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Perhaps no score album has caused as much consternation and anticipation as Jablonsky’s contribution to Dreamworks’ live action take on the venerable 1980s toys. In fact, the whole story of how the album has come to be is as unbelievable and convoluted as any summer blockbuster. Despite the fact that Jablonsky asserted that a score album was in the works…by the time the movie was released there was no word on when it was going to come out. Days and weeks passed and still nothing. It eventually reached a point where someone started an online petition to get the ball rolling…garnering over 5000 signatures. (I must admit to putting my name to it.) Thus, when it was finally released in early October (a week ahead of the DVD) getting a copy proved a challenge at best, with Amazon.com projecting a minimum two days just to get it shipped out.

So, the question on everyone’s mind right now is probably this: Was it really worth all the trouble and fuss it took to get it out? The answer is a defiant hell yeah!

Even though half the tracks on the album are a little different than what eventually ended up on film, what’s there is still worth a listen…splitting the line between character-specific and scene-specific pieces. “Autobots” reflects the nobility and heroism of the ‘bots as a whole…with a cello reflecting the power and strength of “Optimus”, and an electric guitar suggests the speed and loyalty of “Bumblebee”. On the other end, a male chorus accentuates the menace and threat the “Decepticons” represent…with “Frenzy” sounding rather Stravinsky-esque. “Scorponok” can cause ones heart to pound as it slowly and methodically makes its’ way towards the soldiers in the film.

It’s not all big action however. “Sam at the Lake” is one of the quieter pieces, while a funeral dirge best describes the state of “Cybertron” and the war’s toll on that far away world. “Breaking the Signal”, meanwhile, struck me as being a little too similar to what often plays on similar sequences on 24, but if that’s the only fault, it’s a small one.

Bottom line: if you’re one of the many people to have caught the movie in the multiplex, you have to get this album…get it any way you can.

1. Autobots (2:33)
2. Decepticons (3:51)
3. The All Spark (3:34)
4. Deciphering The Signal (3:08)
5. Frenzy (1:56)
6. Optimus (3:15)
7. Bumblebee (3:58)
8. Soccent Attack (2:07)
9. Sam At The Lake (1:59)
10. Scorponok (4:57)
11. Cybertron (2:45)
12. Arrival To Earth (5:26)
13. Witwicky (1:57)
14. Downtown Battle (1:32)
15. Sector 7 (2:05)
16. Bumblebee Captured (2:17)
17. You’re A Soldier Now (3:27)
18. Sam On The Roof (2:02)
19. Optimus Vs. Megatron (3:59)
20. No Sacrifice, No Victory (2:57)

Released by: Warner Bros.
Release date: 2007
Total running time: 59:56

With his last EP, Summer Storm, Daniel Gannaway experimented with the ukelele as a dominant sound in his music; in a similar vein, his latest effort, Heading For Country, tries on some country shoes. This time the experiment isn’t so much with a specific instrument, but with some of the stylistic licks of American country music. Whatever he’s trying out sonically, it’s a credit to Gannaway’s musicianship and his ability as a songwriter that it never sounds anything less than genuine.

But with his background in folk rock, Gannaway feels like he’s edging toward home turf here, rather than stretching the envelope in an unexpected way. There might be a wistful harmonica here and there, or just a hint of a country “twang”, but it’s not much of a culture shock to those of us accustomed to his folkier style.

The highlights of the six-song EP are the two middle tracks, “Talk Yourself Up” and “Tiny Lights”. The former is a jaunty, positive little number, while the latter is a somber meditation on mortality. The first time I heard “Tiny Lights”, I earmarked it as being interesting for its melody; the next time I listened to it, I had just gone through an eight-day period which began with the birth of my son and ended with having to humanely put down a horse I’d had for nearly ten years. The lyrics jumped out at me on this second listen, and it’s a Gannaway classic right up there with “Chain”. Even if I can’t convince you that you’ll like the music, I’ll put it this way: any CD on which a song as good as “Tiny Lights” takes up 1/6 of the running time is great value for the money.

Not that any of the songs on here are anything to skip, mind you. Heading For Country makes it sound like Daniel Gannaway’s heading into untested territory, but for those of us who’ve been listening for a while, it’s more like a welcome homecoming. Very highly recommended.

1. Move Along Now (3:39)
2. Sorry To Say (2:31)
3. Talk Yourself Up (2:45)
4. Tiny Lights (3:28)
5. Lazy Sundays (3:33)
6. Sadly Don’t Think So (3:49)

Released by: Daniel Gannaway
Release date: 2007
Total running time: 19:45

If there were two more different episodes, music-wise, in Guy Gross’ tenure as the composer-in-residence for Farscape, I can’t think of them. This first release in a tentative series (as of this writing, only 1200 copies each of two volumes have been released) of complete episode scores jumps straight into the third season for the amusing, mostly-animated Revenging Angel and the horror-themed Eat Me. Put ‘em together, and sure, maybe you have a slightly schizophrenic CD, but you also have one which demonstrates what a find Guy Gross was, and why he was handed the musical reins of the show early in season 2.

As Revenging Angel’s animation was an unashamedly overt homage to the glory days of Warner Bros.’ Looney Toons and Merrie Melodies, Gross tips his hat to the late, great Carl Stalling for much of that episode’s score - even when the action wasn’t necessarily animated. Rather than saying that he skillfully keeps one foot planted in a cartoon mindset and one foot in the show’s usual scoring style, it’s more accurate to say that he manages to keep one entire foot, and all but the small toe of the other foot, in Stalling territory, with that one toe still anchored in what one would normally expect to hear from an episode of Farscape. Stalling isn’t the only target here either, as “Also Sprach Zarathustra” - a.k.a. the main theme from 2001 - is quoted frequently…cartoon-style, of course.

Eat Me is quite literally a completely different animal, with guttural brass samples twisted into something almost like whalesong for that episode’s diseased Leviathan. Just about every musical convention of horror filmmaking that you can think of can be found here, from slithery, dissonant string runs to eerie echo effects. The musical palette isn’t as dense as it here for Revenging Angel, but Gross manages to evoke an atmosphere of something going horribly wrong with his sparse arrangements alone. Conceptually, Eat Me wasn’t the most pleasant hour of TV ever made, so its discordant music fits perfectly.

However, the real find on this CD may be the Gross-era theme itself. Gross altered the show’s original opening title music to suit the expanding, increasingly epic storyline, taking it from exotic vocals plus tribal percussion to a sweeping orchestral/choral piece with exotic vocals and percussion. As this version of the theme hasn’t been released before - the previous Farscape album, released by GNP Crescendo, was out before Gross made his changes - it’s a great thing to have on CD at last. I loved how the music in the opening teasers and right before the end credits of Farscape would always find a way to slide into just the right key to segue into the titles.

It may not make for the most cohesive, listen-to-it-in-one-sitting soundtrack album ever heard, but this first volume of Guy Gross’ full episode scores from Farscape is a very worthwhile listen. It might just be that these CDs didn’t arrive while the show was still on the air, but I’ve found it odd that they didn’t catch on in the same way that the Babylon 5 “episodic” CDs did in the ’90s.

Revenging Angel
1. Sabotage / Farscape Opening Titles (2:12)
2. Method #1: Revenge (3:10)
3. Method #2: Avoidance (5:34)
4. Ancient Luxan (1:40)
5. You Started It! / Method #3: Reasoning (4:52)
6. Method #4: Be Smart (2:31)
7. Crichton’s Funeral (4:23)
8. I’m Going To Kill You! (4:52)
9. Revenge Is Not The Answer / I Did It! (3:08)
10. No Revenge / Farscape End Credits (3:20)

    Eat Me

11. Give Me Status / Farscape Opening Titles (3:37)
12. Bad Mojo (2:17)
13. All U Need To Know / Good Luck (3:25)
14. Disarmed / Food Regeneration (3:43)
15. Distress Call Response / R U Alone? (3:54)
16. Death Rites (2:20)
17. Twins (1:15)
18. Life Juice / Life Plug / The Real Me (3:06)
19. Good Things / Making Babies (2:12)
20. 2 Chianas / Breeding (2:36)
21. Finger Licking Good (1:55)
22. Twice The Fun / Still Tied / Farscape End Credits (5:49)

Released by: La-La Land Records
Release date: 2004
Total running time: 71:51

Thie CD contains the musical highlights from three of Big Finish’s Doctor Who audio adventures starring Peter Davison, from three different composers.

Loups-Garoux, the first “classic Doctor” story following an extended run of eighth Doctor adventures, was a strange audio adventure revolving around a clan of werewolves undercover in Rio De Janeiro. Kicking off with the intentionally cheesy faux theme song “Jaguar Maiden”, this intriguing story winds up with music that reminds me - strangely enough - of Nino Rota’s score from The Godfather. Something about its emotional tone does indeed help me make the mental leap from music for a Doctor Who audio play to Nino Rota. Not bad at all.

The music for Eye Of The Scorpion, the audio adventure which introduced the fifth Doctor’s new traveling companion Erimem, has a strong start, but minus the accompanying dialogue and sound effects of the story, it quickly becomes a bit of a grating listening experience. It’s fun to hear David Darlington trying to straddle the fence between a sound befitting the story’s ancient Egyptian setting and something much more modern, but it also becomes clear that one only has so many options trying to get those two styles to meet.

Primeval, with its return to familiar settings for Doctor Who - namely, deep space, huge battlecruisers (on a BBC budget) and the planet Traken - winds up being the musical score with the most in common with the era of TV Doctor Who it’s trying to emulate. Russell Stone’s expansive, spacey synths and unusual chords are not only a good pick for that kind of story, but they’re not a million light years away from what the in-house composers at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop would’ve done musically for such as story on TV.

With two scores that I’d individually give a rating of 3 out of 4, and one that, to be diplomatic, I wouldn’t, this collection of music from the early years of the fifth Doctor’s new lease on life winds up being my pick for the least essential of the Big Finish music compilations. There’s good stuff on here, but it’s more of a “completists only” release than a must-have.

Loups-Garoux
1. Loups-Garoux trailer (1:14)
2. Theme from Jaguar Maiden (0:49)
3. Stubbe’s Trial / Rosa (3:19)
4. Shadow Across The City (0:57)
5. Spirit Across The Forest (1:42)
6. Winter Wolf (1:49)
7. Closer Than Companions (1:16)
8. Stubbe’s Dance (2:55)
9. Into The Forest (2:37)
10. The Summer Wolf (1:26)

    Eye Of The Scorpion

11. Eye Of The Scorpion trailer (1:28)
12. They Gave Us Dust (1:00)
13. You Can’t Say Pharaoh Than That (0:50)
14. Thebes (0:57)
15. The Erimem Show (2:47)
16. Dead Again (3:39)
17. Sand (5:20)
18. Sarcophagus (3:46)
19. Eye Love 1400 B.C. (4:44)

    Primeval

20. Primeval trailer (1:44)
21. Arrival (0:30)
22. A Vast Spaceship / Kwundaar (3:14)
23. Pleasant Music Is Playing (0:56)
24. The Maligan Takes Hold / The Union Is Beautiful (1:45)
25. Don’t Turn Around (1:26)
26. Healing Waters (1:38)
27. A Place That Stifles (2:03)
28. The Definition Of Save / Creeping Evil (2:39)
29. Captive Emotions / Loose Threads (2:29)
30. Darkest Before Dawn (2:04)
31. We’ve Got Work To Do (0:45)

Released by: Big Finish
Release date: 2002
Total running time: 63:48

Composed to accompany the 1996 CD-ROM game Star Trek: Borg, the music on this CD was recently released by Dennis McCarthy, who also composed more episodes of the various Star Trek spinoffs than anyone else. However, if you’re expecting more of that relatively sedate sound here, you may be in for a shock. Star Trek: Borg may have looked like a television episode, what with John de Lancie starring and Jonathan Frakes directing, but freed from the restrictions usually placed on the scoring of Star Trek TV episodes, the music is quite a bit more involved than you may be expecting.

While Borg lacked the restrictions of the TV series’ music, it also lacked the budget that the TV series - at least in 1996 - lavished on music. McCarthy relies on frequent-flyer collaborator Kevin Kiner to bring his orchestrated score to life, and if there’s really a weak point with the Borg soundtrack, that’s where it is, but more due to the state of synthesizer/sequencer technology than the talent involved. (McCarthy and Kiner collaborated on many future projects where their music had to be synthesized instead of played by a real orchestra, including McCarthy’s Stargate SG-1 scores and, ultimately, the reduced-budget final season of Star Trek: Enterprise.) The orchestral textures just aren’t quite “real,” though it’s no exaggeration to say that the technology to achieve this has improved by leaps and bounds since 1996.

The style is also very different from McCarthy’s usual Trek “house style,” with some of the short cues almost resembling some of Jerry Goldsmith’s “spacedock” music from the first Star Trek movie (including one cue explicitly labeled “Goldsmith Has Been Assimilated”). The synth-chorus as a signature sound for the Borg is also revived here as well. There’s a recurring “orchestral stab” sound also used in conjunction with the Borg, but without the accompanying visuals, this makes the music sound like a late ’80s/early ’90s horror movie score. There are a few hints of McCarthy’s trademark panoramic chords from his TV Treks, but overall it’s very different.

The final three tracks are comprised of music McCarthy created for the “Borg Invasion 4-D” ride at the Las Vegas Hilton’s Star Trek Experience, and there’s a huge world of difference here (then again, we’re talking about an 8-year gap). The Borg Invasion suites are some of the most invigorating music I’ve heard from Dennis McCarthy, sounding both more like his usual Trek TV music and less like it (with pulsating guitar samples and almost Matrix-y passages) at the same time. The series would’ve benefitted tremendously from allowing him to cut loose on the music like this.

One can only hope that maybe the composer can sneak out some of the better examples of his Star Trek TV music on CD in private pressings like this, though from a rights perspective, there’s probably a vast difference in doing that with this material and music composed for TV shows that are still, on DVD at least, a going concern. There are quite a few I could nominate (namely “The Homecoming” / “The Circle” / “The Siege” trilogy that opened Deep Space Nine’s second season) but only time will tell if Dennis McCarthy will keep sneaking gems from the Star Trek music archives out of the vaults for us. At the time of this writing, Star Trek: Borg is still available from the composer’s web site.

1. Main Theme (1:02)
2. The Legend Of The Borg (1:24)
3. Battle At Wolf 359 (2:58)
4. The Battle Rages (0:58)
5. Club Q (0:55)
6. “I Am Berman Of Borg” (1:37)
7. “Goldsmith Has Been Assimilated!” (1:37)
8. “Welcome To The Collective, Cadet” (2:21)
9. Searching The Borg Ship (2:21)
10. Time Is Running Out (1:17)
11. Escape From The Borg Collective (1:44)
12. Borg Hell (2:03)
13. “You Will Be Assimilated, Have A Nice Day” (2:21)
14. “Resistance Is Futile, My Ass!” / Finale (7:28)
15. End Titles (1:02)
16. Borg Invasion Suite Part 1 (6:32)
17. Borg Invasion Suite Part 2 (2:51)
18. Borg Invasion Suite Part 3 (7:24)

Released by: DennisMcCarthy.com
Release date: 2007
Total running time: 48:21

Recorded in concert in September 2003, this CD is literally what the package says - a series of themes and in-game music from Shigeru Miyamoto’s Super Mario and Zelda games, going all the way back to the originals, but arranged for a smokin’ big band. On the surface of it, this may sound a bit silly, but the combination of a great band and some inventive arrangements reveal that there was enough depth in the original music to bring out some swing.

Though the big band pieces are played by the Big Band of Rogues or the Yoshihiro Arita Band, Ashura Benimaru Itoh presses the “start” button with a brief acoustic guitar medley of Super Mario themes to thunderous applause. The early tracks focus primarily on the early games in the Mario series, including a surprisingly effective a capella scat medley of the various original Super Mario themes. For everything that I saw on the tracklist where I laughed at the very thought of it, I was very pleasantly surprised. Bearing in mind that the concert was recorded in Japan, keep in mind that this wasn’t a tongue-in-cheek presentation - the characters from these games are cultural icons there, even moreso than they are across the Pacific.

The beauty and brilliance of this whole thing is that the arrangers were unafraid to reinterpret the material and completely shift some cultural paradigms. There’s a Yoshi theme which is reinterpreted as a pleasant, toe-tapping bluegrass instrumental. The memorable Legend Of Zelda main theme is recast as a dashing flamenco piece. “The Song Of Epona” (from Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time) becomes a lovely Hawaiian-style number - you can almost see palm trees. And it all works. Most of this material I’d never envisioned this way, and now it’s hard for me to imagine it any other way.

There’s one drawback to the whole thing - for some reason, the whole CD is mastered at a surprisingly low level. You have to crank your speakers to hear it in detail, and worse yet, the volume level is not consistent from track to track. As bold and brassy as much of this music is, some more dynamic mastering wouldn’t have come amiss, though a mere three-month gap between the concert itself and the CD’s release may explain that quirk. It’s still worth a listen.

1. Opening Theme Of Mario (2:23)
2. Super Mario 64 Opening Theme / Overworld Theme (4:40)
3. Medley Of Super Mario Bros. (4:24)
4. Mario Scat Version (Super Mario Sunshine) (2:06)
5. Go Go Mario (3:36)
6. Super Mario Bros. 3 Ending Theme (2:42)
7. Theme Of Athletic (Yoshi’s Island) (4:17)
8. Yoshi On The Beach (Yoshi’s Story) (3:13)
9. The Legend Of Zelda: Takt Of Wind - Title Theme (7:27)
10. Theme Of Dragon Roost Island (4:21)
11. The Song Of Epona (4:06)
12. Theme Of The Dolphic Town (4:27)
13. The Zora Band (4:42)
14. Theme Of Goron City (3:52)
15. Theme Of The Shop (3:18)
16. Medley Of The Legend Of Zelda (4:32)
17. Ending Theme Of Super Mario Sunshine (4:29)
18. Encore (Slider) (6:38)

Released by: Scitron Digital
Release date: 2003
Total running time: 75:13