Just saw it today. It works well with the film. Nice propulsive action cues. Sadly Banos does not get credit during the Main Title sequence (rare that you actually have them nowadays). You have to scan the end credit scroll to find his name.
Just saw it today. It works well with the film. Nice propulsive action cues. Sadly Banos does not get credit during the Main Title sequence (rare that you actually have them nowadays). You have to scan the end credit scroll to find his name.
Are you sure? I could swear I saw his credit at the beginning, because I was actively noticing how great the score was and thinking about how rare that has become.
Isn't there, on the album, a 9+ min. piece at the end? I like Banos, and the prospect of that cue being a knock down/ drag out memorable thing is enticing- did this stand out for you guys?
I used to see Banos as a shining bastion for the future of the art form, and love a good deal of his Spanish scoring efforts. I'm now beginning to see him as an unfortunate exemplar of the art form's degradation - A talented and able composer who seems to simply be cashing checks now and churning out artless, joyless noise bereft of real musical craft or voice, so as not to ruffle the feathers of tone-deaf directors and producers who engage him.
After EVIL DEAD, OLDBOY and REGRESSION (which, while maintaining certain cliches of their respective genres, have at their high points Banos' brilliance on ample display, especially his layered and gorgeously dramatic string writing) it really has been down hill from there - for me at least. HEART OF THE SEA and RISEN in particular seemed to be spectacularly squandered wastes of what should have been tremendous musical canvases for him.
Talent of course doesn't necessarily "die" but acquiescing to Hollywood politics and musical trends certainly are a special kind of poison to contend with, and I sincerely hope that I'll be proven wrong with one of his project sooner than later and he'll come back full force with something mind-blowing. This doesn't sound like it'll be it.
I have to say I do agree with you. I still could find some really nice stuff in Regression and even in The Heart of The Sea. And I m a fan of a big majority of his scores til Evil Dead. I ve just received my copy of "Las 13 rosas" which is just an amazing composition. But yes now he sounds more and more generic, even if he always got nice orchestrations, a real orchestra... but yes it sounds generic. I ll wait to hear the full score anyway, we ll see...
I sample cues from almost every new Roque Banos score, and I agree that his recent Hollywood work has unexpectedly adhered to numerous contemporary trends that weren't even hinted at in his scoring a few years ago. After "Evil Dead," which was a powerful and interesting score, the last thing I expected was a string of Remote Control-sounding scores (I don't wish to imply that all Remote Control scores aren't my cup of tea, because that isn't true, but it's a very specific sound and approach, and one I never associated with Banos before he suddenly started composing like this - I never would've expected him, at any point, to sound more like Remote Control than himself).
I think Banos is a very talented composer at his very best, but his Hollywood career hasn't yielded his finest work. My favorite score of his is still the first one I heard, "The Machinist."
I think Banos is a very talented composer at his very best, but his Hollywood career hasn't yielded his finest work. My favorite score of his is still the first one I heard, "The Machinist."
Dylan, if you haven't heard them, you simply must check out SECOND SKIN, GOD IS ON THE AIR, FRAGILES, THE LAST CIRCUS, BACK ROADS and HEART OF THE WARRIOR among others. Knowing how similar our tastes are, I think you'll really enjoy these effortsl. Even OLDBOY's most dramatic moments are superb exampled of what this guy can do when he's allowed to let loose with an orchestra, and in EVIL DEAD I was just floored by the gutwrenching beauty and pathos of that "Come Back to Me" cue - I was simply shocked to be hearing such emotive, operatic scoring in a modern-day, studio-produced horror film.
As for his recent Zimmer-fied sound - Isn't it obvious? It's all been out of an ernest desire to please Ron Howard, who has proven as a director time and again to simply follow the musical trends of the given day (for good or bad). He would have used Zimmer if he could have; the only reason Banos was hired on HEART OF THE SEA was to secure a Spanish tax incentive related to post-production, and Banos came with Zimmer's recommendation. The rest is history. But the bigger overarching reason for this change in sound, I suspect, is more cynical - and that's to secure work in Hollywood, on big mainstream movies, and reap the benefits both financial and "critical" that come with such career visibility.
It's the same reason you've seen Benjamin Wallfisch go from writing REAL music like this:
To utter nonsense like this:
... With smiles on their faces all the while, if not whilst doling out sickeningly effusive praise for Hans His Almighty on social media. If any of these young-ish guys were to publicly condemn this sound or style, and criticize the directors who demand of it, their careers in Hollywood would be cut very short and they'd be outed as "difficult".
Ultimately it comes down to directors and producers - not composers - who need to change the game by requesting different, more bold musical choices, and knowing how to identify composers who are the "real deal" - and letting them run with their dramatic and musical instincts.
Sadly those samples are not promising at all. Sounds like a faceless retread of the less interesting OLDBOY material. Only the last track seems like it could build to something, but the sample cuts out before it does. I'll probably still check this out (those are some lengthy tracks!) to see if there's enough really good material to build a custom 15-20 min suite, as I did with Oldboy, but I'm not holding my breath for excellence here.
Do filmmakers really not find this earnest, staccato chopping sound incredibly cornball and hackneyed? It just sounds so... Dumb.
Sadly those samples are not promising at all. Sounds like a faceless retread of the less interesting OLDBOY material. Only the last track seems like it could build to something, but the sample cuts out before it does. I'll probably still check this out (those are some lengthy tracks!) to see if there's enough really good material to build a custom 15-20 min suite, as I did with Oldboy, but I'm not holding my breath for excellence here.
Do filmmakers really not find this earnest, staccato chopping sound incredibly cornball and hackneyed? It just sounds so... Dumb.
No they don't.
There are some tracks on the album from what I've heard on Spotify.
Cut from the same cloth as OLDBOY, minus the sweeping grandeur that score touches a few times. Cues build and build for five plus minutes and right when you think Banos is about to rip loose with one of those gorgeous, redemptive string crescendos he writes so brilliantly... Nada.
It's an aimless score filled with the exact cliches you'd expect: Chugging electronics and slamming e-percussion, pulsing bass, racing string lines with vague brass chords occasionally stacked atop them, no woodwinds at all, slurring electronics for scenes of suspense or peril... Not an original idea on display. And it just goes ON AND ON, five minute cue stacked on top of five minute cue, all sounding exactly the same throughout shy of the opener and closer.
Wasted opportunity, as we all suspected. Damn shame.
Cut from the same cloth as OLDBOY, minus the sweeping grandeur that score touches a few times. Cues build and build for five plus minutes and right when you think Banos is about to rip loose with one of those gorgeous, redemptive string crescendos he writes so brilliantly... Nada.
It's an aimless score filled with the exact cliches you'd expect: Chugging electronics and slamming e-percussion, pulsing bass, racing string lines with vague brass chords occasionally stacked atop them, no woodwinds at all, slurring electronics for scenes of suspense or peril... Not an original idea on display. And it just goes ON AND ON, five minute cue stacked on top of five minute cue, all sounding exactly the same throughout shy of the opener and closer.
Wasted opportunity, as we all suspected. Damn shame.
I wouldn't call it aimless. It worked very well in the movie and that is what a score should do in the first place. As a standalone listen, that's another matter.
I sample cues from almost every new Roque Banos score, and I agree that his recent Hollywood work has unexpectedly adhered to numerous contemporary trends that weren't even hinted at in his scoring a few years ago. After "Evil Dead," which was a powerful and interesting score, the last thing I expected was a string of Remote Control-sounding scores (I don't wish to imply that all Remote Control scores aren't my cup of tea, because that isn't true, but it's a very specific sound and approach, and one I never associated with Banos before he suddenly started composing like this - I never would've expected him, at any point, to sound more like Remote Control than himself).
I think Banos is a very talented composer at his very best, but his Hollywood career hasn't yielded his finest work. My favorite score of his is still the first one I heard, "The Machinist."
Well, this doesn't take brain surgery to figure out - he is following the temp-tracks of these films. Hollywood sucking every ounce of unique creativity out of anyone who wants to make a living there. Can't blame the composer. It's happened to everyone who showed talent once upon a time. Noxious.
Agreed. If you want to hear proper, old-fashioned (!) developed and theme driven scores, Europe and Asia are the places to go for your scores now. Even Young and Horner moved there (not literally) to get to write scores that merited their talents. I wish others would too. Oh to hear a MONKEY KING or WOLF TOTEM from other Hollywood composers either hardly/not working (Holdridge, Eidelman, Broughton, D Newman, Scott etc) or the ones churning out on-demand dross.
moved there (not literally) to get to write scores that merited their talents.