{"id":12446,"date":"2015-10-15T16:13:09","date_gmt":"2015-10-15T20:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=12446"},"modified":"2015-10-15T16:19:29","modified_gmt":"2015-10-15T20:19:29","slug":"mp3-american-ultra-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=12446","title":{"rendered":"MP3: American Ultra (2015)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"AmericanUltra\"<\/a>Score<\/strong>: Very Good<\/p>\n

Label<\/strong>:\u00a0Varese Sarabande<\/a><\/p>\n

Released:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>September 25, 2015<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tracks \/ Album Length:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a022 tracks \/ (41:09)<\/p>\n

Composer:<\/strong>\u00a0Marcelo Zarvos, Paul Hartnoll (additional music)<\/p>\n

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

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

\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Marcelo Zarvos teams with Orbital\u2019s Pal Hartnoll in this fluid balance of electronics and acoustics, and while the main theme is fairly minimal, consisting mostly of alternating tones, it\u2019s well-suited for keyboard-heavy- tracks, or forming the core components of a recurring stalking rhythm.<\/p>\n

As an album, the score has one big flaw that\u2019s due to its filmic design \u2013 most cues hover between 1-2 minutes, making the album feel like fast, decisive moods rearing up and fading out fast & slick \u2013 but the variety of moods, many quiteb tongue-in cheek, make this a zippy listening experience.<\/p>\n

Zarvos\u2019 governing orchestrations and blending of various sensibilities tone down the dance-beat (and sometimes daffy) style that dominated Hartnoll\u2019s Pusher<\/a><\/b> (2012), so in longer tracks like \u201cSheriff Attack\u201d there\u2019s a natural building from quiet to clamorous, with rippling percussion, electric guitar, and assorted tones processed backwards & forwards & back again.<\/p>\n

Flanging percussion that\u2019s neither fully electronic nor acoustic dominates \u201cToughguy vs. Wiseman,\u201d and the lengthy \u201cRavine\u201d is one slow crescendo edging up towards distortion, as grungy bass tones are overwhelmed by guitar and modest feedback. \u201cHammer and Smoke\u201d moves from taps to flanging effects, and feedback for a gradual if not subdued finale.<\/p>\n

The album wraps up with the ditsy \u201cApollo Ape,\u201d which feels more Hartnollish, as most sounds are derived from electrified tones, airy synth chords, and tweaking pulses and watery backbeats.<\/p>\n

Varese\u2019s mastering is first-rate, and American Ultra<\/b> is certainly a score designed to be played loud, preferably through a warm analogue system to maximize the tones and pulses which make it so fun.<\/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> — Composers on IMDB: Zarvos<\/a> \/ Hartnoll<\/a> \u00a0— \u00a0Composer Filmographies: \u00a0Zarvos<\/a> \/ Hartnoll<\/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":"

Marcelo Zarvos teams with Orbital\u2019s Pal Hartnoll in this fluid balance of electronics and acoustics, and while the main theme is fairly minimal, consisting mostly of alternating tones, it\u2019s well-suited for keyboard-heavy- tracks, or forming the core components of a recurring stalking rhythm…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12449,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[4007,439,1797],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/AmericanUltra.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-3eK","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12446"}],"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=12446"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12458,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12446\/revisions\/12458"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}