MP3: Brotherhood (2010)

March 21, 2011 | By Mark R. Hasan

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Rating: Very Good

Label: Lakeshore Records / Released: March 22, 2010

Tracks & Album Length: 11 / (35:17)

Special Notes: Downloadable album.

Composer: Dan Marocco

Review:

Dan Marocco’s score is a blend of acoustic, electric and mild electronic sounds, much in the way Dave Grohl focused on an intimate collection of sounds for Touch (1997).

Lakeshore’s album includes 3 source songs, making the total original score about 25 mins., and while it feels like an extended suite of instrumental themes, Marocco’s writing is quite strong in spite the score’s slightly minimalist design.

The title track (“$19.10”) introduces the simple theme – basically a guitar riff – on grungy electric guitars, with sustained chords deepened by reverb and thick electric bass licks. Bass dominates the follow-up cue, “Roslyn,” with a small drum kit providing hi-hat and bass drum hits. While the cue is essentially a slow-burning crescendo of guitar, drums, and fuzzy distortion, it’s indicative of the score functioning as a the underbelly of a scene’s sound design – always furtively moving around in the background, and sometimes making a hard, edgy statement before a sudden cut-out or rapid fadeout.

“Party’s Over” is a great blend of various rhythmic taps, with grungy bass drones drenching the various percussion timbers created by striking drum surfaces & edges, and a metallic bell. The cue eventually winds down, running out of speed, and closes with a solo electric guitar version of the main theme. The final cue, “One Story,” provides a tender closing variation for solo electric guitar.

For Brotherhood, Marocco’s writing style is a cross-blend of Dave Grohl and Tyler Bates, boasting the same finesses with orchestrations and performance. The sparse instrumentation and broad sonic design, however, capture the sense of a singular character being smothered by a violent event (a convenience store robbery), and his struggles to escape a mess as the coarse and crude elements that dragged him into a situation keep reappearing with taunting threats.

It’s a shame the score is so brief, but it’s one of those memorable gems fans of brief acoustic fusion music (for lack of better nomenclature) like to pull out and spin once in a while (Molly Nyman and Harry Escott’s Shifty being a great example). It starts off with a grungy bang, and eventually loses its tension, ending with a quiet introspective finale.