Film Music Free Friday: The Confederacy of Online Music Store Dunces

I wrote this some time ago on Facebook to my loyal friends, but am sad to report that the situation is the same, TWO YEARS LATER. Ho hum.

I'd like to say this will be an hilarious Charlie Brooker-esque rant, but it won't be hilarious, but I've thinking, why is it that music downloading is so idiotically implemented? With the music industry banging on and on and ON about all the money it's apparently losing from illegal downloading, why do they insist on making legal downloading MORE difficult and arcane than buying CDs. I should add that the music industry's view that one illegal download = one lost sale is utter bullshit, but that's another matter.

Two fine examples. The iTunes store. As most people know, I'm happily suckered into Mac using and have an iPhone, play all my music through iTunes and generally bang on about Apple slightly too much (although less than I used to). Having said that, the iTunes store is ridiculous. In the grand tradition of letters to Points of View, why oh why are there countries? How come you can't buy ALL albums in ANY country? Surely the whole point of an online music store is that you can buy from wherever you happen to from the comfort of your own computer desk? What moron decided that I can't buy things that are only on the US store (or whatever)? How is this progress? Even more stupid is Amazon. I can buy any CD from the US Amazon store, yet I can't download from the US Amazon mp3 store? What kind of crazy dumb fuck thought that one up? This was double annoying as the album I wanted doesn't appear to have received a CD release so I just have to wait (or download it illegally) and find out whether they can be bothered to either put it on CD or add it to the Amazon UK store.

Varese Sarabande have released a number of their hard to find/out of print back catalogue items to the US iTunes store (the double disc release of Goldsmith's terrific Lionheart, for example). Fortunately, I have a friend with a US store account who bought it for me. You know, pay money for music. Imagine that?! Of course, if I didn't have such a friend, I'd not have been able so Varese would have lost out on a little cash which can go towards their superb release programme. I could gripe that Varese themselves could put the music on the UK store, but frankly it shouldn't be an issue. It should be "the music is on the iTunes store" and you buy it from wherever you live in your local currency and with local taxes applied. Yes, I agree they need to know where you live, but that should just be for tax reasons etc. Surely online music stores are a great way of making money from back catalogues, especially in obscure music genres such as film music where it could take a while for the label to make its money back, but make it easier for the few thousand hardcore fans to spend and surely they will.

Although a rather more parochial concern, technically you aren't allowed to use the iTunes store in Guernsey. Something to do with VAT (and Apple being lazy as hell, frankly) and they are slowly closing the workarounds. The best bet is now to use a UK friend's address, but presumably they'll work out how to stop that. OK, offshore jurisdictions don't constitute a huge slice of their market, but I'd wager that per person, the average Guernsey person would spend more than the average UK person simply because Guernsey is a generally wealthier place per person.

I was about to write an enthusiastic polemic to Spotify, which strikes me as the most likely way forward for music ownership - online subscription and you just choose what you want from a vast online library - but even that is country specific. Still, as a legal way to sample music, share it and so forth, it's a superb service. It's how I imagined listening to music would be in the "future", although they need to get it in lossless, with gapless playback and ensure albums don't "disappear" randomly. Bloody copyright laws and stupid record companies seem to ensure this happens from time to time when they don't want their product sullied by being on a free, but legal service... perhaps they want it all on wax cylinders where they can fiddle with their handlebar moustaches and doff their caps to one another while the peasants lap up this "hip hop" music.

So, I ask again (for no real reason), how can it be so easy to buy a CD from whatever country you want yet if you want to download or play it online, it's made so much harder? If they want to combat illegal downloading, surely they should make it as easy as possible and with as wide a selection as possible. Plus, it wouldn't go amiss for them not to screw over certain places by charging more in one country than another. I'm reliably informed that it's not Apple who impose the country specific format, although given their market share, they should be forcing the record companies into the 21st century and trying to enforce some sense onto them. They don't seem that desperate to do anything much to change things, but we can only hope. Like Obi Wan Kenobi.

Film Music Free Friday: Reboot the Music Part 1

With so many film franchises getting booted and rebooted, made and remade, the film music fan is invariably going to watch with interest who is going to take over the scoring reins. It can be difficult to separate sequels from reboots, but I'll be deliberately vague and arbitrarily decide what counts and what doesn't. That seems fair...

It was the discovery that Patrick Doyle is to score the upcoming reboot of the Planet of the Apes series that prompted this column. This is one series that began with a much loved and critically acclaimed score by Jerry Goldsmith. The sequels largely ditched what Goldsmith did with the original and went their own way, even when Goldsmith himself returned to the series for Escape from the Planet of the Apes. Wikipedia claims that the pending Rise of the Apes is a sequel to the original franchise, sidestepping the Tim Burton remake of 2001. For all that was wrong with the film, Danny Elfman did some fine work, with suitably elemental percussion and brass, even if it doesn't reach the iconoclastic status of Goldsmith's original. I can't even conceive a Doyle score for a Planet of the Apes film, even if the concept (apes on present day Earth) is rather different. Should be interesting.

Jerry Goldsmith's was once again followed when The Omen was remade in 2006 (and presumably with the intention to produce a new series, which never materialised), whereby Marco Beltrami supplied the music. Where Elfman did his own thing, so too did Beltrami but with considerably less success. Elfman's Apes score may be nothing like Goldsmith's, but it apes (haha) the spirit of the original and refashions it in his own distinctive musical voice. However, Beltrami does little of interest for the Omen remake. It's just standard 2000's horror scoring that doesn't even attempt to homage or somehow reference the original. Same goes for Angelo Badalamenti's score to the remake of The Wicker Man which is modern horror dross, instead of the imaginative use of pseudo folk employed by Paul Giovanni for the cult 70's original.

Comic book character franchises seem to be rebooted every few years these days. After one good to great original, the sequels tend to start cancelling themselves out, notably Superman, Batman and Spider-Man, at least after the first sequel. Third time is rarely a charm. Technically, Tim Burton's Batman was a reboot of the original TV series and spin off movie, although aside from the character names and situations, they might as well be a separate franchise. Having said that, Burton's film is as comic book as the original, but with an entirely different tone. Elfman's music is serious without taking things seriously and the main theme is still one of his most famous and memorable. When Joel Schumacher took over for the second sequel, Elliot Goldenthal took over scoring duties and upped the wackiness to dizzying new heights. Goldenthal has always struck me as a rather serious composer so it's almost a surprise to see him on a film like Batman Forever and the celluloid atrocity that was Batman & Robin.

Since everyone else realised that, while Batman Forever was passably fun, Batman & Robin was beyond redemption so it had to wait for Christopher Nolan's artful and deeply serious reboot. Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard formed an unlikely collaboration to compose the score which is about as tune free as film music gets. The main theme is essentially two notes played with enough orchestra, synths and percussion that is required to make it seem meaningful. I won't quite say drivel. OK. I will. Drivel. I doubt the upcoming finale to the trilogy will change approach much. If that's the end of Nolan's contribution to the series, one wonders whether someone else will take over or Batman will hang up his cape for a few years. Then again, given the acclaim of Nolan's films (somewhat unwarranted from where I was sitting), any reboot is going to have to be pretty bloody amazing. Unless they get Joel Schumacher back.

Men, both Super and Spider are considered in Part 2.

Film Music Free Friday: Reissue Issues

One of the main reasons I abandoned soundtrack reviewing, was the sheer volume of average stuff I ended up wading through. It's fun to trash a terrible album (apologies to those long suffering composers) or try and promote a great one (I remember being thrilled to promote Jeff Beal's terrific score to Pollock, having received a review copy, an album which otherwise might have gone under the radar) but writing about average is just so buggeringly tedious. However, when so many scores are getting substantial releases, sorting the good from the average is increasingly difficult and the same is starting to apply to archive releases.

When they started out, our industrious and dedicated film music labels were unearthing classics from the vaults and putting them onto CD. These were scores that everyone wanted, but we're getting to the Jerry Goldsmith bottle cap collecting stage. Sometimes we forget just how many movies have been made in the history of cinema and not every note of every score needs a release. Sure, there are undiscovered classics, but plenty of dross or scores of limited appeal. It is, of course, great to see them recognised, but it does risk watering down the catalogue of "classic" scores of the past from being essential to a rather more difficult choice of which ones are actually worth picking up.

Another issue of late is the reissue issue. In the last 10/15 years, a number of genuinely classic scores have had multiple rereleases from boutique film music labels: Superman (plus a re-recording), Poltergeist, ET, Patton and the much desired Cherry 2000 (at one point deemed the rarest of the rare) to name but five, not to mention expanded editions of new scores not massively long after they were originally released: Lost in Space, Independence Day, Star Trek and so forth.

It's hard to judge the impact of these. Hopefully they are making some decent cash to prop up those releases that don't sell in such numbers or to allow for more lavish booklets elsewhere, but as fans of George Lucas know, it can get quite frustrating, not to mention expensive, to be asked to dip into the wallet every few years for an incrementally better version of the same thing. It's true that the new release of Poltergeist does indeed sound somewhat better than the Rhino release, although the improvements between the Rhino and FSM Superman are perhaps a bit more marginal. The ET releases open up a whole new kettle of worms since both are 90% (wild guess) the same, but for some reason, none of the producers put together a release that was entirely final, film versions with alternates at the end and so both are a mish mash of both. The difference between the takes are fairly minimal in most cases, but it's frustrating for the die hard Williams fan after an "ultimate" release of the score as heard in the film.

Those are isolated examples and I'm sure a bit of research and the cash strapped fan can make an informed choice as to whether the 43rd version of Stars Wars is an essential purchase and the improvements are material or incremental (if noticeable at all - the Sony releases of the original Special Edition soundtracks are meant to be a soupcon better... but only on high end equipment) and money better spent elsewhere. We should, I suppose, be grateful for living in an age of film music plenty but the cash strapped film music fan is now deluged with both new and old scores to buy. Guess that's why crappy review sites like this one are so important... There, I think I justified my own existence.

Tron: Legacy - Daft Punk

I don't know if it bugs other seasoned film music fans when some random band or artist writes a film score and their name is then splashed about all over the place as though this were the most novel thing since sliced bread machines were invented, but it does somewhat bug me. Then again, a lot of things bug me, but that's not important right now. Yes, a lot of these one off scores are actually pretty good and they are less likely to be lumped with temptrackitis, which is a terrible disease. After all, why get some famous band in to right the music if you're just going to make them copy John Debney?! It's not that film music is a genre lacking in diversity, despite what a lot of people seem to think, but it does seem rather disingenuous to the somewhat unappreciated pool of talent already making their way composing for cinema.

So to Tron: Legacy by the popular beat combo "Daft Punk." No, I've no idea who they are either, but I have to admit, it's really pretty good, albeit fractionally more derivative than I imagined. If you put Zimmer's Inception, some 80's Philip Glass and a bit of Vangelis into a blender, the music would spew out something akin to Tron: Legacy. Actually, the Vangelis aspect is more for one particular fifth based motif that appears throughout which reminds me of Chariots of Fire - particularly during the portentously named Overture. I know two notes make a fifth isn't a lot to go on (especially given the number of Williams themes that start as such), but it somehow seems strongly evokes Vangelis' hugely famous Oscar winner.

The Glass allusions are largely from the repeating figures that occur throughout, dimly recalling the Qatsi trilogy, but more synthetic and with less variation, while Zimmer's low, farting, bass notes from Inception make numerous appearances. I realise I'm probably not given Daft Punk enough credit for proffering their own sound, but the comparisons are more for those unfamiliar with their work than anything. While very synth dominated, there is plenty of orchestra in there, from the chasing strings to brazen brass chords, bolstered by synths (although not with that horrible fake sound that Zimmer uses).

It's a score that I find hard to describe as particularly great in pure musical terms, but the sort of album that draws you back. It has atmosphere in abundance, albeit in a futuristic, techno kinda way; listening to it while travelling on the Tube or around a big city and the whole place somehow takes on some kind of epic, dystopian feel. Any score that can take you to another place like that has got to be worth a listen. I love the old masters of film music as much as anyone, but sometimes a left field musical voice is just what a film needs. Easily recommendable.

Acquire with money, bribes, gold or pieces of expensive cheese from Amazon.com.

In conclusion: 110101010001111001010101011010

John Barry: 3 November 1933 – 30 January 2011

Very sad news that John Barry has died suddenly following a heart attack. He was 77. Barry managed to be an impressively self contradictory composer (in the best possible way), becoming famous through his band, the John Barry Seven, yet you'd never imagine based on those records that it could be the same composer who could write Dances with Wolves or The Lion In Winter. Yet, perversely, his style was so distinctive that you could pretty well always tell a Barry score after only a few notes.

Perhaps embarrassingly, I was not originally enamoured of Barry's music; even more strange as he's one of those cult film composers with far wider appeal than the 37 people on the planet who love film music. However, with some gentle persuasion and a sampling of his finest scores, notably Dances With Wolves, it didn't take too much time for me to change my mind. Even worse, however, his Bond scores took a bit longer for me to get into, but they were certainly worth it. Where today's action scores can be so frantic, Barry rarely let his music get too busy. Even the later Bonds had a level of class and elegance that one rarely hears any more.

I had the pleasure of seeing him conduct the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra about a decade ago, confirming his position as one of those rare composers who can fill a two hour concert programme with nothing but hits, most of which even the casual listener would recognise. I am sure that more dedicated and knowledgeable fans will write plenty in the days to come, but Barry's legacy was cemented years ago and having composed some of the best known music for cinema over 40 years, he won't be forgotten any time soon.

For those fans who are yet to indulge in some of cinema's lushest and most memorable music, you could do worse than to pick up the composer conducted compilation Moviola, which is just about the most sumptuous sounding film music compilation ever released. For a more extensive and varied starting point, Silva's John Barry: The Collection - 40 Years in Film Music is hard to beat, From Zulu to Enigma, it samples a surprisingly large proportion of his work. The music itself is, of course, wonderful, but it's rare to hear a composer's style evolve so organically over their career.

Good night JB. 

Film Music Free Friday

At the risk of promising a regular feature, I decided that Friday should be Film Music Free Friday for Soundtrack Express as an antidote to FSM's usual Friday news slot (the item formerly and oddly known as This News Friday). In fairness, it won't be entirely devoid of film music content (but calling it Mainly Film Music Free Friday is clearly ridiculous...). Topics may or may not include:

Non-film music albums - At the old site, I did used to review the odd thing by other artists (mostly the Divine Comedy, my favourite band) and composers. However, in this case it'll be more general recommendations and thoughts about other music that I like.

Classical - I don't (honest guv) want to start arguments over what James Horner has or hasn't pilfered from the classics, but there's a world of classical music that has been used as, um, "inspiration" for a lot of film music. A few are well known, but plenty are quite obscure, so hopefully might be of interest. Film music is a great starting point for discovering the classics, as my own experience attests, even though I've reached a bit of a wall lately in terms of new composers, but the joy of discovery is quite exciting.

Movies. Films. Flicks. Motion Pictures. And some TV - Maybe a review, maybe a general rant/love fest on the state of cinema going today; something of that ilk. Plus any TV shows I happen to have seen and feel deserve some kind of recognition, even if they are a bit old - I am tempted to write a bit about Battlestar Galactica, but realise it's a bit old news now. Oh well, it's my column and I'll write what I want to (you would too, if you were writing it... too).

Miscellaneous Ranting - As per last week's entirely unannounced column, some will just be about random spleen venting on the tangential aspects of film music, films or TV but not actually about the music or visual pleasures themselves. Of course I might just rant about the state of the UK rail service (it's shit and expensive).

You - If there's anything you'd like me to write about (as if), drop me a line and I'll consider it. However, that's on the proviso that I may know sod all about whatever it is you want me to opine on so may have to pass, so don't come crying to me if I have to politely decline.

Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea - Joe Hisaishi

Bloody hell, Miyazaki films are awesome. Really gosh, darn (haha) wonderful. Even one that looks as cute and potentially vomitous as Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (Ponyo for brevity) is superb. A variation on the Little Mermaid fairytale, it's a far more original take than Disney's and, in many ways, more interesting (which hasn't aged as well as Beauty and the Beast and others of the time, delightful though it is). Rather than merely change the story to fit with expectations, as Disney did, Miyazaki changes many aspects and the lead duo are kids rather than princesses and princes. It doesn't even have a traditional villain, merely Ponyo's concerned father. The animation is typically stunning; the sequence as Ponyo runs over huge, rolling waves is astounding.

If they have such things in Japan, Joe Hisaishi should be deemed a national treasure. He never fails to write anything but tuneful, memorable and instantly delightful scores, the best of which are invariably for Miyazaki. Needless to say, Ponyo is no exception, indeed it's perhaps his most memorable since Spirited Away. The main Ponyo theme is instantly catchy, its spirited musical lineage immediately obvious. Plenty of secondary themes provide typical thematic richness, but it's the main theme that holds it all together.

The aforementioned sequence of Ponyo running over rolling waves receives the most upbeat appropriation of Wagner ever heard. Ride of Valkyries is given the Hisaishi treatment; the Valkyries' theme is changed to the Ponyo theme and all the terrifying thunder of the original is turned into tumultuous, exuberant delight. If you're going to plunder the classics, this is the way to do it; turn something well known into something new and delightful, not just shoehorn it into your score because you've run out of ideas (or been pushed onto the temp track by the producers). A score that scarcely needs more recommendation and one of the most delightful hours of music you'll hear (apart from most of Hisaishi's other scores, of course). See the film too, easily the best traditional animated film since... well the last one from Miyazaki.