James Michael Dooley's own usage of minimalism - best represented in The Ring - is really showcased in Mars Underground, a documentary that combines high-res animation and critical interviews on exploring & colonizing the Angry Red Planet, and why it's still a tough, controversial dream for NASA and Mars enthusiasts.

Late into the CD's first track, "Arrival on Mars," James Michael Dooley lays in a set of soothing chords that immediately recall the stylings of minimalist icon Philip Glass.

The beauty of Dooley's own approach includes minimalism's repetition, restriction, and variation, and the composer's fixations on fine details: here it's a basic rhythmic motif, undulating chords for dramatic oomph, and separate, ongoing rhythmic variations that figuratively evoke an intricate machine, whose fine wheels, gears, mechanisms, and coils are in constant motion.

The elegant orchestrations are further in play, with Glassian traits in "Dr. Zubrin." Dooley uses synth chimes and contemporary strings for a soothing melodic extension, and chord changes that are playful, if not a bit apprehensive. A gradual unwinding brings the track to a gentle close (overtly evoking rather Zimmerlish chords), and Dooley takes up the playful theme in the next track, "History Has Taught Us." A synth mandolin adds some brief colour before more emphatic strings push the theme to a heavy, albeit curtly terminated crescendo.

Dooley's work with Zimmer and former colleagues from Media Ventures gave the composer a confident grasp of digital sounds, and in Mars Underground, he goes for a gentle, classical style. Tracks like "The Journey" use intriguing synthetic tones and textures - quite appropriate for a project that's supposed to present opposing views on heady science and dreamy fantasy.

A later track, "The Mars Underground," offers much lighter fare, with a gentle melodic fragment set against an almost galloping tempo; and repeated string figures that tie the piece to the score's main minimalist theme. Some of the shorter cues, like "Desert Research" and "Confrontations," also evoke some of the ambient synth/orchestral fusion that Maribeth Solomon and Mickey Erbe employed in their scores for key IMAX space films, particularly Blue Planet (1990).

Later tracks like "Experiencing Mars" also offer some intriguing theme variations, where the playful theme from "Dr. Zubrin" is given a short but ominous re-write; and "Planetary Mars" has the main melodic line from "Prospects and Plans" as a threadbare, drifting, collection of notes that echo the driving excitement of planning great journeys, and the harsh realities of pulling it all together.

The album's final cue, "Our Future with Mars," reunites most of the key musical impressions of the film, and tops a satisfying album beholding an engaging mix of contemporary musical styles, and infectious themes that still revolve in one's mind, many hours later.

For additional information on Mars Underground, click HERE to read our interview with the composer.

© 2006 Mark R. Hasan