2015…The Other Scores

Vector 2015 Happy New Year background
Filmic Tracks

Now that the Oscars have signaled more or less, the end of the awards season I would like to list a few scores which either didn’t appear in any nomination lists or if they did, didn’t get the gong they deserved. It was a strange year for scores in as much as it started so slow and then [as always I guess] they came in their droves at the end of the year. Comedy scores were many and there was so much good stuff in the endless TV scores on offer.

I have waxed lyrically about some of these scores in the Reviews section of this blog and played tracks from all scores on my Filmic radio show on  Radio Nowhere so if you have some time on your hands and a comfy seat check out some of these brilliant scores which didn’t get the attention they deserved.

In no particular order:-

Ant Man  – Christophe Beck
The Man From Uncle – Daniel Pemberton
The Fantastic Four – Marco Beltrami & Philip Glass
Aesino’s Inocentes – Pablo Cervantes
Broken Horses – John Debney
Desert Dancer – Benjamin Wallfisch
Far From The Madding Crowd – Craig Armstrong
Lost Rover – Johnny Jewell
A Little Chaos – Peter Gregson
Listen Up Philip – Keegan DeWitt
Ex Machina – Ben Salisbury & Geoff Barrow
The Duke of Burgundy – Cat’s Eye’s
Gold Coast – Johan Caroe & Lasse Martinussen & Angelo Badalameti

 

 

 

 

 

ANT-MAN by Christophe Beck – Soundtrack Review

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Well what fun this is, just a short way into Track 1, the Ant-Man Theme, and you get these short orchestral punches, very loud and with such a very quiet start I guess it’s sending a message which is Ant-Man is big! No menace, just positive punches and in those short notes such deliberation!
A little menace pops up in Honey I Shrunk Myself [great play on words] in it’s wiry strings, you definitely tell something is afoot. Ant 247 feels a little bit like a Mission Impossible cue but the Ant-Man Theme pushes through mainly in the brass. Paraponera Clavata [meaning Bullet Ant] has a great jungle feel to it. San Fransisco 1987 is beautifully illustrated and is extremely sad.
I am always going about the lack of bongo drums in scores, in the 60’s and 70’s they were a ‘must use’ – and here they are in this score – yehah!
Here we are with the fun aspect again with I’ll Call Him Anthony, and somehow First Mission, which is an action cue, Beck injects fun into this as well mainly due to the terrific percussion and brass. Old Man Have Safe is another variation of the films theme, here you get tiny musical darts thrown at you and the whole cue has a real ‘battling hero’ feel about it complete with clashing cymbals.
CrossTech Break-In has a nice techno bleep running through it together with shadowy violins, rhythm sticks and yes… those bongo drums. Great fun. As is Tales To Astonish which is like a surfing track with guitars and trumpets. If ants danced they would me dancing to this cue.And do not ignore the track Borombon by Camilo Azuquita, it’s very cool.

Overall this score delivers in glorifying a hero, giving lots of thrills and is one of the strongest soundtracks in the genre so far this year.

1. Theme from Ant-Man
2. Honey, I Shrunk Myself
3. Escape from Jail
4. Ant 247
5. Paraponera Clavata
6. San Francisco, 1987
7. I’ll Call Him Antony
8. Tiny Telepathy
9. First Mission
10. Signal Decoy
11. Old Man Have Safe
12. Pym’s Lab
13. Antfiltration
14. Your Mom Died a Hero
15. Scott Surfs on Ants
16. The Water Main
17. CrossTech Break-In
18. Into the Hornet’s Nest
19. Become the Hero
20. Insecticide
21. A Center for Ants!
22. Cross Gets Cross
23. Fight of the Bumblebee
24. Ants on a Train
25. Small Sacrifice
26. About Damn Time
27. Tales To Astonish
28. Borombon – Camilo Azuquita
29 Escape – Roy Ayers
30. I’m Ready – Commodores