{"id":11799,"date":"2015-07-10T11:49:37","date_gmt":"2015-07-10T15:49:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=11799"},"modified":"2015-07-12T13:01:58","modified_gmt":"2015-07-12T17:01:58","slug":"cd-southpaw-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=11799","title":{"rendered":"CD: Southpaw (2015)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Southpaw\"<\/a>Score<\/strong>: Excellent<\/p>\n

Label<\/strong>: Sony Classics<\/a><\/p>\n

Released:<\/strong> \u00a0July 24, 2015<\/span><\/p>\n

Tracks \/ Album Length:<\/strong> \u00a014 tracks \/ (52:04)<\/p>\n

Composer:<\/strong> James Horner<\/p>\n

Special Notes:<\/strong>\u00a0 n\/a<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

Review:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reportedly the last score composed by James Horner before his tragic death<\/a> in July of 2015, Southpaw<\/strong> represents the type of quiet character work to which Horner gravitated, crafting a simple theme and relying on a much smaller instrumental palette, often with seamless fusion between organic and synth sounds. Horner’s older\u00a0Class Action<\/strong> (1991) comes to mind, although Southpaw<\/strong>\u2019s harder story of boxing and use of source songs undoubtedly shaped the score\u2019s design with a greater emphasis on synthetic colours \u2013 gentle keyboards, snarling feedback, and a middle ground where the two sides kind of duel, and sounds trickle, pulse, clatter, rumble, and coalesce.<\/p>\n

The main theme\u2019s very redolent of Roy Budd\u2019s Get Carter<\/strong> (1971), although Horner\u2019s spin is to reduce his full theme to sets of one-two punches, ascending, descending, and shifting, sometimes with background resonance for dramatic effect, and it\u2019s a structure that allows the composer to effortlessly glide between various moods, and when permitted, develop material into much longer, meatier statements.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Funeral, Alone\u2026\u201d is quiet and intimate, and features subtle processed sounds as keyboards present a more uniform, fluid theme statement, whereas the snarling \u201cSuicidal Rampage\u201d surrounds the step-like theme with snarling electric bass and tapped backbeats. \u201cHope vs. Escobar\u201d starts with electrified bass before Horner eases in a little orchestral background support, and the onscreen battle is largely scored with heavy synth percussion which periodically subsides for a faint, if not exhausted theme quote.<\/p>\n

Fans of the composer\u2019s work will find several stylistic signature elements, but it\u2019s an interesting quiet score that shows Horner\u2019s adeptness in tackling smaller-scaled stories, extracting character essentials, and building music that\u2019s almost stealth \u2013 a different skill that\u2019s often overlooked in favour of his epic, large orchestral music. I\u2019ve a preference for both styles, and yet perhaps the proof of his scoring brilliance lies in being able to state material cleanly, simply, with no fanfare, using only the most essential sounds whether by design or due to budget restraints.<\/p>\n

This may not be the epic swan song fans may have wanted, but its deceptive simplicity shows Horner could still impress after being in the film business for almost 40 years, and in this case, leave us with a somber epitaph.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2015 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Additional Links:<\/strong>
\nEditor’s Blog<\/a> — Composer on IMDB<\/a> \u00a0— \u00a0Composer Filmography<\/a> —\u00a0 Soundtrack Album<\/a>
\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Select Merchants:<\/strong>
\nAmazon.ca<\/a>\"\" —<\/span> Amazon.com<\/a>\"\" —<\/span> Amazon.co.uk<\/a>\"\" —\u00a0BSX<\/a> —\u00a0Intrada<\/a> —\u00a0Screen Archives Entertainment<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reportedly the last score composed by James Horner before his tragic death in July of 2015, Southpaw represents the type quiet character work to which Horner gravitated, crafting a simple theme and relying on a much smaller palette, often with seamless fusion between organic and synth sounds…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[327,3776],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-34j","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11799"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11799"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11819,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11799\/revisions\/11819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}