyone else’s shadow. This is the best album I’ve heard this year, and I’m not sure I can actually say much more than that.

1. Better To Be (3:46)
2. Second Chance (4:52)
3. Gather To The Chapel (3:20)
4. Lead Balloon (4:15)
5. Fire In Your Belly (3:15)
6. Lullaby (2:02)
7. Energy Spent (4:08)
8. Music Moves My Feet (2:24)
9. Remember When (3:04)
10. Wise Man (5:17)
11. This Place Is Killing Me (4:06)
12. I’ll Be Lightning (4:14)
13. Wide Awake On The Voyage Home (5:37)
14. Shadow Of Your Man (2:57)

Released by: Yep Roc
Release date: 2007
Total running time: 53:17

In the post-Sgt. Pepper 1960s, many an up-and-coming British band longed to be the next Beatles, and with record labels hitching their wagons to the musical “British invasion” of America, there was certainly no shortage of success stories. Some bands, however, by choice or by fate, remained strictly local concerns – and such was the case with the Idle Race, a Birmingham group that rose from the ashes of a previous local band, Mike Sheridan and the Nightriders, after Sheridan left the band and a young guitarist named Jeff Lynne joined up. Even while the band was still actively recording and playing live, Idle Race won critical acclaim (including from the Beatles themselves, who invited the band to sit in on some sessions for the White Album)…and sold so few records that the band might’ve vanished into local history but for one of its members’ later success. Back To The Story is a 2-CD set that collects all three of the albums recorded by the Idle Race – two with Lynne in the driver’s seat (including his first credit as producer), and one recorded after his departure.

An utterly charming little slice of obscure ’60s psychedelia, The Birthday Party is the Idle Race’s debut effort, boasting intricate arrangements, some teriffic vocal harmonies, and even a studio string section, quite an unusual luxury for such a young group. The harmonies and the sense of whimsy running through both music and lyrics are clear evidence of a Beatles influence, though there are also touches that might remind keen-eared listeners of the Byrds here and there.

By modern standards, The Birthday Party is barely an EP, not even weighing in at half an hour, but the songs are layered enough to merit repeat listening. Where there’s lyrical whimsy, it’s almost too much at times, with “I Like My Toys” and “Sitting In My Tree” sticking out in that regard; depending on your mood, it’ll either be a little too saccharine, or endearingly childlike. It’s in numbers like “Follow Me Follow” and especially “The Lady Who Said She Could Fly” that the real potential of the group is exposed, and they’re a revelation – decent rock numbers with a nice string arrangement woven into and around the Idle Race’s basic rhythm section. The songs leave a huge impression – honestly, why they haven’t been covered is a total mystery to me – and they show that the group’s young lead vocalist (and self-appointed rookie producer) Jeff Lynne had some very clear ideas about what he’d do with a studio and a band at his disposal. Despite overtures (ha!) from his friend Roy Wood to join The Move, Lynne stubbornly stuck it out with the Idle Race for another album.

That album was the self-titled The Idle Race, and while Lynne’s songwriting and production are still front and center, somehow the second album doesn’t just reach out and grab me the same way that The Birthday Party does. In a few places, Lynne is reaching too far for the kind of Beatlesque affectations that many critics accuse him of being about for his whole career. If you thought Lynne was trying too hard to set up shop on the Fab Four’s turf during his ELO career, stay right away from The Idle Race here. There is one bona fide gorgeous Lynne classic on here in the form of “Follow Me Follow”, which just about makes the whole album worthwhile. “Come With Me”, “Sea Of Dreams” and “Going Home” are a nice triple-act right at the beginning of the album…but all this means is that The Idle Race has an extremely soft center. The second CD kicks off with a selection of non-album singles and B-sides, which are also a mixed bag; I thought I’d get a big kick out of hearing Lynne cover his buddy Roy Wood’s “(Here We Go ‘Round) The Lemon Tree”, originally performed by the Move (and with Roy Wood sitting in on this cover version), but while it’s a faithful enough rendition musically, the production touches are a bit much – this is Lynne at an age where he was getting a big charge out of being The Producer, and he was throwing everything plus the kitchen sink at the job, whether the song called for it or not. There’s a really good cover of “In The Summertime”, dating from the band’s brief post-Lynne era, but it differentiates itself so very little from the original that you might as well stick to Mungo Jerry.

In any case, Jeff Lynne did ultimately join the Move and, with Wood, later formed ELO; his Idle Race cohorts released a third album, Time Is…, which sounds absolutely nothing like Lynne-era Idle Race. Roger Spencer and the other members of the group steered things into a more mainstream psychedelic rock vein, and while there are some nice tunes to be found on the group’s swan song, you have to keep in mind that this is solid 1969/1970 material a year or two past its sell-by date. These songs slid right under the radar because music had moved on – Led Zeppelin was in full force, and even the Move was busting out mind-blowers like “Open Up Said The World At The Door”.

Thus ends the complete catalog of the Idle Race – enough to fill two CDs, with space left over for both sides of the final Mike Sheridan and the Nightriders single, and a few alternate versions. (Hey, albums were shorter back then.) The alternate takes of three songs – including the gorgeous “Follow Me Follow” – quickly reveal why the versions we’re used to are what made it onto the albums. “Follow” in particular is marred, in this recording, by a strange effect on the vocals during the chorus; at best, this bit of “producing” is just unbecoming considering the rest of the song’s beauty.

A “complete recordings” box set is due later this year, rumored to span more than twice as many discs as this set, but between my own post-baby budget and my ambivalence about the material presented in this collection, I’m going to have to see some awfully good reviews and see some awfully tempting stuff on the tracklist before I blow my money on it. For most people, even diehard fans who “Follow Me Follow” Jeff Lynne wherever he goes, this complete presentation of the Idle Race’s commercially released material will do nicely.

Disc one
The Birthday Party
1. The Skeleton and the Roundabout (2:21)
2. Happy Birthday / The Birthday Party (3:23)
3. I Like My Toys (2:10)
4. The Morning Sunshine (1:46)
5. Follow Me Follow (2:48)
6. Sitting In My Tree (1:53)
7. On With The Show (2:22)
8. Lucky Man (2:37)
9. (Don’t Put Your Boys In The Army) Mrs. Ward (2:13)
10. Pie In The Sky (2:27)
11. The Lady Who Said She Could Fly (2:19)
12. End Of The Road (2:09)

The Idle Race

13. Come With Me (2:45)
14. Sea Of Dreams (3:13)
15. Going Home (3:44)
16. Reminds Me Of You (2:54)
17. Mr. Crow And Sir Norman (3:17)
18. Please No More Sad Songs (3:21)
19. Girl At The Window (3:44)
20. Big Chief Woolly Bosher (5:15)
21. Someone Knocking (2:56)
22. A Better Life (The Weather Man Knows) (2:45)
23. Hurry Up John (3:33)

Bonus tracks

24. Lucky Man (alternate take) (2:35)
25. Follow Me Follow (alternate take) (1:56)
26. Days Of Broken Arrows (alternate take) (3:39)

Disc two
Singles & B-sides
1. (Here We Go ‘Round) The Lemon Tree (2:44)
2. My Father’s Son (2:15)
3. Impostors Of Life’s Magazine (2:21)
4. Knocking Nails Into My House (2:27)
5. Days Of The Broken Arrows (3:51)
6. Worn Red Carpet (3:03)
7. In The Summertime (2:58)
8. Told You Twice (3:38)
9. Neanderthal Man (3:56)
10. Victim Of Circumstance (3:36)

Time Is

11. Dancing Flower (2:14)
12. Sad O’ Sad (3:28)
13. The Clock (3:23)
14. I Will See You (3:11)
15. By The Sun (6:42)
16. Alcatraz (4:02)
17. And The Rain (2:52)
18. She Sang Hymns Out Of Tune (3:07)
19. Bitter Green (3:45)
20. We Want It All (4:13)

Mike Sheridan & The Nightriders

21. It’s Only the Dog (2:15)
22. Your Friend (3:22)

Released by: EMI
Release date: 1996 (re-released in 2007 without Nightriders tracks)
Disc one total running time: 74:26
Disc two total running time: 73:23

Ladies and gentlemen, I bring to you: the first-ever rap review here on theLogBook.com. But don’t assign too much street cred to me, for this is incredibly geeky rap. The whole humorous premise behind MC Hawking is as follows: what if Professor Stephen Hawking was moonlighting as a gangsta rapper? If you’re wondering what in the world that would sound like, you may already know more than you think: MC Hawking – the brainchild of parody webmaster Ken Leavitt-Lawrence – sounds like the voice synthesizer used by the real Professor Hawking (who, if truth be told, doesn’t go around popping caps on anyone’s ass). The lyrics are a combination of the prerequisite topics of gangsta rap – getting even against one’s rivals by any means available, drug deals, the ever-popular topic of bitches, etc. – and real live honest-to-God theoretical physics. MC Hawking tries to explain the basic tenets of entropy, and then busts out the refrain “You down with entropy? Yeah, you know me!”

It’s hard to explain the appeal to those who perhaps just don’t “get” this kind of humor – I, for one, file this under the same category as Ben Folds’ ironically pretty cover of a certain Dr. Dre tune – but if I’m in the mood for MC Hawking, this stuff is hysterical. It’s not something to play with the kiddo within earshot, to be sure, but it’s damned funny – and word has it that a certain Professor Hawking himself is fully aware of the joke and thinks it’s funny too. (C’mon, we’re talking about the same Stephen Hawking who wanted to do a guest shot on Star Trek: The Next Generation and once appeared in a Red Dwarf special. Aside from being one of the most brilliant human beings to have emerged from the 20th century, Stephen Hawking, God bless him, is cool. I’d like to think I could hang on to my sense of humor in his circumstances.)

Now, of course, there will be those who just don’t find the humor in “Hawking”‘s profanity-laden tirades about taking out rival physicists from MIT in a drive-by, or things like the skit in which he beats Moby senseless on general principle (presumably, he’s trying to see if fission initiates, in which case we really are all made of stars). But it’s hard for me not to be dragged out of a downer mood by howlingly funny tracks like “Big Bizang”, “E=MC Hawking” or “Entropy”. Others, admittedly, miss the mark – I find myself routinely skipping “Bitchslap” and “The Dozens”. This is rap for the cool geeks, the people who took time out from high school science homework to memorize Monty Python movies (not that I’m talking about myself there, mind you…I was too busy memorizing Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes in high school).

Most of this material has been available for some time on the “official MC Hawking fan site“, but in 2004 several of the raps from that site appeared with a few new skits and songs on this “greatest hits” album (in actuality, the first and only physical CD that “MC Hawking” has released). This is one of those things where I vote with my money, sort of like buying the Homestar Runner DVDs, to show my support for not-quite-mainstream talent – and after you check it out for yourself, if you’ve got even one wickedly funny bone in your body, I have a feeling you’ll be doing the same.

1. The Hawkman Cometh (3:01)
2. The Dozens (2:04)
3. The Big Bizang (2:53)
4. Excerpt From A Radio Interview, part 1 (1:14)
5. Entropy (3:22)
6. The Mighty Stephen Hawking (2:00)
7. Crazy As Fuck (2:23)
8. Bitchslap (4:25)
9. Excerpt From A Radio Interview, part 2 (1:41)
10. Fuck The Creationists (2:23)
11. E=MC Hawking (3:27)
12. All My Shootings Be Drive-Bys (3:36)
13. UFT For The MC (3:28)
14. Excerpt From A Radio Interview, part 3 (1:20)
15. What We Need More Of Is Science (2:42)
16. GTA3 (2:56)

Released by: Brash Music
Release date: 2004
Total running time: 42:55

Collecting remixes and re-recordings of material from Ben Folds’ trio of 2003-2005 EP releases, as well as a couple of soundtrack songs, side projects and a new song or two, Supersunnyspeedgraphic is both a lot of fun and somewhat baffling. Baffling in that, as often happens with complation/best-of albums, I would’ve picked some completely different songs in places, and a lot of fun in that these aren’t necessarily the same recordings as heard before on those short releases.

In songs like Folds’ cover of The Darkness’ “Get Your Hands Off My Woman”, and the originals “Learn To Live With What You Are” and “There’s Always Someone Cooler Than You”, the new recordings (or the old recordings with new elements) raise the game to a whole new level. Synthetic instrumentation is replaced with the real deal (such as “Learn To Live”‘s lush new string section), and the performances are ramped up considerably (there are vast oceans of difference between Folds’ first cover of “Get Your Hands Off My Woman” and this new one).

Speaking of cover songs, the centerpiece of the whole endeavour has to be Folds’ cover of Dr. Dre’s gansta rap number “Bitches Ain’t Shit”. Taking the whole things right out of its rap context, Folds transforms it into an almost pretty exercise in piano pop whose lyrics (of which not one syllable has been changed from the original) suddenly sound completely absurd. Folds has apparently spent some quality time with cohort and video director Weird Al Yankovic, because this is one of those things that it seems like Weird Al would’ve done. It’s got every profanity in the book in it, but it’s funny enough to merit at least one listen.

“Still” (from Folds’ contributions to the Over The Hedge soundtrack) and “Bruised” (from the all-star collaboration The Bens) appear here as well, rounding things out nicely, but I can’t help but wonder where songs like “Kalamazoo” (from the Super D EP) and “Wandering” are. Without knowing for sure, it could be that the songs Folds reprises here in their new form are songs that he didn’t feel quite “finished” with, whereas near-masterpieces like the above mentioned songs were completed to his satisfaction. I would’ve put these on the tracklist for Supersunnyspeedgraphic long before In Between Days (an energetic cover of the Cure song) or Rent-A-Cop would’ve wound up there, if it had been my choice.

Still, for those who weren’t hardcore enough to invest in the three EP releases from which much of this material comes, Supersunnyspeedgraphic is a nice enough summation of that work, and clears the decks of unfinished business so we can look forward to a completely new album.

1. In Between Days (2:54)
2. All U Can Eat (3:04)
3. Songs Of Love (3:37)
4. There’s Always Someone Cooler Than You (4:11)
5. Learn To Live With What You Are (4:27)
6. Bitches Ain’t Shit (4:10)
7. Adelaide (3:12)
8. Rent A Cop (5:08)
9. Get Your Hands Off My Woman featuring Corn Mo (3:35)
10. Bruised (4:34)
11. Dog (4:27)
12. Still (7:46)

Released by: Sony
Release date: 2006
Total running time: 51:05

While it might be easy to dismiss this as yet another string tribute “Mantovani Mangles Mott The Hoople” train wreck, there’s something compelling about Andrew Powell Plays The Alan Parsons Project – Powell was the orchestral arranger (and in some cases composer) on many of these original songs. He’s not completely removed from the proceedings. In other words, he’s not that easy to dismiss, even though this ultra-obscure 1983 album smacks of “cash in while you can”. (It may or may not be a coincidence that the only Project album with which Powell wasn’t involved as 1984’s Vulture Culture – maybe this is what he was doing with his free time, or someone decided to give him free time as a result of this album. Take your pick.)

The proceedings open in grand style with a musical mash-up combining “Lucifer” (from the Eve album), “Mammagamma” (from Eye In The Sky) and the heraldic opening horns of “May Be A Price To Pay” (the first thing you heard on The Turn Of A Friendly Card). Long before remix maestros were mashing it up for themselves, Powell was doing an interesting job of it himself, and somehow it works. Not everything on the album is so lucky.

“I Robot Suite” and “Damned If I Do” are also interesting listens, with the former in particular covering ground that I wish the instrumental backing track medley on the remastered I Robot CD had covered. My one beef with the “I Robot Suite” is that it really plays fast and loose with the tempos of the original songs, moreso than just about any of this album’s other adaptations – “Some Other Time” becomes almost jaunty, something that the song’s subject just doesn’t lend itself to. “What Goes Up…” also fares well, combined with a very cool orchestral interpretation of its lead-off instrumental, “Voyager”, and, at the very end, some surprising (and neat) musical callbacks to “The Raven” and “Genesis Ch. 1 v. 32”.

Not all of these great Alan Parsons Project classics manage to avoid losing something in the translation, though. “Time”, “Eye In The Sky” and “Old And Wise” become – and I mean this in the nicest way – vapid elevator music. “Time” and “Old And Wise”, which leaned so heavily on the orchestra in their original recordings, actually manage to lost something in the transition to purely orchestral music with no vocals. This boggles my mind – I wouldn’t have expected the person who arranged these songs in the first place to misplace the magic. Somehow he does. “Pavane” (one movement of Tales Of Mystery & Imagination‘s “Fall Of The House Of Usher” suite) takes some odd turns in its arrangement as well. “Games People Play”, a largely synthesized song that had virtually no orchestral accompaniment in its original incarnation, at least manages to be energetic like its inspiration, but kicks off with a really bizarre, horror-film-style intro.

The truth is, I’ve heard far worse “string tribute to…” albums out there, and this one at least seems to have benefitted – at least in some places – from the involvement of the musician who concocted the original songs’ orchestral arrangements. Still, where this album misfires, that very involvement is what makes the misfires so utterly baffling. Two thoughts spring to mind: I wonder why some of these tracks haven’t resurfaced as bonus tracks on the songs’ respective remastered albums (does the label that owns these recordings want too much money, or is this album a point of contention between Powell and his former Project cohorts?), and despite the misfires, I could easily come up with a second album’s worth of suggestions that could do well in this format. Obviously, 25 years later is probably not a good time to suggest either one (or, for that matter, to suggest a new pressing of this album), but it’s a curiosity that serves as an interesting sidebar to the Alan Parsons Project’s legacy.

1. Lucifer / Mammagamma (5:34)
2. Time (5:07)
3. Games People Play (4:16)
4. I Robot Suite (8:22)
5. Damned If I Do (3:40)
6. Pavane (The Fall Of The House Of Usher) (4:44)
7. What Goes Up… (5:35)
8. Eye In The Sky (4:27)
9. Old And Wise (5:04)

Released by: Disky
Release date: 1983 (re-released on CD in 1997)
Total running time: 46:49

Also known as The Tomita Planets, this is Japanese synth whiz Isao Tomita’s rendition of Gustav Holst’s The Planets. Tomita used no traditional acoustic instruments, but did lean somewhat on the traditional arrangement. Opening with a bit of vocoder-and-synth “babble” to set the mood, Tomita launches into an energetic “Mars, The Bringer Of War” which appropriately now sounds like it belongs to the space age.

The same treatment is delivered on the other pieces in the suite, with “Venus: The Bringer Of Peace” and “Jupiter: The Bringer Of Jollity” getting an especially spacey treatment; the synth work on “Mercury: The Winged Messenger” dates it a bit, but for something recorded over 30 years ago, the whole thing still manages to sound futuristic. In places you might even catch a hint of the synthesized “whistle” sound which Tomita also used on what is arguably his most famous recording, Debussy’s “Arabesque No. 1”, also known as the theme song for Jack Horkheimer’s PBS stargazing show.

Of the outer planet pieces, “Saturn, Bringer of Old Age” and “Neptune, The Mystic” are the real highlights; “Saturn” ticks away like a time bomb with a synth “tick-tock” motif and flanged synths a la Jarre or Vangelis. “Neptune” has long been my favorite part of The Planets – I’ve always felt that it may be the most spiritual piece of music that anyone in the western world has ever composed (take that, Handel!) – so I was eager to see what Tomita would do with this particular segment. For the most part, “Neptune” sticks almost slavishly to the traditional arrangement, allowing enough wiggle room for some interesting changes in emphasis and “instrument” balance.

Overall, Tomita’s rendition of The Planets is interesting, a fascinating listen, but I can’t help but feel that there one could go further “out there” with arrangements and instrumentation, further afield from the orchestral arrangements that we’re all so used to. Other interpretations by folks like Rick Wakeman and Jeff (Musucal Version of War Of The Worlds) Wayne have also failed to break out of the orbit of the orchestral Planets. I know that there’s only so far one can go without actually changing the music itself, but within that limitation, I don’t think all the possibilities have been fully explored. Tomita does a good job, but The Planets could probably stand up to more intense, offbeat exploration.

1. Mars: The Bringer Of War (10:58)
2. Venus: The Bringer Of Peace (9:20)
3. Mercury: The Winged Messenger (4:37)
4. Jupiter: The Bringer Of Jollity (9:22)
5. Saturn: The Bringer Of Old Age (8:41)
6. Uranus: The Magician (2:14)
7. Neptune: The Mystic (6:49)

Released by: RCA Victor
Release date: 1976
Total running time: 52:01

Yes. You read that right. We’re talking CHiPS. Ponch and Jon. Erik Estrada and…that other guy. On motorcycles. Set to the sounds of unashamedly disco-fied music. And this is that music.

For those needing a justification, remember that Michael “Worf” Dorn guest starred in numerous episodes as a recurring fellow cop back at the precinct, and that this is a CD of music from the second season, mostly composed by Alan Silvestri, later of The Abyss, Contact and Who Framed Roger Rabbit? fame. Needless to say, CHiPS represents a very early entry in Silvestri’s career, but as far as disco goes, this CD – an unlikely entry from the guys at Film Score Monthly – certainly makes it sound like he swaggered into that career with confidence.

Things open up with the main theme, which Silvestri didn’t compose, but did rearrange for his first year in residence on the series. I’d actually forgotten how brassy and fun the CHiPS theme is, and Silvestri poured on extra layers of synthesizers, drenched with a flanging effect, for his arrangement. If that’s the packaging on the outside of the box, then Silvestri’s library of score cues is exactly what’s advertised on the box: definitely ’70s, with in-your-face brass and strings backed up by a cheerful rhythm section of flanged guitar, drums, bass and synths.

Silvestri has always been on the bleeding edge of bringing synthesizers into film scoring, earning a lot of attention for being one of the first relatively big-name mainstream composers to make heavy use of the Synclavier in the late 1980s. He’s not shy about putting synthesizers front-and-center here, either. There’s also a track of music composed by Bruce Broughton, another big name these days, created for a Halloween-specific episode, which uses synths to good effect, as well as some familiar string section horror effects – all with that ’70s beat underneath it. You almost expect it to break into “Other Galactic Funk” at any second.

Is it cheesy? Yes, it is – but when you’ve got a big CHiPS publicity photo on the front cover of the CD’s booklet, you really shouldn’t be prepared for anything but. If you grew up with CHiPS on television, this’ll probably bring back memories of sitting in front of your grandmother’s tiny color TV, wolfing down Cheetos and Dr. Pepper. (Actually, no, that’s my childhood – get your own.)

1. CHiPS Main Title composed by John Parker / arranged by Alan Silvestri (1:19)
2. Peaks And Valleys (3:55)
3. Family Crisis (5:44)
4. Disaster Squad (6:22)
5. Neighborhood Watch (3:36)
6. High Flyer (6:18)
7. Trick Or Treat composed by Bruce Broughton (5:59)
8. The Grudge (5:15)
9. The Sheik (5:48)
10. Return Of The Turks (5:40)
11. Supercycle (2:48)
12. High Explosive (4:49)
13. Down Time (2:51)
14. Repo Man (2:15)
15. Mait Team (4:07)
16. Pressure Point (2:46)
17. Rally ‘Round The Bank (2:28)
18. Matchmakers (2:42)
19. Ponch’s Disco (4:00)
20. CHiPS End Credits composed by John Parker / arranged by Alan Silvestri (0:29)

Released by: Film Score Monthly
Release date: 2006
Total running time: 79:11

The band’s final group effort before going their separate ways to new
careers, Sixpence None The Richer’s swan song isn’t one of those farewell albums that makes you feel like you understand perfectly well why they’re calling it a day. Divine Discontent is an example of the best you can hope to do with a farewell album: the listener is still likely to want more when the show’s over.

“Breathe My Name”, a twitchy song with quirky chorus harmonies, exemplifies what I miss about Sixpence already – the combination of Matt Slocum’s songwriting and guitar work and Leigh Nash’s voice is a winner when the band is firing on all cylinders.

The cover of Crowded House’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over” surprised me quite a bit. I’ve heard everything from choral interpretations to reggae covers of it before, and it’s a testament to the power of the original song as written that it stands up to (nearly) every permutation I’ve heard it put through. This is one of the better covers I’ve heard, transforming into a guitar-based number without the trademark organ solo of the original. It’s also interesting to hear a female vocalist do the song.

Even more surprising is the hard-hitting “Paralyzed”, which seems almost like something one would expect the Cardigans to do. Lyrically, it goes a little bit outside of what one would expect from a Christian band with crossover success. There’s nothing in the song that just shocks me speechless or offends me, I just wasn’t expecting to hear it from these guys. I’m really pleased to hear impassioned, non-cookie-cutter anti-war lyrics from a Christian group, even if they’re pre-Iraq War.

Ironically for an album that includes a cover of “Don’t Dream It’s Over”, a paraphrase of a passage that I remember reading in a book about Crowded House springs to mind: Divine Discontent doesn’t sound like a band that’s on its way out, but a band proving it’s fighting to live. That certainly seems like an apt description for Sixpence None The Richer’s final studio album.

1. Breathe Your Name (3:56)
2. Tonight (3:52)
3. Down And Out Of Time (3:28)
4. Don’t Dream It’s Over (4:03)
5. Waiting On The Sun (2:54)
6. Still Burning (4:02)
7. Melody Of You (4:50)
8. Paralyzed (3:54)
9. I’ve Been Waiting (4:19)
10. Eyes Wide Open (3:28)
11. Dizzy (6:36)
12. Tension Is A Passing Note (3:30)
13. A Million Parachutes (6:19)

Released by: Reprise
Release date: 2002
Total running time: 55:11

Let me see if I can even explain this one. Supervillains is an aural tribute to the pantheon of megalomaniacal geniuses from ’80s pop culture, back before fictional bad guys had to have a more logistically manageable agenda than ruling the world/universe. The equally evil remix geniuses known as Suckadelic basically combine sound clips, quotes, the sound effects from old video games, hip-hop style musical backing and the occasional snippet of soundtrack music to create a meeting of the minds that no superhero in his right mind would want to face – or at least hear from all at once.

The villains we’re talking about here are sound clips from classic Galactica’s Baltar and his Cylon minions, Gargamel, Skeletor, Ming the Merciless, and even Mezmeron, the overlord of the animated Pac-Man’s ghost monsters. And those are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head. Music from all of those shows seep into the proceedings, along with sound clips from Atari 2600 games like Missile Command, Yars’ Revenge, and Space Invaders. In short, the stuff that world and/or universal domination in the ’70s and ’80s was made of. – bad guys you love to hate.

But will you love to hate Supervillains? I’ve found it best to try to absorb this occasionally hilarious sound-montage-over-breakbeats in small doses. I’d probably have to be on something to take the whole CD in one sitting. Many of the clips are hysterically funny out of context, mashed up against each other and pureéd into a big foamy mess of nostalgia. After just a few tracks, though, it becomes readily apparent that most of these songs are drawing from the same material, and only the emphasis is changing.

But in small doses? Supervillains is diabolically funny stuff.

1. Intro (2:04)
2. Supervillain Fanfare (3:35)
3. Traitors In The Midst (1:21)
4. March Of The Suckbots (3:45)
5. Powergrabs (3:33)
6. Eternia’s Greatest (5:12)
7. Cobra Stops The World (5:02)
8. Mean Ol’ Wizard (4:03)
9. Ball Of Evil (4:41)
10. Gremlin Dust (5:35)
11. Behold, Galvatron! (4:15)
12. Plots And Schemes (2:45)
13. The Malice Of Mezmeron (3:11)
14. Master Of The World (2:50)
15. Villain Invader Break (1:22)
16. Hail Ming! (Ruler Of The Universe) (6:01)
17. Trial By Stone (3:33)
18. Galactic Super Battle (3:59)
19. The Price (6:05)
20. Bonus Track: The Nightmare (2:36)

Released by: Suckadelic Records
Release date: 2004
Total running time: 75:28

Is there anything that songstress Yoko Kanno can’t do? Starting out as a video game composer in her 20+ year career, she quickly moved on to other avenues such as anime series and films. Her ability to combine styles and influences such as jazz, classical, electronic, and rock music give her a unique and delightful sound.

Be Human, which serves as the 4th (!!!) soundtrack album for the anime series Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex, contains more of Kanno’s signature sound. This album, however, focuses on the robots of the series, called Tachikomas, and carries this underlying theme throughout the whole album. For example, the leadoff song, the titular “Be Human”, is a dreamy pop song complete with mechanical whirring and beeping. “Trip City” shows off Kanno’s rocker side, with lyrics from longtime Kanno collaborator Tim Jensen. “Cream” combines a drum-and-bass rhythm with violin strings, while Japanese hip hop lyrics are sung over that. “What Can I Say?” instantly brings to mind the slow, moving songs from the old musicals of yore. But those are the good parts.

The rest of the album, quite frankly, feels like it consists of filler. Although the music itself is very good (and it’s hard not to like an album that jumps from the techno of “Patch Me” to the whimsical “Tachikoma No Iede (Runaway Tachikoma)”, which includes a flute solo), it often feels incomplete; like fragments or snippets of actual songs instead of a full soundtrack. And that’s what Be Human ultimately is, a collection of B-sides punctuated by an actual song or two.

Be Human, then, should be recommended to fans of the show or fans of Yoko Kanno (who, in all honesty, are probably to be the one and the same). Otherwise, people who are just starting to listen to Yoko Kanno’s works should probably get a Seatbelts album to find out why Kanno’s music is much lauded in the anime world.

1. Be Human (4:05)
2. Trip City (3:55)
3. Patch Me (1:33)
4. Tachikoma No Iede (Runaway Tachikoma)

(1:55)

5. Osanpo Tachikoma (Tachikoma Out For A Walk)

(2:03)

6. Bang Bang Banquet (2:00)
7. Fax Me (1:26)
8. Rocky Wa Doko? (Where’s Rocky?)

(4:25)

9. Spotter (5:56)
10. Let’s Oil (0:45)
11. Cream (3:54)
12. Spider Bites (0:44)
13. Good By My Master (2:09)
14. Piece By Ten (2:50)
15. What Can I Say? (1:11)
16. Hi! (0:05)
17. I’m Not Straight (1:23)
18. AI Sentai Tachikomans (AI Combat Team Tachikomans)

(1:05)

19. Pro Bowler Tachikoma (Professional Bowler Tachikoma)

(0:38)

20. Don’t Sponge Me (0:36)
21. Po’d Pod (1:02)
22. Ciao! (0:07)

Released by: Bandai Entertainment
Release date: 2003
Total running time: 43:47

Better known for covering Cole Porter tunes and Broadway standards, John Barrowman takes his first swipe at mainstream pop – largely from the ’70s and ’80s – and reaches for the same earnestness and grandeur with that material. He manages to hit a few right out of the park, too – his covers of Billy Joel’s “She’s Always A Woman” and Elton John’s “Your Song” are winners. I’m not saying they’re replacing the originals in my musical affections, but they’re top-flight as reinterpretations go. There are even a few songs whose original records I don’t care for, but do enjoy here – Air Supply’s “All Out Of Love” and, perhaps most surprisingly of all, “Feeling Good”, a musical number that takes on an almost sinister air with Barrowman’s performance. I don’t know if that was actually the intention, but something about the arrangement and his vocal take on the song screams “seedy & dangerous” to me, which isn’t something that I get from the lyrics alone. (I’ll fess up here that I’m not a great consumer of musical theater, so I may be missing something in that context that has though in the know saying “Duh!” to me at this point.)

A few of these songs don’t quite soar that far, though – while they’re competent enough performances, the covers of the Police’s “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic”, Bryan Adams’ “Heaven” and Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time” just don’t do much for me. Nice enough to listen to, but I didn’t go back and listen to them again immediately like I did “Feeling Good” and some of the others. The cover of Chicago’s “If You Leave Me Now” knocks the song down a few keys to fit Barrowman’s range (which certainly doesn’t seem to be lacking anywhere else on the album), and while it’s pleasant enough, a big part of the original song was its production; it’s an interesting reading, but Peter Cetera need not quake in his boots.

The album seems to peter out a little bit toward the end – Eric Carman’s “All By Myself” is a song I’ve always considered to be a flat attempt at a faux-epic power ballad, and it’s just not a favorite of mine, to put it charitably (I will fess up to also having a blind spot for break-up songs). Even Barrowman, making his best attempt, can’t elevate that material for me, and I wind up skipping that track quite a bit (or at least hitting stop early, since it’s the last thing on the album) and thinking dude, sing something else – anything else. Your mileage may vary, however – I admit upfront that I’ve not a fan of that number in general.

Overall, I find Another Side very enjoyable. Golden Throats, it ain’t – Barrowman has a renowned career in musical theater, whenever he’s not traveling in the TARDIS or taming treacherous terrors with Torchwood – but it is a departure for Barrowman’s standard-centric recording career. Still, the guy can flat-out sing, and I could probably tick off about a dozen more songs I’d like to hear him tackle.

1. All Out Of Love (3:55)
2. You’re So Vain (3:55)
3. She’s Always A Woman (3:23)
4. Time After Time (3:59)
5. Weekend In New England (3:47)
6. Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic (2:33)
7. If You Leave Me Now (3:43)
8. Your Song (3:19)
9. Please Remember Me (4:22)
10. Heaven (4:04)
11. Being Alive (3:13)
12. Feeling Good (3:59)
13. All By Myself (4:25)

Released by: Sony / BMG
Release date: 2007
Total running time: 48:37

On the surface, it sounds like a neat idea – you ask a celebrity DJ or remixer to assemble a bunch of their formative favorites, those singles that got them interested in the business, and put their own spin on them, literally. That’s the idea behind the Back To Mine series, which has thus far cranked out a couple dozen of these compilations. They’re basically mixtapes on CD, assembled by the likes of Danny Tenaglia, Orbital, an so on. When a Back To Mine CD was announced, with a playlist personally picked out by those Norwegian masters of the downtempo genre, Royksopp, I thought I’d give it a try.

On the one hand, it’s interesting to hear the tunes that make Royksopp tick. With a playlist that goes from Talking Heads to Mike Oldfield Art Of Noise to Funkadelic, and stuff in between that I either haven’t heard in decades or have never heard of at all, there seems to be the promise of quite a fun ride. The other promise, though – that Royksopp will be giving you that guided tour and putting their own spin on things – is only partly fulfilled. I was eager to hear Art Of Noise a la Royksopp, simply because the collision of two of my favorite acts is a nearly irresistible proposition. Imagine my disappoint when Art Of Noise a la Royksopp turns out to be a short, exceedingly simple edit, sped up so it’s in the right key to dovetail with the tracks before and after it.

Some of these songs really do get the Royksopp treatment, such as Sphinx, which is transformed in much the same way that an obscure cover of Bacharach’s “Blue On Blue” was transformed into “So Easy” on Melody A.M.. I was amused to see a track by Emmanuel Splice slipped into the running order, that act being Royksopp itself under a pseudonym, effectively meaning that the track in question is Royksopp remixing Royksopp. But for the most part, it really does come across as a mixtape, with both the favorable and unfavorable things associated with that. You get to hear a lot of music and, like the weather, if you don’t like it, wait two minutes and it’ll change. But when the name “Royksopp” is what’s drawing people to this CD, and there isn’t that much Royksopp in evidence, it smacks of a cheaply licensed throwaway compilation.

The selection of material is fine, but the scarcity of actual Royksopp remixing on what’s touted as an album of tunes remixed by Royksopp counts off some major, major points. Do yourself a favor, pass on this one, and wait for the group’s next original studio effort instead.

1. Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On) performed by Talking Heads (3:34)
2. Sphinx performed by Harry Thumann (2:33)
3. One More Round performed by Kasso (2:35)
4. Ma Quale Idea performed by Pino D’Angino (3:54)
5. Above And Beyond performed by Edgar Winter (1:38)
6. Off Side performed by Ray Mang & Nathan D’Troit (1:37)
7. Take A Chance performed by Mr. Flagio (4:22)
8. Platinum (Part 3: Charleston) performed by Mike Oldfield (1:20)
9. Meatball performed by Emmanuel Splice (2:53)
10. That’s Hot performed by Jesse G (4:25)
11. Legs performed by Art Of Noise (2:52)
12. 3:00am (12″ version) performed by I-Level (1:49)
13. Dirty Talk performed by Klein & MBO (3:08)
14. It Ain’t Easy performed by Supermax (4:03)
15. Could Be Heaven Like This performed by Idris Muhammad (8:26)
16. Night People (New York Club Mix) performed by Guy Dalton (4:07)
17. Get Closer (Vocal) performed by Valerie Dore (4:55)
18. Can’t Be Serious performed by Ginny (5:12)
19. I’m Never Gonna Tell It performed by Funkadelic (3:24)
20. It’s Been A Long Time performed by The New Birth (5:40)

Released by: DMC Records
Release date: 2007
Total running time: 72:27

Perhaps no score album has caused as much consternation and anticipation as Jablonsky’s contribution to Dreamworks’ live action take on the venerable 1980s toys. In fact, the whole story of how the album has come to be is as unbelievable and convoluted as any summer blockbuster. Despite the fact that Jablonsky asserted that a score album was in the works…by the time the movie was released there was no word on when it was going to come out. Days and weeks passed and still nothing. It eventually reached a point where someone started an online petition to get the ball rolling…garnering over 5000 signatures. (I must admit to putting my name to it.) Thus, when it was finally released in early October (a week ahead of the DVD) getting a copy proved a challenge at best, with Amazon.com projecting a minimum two days just to get it shipped out.

So, the question on everyone’s mind right now is probably this: Was it really worth all the trouble and fuss it took to get it out? The answer is a defiant hell yeah!

Even though half the tracks on the album are a little different than what eventually ended up on film, what’s there is still worth a listen…splitting the line between character-specific and scene-specific pieces. “Autobots” reflects the nobility and heroism of the ‘bots as a whole…with a cello reflecting the power and strength of “Optimus”, and an electric guitar suggests the speed and loyalty of “Bumblebee”. On the other end, a male chorus accentuates the menace and threat the “Decepticons” represent…with “Frenzy” sounding rather Stravinsky-esque. “Scorponok” can cause ones heart to pound as it slowly and methodically makes its’ way towards the soldiers in the film.

It’s not all big action however. “Sam at the Lake” is one of the quieter pieces, while a funeral dirge best describes the state of “Cybertron” and the war’s toll on that far away world. “Breaking the Signal”, meanwhile, struck me as being a little too similar to what often plays on similar sequences on 24, but if that’s the only fault, it’s a small one.

Bottom line: if you’re one of the many people to have caught the movie in the multiplex, you have to get this album…get it any way you can.

1. Autobots (2:33)
2. Decepticons (3:51)
3. The All Spark (3:34)
4. Deciphering The Signal (3:08)
5. Frenzy (1:56)
6. Optimus (3:15)
7. Bumblebee (3:58)
8. Soccent Attack (2:07)
9. Sam At The Lake (1:59)
10. Scorponok (4:57)
11. Cybertron (2:45)
12. Arrival To Earth (5:26)
13. Witwicky (1:57)
14. Downtown Battle (1:32)
15. Sector 7 (2:05)
16. Bumblebee Captured (2:17)
17. You’re A Soldier Now (3:27)
18. Sam On The Roof (2:02)
19. Optimus Vs. Megatron (3:59)
20. No Sacrifice, No Victory (2:57)

Released by: Warner Bros.
Release date: 2007
Total running time: 59:56

With his last EP, Summer Storm, Daniel Gannaway experimented with the ukelele as a dominant sound in his music; in a similar vein, his latest effort, Heading For Country, tries on some country shoes. This time the experiment isn’t so much with a specific instrument, but with some of the stylistic licks of American country music. Whatever he’s trying out sonically, it’s a credit to Gannaway’s musicianship and his ability as a songwriter that it never sounds anything less than genuine.

But with his background in folk rock, Gannaway feels like he’s edging toward home turf here, rather than stretching the envelope in an unexpected way. There might be a wistful harmonica here and there, or just a hint of a country “twang”, but it’s not much of a culture shock to those of us accustomed to his folkier style.

The highlights of the six-song EP are the two middle tracks, “Talk Yourself Up” and “Tiny Lights”. The former is a jaunty, positive little number, while the latter is a somber meditation on mortality. The first time I heard “Tiny Lights”, I earmarked it as being interesting for its melody; the next time I listened to it, I had just gone through an eight-day period which began with the birth of my son and ended with having to humanely put down a horse I’d had for nearly ten years. The lyrics jumped out at me on this second listen, and it’s a Gannaway classic right up there with “Chain”. Even if I can’t convince you that you’ll like the music, I’ll put it this way: any CD on which a song as good as “Tiny Lights” takes up 1/6 of the running time is great value for the money.

Not that any of the songs on here are anything to skip, mind you. Heading For Country makes it sound like Daniel Gannaway’s heading into untested territory, but for those of us who’ve been listening for a while, it’s more like a welcome homecoming. Very highly recommended.

1. Move Along Now (3:39)
2. Sorry To Say (2:31)
3. Talk Yourself Up (2:45)
4. Tiny Lights (3:28)
5. Lazy Sundays (3:33)
6. Sadly Don’t Think So (3:49)

Released by: Daniel Gannaway
Release date: 2007
Total running time: 19:45

If there were two more different episodes, music-wise, in Guy Gross’ tenure as the composer-in-residence for Farscape, I can’t think of them. This first release in a tentative series (as of this writing, only 1200 copies each of two volumes have been released) of complete episode scores jumps straight into the third season for the amusing, mostly-animated Revenging Angel and the horror-themed Eat Me. Put ’em together, and sure, maybe you have a slightly schizophrenic CD, but you also have one which demonstrates what a find Guy Gross was, and why he was handed the musical reins of the show early in season 2.

As Revenging Angel‘s animation was an unashamedly overt homage to the glory days of Warner Bros.’ Looney Toons and Merrie Melodies, Gross tips his hat to the late, great Carl Stalling for much of that episode’s score – even when the action wasn’t necessarily animated. Rather than saying that he skillfully keeps one foot planted in a cartoon mindset and one foot in the show’s usual scoring style, it’s more accurate to say that he manages to keep one entire foot, and all but the small toe of the other foot, in Stalling territory, with that one toe still anchored in what one would normally expect to hear from an episode of Farscape. Stalling isn’t the only target here either, as “Also Sprach Zarathustra” – a.k.a. the main theme from 2001 – is quoted frequently…cartoon-style, of course.

Eat Me is quite literally a completely different animal, with guttural brass samples twisted into something almost like whalesong for that episode’s diseased Leviathan. Just about every musical convention of horror filmmaking that you can think of can be found here, from slithery, dissonant string runs to eerie echo effects. The musical palette isn’t as dense as it here for Revenging Angel, but Gross manages to evoke an atmosphere of something going horribly wrong with his sparse arrangements alone. Conceptually, Eat Me wasn’t the most pleasant hour of TV ever made, so its discordant music fits perfectly.

However, the real find on this CD may be the Gross-era theme itself. Gross altered the show’s original opening title music to suit the expanding, increasingly epic storyline, taking it from exotic vocals plus tribal percussion to a sweeping orchestral/choral piece with exotic vocals and percussion. As this version of the theme hasn’t been released before – the previous Farscape album, released by GNP Crescendo, was out before Gross made his changes – it’s a great thing to have on CD at last. I loved how the music in the opening teasers and right before the end credits of Farscape would always find a way to slide into just the right key to segue into the titles.

It may not make for the most cohesive, listen-to-it-in-one-sitting soundtrack album ever heard, but this first volume of Guy Gross’ full episode scores from Farscape is a very worthwhile listen. It might just be that these CDs didn’t arrive while the show was still on the air, but I’ve found it odd that they didn’t catch on in the same way that the Babylon 5 “episodic” CDs did in the ’90s.

Revenging Angel
1. Sabotage / Farscape Opening Titles (2:12)
2. Method #1: Revenge (3:10)
3. Method #2: Avoidance (5:34)
4. Ancient Luxan (1:40)
5. You Started It! / Method #3: Reasoning (4:52)
6. Method #4: Be Smart (2:31)
7. Crichton’s Funeral (4:23)
8. I’m Going To Kill You! (4:52)
9. Revenge Is Not The Answer / I Did It! (3:08)
10. No Revenge / Farscape End Credits (3:20)

    Eat Me

11. Give Me Status / Farscape Opening Titles (3:37)
12. Bad Mojo (2:17)
13. All U Need To Know / Good Luck (3:25)
14. Disarmed / Food Regeneration (3:43)
15. Distress Call Response / R U Alone? (3:54)
16. Death Rites (2:20)
17. Twins (1:15)
18. Life Juice / Life Plug / The Real Me (3:06)
19. Good Things / Making Babies (2:12)
20. 2 Chianas / Breeding (2:36)
21. Finger Licking Good (1:55)
22. Twice The Fun / Still Tied / Farscape End Credits (5:49)

Released by: La-La Land Records
Release date: 2004
Total running time: 71:51

Composed to accompany the 1996 CD-ROM game Star Trek: Borg, the music on this CD was recently released by Dennis McCarthy, who also composed more episodes of the various Star Trek spinoffs than anyone else. However, if you’re expecting more of that relatively sedate sound here, you may be in for a shock. Star Trek: Borg may have looked like a television episode, what with John de Lancie starring and Jonathan Frakes directing, but freed from the restrictions usually placed on the scoring of Star Trek TV episodes, the music is quite a bit more involved than you may be expecting.

While Borg lacked the restrictions of the TV series’ music, it also lacked the budget that the TV series – at least in 1996 – lavished on music. McCarthy relies on frequent-flyer collaborator Kevin Kiner to bring his orchestrated score to life, and if there’s really a weak point with the Borg soundtrack, that’s where it is, but more due to the state of synthesizer/sequencer technology than the talent involved. (McCarthy and Kiner collaborated on many future projects where their music had to be synthesized instead of played by a real orchestra, including McCarthy’s Stargate SG-1 scores and, ultimately, the reduced-budget final season of Star Trek: Enterprise.) The orchestral textures just aren’t quite “real,” though it’s no exaggeration to say that the technology to achieve this has improved by leaps and bounds since 1996.

The style is also very different from McCarthy’s usual Trek “house style,” with some of the short cues almost resembling some of Jerry Goldsmith’s “spacedock” music from the first Star Trek movie (including one cue explicitly labeled “Goldsmith Has Been Assimilated”). The synth-chorus as a signature sound for the Borg is also revived here as well. There’s a recurring “orchestral stab” sound also used in conjunction with the Borg, but without the accompanying visuals, this makes the music sound like a late ’80s/early ’90s horror movie score. There are a few hints of McCarthy’s trademark panoramic chords from his TV Treks, but overall it’s very different.

The final three tracks are comprised of music McCarthy created for the “Borg Invasion 4-D” ride at the Las Vegas Hilton’s Star Trek Experience, and there’s a huge world of difference here (then again, we’re talking about an 8-year gap). The Borg Invasion suites are some of the most invigorating music I’ve heard from Dennis McCarthy, sounding both more like his usual Trek TV music and less like it (with pulsating guitar samples and almost Matrix-y passages) at the same time. The series would’ve benefitted tremendously from allowing him to cut loose on the music like this.

One can only hope that maybe the composer can sneak out some of the better examples of his Star Trek TV music on CD in private pressings like this, though from a rights perspective, there’s probably a vast difference in doing that with this material and music composed for TV shows that are still, on DVD at least, a going concern. There are quite a few I could nominate (namely “The Homecoming” / “The Circle” / “The Siege” trilogy that opened Deep Space Nine’s second season) but only time will tell if Dennis McCarthy will keep sneaking gems from the Star Trek music archives out of the vaults for us. At the time of this writing, Star Trek: Borg is still available from the composer’s web site.

1. Main Theme (1:02)
2. The Legend Of The Borg (1:24)
3. Battle At Wolf 359 (2:58)
4. The Battle Rages (0:58)
5. Club Q (0:55)
6. “I Am Berman Of Borg” (1:37)
7. “Goldsmith Has Been Assimilated!” (1:37)
8. “Welcome To The Collective, Cadet” (2:21)
9. Searching The Borg Ship (2:21)
10. Time Is Running Out (1:17)
11. Escape From The Borg Collective (1:44)
12. Borg Hell (2:03)
13. “You Will Be Assimilated, Have A Nice Day” (2:21)
14. “Resistance Is Futile, My Ass!” / Finale (7:28)
15. End Titles (1:02)
16. Borg Invasion Suite Part 1 (6:32)
17. Borg Invasion Suite Part 2 (2:51)
18. Borg Invasion Suite Part 3 (7:24)

Released by: DennisMcCarthy.com
Release date: 2007
Total running time: 48:21

Recorded in concert in September 2003, this CD is literally what the package says – a series of themes and in-game music from Shigeru Miyamoto’s Super Mario and Zelda games, going all the way back to the originals, but arranged for a smokin’ big band. On the surface of it, this may sound a bit silly, but the combination of a great band and some inventive arrangements reveal that there was enough depth in the original music to bring out some swing.

Though the big band pieces are played by the Big Band of Rogues or the Yoshihiro Arita Band, Ashura Benimaru Itoh presses the “start” button with a brief acoustic guitar medley of Super Mario themes to thunderous applause. The early tracks focus primarily on the early games in the Mario series, including a surprisingly effective a capella scat medley of the various original Super Mario themes. For everything that I saw on the tracklist where I laughed at the very thought of it, I was very pleasantly surprised. Bearing in mind that the concert was recorded in Japan, keep in mind that this wasn’t a tongue-in-cheek presentation – the characters from these games are cultural icons there, even moreso than they are across the Pacific.

The beauty and brilliance of this whole thing is that the arrangers were unafraid to reinterpret the material and completely shift some cultural paradigms. There’s a Yoshi theme which is reinterpreted as a pleasant, toe-tapping bluegrass instrumental. The memorable Legend Of Zelda main theme is recast as a dashing flamenco piece. “The Song Of Epona” (from Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time) becomes a lovely Hawaiian-style number – you can almost see palm trees. And it all works. Most of this material I’d never envisioned this way, and now it’s hard for me to imagine it any other way.

There’s one drawback to the whole thing – for some reason, the whole CD is mastered at a surprisingly low level. You have to crank your speakers to hear it in detail, and worse yet, the volume level is not consistent from track to track. As bold and brassy as much of this music is, some more dynamic mastering wouldn’t have come amiss, though a mere three-month gap between the concert itself and the CD’s release may explain that quirk. It’s still worth a listen.

1. Opening Theme Of Mario (2:23)
2. Super Mario 64 Opening Theme / Overworld Theme (4:40)
3. Medley Of Super Mario Bros. (4:24)
4. Mario Scat Version (Super Mario Sunshine) (2:06)
5. Go Go Mario (3:36)
6. Super Mario Bros. 3 Ending Theme (2:42)
7. Theme Of Athletic (Yoshi’s Island) (4:17)
8. Yoshi On The Beach (Yoshi’s Story) (3:13)
9. The Legend Of Zelda: Takt Of Wind – Title Theme (7:27)
10. Theme Of Dragon Roost Island (4:21)
11. The Song Of Epona (4:06)
12. Theme Of The Dolphic Town (4:27)
13. The Zora Band (4:42)
14. Theme Of Goron City (3:52)
15. Theme Of The Shop (3:18)
16. Medley Of The Legend Of Zelda (4:32)
17. Ending Theme Of Super Mario Sunshine (4:29)
18. Encore (Slider) (6:38)

Released by: Scitron Digital
Release date: 2003
Total running time: 75:13

“Subtle” isn’t normally a word used in connection with Godzilla. However, Akira Ifukube’s soundtrack to the original Godzilla movie is deceptively subtle.

Most soundtracks have themes for characters and scenes that echo the main theme. But in Godzilla, nearly every piece of music is the main theme. With shifts in tempo or style, or emphasis on different types or individual instruments, the theme is reformed in many ways, each of them sounding completely unique and original. It’s a testament to Ifukube’s skill that he was able to stretch the theme into so many nearly unrecognizable shapes.

The main theme itself is a brisk and tense thriller, primarily using woodwinds with some brass for emphasis. When he appears in Tokyo Bay and moves on shore, the music becomes slow, dark and ominous using deep, throaty sounding muted trumpets to represent Godzilla and an almost disconsonant piano to highlight the people’s helplessness.

Ifukube often weaves two or more variations into the same piece of music. Among the most interesting are those hiding in a happy military march and tucked away in an island festival. There are even strains of the theme heard in a harmonica played by a sailor on a merchant vessel. The “Prayer For Peace,” which remains one of the most haunting pieces of music I’ve ever heard, brings the theme to a funeral dirge. When we see Godzilla on the ocean floor, the theme shifts to help us realize that the King of the Monsters is a victim as well.

The latest trend on the internet is to create original works in “mashups” of different source material. Akira Ifukube did it the old fashioned way- using only one source and without using “loops.” Godzilla: 50th Anniversary is an excellent achievement that is not only good to listen to, but can also be used as a study guide for budding composers.

1. Godzilla Approaches (Sound Effects) (0:49)
2. Godzilla Main Title (1:31)
3. Ship Music / Sinking Of Eikou-Maru (1:06)
4. Sinking Of Bingou-Maru (0:23)
5. Anxieties On Ootojima Island (0:50)
6. Ootojima Temple Festival (1:21)
7. Stormy Ootojima Island (1:53)
8. Theme For Ootojima Island (0:34)
9. Japanese Army March I (0:42)
10. Horror Of The Water Tank (0:42)
11. Godzilla Comes Ashore (1:52)
12. Godzilla’s Rampage (2:25)
13. Desperate Broadcast (1:12)
14. Godzilla Comes To Tokyo Bay (1:25)
15. Intercept Godzilla (1:27)
16. Tragic Sight Of The Imperial Capitol (2:18)
17. Oxygen Destroyer (3:11)
18. Prayer For Peace (2:48)
19. Japanese Army March II (0:21)
20. Godzilla At The Ocean Floor (6:20)
21. Ending (1:41)
22. Godzilla Leaving (Sound Effects) (1:04)

    Bonus Tracks

23. Main Title (film version) (2:03)
24. First Landing (film version) (3:37)
25. Tokyo In Flames (film version) (2:17)
26. Last Assault (film version) (2:21)

Released by: La-La Land Records
Release date: 2004
Total running time: 46:28

Story: A group of teenagers are pressed into service for a super secret military unit training with ultra advanced weaponry and technology for the unthinkable possibility that Godzilla may appear in the U.S. after having already crushed many Japanese cities. Not only does the unthinkable occur, but several other beasts begin to rampage on America soil, including King Ghidorah, Varan, and Kamacuras. Because of their inexperience, the teens are held back, watching helplessly as conventional forces suffer defeat after defeat. Finally, they receive their orders. The only thing standing between total destruction of the landscape and the U.S. economy is a group of teenagers with no previous combat experience.

Review: Before we go any further: this book is NOT a novelization of the movie Godzilla 2000. Instead, this a sequel to Marc Cerasini’s previous Godzilla novel “Godzilla Returns”. In “Godzilla Returns”, the King Of the Monsters rises again from a a slumber of many years and terrorizes Japan. In “Godzilla 2000”, he comes to the U.S. to wreak havoc.

Finally out after nine years (just one year shy of the movie’s tenth anniversary) David Arnold’s score for Roland Emmerich’s remake (a 2-CD set, limited to 3000 copies) of Tokyo’s resident bad boy displays all of the pluses and minuses of Arnold’s previous collaborations with Emmerich.

One of the most striking things that occurred to me when listening to this set was the fact that Arnold tends to compose similar music whenever the military is on screen at any given point. In fact, “Military Command Center” is a case in point. The drum beats alone tends to signify “Ten-shun!” whenever a military type enters the scene. Ironically, and much to Arnold’s regret according to the booklet’s liner notes (one of the most illuminating I have come across, by the way), the military in Emmerich’s opus doesn’t get as much screen time as one would expect in a film with the big G.

Another puzzling thing is that about halfway through the production process was the decision on Emmerich’s part to make his CGI big G as much a thing of wonder as of a thing of terror. Perhaps the most significant result of this sudden change of direction is “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner”. At first the piece emphasizes the terror, but around the halfway mark it switches to an almost Williams-style feeling of awe and wonder.

Still, what this score does right, it does very right indeed. “The Beginning” does an excellent job of setting things up and while it’s not going to dethrone Akira Ifukube’s now-iconic theme anytime soon, it manages to display a sense of dread all its own. In fact, in the alternate version of this (no choir in the latter) it almost sounds remarkably similar to Ifukube’s previous work. Also, “Nick and Audrey” has a feel to it that’s more than a little reminiscent of John Barry.

In all, this is an album that many people have been waiting for a long time and whether you like the movie or not, the score itself should be listened to at least once, since it seems unlikely, despite Arnold’s optimism, that he’ll do another job for Emmerich anytime soon.

1. The Beginning (3:29)
2. Tanker Gets It (1:11)
3. Chernobyl (3:13)
4. Footprint (0:33)
5. Footprints / New York / Audrey (0:54)
6. Chewing Gum Nose (0:30)
7. Ship Reveal / Nick Discovers Fish / Flesh (1:39)
8. The Boat Gets It* (2:09)
9. Dawn Of The Species (1:49)
10. Joe Gets a Bite / Godzilla Arrives (3:11)
11. Mayor’s Speech (1:03)
12. Caiman’s Office (0:45)
13. Animal’s Camera (1:39)
14. Military Command Center / New Jersey (1:55)
15. Audrey’s Idea (0:22)
16. Evacuation (2:41)
17. French Coffee (0:56)
18. Subway Damage / Command Enters City (2:50)
19. Fish (1:48)
20. Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner? (5:13)
21. 1st Helicopter Chase / Godzilla Swats A Chopper (4:08)
22. We Fed Him / Audrey Sees Nick (1:21)
23. Nick And Audrey / He’s Pregnant / Audrey Takes The Tape / French Breakfast (4:46)
24. He’s Preparing To Feed (0:34)
25. Nick Gets Fired / Nick Gets Abducted / Frenchie’s Warehouse / Nick Joins The Foreign Legion (5:47)

Disc two
1. Chewing Gum (1:51)
2. Rumble In The Tunnel (1:35)
3. Godzilla O Park / Godzilla Takes A Dive / Godzilla Versus The Submarine / Egg Discovery (9:42)
4. Baby ‘Zillas Hatch* (3:51)
5. Nick Phones For Help (1:28)
6. Eat The French (2:14)
7. Phillip Shoots The Lock (1:39)
8. Nick’s Big Speech / The Garden Gets It (7:07)
9. He’s Back! / Taxi Chase & Clue (7:06)
10. Big G Goes To Monster Heaven (4:30)
11. The End (4:05)

    Bonus Tracks

12. The Beginning (no choir) (3:32)
13. Footprints / New York / Audrey (alternate) (0:50)
14. The Boat Gets It (alternate) (1:09)
15. Gojira (Album Version) (2:46)

* contains material not used in the film

Released by: La-La Land Records
Release date: 2007
Disc one total running time: 55:28
Disc two total running time: 53:47