What Is The Last Score You Listened To? (older scores)

[publicist 4,643]

Don't do that. If publicist sees too many people enjoy this score, he'll start trashing it!

'UNDUE'!

[KK 3,307]

Life of Pi is an enjoyable score.

It's a great score that really shows off Danna's skill with intelligently integrating ethnic colours.

Currently giving Robert Folk's There Be Dragons. Great score!

[crocodile 8,017]

Die Hard With A Vengeance by Michael Kamen

To my surprise, the score is much more original than the film would lead you to believe. It is also quite different in tone. It feels more delicate, slightly melancholic. More autumnal as compared to the Christmassy first one, and all out snow-blizzard-like second one (except maybe for the sleigh bells of Santa Claus cue). We're back to more suspense-driven music after all out assault of Die Hard 2. A lot of in jokes: Ode to Joy gets even more interesting variations this time and Kamen also quotes Johnny Comes Marching Home. Both of these themes are often stated in counterpoint to each other, which seems like a nice connection between two Gruber villains. The liner notes mention that they also serve as a sort of tribute to Stanley Kubrick (to his films A Clockwork Orange and Dr Strangelove), which is also confirmed by a short snipped of Daisy (of 2001: A Space Odyssey fame). There are some Wagnerian nods as well (from both Tristan and Isolde and The Ride of the Valkyries). I really like the percussive Taxi Chase, a deviation from the usual sound. Kamen has a wonderful musical sense of humour, and this series is a perfect example. They are the kind of score you wouldn't hear in a modern action thriller. Even Marco Beltrami's Die Hard 4.0 score was mostly dead serious.

While not as effortlessly fun on album as the recent Die Hard 2: Die Harder (due to its more suspensful nature), it nevertheless belongs to any collection. Thriller scoring at its finest. And I'm so glad we got all three scores within a year.

Karol

[crocodile 8,017]

The Untouchables by Ennio Morricone

I have to say that Disc 1 55-minute presentation makes for a very fine album. Not too long, just perfect length. The original album felt a bit more like European suite-like approach to scoring, which is fine. But here you have get a chance to focus more on the storytelling. And it works very well on disc. The updated sound is a welcome as well. Never actually got around to buy this score (as the album availability seemed to be quite elusive), so I'm really glad I bought this superb release. The score itself is a classic that needs no introduction.

One thing: Randy Edelman performing Ness/Malone theme as a love ballad seems quite strange...

Karol

[crocodile 8,017]

Home Alone 2: Lost In New York by John Williams

The album is very much in line with the previous LLL Home Alone release, both in terms of presentation and design. The score itself might be a bit more enjoyable than the first, simply because it contains much more energetic material, the New York setting asks for a bit bigger and broader palette. It also contains the beautiful adult choral version of Star of Bethlehem. The two new songs are nice as well. The additional material is not all that essential, as they are mostly piano source cues, one curious Alan Menken song, and the original compilation album version of Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas (with slightly different different intro, which is identical to the orchestra only version). The only curious inlclusion is a 40-second theme for a TV game show that Williams composed. So anyone who owns the Varese Album doesn't necessarily need to update that album. The notes are fantastic, but that's not exactly a surprise. It's Mike Matessino after all!

As far as the mastering goes, the liner notes mention that this "revised" album "retains the composer's approved mastering and track titles, while adding some previously unreleased material". So I guess it's essentially the same as Varese's Deluxe Edition.

Karol

[alicebrallice 134]

NP:

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[alicebrallice 134]

shush, leblanc.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[chuck 154]

The Lion In Winter - John Barry.

[Incanus 5,715]

Home Alone by John Williams

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York by John Williams

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey by Howard Shore

[chuck 154]

Listened to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey as well.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I love this woman.

He he he...

[alicebrallice 134]

don't you dare...

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Backing away....

[alicebrallice 134]

NP:

[Omen II 1,235]

Great choice, Alice. The Constant Nymph contains perhaps my favourite piece of music by Korngold, the tone poem Tomorrow. Listening to it always cheers me up if I've had a rough day. I saw it performed in a concert by the London Philharmonic Orchestra a few years ago at the Royal Festival Hall and it was so lovely.

[crocodile 8,017]

King Kong by John Barry

Die Hards (yeah all three) by Michael Kamen

The Hobbit by Howard Shore

Karol

[KK 3,307]

"The Grid" - Koyaanisqatsi (Philip Glass)

My head's spinning right now....so many appreggios...

[Incanus 5,715]

"The Grid" - Koyaanisqatsi (Philip Glass)

My head's spinning right now....so many appreggios...

Philip Glass can do that to you.

Close your eyes, take a deep breath and take hold of the door frame or table edge and steady yourself. The spinning will pass in time.

[lonzoe 18]

[KK 3,307]

Kundun (Philip Glass)

Working on something, and often minimalism helps me concentrate when I'm stuck. So I decided to listen to pull a marathon of the master himself. I'm not a big Glass fan, but hey, he has his moments.

Kundun is one of his more "unique" efforts (you don't see that word often with minimalism). Oh sure, it still uses the same overly-familiar figures, but the ethnic colours are interesting to listen to. And unlike most of his works, I find it easier to grasp some sense of development here. I especially enjoy how his motifs come together in a resonating harmonic finale in "Escape to India" in a much more appealing and less irritating fashion when compared to the similarly composed "The Grid". The appregios aren't as dizzying as they were in Koyaaniqatsi.

Now while I enjoy the ambiance, the score rarely lifts itself from the murky, subdued Glass structures. Whats more, the tracks always seem to have abrupt ends, once again bringing out a major lack of any sense of direction. Like many of Glass' past works, they're just not as polished as his definitive work for Notes on a Scandal turned out to be. There are some wonderful light, airy mystical moments in cues like "Reting's Eyes", but they don't compare the menacing personality of Notes on a Scandal (my favourite Glass score, hopefully I'll get to it in this marathon).

Still, "Escape to India" is a great piece to listen to. And despite its inherent simplicity, I find Glass simple lines for the woodwinds to be quite beautiful.

I've never seen the film, but I heard that this score works wonders in context. I'd love to see it.

Rating: * * *

[crocodile 8,017]

The two Philip Glass albums I like are The Hours and Naqoyqatsi. The first one just works brilliantly with the film and the other one has Yo-Yo Ma, who brings some emotion to the otherwise mechanical trilogy.

The Untouchables by Ennio Morricone.

Karol

[KK 3,307]

I found Naqoyqatsi a bit dull, although Yo-Yo Ma does make it interesting at times. Not as good as Notes on a Scandal though. How much of Philip Glass have you heard by the way Karol?

[crocodile 8,017]

Well, not much. The Qatsi trilogy. Itaipu/Canyon, Low Symphony, maybe few more albums. I just find him quite uninteresting after few albums.

Karol

[KK 3,307]

His work does get quite dull. I mean you can only hear the same appreggio so many times right?

But I think you should try Notes on a Scandal. It's minimalism with real personality.

[crocodile 8,017]

Actually a lot of people praise this one. I'll give it a try.

Karol

[KK 3,307]

It's brilliant in film too.

[indy4 155]

Kundun is one of his more "unique" efforts (you don't see that word often with minimalism).

Say what you want about Philip Glass, but there's nothing about minimalism that is inherently unoriginal. Compare minimalistic works by John Adams, Philip Glass, Alberto Ginastera, Hans Zimmer, John Williams. . . .minimalism can cover quite a bit of ground.

[KK 3,307]

I was never really referring to originality so much as I was to the ability of making minimalistic music have a distinct personality of its own. Often much of Glass' music comes off as more of the same.

Also, most of those works you mentioned barely scratch the surface of true minimalism. Heck even Philip Glass only writes pseudo-minimalism.

[indy4 155]

I was never really referring to originality so much as I was to the ability of making minimalistic music have a distinct personality of its own. Often much of Glass' music comes off as more of the same.

I'm not talking about Glass, I'm talking about minimalism in general. I'll concede that Glass has a very distinct style (although I think he gets a bad rap--he's done some really cool, "unique" stuff also).

[Marian Schedenig 8,206]

Heck even Philip Glass only writes pseudo-minimalism.

He also doesn't consider himself a minimalist.

[KK 3,307]

That's because he really isn't these days. He sort of left minimalism back in the late 80s. He does exactly what he says he does, write music with "repetitive structures".

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Been listening to Season 6 of LOST for the past couple days. Sublime.

Could be my favorite musical body of work ever.

[Jilal 569]

The fanfares and marches from Ben-Hur. There's nothing better than a Rozsa fanfare!

[Wojo 2,453]

I am REALLY glad that I picked up Bear's "Human Target" when LLL offered it for $10 last month or so. The main theme is infectious and superbly woven through all of the different action and romantic moments in the score. People might dismiss it as only being a television score, but there is some writing on par with great action movies. I bought it after I spent $70 to complete my Bear BSG collection, but this is far easier to get into than all of those scores.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

It was one of my first McCreary purchases I think. Really loved the main title and bought it based off that.

[Taikomochi 1,136]

Been listening to Season 6 of LOST for the past couple days. Sublime.

Could be my favorite musical body of work ever.

I would love it, and it would be one of my favorite things ever, but "The Last Episodes" mixing is kind of messed up. There is a ton of clipping, and it's all I can hear when I listen to it. It irks the fuck out of me because it is an unequivocally excellent piece of television scoring. I just can't stand to listen to it...

[Koray Savas 2,251]

I don't even know what clipping sounds like, so I'm good.

[Taikomochi 1,136]

I actually didn't either, and for a long time just thought it was my ears as I had a pretty heavy cold when I got the album. I bought the CD and heard it, then downloaded it from other sources, and still heard it. It's weird because I can't hear it on the bonus tracks on the first album, but those same tracks on "The Last Episodes"(especially "The Hole Shebang") sound awful on the second album. I'm certain it is the mixing.

I mean, here is the waveform. The red lines are the clipping that Audacity detects:

That's really fucking bad, and I am not the type of person to notice these things, so I'm shocked nobody else has.

[KK 3,307]

Ode to Death by Gustav Holst.

Truly one of the most beautiful pieces written by the man. Takes me away each time.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

I actually didn't either, and for a long time just thought it was my ears as I had a pretty heavy cold when I got the album. I bought the CD and heard it, then downloaded it from other sources, and still heard it. It's weird because I can't hear it on the bonus tracks on the first album, but those same tracks on "The Last Episodes"(especially "The Hole Shebang") sound awful on the second album. I'm certain it is the mixing.

I mean, here is the waveform. The red lines are the clipping that Audacity detects:

That's really fucking bad, and I am not the type of person to notice these things, so I'm shocked nobody else has.

Okay but what is it exactly? I've seen people complaining about it on certain scores every now and then, but never understood the insane ramblings of audiophiles.

[Taikomochi 1,136]

I actually didn't either, and for a long time just thought it was my ears as I had a pretty heavy cold when I got the album. I bought the CD and heard it, then downloaded it from other sources, and still heard it. It's weird because I can't hear it on the bonus tracks on the first album, but those same tracks on "The Last Episodes"(especially "The Hole Shebang") sound awful on the second album. I'm certain it is the mixing.

I mean, here is the waveform. The red lines are the clipping that Audacity detects:

That's really fucking bad, and I am not the type of person to notice these things, so I'm shocked nobody else has.

Okay but what is it exactly? I've seen people complaining about it on certain scores every now and then, but never understood the insane ramblings of audiophiles.

I am definitely no audiophile - I honestly have a hard time distinguishing like 192 mp3 from lossless.

Well, technically speaking, and I'm probably not the best person to explain this, it's when the audio on a file is mixed too loud, going outside the limit, which causes certain frequencies to be muted. I'm sure I explained it incorrectly, but maybe you already knew what it was.

But when I listen to it, it sounds almost like this weird crackling. I'm not sure exactly how to describe it. It's really annoying, though.

[publicist 4,643]

Clipping occurs when the signal is restricted by the range of a chosen representation - i. e. you limit the waveform and cut up the frequencies above and below a certain level. Simply speaking, the recording CAN sound very loud on every level even for a single oboe line (loudness war) robbing it of its inherent dynamic which may cause some audio gear to fuck up, especially the expensive one.

Also, the reverse is possible: a very dynamic recording where one really loud passage goes into peak overdrive and is cut up, which may be the easiest form to detect: mostly it occurs as a crackling bass or some kind of short-lived distortion.

All in all, there is no 'clipping' as such, it has different incarnations for each mastering choice.

[Faleel 5,357]

ROTK

[crocodile 8,017]

The Master by Jonny Greenwood

Karol

[indy4 155]

I had a dream where Koray was posting in this thread, nagging people to post more often. That is all.

[crocodile 8,017]

Yeah, he was trying to perform inception on you. But he doesn't get that the idea must grow naturally, because your subsconcious will reject it. He's didn't pay attention, obviously.

Karol

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[crocodile 8,017]

Silly, silly KoKo.

Karol