CD Reviews: Uncorked and The Rules of Attraction

Uncorked (At Sachem Farm) *** 1/2

JEFF DANNA

La-La Land 1001

11 tracks - 29:32

John Huddles' Uncorked was a 1998 entry at the Toronto Film Festival and appeared the following year at Seattle's Film Festival. The film, starring Minnie Driver, Sir Nigel Hawthorne and Rufus Sewell, ended up on cable in 2001.

Starting with the opening "The Arboretum," I was impressed by the sheer variety of Celtic-flavored orchestration that continually hints at the romance. The harps, celesta, strings and solo winds beautifully carry the main theme. "Stilt Walk" follows with a more upbeat Celtic dance number combined with more typical ethnic percussion.

Other highlights include the beautiful guitar piece, "Ross' Concert," a new age styled, folk-influenced solo work -- it's worth hearing. "The Murder Pillar" opens with unusual string effects and combines a number of standard tension-building sounds.

Overall, Uncorked is a warm, romantic listen. The album is definitely a safe bet for those who love Celtic music of a more intimate nature. The song "Love of Heaven" even reminded me a bit of the group Secret Garden's work, albeit filtered through more Renaissance instrumentation. Most of Danna's tracks will also be of interest to those who enjoy Thomas Newman's more intimate earlier scores. On the downside, when things heat up, as in "Red Wine" and "Stilt Walk," we head into waters well explored by the likes of the Media Ventures composers. But in these instances, it's more of an "influence" than all-out copying.  -- Steven A. Kennedy
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The Rules of Attraction *** 1/2

tomandandy

Lion Gate LGR 007

15 tracks - 52:28

Bret Easton Ellis' 1987 novel about hypersexual, drug addicted, amoral kids in college finally makes the leap to the big screen, courtesy of director Roger Avery, the Oscar-winning co-writer of Pulp Fiction. The Rules of Attraction bares a lot of resemblance to that groundbreaking film: innovative camera work, playing loose with time, and strange dialogue. But while Avery's collaboration with Tarantino resulted in fascinating, off-beat characters who you care about (at least as much as you can care about hit men), Ellis' storytelling style is less interested in character and more about attitude. As such, the movie, while inventive and seldom boring, ends up a pointless mess.

Like in Pulp Fiction, the music of Rules takes on a life of its own. While the film is set squarely in the present, the music is more of the '80s, reflective of the book. And just as the mood of the '70s was prevalent in Pulp, the '80s of Rules is organic to the style, narrowing in on the decadence of the decade.

The songs are important to the movie. This is refreshing since most song-driven albums have songs that aren't even in the movie or are played so quickly that they barely register in the scene at all, and yet we still have to sit through them on CD. Here, each song is central to the core of the scene its in, and thus makes a much more rewarding listening experience. So when you hear Love and Rocket's "So Alive," it actually brings you back to the seduction scene with Paul (Ian Somerhalter) and Sean (James Van der Beek). Yaz's "Situation" is the OD scene and Harry Nilsson's "Without You" plays in the most striking and unbearable sequence in the movie. One song missing from the CD is George Michael's "Faith," which plays under a hysterical hotel scene.

As for the score, the duo known as tomandandy offers hyped-up club music that's fun and infectious. There are two setpieces which underscore the best scenes in the movie, and both are fortunately here. The first is their version of "Carol of the Bells," abbreviated on the CD, part of an extended prologue that introduces the characters (along with Avery's first cinematic trick, which is to play certain scenes backwards). The cue somehow has the feel of a song being played backwards, and yet still has a melody all its own. The other tomandandy bonanza is a wild monologue by Victor (Kip Pardue) which perfectly captures the style of Ellis' writing style (basically an unemotional recounting). This goes on for four minutes, and while I don't usually endorse dialogue on score albums, this track is better experienced with the words intact.

The score is represented by only 16 minutes, but this one of those rare song compilation albums where the songs are just as effective and memorable as the score. Avery learned that valuable lesson from Tarantino.  -- Cary Wong
 

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