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Another alumni from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Tristram Cary cut his teeth composing film, with The Ladykillers and Quatermass and the pit as fine examples of him being able to tackle “traditional soundtracks”. Quatermass in particular fits Hammer “orchestral horror” mold. That doesn’t mean Cary didn’t indulge into abstract experimentation. Tristram Cary composed and executed the music for…

Isaac Asimov always said that science fiction was a genre that could adapt to any tried and true genre of literature. Time proved him right and his Elijah Baley trilogy consisting of The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, and The Robots of Dawn are a concatenation of a hard boiled detective story and speculative fiction. The uneasy relationship with robots, economic class caps, and population…

Terminator 2: Judgment Day is the definite blueprint of how to make a sequel. Themes from the original are still there, with enough callbacks for the fan, but still original enough to deliver something different. Whereas the doom-laden 1984 classic ended up on a gloomy note, the 1991 sequel leaves the door open, reusing the drive to Cyberdine footage again, with a hopeful Sarah Connor narrating…

Delia Derbyshire was a genius and that’s an understatement. Her work at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop was both creative and challenging, serving both the BBC’s ident for radio and tv broadcasts, and as the recognisable scores for many a show, including of course Doctor Who. Derbyshire’s arrangement of Ron Grainier’s composition is perfect. Field recordings on tape carefully cut and taped…

A movie like The Warriors screams drive-in classic. Perhaps because it was due to my first experience with the film being at a drive in when I was a child. Although sporting all the trimmings of a b-movie feast, Walter Hill’s adaptation of Sol Yorick’s novel is a masterpiece of 70s grit. The oppressive atmosphere of the grimmy city, the unseemly gangs giving chase, and the overall pessimism…

By 1997, Michael Kamen was a well-respected composer in Hollywood. After a strong start by composing arrangements for Pink Floyd, Queen, Tom Petty and many monoliths of classic rock, he crossed over to film scores thanks to The Wall’s soundtrack album. What galvanised his status as a master of suspense and action was the trifecta of Highlander, Die Hard, and Lethal Weapon. These three…

John Frankenheimer’s late-career Ronin is a strange beast. Released in 1998, you could swear it’s a lost film from the 70s. From the muted colours on everyone’s clothes, to the action scenes, it’s a movie that didn’t feel “modern” back then. Sure, they had top of the line equipment (for the era) and tracking a cell phone is a major plot point, but take those away, and it’s a timeless whodunit.…

Musique Concrète is a genre that goes for found sounds and creates soundscapes through manipulation. Add a splash of reverb, reverse the sound, slow it down, add a delay or a chorus, then reverse again. The BBC radiophonic went for this approach, using things such as lamps, bells, and vocals and render all of these into strange atmospheres that confused some, but gave their era as composers a…

I can’t sleep on a moving vehicle. Bus, car, boat, airplane, you name it, if it’s move, I can’t sleep. I might nod, but no real sleep for me. On long flights, I try to catch up with movies that either I missed or didn’t make it to Mexico and I couldn’t be arsed to obtain. The lack of sleep changes my perception of a movie. I can hate something as inoffensive as the flawed Armageddon Time, or I…

Losing. This song’s pure emotion is about losing. Or a phyrric victory if you’re a silicon valley ne’er-do-well. I didn’t know what to expect about a Facebook movie. Never would I expect it to intertwine with my own personal life but that’s how it goes. Sloucher was gaining traction in those days and I was getting promos from labels instead of requesting them. The place was growing, more…

Once the Matrix sequels got announced, the hype exploded in a way only The Phantom Menace had back in those days. The Matrix was a sleeper hit in 99, a cultural watermark from The Wachowskis, whose only directing credit was Bound, a sleazy and slick crime flick. Sure, they had credits for rewrites, like in Richard Donner’s Assassins, but the duo took the scene by storm. I remember just buying…

Outland gets a terrible reputation in many circles. Either these people haven’t rewatched it or simply go by someone else’s critique. I’ve recently rewatched after a few decades (!) and found it entertaining. Yes, it’s High Noon in space but it’s shot quite well and the production design has that “worn future” that both Alien, Silent running, and star wars masterfully did. Sean Connery carries…

The last trip I had with my parents was in 2011. We were in London before taking a bus tour around Great Britain and some parts near Trafalgar Square were closed for the day. On the distance, gaffers and dudes with smoking hot cuppas of tea stood around. One fellow was pointing towards St. James’s park to another fellow. That’s all I saw and thought nothing of it. A year later and The Sweeney…

The early 2010s weren’t good for neither Tom Cruise nor Joseph Kosinski. Cruise’s Day & Knight and both Jack Reacher flicks failed to catch momentum, and Kosinski’s visually impressive Tron Legacy was a box office disappointment (like all Tron movies, so maybe it’s a curse?) When I read that both Cruise and Kosinski would make a film together with music by M83, I was enthralled. Kosinski has a…

Denis Villeneuve’s Sicario was a hard sell in my house. My parents automatically dismissed it as a “racist movie” with stereotypes of Mexico. They thought the same of Soderbergh’s Traffic and I didn’t really insist on them watching the movie. Instead, I ended up in a half empty late function, the way I prefer them. With little to no public, the possibility of some bellend’s phone going off (or…

War movies are a tricky subject. How can you glorify such carnage without feeling remorse? Exploiting human suffering for box office results always felt off and I’m wary of the genre most of the time, even if I’ve indulged into a few of these flicks in the past. The one exception is Terrence Malick’s adaptation of James Jones’ 1962 novel. In contrast to Andrew Marton’s 1964 version, Malick stays…

Maudlin week part #7: We’ve been here before and it’s all meta. I leave Manotas by the bar. He can manage the drunken revelers with the premixed drinks I’ve left him, and if not, he’s clever enough to do his own drinks and keep ’em inebriated. Jess hasn’t been around for a while and she wants to talk. We find a spot and it’s a wonderful view. The walk up the hill on this dang street was murder,…