{"id":4301,"date":"2012-02-16T13:20:08","date_gmt":"2012-02-16T18:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=4301"},"modified":"2012-02-17T01:11:58","modified_gmt":"2012-02-17T06:11:58","slug":"3cds-space-above-and-beyond-1995-3cds-space-above-and-beyond-1995","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=4301","title":{"rendered":"3CDs: Space – Above and Beyond (1995) 3CDs: Space – Above and Beyond (1995)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Soundtrack \u00a0Reviews<\/a> \/ <\/em>S<\/a><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Label:\u00a0La-La Land Records<\/a> \/ Released: November 15, 2011<\/p>\n

Tracks & Album Length – \u00a0CD1: 32 tracks \/ (77:15)CD2: 37 tracks \/ (76:44)CD3: 41 tracks \/ (78:01)<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

Special Notes: 30-page colour booklet with liner notes by Jeff Bond \/ Limited to 3,000 copies..<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

Composer: Shirley Walker<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

Review:<\/p>\n

After being part of the primary creative team with Chris Carter\u2019s The X Files<\/strong>, Glen Morgan and James Wong leapt at the chance to create a lengthy episodic sci-fi series that in 1995 was perhaps ahead of its time for TV, in terms of scope, production values, and mandating the big screen sound of a full orchestral score with slight synth material. Fox bought the series and gave it plenty of publicity during the run of X Files<\/strong>, but the ambitious show didn\u2019t seem to click enough with genre audiences, and as was the case with a network known for its impatience with under-performers, Fox axed the series after one year, sending Morgan and Wong back to the X Files<\/strong> where they continues to explore weird & disturbing occult stories.<\/p>\n

My lingering impression of the series is disappointment, mostly from familiar characters, mediocre acting, and a strange sense of gravitas that left no room for even the slightest warmth, let along sense of humour. The actors were strapped into full-blown gravitas, and Walker\u2019s score appropriately captured the dire circumstances of a human colony fighting off aliens through the sacrifices of valiant marines.<\/p>\n

It may have been the point, but Fox\u2019s hyping made it seem the continuity of former X Files<\/strong> talent would offer a similar variety of tone, and that shock may have contributed to the show\u2019s tough attempts to find its rightful audience.<\/p>\n

However, a key component to the show was Walker\u2019s tight little theme which, in its full incarnation worked like a classic heroic theme from a sixties war film. Walker retooled the theme for a more strident militaristic march, and whether it was the showrunners\u2019 intention, the heavy use of the march gave the scenes in every episode an unwavering sense of urgency. The downside, though, was an often maniacal repetition that certainly made the pilot feel overbearing, as though its makers wanted very hard to impart to viewers what they watching was Serious Drama, not pulp, and every ad break was bookended by a short theme bumper. (In addition to a synthesized theme demo, CD3 also features selections of the bumper music.)<\/p>\n

In practice, Wong and Morgan went overboard, beating audiences with Walker\u2019s theme in each episode, but for those who stuck around long enough, there were moments when Walker had almost free reign to focus on story, perhaps figuring by later episodes there was less of a need to restate the obvious; people either got the characters, or they didn\u2019t, and the writers were taking risks with unique character arcs.<\/p>\n

La-La Land\u2019s 3-disc set fills a major void in Walker\u2019s available C.V. by carefully selecting cues from multiple episodes, and unsurprisingly, the first CD is heavily aimed at the series\u2019 main theme and variation, featuring straight statements and action renditions with brass, snare drum, and lovely brass writing.<\/p>\n

Disc 1 will please fans that have been hungering for the pilot\u2019s score, but those initially turned off by the show\u2019s repetitive music will be surprised by the moody suites neatly arranged on Discs 2 and 3.<\/p>\n

In place of cyclical militaristic material, CD 2 features brooding, low-key underscore and more slowly-drawn action cues, as in the suite from \u201cMutiny,\u201d capped with a moving, almost elegiac finale that\u2019s notable for the power Walker impresses using simplicity \u2013 lovely harmony, a kind of dead weight percussion at the end, and high register strings and woodwinds that rise above the orchestra for an appropriately brief period.<\/p>\n

That suite is indicative of Walker\u2019s gift for knowing exactly how much pity, heroism, and tragedy to score before stepping back, and it also allowed her to replay her militaristic theme in more intriguing arrangements, shifting the colour of brass in the \u201cRay Butts\u201d suite, or giving it scorching desperation using high register strings and trumpets at the beginning of \u201cStay with the Dead\u201d – the set\u2019s most tender suite, and arguably the series\u2019 best scored episode.<\/p>\n

CD3 features slightly more robust suites \u2013 the tender and strangely regal couplet of \u201cThe Angriest Angel\u201d and \u201cToy Soldiers\u201d are highlights – but the reason the set (even CD1) deserve repeated listening is the quality of Walker\u2019s writing. She was a superb orchestrator, adept at taking any theme and crafting myriad variations that met a scene\u2019s dramatic pitch without err, be it the Batman<\/strong> animated films and TV series (all blessed with really fun scores) or The Flash<\/strong>, where she played with big sounds in orchestra and big band jazz.<\/p>\n

Jeff Bond\u2019s extensive liner notes pay appropriate tribute to Walker (who died in 2006. after scoring Glen Morgan\u2019s rubbish Black Christmas <\/a><\/strong>re-imagining), and although she comparatively scored far less films than TV series, she left a substantive body of work that never fails to impress. La-La Land\u2019s set features around 4 hours of music, and the mastering shows off the fine subtleties in Walker\u2019s precision orchestrations.<\/p>\n

Walker\u2019s work in TV spanned a solid 25+ years, and includes regular stints on Falcon Crest<\/strong> (1984-1989), The Flash<\/a><\/strong> (1990-1991), Batman: The Animated Series <\/strong>(1992-1995), The Others<\/strong> (2000), and Batman Beyond <\/strong>(199-2001).<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2012 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

External References:<\/p>\n

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

.<\/span><\/p>\n

Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Soundtrack Reviews<\/a> <\/em>\/\u00a0S<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Return to:\u00a0Home \/\u00a0Soundtrack \u00a0Reviews \/ S . Rating: Excellent Label:\u00a0La-La Land Records \/ Released: November 15, 2011 Tracks & Album Length – \u00a0CD1: 32 tracks \/ (77:15)CD2: 37 tracks \/ (76:44)CD3: 41 tracks \/ (78:01) . Special Notes: 30-page colour booklet with liner notes by Jeff Bond \/ Limited to 3,000 copies.. . Composer: Shirley […]<\/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":[1097,1100,1101,1102,1098,1099],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-17n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4301"}],"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=4301"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4330,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4301\/revisions\/4330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}