{"id":5377,"date":"2012-08-07T13:33:57","date_gmt":"2012-08-07T17:33:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=5377"},"modified":"2012-08-07T13:33:57","modified_gmt":"2012-08-07T17:33:57","slug":"cd-postman-always-rings-twice-the-1981","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=5377","title":{"rendered":"CD: Postman Always RIngs Twice, The (1981)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Soundtrack \u00a0Reviews<\/a> \/ <\/em>P to R<\/a><\/p>\n

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

Label: Intrada<\/a>\/ Released: May 14, 2012<\/p>\n

Tracks & Album Length: 27 tracks \/ (60:20)<\/p>\n

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Special Notes: 16-page booklet with liner notes \/ Limited Edition.<\/p>\n

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Composer: Michael Small<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/p>\n

Not unlike Jerry Fielding (The Mechanic<\/strong>) or Alex North (Dragonslayer<\/strong> [M]), the music of Michael Small is sometimes impenetrable when separated from film \u2013 complex, non-melodic, and often written to capture the psychologies of characters rather than direct screen action \u2013 and while his Postman Always Rings Twice<\/strong> contains a love theme and short character motifs, this isn\u2019t an easy score to digest.<\/p>\n

Even a glance at his C.V. reveals non-commercial projects involving political conspiracies, ghosts, hired drivers, mysteries, and relationship studies, and that background made Small a natural for film noir, if not pulp thrillers, because his music transcends conventions and adds layers of psychological sophistication to scenes that would otherwise move along according to standard clich\u00e9s.<\/p>\n

The most striking quality of Postman is the way Small shifts moods so effortlessly within singular cues, such as the grim dissonance and high optimism in \u201cGoing to Chicago,\u201d with little gestures that evoke classical Americana writing; or the deft shading within the dour \/ reassuring \u201cFuse Box,\u201d including the slight ethnic instrumentation. While most cues tend to emphasize conflict, there are rare exceptions of sunny humanity, particularly \u201cThinking of Cora,\u201d which offers a full love theme statement and some respite from all the grey colours that permeate the score.<\/p>\n

Perhaps because many cues never rest on any full theme statement or progress in a traditional, classical style, it\u2019s easy for a listener to envision the emotional and character conflicts without having seen the film, and get a sense of the subtext that Small worked into the score \u2013 jealousy, passion, longing, murderous thoughts and desperate actions.<\/p>\n

Intrada\u2019s CD features two programmes<\/em>, of which the first \u2013 the original score \u2013 is the strongest and most complete. Running 43 mins., Small\u2019s score is a small masterpiece of greasy noir and pitiful behaviour, and a fine example of a musical brilliance few filmmakers dared to include in their work. Small should\u2019ve scored more films in his career, but the quality of the projects (Jaws: The Revenge<\/strong>, Mobsters<\/strong>) weren\u2019t always the best, and perhaps like North and Fielding, his music was regarded as too non-commercial, if not inaccessible.<\/p>\n

The CD\u2019s second programme features a mix of alternate cues either recorded for an aborted soundtrack album or unused in the film, plus two classical pieces. The mastering from 3-track tapes is superb, and like Small\u2019s breakthrough score, Klute<\/strong> (1971), repeat listens just keep revealing further details in this small masterpiece.<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2012 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>\/\u00a0P to R<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Return to:\u00a0Home \/\u00a0Soundtrack \u00a0Reviews \/ P to R . Rating: Excellent Label: Intrada\/ Released: May 14, 2012 Tracks & Album Length: 27 tracks \/ (60:20) . Special Notes: 16-page booklet with liner notes \/ Limited Edition. . Composer: Michael Small . . Review: Not unlike Jerry Fielding (The Mechanic) or Alex North (Dragonslayer [M]), the […]<\/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":[1476,781,1475],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-1oJ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5377"}],"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=5377"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5380,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5377\/revisions\/5380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}