Truthfully I actually like this theme. Junkie XL incorporates some harmonic devices that Chopin used and I think it works rather nicely. Wish he could have emphasized more of this writing and less of the bombastic drums. Clearly the guy has skill.
Truthfully I actually like this theme. Junkie XL incorporates some harmonic devices that Chopin used and I think it works rather nicely. Wish he could have emphasized more of this writing and less of the bombastic drums. Clearly the guy has skill.
Very much agreed. I'm glad Lukas shared this because I might have ignored it if someone else posted it. Though clearly his mixing at the end when he plays more complex pieces tends towards way too much bass. And that is when he isn't even adding any electronics. But it at least gives me hope that a future release might showcase a strong theme like this in a way that is proper and even old-fashioned.
I went to see Mad Max this weekend. We all know that we should, "Not judge a book by its cover." I've also learned that I should not prejudge a composer because of his name. I kept thinking, "What kind of a composer would name himself Junkie XL and will his music sound like his name? I sort of expected nothing but drums and hip-hop. Duh.
The movie was quite a ride, but I wish it had more Tom Hardy in it. What I was really impressed with were certain parts of the score. It had some rousing cuts and themes and some intimate pieces; overall, the music resonated with the visuals and emotions of the characters.
"What's in a name? A rose by any other name is still a rose."
I went to see Mad Max this weekend. We all know that we should, "Not judge a book by its cover." I've also learned that I should not prejudge a composer because of his name. I kept thinking, "What kind of a composer would name himself Junkie XL and will his music sound like his name? I sort of expected nothing but drums and hip-hop. Duh.
The movie was quite a ride, but I wish it had more Tom Hardy in it. What I was really impressed with were certain parts of the score. It had some rousing cuts and themes and some intimate pieces; overall, the music resonated with the visuals and emotions of the characters.
"What's in a name? A rose by any other name is still a rose."
Indeed. My favorite moment in the score is when the noble theme picks up as the characters are forced to work together during "Brothers in Arms"
It was that moment in the film that sold me on the score.
What hits me is how the simple one-line tune doesn't really carry the distinctiveness of the tune, until the harmonics get added. So it makes me ask how much of the finished idea was already in his head before then.
What hits me is how the simple one-line tune doesn't really carry the distinctiveness of the tune, until the harmonics get added. So it makes me ask how much of the finished idea was already in his head before then.
Yes, thanks to Lucas for sharing. WMB, I thought the very same thing about the melody. When he first played it, I didn't get a sense of where it was going harmonically (as even single lines can). But when he played it harmonized, well then it all made sense. I know he says he started with the melody then fleshed it out, but honestly I think it would have to have come to him with the harmony fairly intact, or at least with the bass line figured out fairly well. It's such a tonal, nineteenth-century melody that not many bass lines would really work with that tune and produce something of that soundworld. That's my guess, anyway.
The theme also seems to channel laments from classical music with its combination of a minor key, slow tempo, and, most importantly, the falling scale in the bass from the tonic down to the dominant. In fact, the opening of the theme sounds very much like Dido's Lament from Purcell's Dido and Aeneas.
