{"id":2446,"date":"2011-03-07T11:28:40","date_gmt":"2011-03-07T16:28:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=2446"},"modified":"2011-03-07T11:28:40","modified_gmt":"2011-03-07T16:28:40","slug":"cd-young-riders-the-1989","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=2446","title":{"rendered":"CD: Young Riders, The (1989)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Soundtrack \u00a0Reviews<\/a> \/ <\/em>V to Z<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Rating: Very Good<\/p>\n

Label: La-La Land Records<\/a>\/ Released: January 18, 2011<\/p>\n

Tracks & Album Length: 19 tracks \/ (62:35)<\/p>\n

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Special Notes: 16-page colour booklet with liner notes by composer Brian Satterwhite \/ Limited to 1200 copies.<\/p>\n

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Composer: John Debney<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/p>\n

The success of the film Young Guns<\/strong> (1988) spawned not a knock-off TV series but a variation on the concept of fashionable young (male) actors playing noble, heroic, and rebellious brats in the old west, doing risky work with little financial remuneration.<\/p>\n

John Debney\u2019s music followed Alan Silvestri\u2019s Young Guns combination of electronics, rock, and orchestra to bridge the gap for TV audiences wanting some old with a new, up-tempo sound, and while series fans will welcome this premiere release of music from three episodes, it\u2019s also steeped in a pop-rock style whose age is readily evident.<\/p>\n

Debney\u2019s theme is catchy, but it\u2019s also heavily used in the Pilot suite, most likely to re-emphasize various young men hungry for action coalescing into what became the Pony Express troupe. Musically, it\u2019s the cement that bonds the men into a tough team: the sweeping melody (of which the second half owes a bit to Vangelis\u2019 Chariots of Fire<\/strong>) is played on a twangy electric guitar, while acoustic guitar strumming provides a sense of excitement and urgency, and synth trumpets infer a quiet nobility to the thankless job.<\/p>\n

In spite of the repetitious elements, the first suite does contain a few gems that made it obvious to producers why Debney was a natural fit for aggressive action and horror films. The second half of \u201cFirst Ride\/Apache Chase\u201d is all thunder and rhythm, plus theme fragments traded between harmonica, electric guitar, and whistling. Being a western score, there\u2019s a bit of dramatic exaggeration (and a mild salute to Ennio Morricone\u2019s spaghetti western music) in the form of male grunts, but the short cue does the job of creating a sense of desperation.<\/p>\n

Also of note are quiet cues, where the instrumentation is more lean, and tension is derived from sustained bass chords, percussion taps, and bluegrass guitar \u2013 the latter a more prominent component in the electrified action cut \u201cEscapes and Meets His Demise.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second suite \u2013 The Gunfighter episode, also from the first season \u2013 is a collection of generally eerie, minimalist cues largely performed by piano, acoustic guitar, and subtle synths mimicking strings and Indian vocal chants in the most basic harmonic form. This is the most atmospheric suite on the CD, and has a more natural flow without the series theme popping up every few minutes.<\/p>\n

In the booklet\u2019s excellent liner notes, Debney singles out Bruce Broughton\u2019s Silverado<\/strong> (1985) as a major influence, and the CD\u2019s third suite \u2013 Kansas, from the second season \u2013 is mostly orchestral, with real vocals and real strings adding greater depth and human emotion to the series\u2019 music library.<\/p>\n

One suspects Debney waited for the right moment to push the show\u2019s music budget for an episode, and with the producers\u2019 blessing (perhaps seeing his inventiveness in prior episodes), he gathered a modest-sized orchestra and went all-out for classical grandeur, sweeping melodic passages, and adapting western scoring clich\u00e9s into his own creation.<\/p>\n

\u201cBurnt Offering\/Escape\u201d is a dramatically meaty cue, bookend by the subtle vocal lamentation \u201cOh, Freedom,\u201d with the finale section switching to an aggressive brassy march that\u2019s more evocative of Jerry Goldsmith.<\/p>\n

To the other extreme, \u201cThe Kid & Noah\/Into the Fray\u201d is a rare switch to a more broad comedic style, with harmonica and a two-step piano motif; whereas \u201cThe Fight\u201d recalls Elmer Bernstein\u2019s own classic western scores, enhanced with quixotic meter chances and the coupling of circular pattern on strings and hard piano fingering.<\/p>\n

La-La Land\u2019s trilogy of suites suggests the series as well its composer were finding their own identities under the shadow of popular scoring and genre conventions, and although The Young Riders <\/strong>lasted three seasons, it provided Debney with 67 episodes to expand his skills set and move on to feature films within a few years, making a strong impression with Gunmen<\/strong> and Hocus Pocus<\/strong> (both 1993).<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2011 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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External References:<\/p>\n

IMDB <\/a>— Soundtrack Album<\/a> — Composer Filmography<\/a><\/p>\n

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Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Soundtrack Reviews<\/a> <\/em>\/\u00a0V to Z<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Return to:\u00a0Home \/\u00a0Soundtrack \u00a0Reviews \/ V to Z . Rating: Very Good Label: La-La Land Records\/ Released: January 18, 2011 Tracks & Album Length: 19 tracks \/ (62:35) . Special Notes: 16-page colour booklet with liner notes by composer Brian Satterwhite \/ Limited to 1200 copies. . Composer: John Debney . . Review: The success […]<\/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":[325],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-Ds","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446"}],"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=2446"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2449,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446\/revisions\/2449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}