 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I'm on board for this. Even if it turns out to be mid-tier Lalo, the era and the genre have me convinced. Plus I've had wine.
Enjoy the wine and keep taking the tablets . Mid-tier Lalo is brilliant and better than most of the garbage scored today.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Has anyone who has purchased a CD and received the digital download had a chance to play it? We would love to hear your opinions!
Ford A. Thaxton
Lalo probably wrote a better score than the film warranted (I’ve never seen the film, or even heard of it before), and I imagine a 40 piece orchestra was quite generous on a TV budget. It sounds good anyway 
It’s clearly a Lalo score from the beginning, employing his usual ethnic percussion, high strings, and cimbalom flavours. A lot of the music is for suspense scenes I would guess, and for atmosphere and ‘sneaking around’, since there is little out and out action here (even ‘The Big Chase’ cue isn’t what you typically might expect for a chase cue, although that’s good really in some ways…). The Schifrin brass sound is still clearly on display too though.
Some of the music reminds me a bit of his score to Escape to Athena, and possibly a bit of SkyRiders too.
It’s so good to be able to hear new Lalo Schifrin music at a time when he’s not actually being best served on CD. It’s not top drawer Schifrin by any means, but he provides the necessary colour, rhythm and dramatic backup to what’s going on in the movie – and it’s not the droning sound design you get from a lot of today’s TV scores.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm veering towards what Simon posted, but not even as enthusiastic as that.
I'm afraid this one just doesn't do it for me. It's a pretty uninteresting listen. But I don't say that to damn the score, but to question why some things just don't work for us/me. That's interesting in itself, or isn't it? I haven't seen the film, I don't know how the score works in context (I'm sure it does), but as a standalone listen it bores me.
I like the rambunctuous jungle trek music, with shades of Oliver Nelson's/ Count Basie's SKULLDUGGERY. The Main and End Titles are kind of generic, but I'm fond of the little "Regal English"(?) touch which appears fleetingly. The bulk of the score however is a bit of a chore.
And why is that? I. Don't. Know. But isn't it fascinating to get to the core of "why" we like things, or are ambivalent to them? Isn't it?
This score, with its predominance of tablas and other usually exciting percussion, puts me in mind of snake charmer music, or the music which might accompany someone under hypnosis at Butlins. It's almost deliberately unexciting. It's not really that tense either, because the end result would probably be just the "victim" snapping out of it, then getting on with his/her life. It's good to hear the Schifrin devices of the high see-sawing strings and the octave-jumping double bass, but it never culminates in anything interesting. It's not even as interesting as being hypnotised for an hour. It should be mesmerising, but I was almost completely not mesmered from beginning to end.
But I'm going to smoke a joint tomorrow (it's Wednesday!) and see if I'm more receptive. I'll let you know what happens, if anything.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Just received this--and The Night Digger--today. I'll report back when I've heard it. This will be a new Lalo experience for me.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
