{"id":3303,"date":"2011-07-30T00:58:40","date_gmt":"2011-07-30T04:58:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=3303"},"modified":"2011-07-30T00:58:40","modified_gmt":"2011-07-30T04:58:40","slug":"cd-breakdown-1997","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=3303","title":{"rendered":"CD: Breakdown (1997)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Soundtrack \u00a0Reviews<\/a> \/ <\/em>B<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Rating: Excellent<\/p>\n

Label:\u00a0La-La Land Records<\/a> \/ Released: June 7, 2011<\/p>\n

Tracks & Album Length:\u00a0CD 1: 12 tracks \/ (59:15)CD 2: 14 tracks \/ (58:20)CD 3: 10 tracks \/ (50:19)<\/p>\n

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Special Notes: 24-page colour booklet with liner notes by Jeff Bond \/ Limited to 3000 copies.<\/p>\n

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Composer: Basil Poledouris<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/p>\n

La-La Land\u2019s 3-disc set is both a dream package for Basil Poledouris fans, and a fascinating examination of how a score evolves during the postproduction process as a director and \/ or producer feel major changes are necessary because the tone isn\u2019t quite right.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve become used to hearing alternate takes, early drafts of cues, and double-bill CDs featuring rejected and original scores, but two scores by one composer is something new and unique. LLL\u2019s set allows the listener to trace the changes as Poledouris conferred with director Jonathan Mostow to fix problems, refine ideas, and get the music right for the finished product.<\/p>\n

The two scores use the same themes, but the key changes are de-emphasizing the breadth of the orchestra, the richness of theme statements, and the density and depth of percussion and electronics.<\/p>\n

Breakdown<\/strong> is anchored to a clattering rhythm which ripples and repeats its central core before a big dramatic slam, and restarts anew. In the \u201cMain Titles,\u201d Poledouris layers in a ticking pocket watch, and a rapping sound which rises fast and tends to lead up to the heavy slam. Over these beautifully ominous textures is an eerie electronic tone that\u2019s partly an emulation of woodwind, human voice, shrill metallic whine, and a windy breeze, and it forms the melodic component to the opening cue.<\/p>\n

In the original draft score, the title music features more melody as performed by electronics; but Mostow didn\u2019t want the film to begin with any warmth; the stripped-down, final version evokes innocent travelers on a dusty, lonely road, with wide expanses that could hide unknown dangers:\u00a0 get lost or stop in the wrong place, and vacation time is over.<\/p>\n

By going minimal, the score matches the sense of being lost and abandoned, confused and emotionally isolated, and in the action cues, fighting against a group of baddies. The lone, windy melody is tied to Kurt Russell and his wife, and becomes their theme of desperation \u2013 as a husband searches for his missing wife, and as the wife\u2019s voice and ethereal presence after she disappears from the film until the final reel.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an efficient but elegant tactic to maintain a sympathetic undercurrent when a third of the film\u2019s main characters disappears from view; and the bulk of the drama is a cruel battle of wits between classic archetypes: a clean-cut city boy, and a rugged country hick.<\/p>\n

Poledouris evokes a bit of Bernard Herrmann through the orchestrations and harmonics in \u201cEarl\u2019s Truck By \/ Photos \/ No Help,\u201d and there are brief bits of ambient-styled bridge cues that accent the sense of being lost on a desert highway, and running into a dead end, but the score has its share of strong action cues.<\/p>\n

\u201cRoute 7-North\u201d is one of several lengthy action cues where there\u2019s a mix of classical and contemporary scoring \u2013 typical of Poledouris\u2019 nature to organically fuse his love of melody, harmony, and contemporary sounds. An acoustic guitar twang launches the cue, a synth chord bleeds into the first kinetic section of rapping sounds and frenetic strings and piano hits, and that windy synth tone glides above the busy action.<\/p>\n

The cue\u2019s midsection has more busy string patterns, brass accenting percussion hits, and repeated sections which rise and crest with cymbal clashes. Poledouris also brings in a pulsing synth beat, and during its sustained bridge he adds more shimmering metallic sounds before pulling back the electronica for strings and brass. Synth and double-bass beats accent Russell\u2019s onscreen scrambling, and the blend of busy orchestra and synths return, with deeper layers of percussion and rambling, deep piano hits. The cue then closes with a gentle lament for Russell\u2019s wife, using strings and woodwinds before the music literally evaporates into silence.<\/p>\n

\u201cRoute 7-North\u201d is also one of four cues co-composed with Richard Marvin (the others being \u201cThe Bank,\u201d \u201cSpeeding Truck Climb,\u201d \u201cTruck Falls\u201d), who had previously scored Mostow\u2019s 1991 TV movie Flight of Black Angel<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

According to Jeff Bond\u2019s informative liner notes, Marvin initially scored two cues independently, and the music was later merged with Poledouris\u2019 work. Marvin\u2019s score for Mostow\u2019s Surrogates<\/a><\/strong> [M<\/a>] (2009) illustrates the composer\u2019s own knack for flawlessly blending electronics and orchestra, and it\u2019s clear he was a perfect match for Poledouris, with the latter\u2019s longtime assistant Eric Colvin making sure any seams between the contributing composer were erased, and Poledouris\u2019 own music remained true to Mostow\u2019s preferred minimalist design.<\/p>\n

Colvin is also credited with composing a cue solo (\u201cJeff in the Truck\u201d), as are Steve Forman and Judd Miller (\u201cBringing Money to Earl\u201d), and it\u2019s frankly impossible to tell who wrote what \u2013 which is the way it\u2019s supposed to be. Everyone seemed to work hard in writing in the style begun by Poledouris, and there were enough quality checks to ensure no cue felt jarringly different; moreover, little motifs and touches were recapped to create continuity, be it a kind of electronic watery \u2018splash\u2019 sound combined with a rattling percussion hit, or the wailing, windy melody.<\/p>\n

The shifting between pure orchestral and electronic hybrids is also consistent, so no cue is jarring. When the fat vibrato from double-bass strokes are combined with synth enhancements and percussion in \u201cSpeeding Truck Climb,\u201d the instrumentation remains consistent with Poledouris\u2019 stripped-down main title design.<\/p>\n

In addition to overhauling cues, bringing in co-composers, and stripping down the instrumentation, a cue from the early score \u2013 \u201cHeist Explained\u201d \u2013 was rewritten and repositioned as the film\u2019s \u201cEnd Credits,\u201d closing the film on a firm statement of miserable victory: the couple are reunited and managed to kill the sonofabitch responsible for their torment, but there\u2019s no hint of hope \u2013 the mournful quality and increasing layers of brass merely emphasize the lives of the two characters have been irreparably scarred.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a beautiful cue for the emphasis on gentle harmonics, and the way Poledouris stretches out his statement, so by its conclusion we frankly feel as exhausted as the characters. Warm instruments such as acoustic guitar, flutes, and strings provide slight aspects of humanity, but an ongoing two-note lament keeps on lower strings provide an undercurrent of misery. The revised \u201cEnd Credits\u201d ultimately gather all elements of the orchestra for a final statement, bringing the score to a close, but leaving the door open as to whether the couple will survive their ordeal.<\/p>\n

LLL\u2019s organized the mass of music – almost three hours\u2019 worth \u2013 into Disc 1 (final score), Disc 2 (early score), and Disc 3 (alternates), and it\u2019s easy to listen to the entire mass without a sense of boredom, or choose any disc to sample the score, because what was written is derived from Poledouris; it\u2019s just the mass of music that makes the album rather daunting.<\/p>\n

Prior to LLL\u2019s release, Poledouris\u2019 final and early scores floated around as cassette tapes which later begat bootleg CDs in 1999 and 2001. Some of the cues were taken from the isolated music mix, which featured a bleeding of source music, as well as volume dips and sync marking tones (\u201cJeff Sneaks Into House \/ Deke Freeze \/ Car Chase\u201d was particularly affected by these flaws).<\/p>\n

LLL\u2019s set features properly mastered cues from superior elements, and it\u2019s surprising this set not only emerged as a legit commercial release, but features unused music that could easily have been junked after the film\u2019s release.<\/p>\n

Breakdown<\/strong> isn\u2019t a vintage Golden or Silver Age Hollywood score, but the producers still had to track down materials, do some archeological digging, and restoring cues \u2013 techniques honed by producers for releases of vintage Hollywood scores.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a minor miracle we have the opportunity to sample a score\u2019s development because Poledouris was able to record his first draft using full orchestra and synths, and for the composer\u2019s fans, there\u2019s about three hours of brilliance they can add to their listening repertoire.<\/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>\/\u00a0B<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Return to:\u00a0Home \/\u00a0Soundtrack \u00a0Reviews \/ B . Rating: Excellent Label:\u00a0La-La Land Records \/ Released: June 7, 2011 Tracks & Album Length:\u00a0CD 1: 12 tracks \/ (59:15)CD 2: 14 tracks \/ (58:20)CD 3: 10 tracks \/ (50:19) . Special Notes: 24-page colour booklet with liner notes by Jeff Bond \/ Limited to 3000 copies. . Composer: […]<\/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":[622,624,623,626,40,625],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-Rh","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3303"}],"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=3303"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3315,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3303\/revisions\/3315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}