Free Music Friday: Tyler Bates

Tyler Bates has been scoring movies for about 10 years now but he's managed to stay under the radar until Zach Snyder hired him to score '300', which opens today (please see the previous post for a look at that score). Snyder used him previously on 'Dawn of the Dead' and he did the music for Rob Zombie's 'The Devil's Rejects'.

I haven't heard much of Bates' output yet; I have the score for 'Dawn' but haven't listened to it much, as well as '300' which I have been playing non-stop; it is a great score (again, see below) and has a lot of replay value.

You can find samples of Bates' musical output in a flash music player located in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen and most are downloadable including selections from 'The Devil's Rejects', 'Slither', 'Dawn of the Dead' and others.

He has 'Day of the Dead' coming out in April and Zombie has since rehired Bates to score his upcoming remake of 'Halloween'. He is also currently attached to Snyder's adaptation of the comic series 'Watchmen'.

Click this post's title for a link to his official website and leave me a comment to let me know what you think.

See you on the web...

300 by Tyler Bates

300 (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Music by Tyler Bates

Based on the comic series by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley (which in turn is based on a true story), the movie directed by Zach Snyder tells the story of 300 Spartan warriors defending Greece from a million-strong Persian army in 480 B.C. Zach Snyder had employed Tyler Bates to score his last film, a remake of ‘Dawn of the Dead’, and has brought him back for this.

Utilizing orchestra, electronics, exotic instruments, guitar and vocals Bates produces a score that evokes the past while updating it with a fresh and modern quality. Some of the pieces call to mind the epic scores of yore, but it wouldn’t surprise me to find this being compared to similar genre work of late, specifically Hans Zimmer & Lisa Gerrard’s ‘Gladiator’. There are only so many ways you can score a period piece and have it come off as somewhat authentic so comparisons are bound to be made but I feel that the use of different instruments, especially the guitar, and an electronic ambiance provide enough for this score to stand on its own. Bates’ horror film past (he scored Dawn of the Dead, The Devil’s Rejects and Slither among others) shines through on a few cuts giving the music some welcome creepiness and atmosphere.

The guitar here is heavily distorted and used to great effect especially in track 17: “Fever Dream”. Not since John Carpenter’s ‘Ghosts of Mars’ have I heard so much rock guitar in an orchestrated score and it fits perfectly, unlike other attempts such as ‘Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones’ track 3: “Zam the Assassin & The Chase Through Coruscant” where it seem to be used more for novelty than as a respected contributor.

You don’t get a lot of returning themes in this score and that’s just fine; a huge fan of John Williams I may be but not every score needs to be a text book lesson in letimotif. We don’t necessarily need a musical reminder every time a character walks on screen.

My biggest complaint is regarding the album presentation; most of the tracks are short and even though some bleed into each other, others just feel too brief. I would have liked to see some ques reedited together into longer tracks to create a smoother listening experience.

If you purchase the download version through iTunes (and possibly others), you get a bonus track of “To Victory (Philip Steir’s Sacrifice for Sparta Remix)”. I didn’t find this to be as offensive as a lot of film score fans potentially might but I do think it’s a bit of a cop out as far as value added material goes. Last year, David Arnold’s entire score to ‘Casino Royale’ was released through iTunes and it added a full 10 minutes to the cd release. I think that they should have done something similar here, adding in more real score instead of a remix.

The music has the near thankless job of keeping up with what look to be stellar visual effects and I will be interested to hear how the score (an estimated 90 minutes – 60 min on cd) will work within the confines of the film (117 minutes).

There are three versions of this soundtrack available:

1. Standard Edition - 25 tracks

2. Deluxe Edition - 25 tracks / Digipak packaging / 16 page booklet / 3 trading cards

3. Download Edition - 26 tracks including “To Victory (Philip Steir’s Sacrifice for Sparta Remix)” / 3 page pdf digital booklet

Final thoughts: I really like this score from a composer I never really gave much thought to and I plan on picking up more from Tyler Bates in the future. The music is edgy, crisp and poignant to the film; my only hope is it doesn't get buried in the audio mix and the people who only hear it in the theater don't miss out.

4 stars out of 5

Passion Of The Dialogue

I recently purchased ‘Themes from the Passion – Single (Special Radio Re-Mix)’ from The Passion Of The Christ by John Debney off of iTunes. Debney’s score is very good and it still remains a mystery to me why mainstream success seems to elude him, but there’s another aspect to this track I want to touch on.

The few radio singles from orchestral scores that come out these days usually include dialogue from the film and this one is no exception. As a fan of film music, I don’t see the need for that other than as a feeble attempt to get a few non-film music listeners to connect to the music and hopefully run out and buy the soundtrack (but as a collector, I love this kind of stuff). The big difference here is that The Passion Of The Christ was filmed with the majority of the dialogue spoken in Aramaic and Latin and subtitled in English. Let me rephrase that: it’s not in English. Or Spanish. Or any other language widely spoken in the US, where the single was solicited to classical music (and possibly religious) radio stations.

Now that’s fine for the movie itself, where the filmmakers are trying to keep it historically accurate and the audience can read the subtitles to follow along. But how many people can hear a passage in Latin (especially which has been disembodied from the visual source material) and think “Oh yeah, I loved that part”? It just doesn’t make any sense.

Look, if the major record label marketing machine wants to put out stuff like this, that’s fine. If it gets a few more people to buy score albums who wouldn’t normally, that’s great. But I just wonder what the thought process was behind this particular decision: “who cares if you can’t understand what they’re saying, we can put it on the radio”.

Maybe that’s how they feel about popular music too.

'Superman Returns' composed by John Ottman

Let me preface this review by saying that I am a big fan of John Williams original 'Superman' score and of John Ottman's previous efforts.

For those that do not know, Bryan Singer (the film's director) and John Ottman (the film's editor & composer) decided to mine John Williams' original themes to help establish ties to the original films (at leaset the first two). This score walks a fine line: adhere too close to the original and fans will say it's just a copy. Change too much and fans will be up in arms at the radical departure. I applaud John Ottman for finding and maintaining that delicate middle ground.

Ok, where to begin? Listening to the 'Main Title' reminds me of listening to Eric Kunzel conduct the Cinncinati Pops Orchestra through Hollywood's greatest hits. That's not a bad thing; Eric Kunzel does great work. However, the arrangement is almost identical to the original concert version (actually it combines elements from several versions but mostly the concert version). It sounds great, but I find myself asking "why"? As I said before, the filmmakers are deliberetly tying this movie to the original; I get that. But it still comes across as very 'concert in the park'.

Several of JW's themes make an apperance throughout; the 'main title march', the 'love theme/Can You Read My Mind' (thankfully, no dramatic reading of the lyrics), the 'Krypton theme' and even a variation of the 'growing up' music. After all of that I have to ask "no 'March of the Villians'"? I know that piece is written as comedic but I think it could easily be manipulated to suit the Lex Luthor of the new millennium.

Track 5 - 'Bank Job' has bongos in it that reminded me of Danny Elfman. Also, there's some choir work later in the score that reminded me of 'Edward Scissorhands' also Elfman.

About halfway through track 11 'The People You Care For', there is a stacatto piano that reminded me of Jerry Goldsmith's 'Planet Of The Apes' ('The Hunt' - great track!).

Not everything reminds me of something else; I think that Ottman's contibutions are fantastic. This might just be his most "hopefull" score yet and his action music is dynamic and exciting. I did however find myself waiting to catch the next borrowed theme, which I feel kept me from being able to completely immerse myself in Ottman's work. My hope is that with time I will be able to see past the recycled music to hear and appreciate the new material.

Listening to 'Superman Returns', I found myself continually being drawn back to 1978 through the use of the original themes. Perhaps because of my long-standing love of the original film and music, I kept being pulled out of the listening experience and transported back 28 years. Has this happened to anyone else? I doubt this was part of the filmmaker's intentions. Also, I'd be interested in hearing the perspective of someone who is not as attached to the original or has never heard or seen it at all. Does some of the music in 'Returns' sound "old"? Even though they are modern recordings, the writing, arranging and orchestrating styles and senseablilities of 30 years ago are somewhat different than today. Could a younger person tell the difference? Ponder that and drop me a comment or email.

Overall I like the score a lot, but I need more time to sort out how I "feel" about some of the elements borrowed or new. At any rate, this album just goes one step further in defining John Ottman's place in modern film music.

See you in the theater...

Transformers: More Than Meets The Ear...

Posted at Soundtrack.Net on 06/17/06:

NEWS: Steve Jablonsky scores a teaser for Transformers: "It's more than meets the eye, and won't be in theaters until July 4, 2007 - but today at the Sony Scoring Stage, composer Steve Jablonsky recorded music for the theatrical teaser to the new Michael Bay film, Transformers.

Now Me:

I have Jablonsky's score for 'The Island' (also Bay); think Hans Zimmer remixed by Trent Reznor. I do enjoy that score and after listening to it again today, I think his style would fit in very well with the Transformers. If you've not heard 'The Island', it's an amalgamation of hard rock styling meets techno percussion meets synthesizer ambiance meets modern orchestra. I recommend 'The Island' if you want to try some fresh action music.

All this talk about the upcoming movie also got me thinking about the original animated Transformers movie composer, Vince DiCola. Perhaps it's because I bought this soundtrack when it came out (1986 - I also saw the movie in the theater) but I love the score for this movie - very slickly produced synthesizer music with pounding beats and heavy guitars. There's some great pseudo-metal songs too - check out Lion's version of the Transformers cartoon theme... Awesome!

Actually, DiCola's score is a lot like the 80's equivalent of Steve Jablonsky's 'The Island'; No wonder why I think Jablonsky would be perfect.

You've got a year until 'The Transformers' comes out (July 4th 2007), so until then go pick up the original soundtrack (and if you like Vince DiCola get 'Rocky IV' too) and 'The Island ' and judge for yourself.

SoundtrackNet : News : Trevor Rabin scores Snakes on a Plane

SoundtrackNet : News : Trevor Rabin scores Snakes on a Plane

Click the above link to check out the full article at Soundtrack.Net.

V For Vendetta

I just saw the movie and I enjoyed it. Not as much as the graphic novel, but what are you going to do.

As for the score; it didn't make much of an impact on me during the film. However, I do plan to get the soundtrack when it's released this Tuesday (3/21). Hopefully, a review will be soon to follow (I know, I know... I've said that before).

You can hear 30 second clips from the album on the offical site (click this post's title for the link).

Until then...

Free Music Friday Update

It's been increasingly difficult to find composers that have music available to download, so Free Music Friday will not be a weekly feature (sometimes semi-weekly) on the blog anymore.

I still plan on posting things like this as I find them. If anyone else knows where to find legally posted soundtrack music, please let me know and I'll post it here.

Thank you for your understanding.