CD: Young Justice (2010)

August 29, 2013 | By

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Rating: Very Good

Label: La-La Land Records / Released: July 16, 2013

Tracks & Album Length: 44 tracks / (73:45)

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Special Notes: 16-page colour booklet with liner notes by John Takis.

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Composers: Kristopher Carter, Michael McCuistion, Lolita Ritmanis

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Review:

Music from the 2-season spin-off series Young Justice gets its own CD release, and composers Kristopher Carter (Batman: Gotham Knight [M]), Michael McCuistion and Lolita Ritmanis (Batman: The Animated Series [M]) managed to craft a wholly unified sound that’s a 70 / 30 split between electronic and orchestra elements, giving the show a punchy futuristic sound with a few overt classical underpinnings.

Action cuts like “Mera Attacks” are still structured around cresting brass and interwoven tones with organic percussion and breathy woodwinds, but there’s heavy inclusion of sampled voices and sequences pulses. Parts of the rhythms also hark back to more vintage sounds – early cues on the CD have a tangible Sylvester Levay (Airwolf, Hot Shots!) feel, and there are slight evocations of John Carpenter in “Red Tornado Saves the Earth” – but being digitally crafted, there’s a sleekness to the orchestrations and pristine sonics.

Grungy feedback is melded with orchestral surges in the ambient, mystical “Psimon Says Forget,” and a nocturnal jazz beat is electronically rendered in the eerie “Morrow Lab Source” which also builds to a large orchestral jazz finale, albeit derived from obvious samples.

The blending of select organic and diverse samples actually works for the score because of its futuristic and other dimension-like veneer, and in a world where powers vary in potency and ability, and characters live in a perpetual state of self-defense, it makes sense the bulk of the score cuts consist of moody textures, thick bass lines, pulses, and recurring action cues where bold sounds dominate. Cues like “Revenge Mode” and “Meet Lobo” are big on fat bass chords and processed tones, and sharp modernist chords rendered from brass samples start off the kinetic “Wally Sacrifice,” one of the CD’s longer cues.

La-La Land’s CD features tightly edited tracks, and although one wishes some of the action material was able to build and remain sustained for longer periods, the average cue length of 1-2 minutes doesn’t affect the album’s flow. John Takis’ liner notes provide a good overview of the show’s music, composed by a skilled team of composers well-versed in the needs of DC’s animated ventures. The same trio also scored the animated series Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo (2008).

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© 2013 Mark R. Hasan

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External References:

IMDB Soundtrack AlbumComposer Filmography

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