LSH

Great photo!

Theremin? Rather than focusing on what we don't like, let's talk about what we'd like to hear more of; I have a long list.

You... what?

Now that I've given it another full run through, I can safely say that this is my favourite of the three. I prefer its more downbeat, patient and dramatic approach. Lots of noodly underscore - normally a criticism - but it's something Howard does so well. He has always been able to keep my interest with this shit. Solid 4/5.

It's nice to see JNH do a big TV project. Hopefully we'll get something really expansive.... on a CD. He's also doing a few other things for the small screen.... another series, can't remember the name of it.... something for Netflix. A period thing. EDIT: This And that ILM documentary, which is finally revealed as existing.

Marianelli is re-uniting with Travis Knight for his upcoming stop-motion animated feature Wildwood. https://filmmusicreporter.com/2022/05/24/dario-marianelli-to-score-travis-knights-wildwood/ I'm always excited for a new Marianelli score, particularly with this director; I absolutely loved his score for Kubo And The Two Strings, and Bumblebee was a surprisingly good effort (and a nice departure from the Jablonsky Transformers sound).

Had a weird urge to revisit this... and it's one that I seem to appreciate more with each, admittedly sporadic, listen. The battle waltz stuff and the Honor theme are all great but I do love the darker, melodramatic material for Commodus' antics. Am I Not Merciful? is a fantastic cue.

I wonder if James Newton Howard will utilise Horner's theme in any way?

Depeche Mode keyboardist Andy Fletcher has died, aged 60.

Yes indeed. I have to commend the creators of the show for consistently balancing such a variety of moods over the course of an hour. That was like a roller-coaster.

Crikey! What a show. I had a good feeling that this mid-season finale would end with another confrontation between Jimmy and Lalo... but I didn't expect it to manifest itself like this! That was brutal.

Do you think we'll be shown the theme before the premiere? I don't have Disney+ and I'm not that desperate to watch the series on premiere anyway. I'll wait.

I'm still using a 2013 iMac, upgraded to 32GB RAM, samples always streamed from SSDs... and I do completely fine, even with heavy sessions of 200+ tracks. As long as you efficiently bus your reverbs and effects, purge samples when desperately pushed for RAM, bounce when super-desperate, you're laughing. Out of interest, can I ask what libraries you all use in your templates?

Best thing he's done, IMO. "Stick to what you're good at" springs to mind. Not as creatively expansive as the sequels, or Powell's concurrent animation efforts, proved to be but I always find myself coming back to this for its smaller scale charm. The almost 7-minute finale of The Water Recedes / Mammoths / With The Herd / Into The Sunset is what I mostly return to. Always coaxes a smile... and very often a tear. This is also the first film that I took my little sister to see at the cinema so the music holds a very special place for both of us. She is not a film score maniac like me but she still cries when she hears it.

*cries in Joe Kraemer*