{"id":3505,"date":"2011-08-30T23:37:55","date_gmt":"2011-08-31T03:37:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=3505"},"modified":"2011-08-30T23:37:55","modified_gmt":"2011-08-31T03:37:55","slug":"cd-dc-showcase-superman-shazam-the-return-of-black-adam-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=3505","title":{"rendered":"CD: DC Showcase – Superman \/ Shazam! The Return of Black Adam (2011)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Soundtrack \u00a0Reviews<\/a> \/ <\/em>D<\/a><\/p>\n

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

Label:\u00a0La-La Land Records <\/a>\u00a0\/ Released:\u00a0April 12, 2011<\/p>\n

Tracks & Album Length:\u00a039 tracks \/ (59:43)<\/p>\n

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Special Notes:\u00a012-page colour booklet with liner notes \/ 1000 copies.<\/p>\n

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Composer: Jeremy Zuckerman, Benjamin Wynn (aka The Track Team)<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/p>\n

In addition to their animated feature films, DC Comics spun off a series of shorts, ranging from 15-25 mins. in length, starring some of their top characters, and La-La Land Records\u2019 CD covers four in the DC Showcase<\/strong> series, featuring music by The Track Team \u2013 composers Jeremy Zuckerman and Benjamin Wynn.<\/p>\n

Superman \/ Shazam! The Return of Black Adam<\/strong> comes with a full orchestral design, featuring classically written action cues with light synth sweetening, and the suite\u2019s best section actually lies near the end where the composers are able to go beyond straight-stomping battle cues for more melodic works featuring a great triadic motif of triangle chimes (\u201cThe Subway Ride \/ The Wizard Shazam\u201d) reminiscent of Philip Glass. \u201cGods and Ants\u201d is a short but beautiful little crescendo of menace, and the suite closes with a quick set of action and character theme cuts.<\/p>\n

As the composers openly state in the CD\u2019s liner notes, Jonah Hex<\/strong> has deliberate nods to Ennio Morricone. The fun suite includes an old time piano rag, a great central theme on acoustic guitar, plenty of bell chimes, and sustained chords. The composers\u2019 own spin on their mini-homage is to occasionally switch to a frenetic action style, such as the texturally rich \u201cJonah Tales Care of Business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not unlike DC Comics\u2019 Green Lantern<\/a> <\/strong>animated film (which was scored with heavy percussion by Robert J. Kral), the style for Green Arrow<\/strong> is all rhythmic textures, and if there are any thematic statements, they\u2019re still goosed by textures based in electronica. \u201cLate Again \/ Tension at the Airport\u201d and \u201cMerlyn and Green Arrow Duel\u201d use vintage synth emulations (eerily close to Tangerine Dream\u2019s Dead Solid Perfect<\/strong>), whereas the longest cues \u2013 \u201cAssassination Attempt \/ The Princess\u2026 The Quenn\u201d and \u201cThe Conveyor Belt\u201d is all pounding percussion.<\/p>\n

The last suite, The Spectre<\/strong>, is largely rooted in vintage Lalo Schifrin\u2019s urban jazz, with congas, mysterious tinkling piano, loose bass drum hits and delicate keyboard strokes reminiscent of Dirty Harry<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Incredibly, the composers also return to vintage Tangerine Dream synths in \u201cCostumes\u201d with a repeating rhythm and spiraling tones and taps. \u201cHeading to Mexico\u201d is particularly evocative of Miracle Mile<\/strong>, and switch between electronics and urban jazz actually works, largely because the two styles converge, with varying dominance in cues such as the lengthy finale \u201cAn Old Friend \/ The Secret.\u201d<\/p>\n

La-La Land\u2019s CD is crisply mastered, and the suites \u2013 while short \u2013 are fun little musical vignettes. It would be really interesting to hear the composers apply their skills and sense of humour towards a feature-length production with longer action sequences, and a wider diversity of characters.<\/p>\n

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

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External References:<\/p>\n

IMDB (Zuckerman<\/a>\/ Wynn<\/a>) — Soundtrack Album <\/a>— Composer Filmography (Zuckerman <\/a>\/ Wynn<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Soundtrack Reviews<\/a> <\/em>\/\u00a0D<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Return to:\u00a0Home \/\u00a0Soundtrack \u00a0Reviews \/ D . Rating: Very Good Label:\u00a0La-La Land Records \u00a0\/ Released:\u00a0April 12, 2011 Tracks & Album Length:\u00a039 tracks \/ (59:43) . Special Notes:\u00a012-page colour booklet with liner notes \/ 1000 copies. . Composer: Jeremy Zuckerman, Benjamin Wynn (aka The Track Team) . . Review: In addition to their animated feature films, […]<\/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":[703,697,702,700,699,698,701],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-Ux","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3505"}],"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=3505"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3532,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3505\/revisions\/3532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}