It’s been a long time since we’ve heard from Dallas-based Tree Wave, another pioneer of the “chiptunes”/”micromusic” movement. But while other acts (such as 8 Bit Weapon) have carved their own path through that genre, Tree Wave was always different and decidedly more analog: dot matrix printers, among other things, were specially programmed and miked up as instruments in and of themselves. Tree Wave has also never limited itself solely to computer hardware; ethereal distorted guitars have always been a part of the duo’s soundscape.

Almost by accident, I discovered that Tree Wave released a new mini-EP (or as Paul Slocum calls it, a “virtual 10-inch”, referring to the size of a “maxi-single” on vinyl but almost certainly milking the double entendre for whatever it’s worth) in August. Consisting of four songs, Virtual 10-Inch shows an evolution in Tree Wave’s sound. If anything, that sound has morphed into prog-rock-with-computer-hardware.

The good news is that Tree Wave’s tendency toward warm, weird, wide-open chords hasn’t changed. In places, though, Virtual 10-Inch serves notice that, if the sound wasn’t necessarily constrained to old electronics before, it’s even less so now; there are moments where Tree Wave’s signature computer sounds are drenched with a dreamy multi-tracked wash of distorted guitars – or at least computer audio run through a distortion pedal (a trick Slocum has been known to employ).

“onewordb” and “plentyc” are the two tracks that will seem most familiar to fans of Tree Wave’s previous work; “onewordb” is unusual in that it introduces a male vocal (presumably Slocum), which features in the other songs as well; vocalist Lauren Gray doesn’t appear until the second track, “realaudio8″, which is part of the more decidedly abstract half of Virtual 10-Inch. She takes the lead on “plentyc”, and the final track, “time29″, closes things out on an experimental note again.

It’s been too long since we’ve heard anything out of Tree Wave (they’ve been touring steadily since 2003, though), and hopefully Virtual 10-Inch is a sign that they’re working on more new material. This pint-sized collection – less than 15 minutes to hear the whole thing – may not be for everyone, but it’s an intriguing sound that’s carving out its own swath. It may be micromusic, but it doesn’t “sound like an old video game” by a long shot…and I like that.

Virtual 10-Inch is available as a free download from Tree Wave’s web site (see link below).

1. onewordb (2:50)
2. realaudio8 (3:36)
3. plentyc (2:36)
4. time29 (3:10)

Released by: Tree Wave
Release date: 2009
Total running time: 12:12

I’m reviewing this slightly out of order, as it was released a few months before the Battlestar Galactica Season 4 soundtrack (which runs a damn good chance of being the best film music release, by anyone, in any medium, anywhere this year), and indeed I listened to Caprica before the Galactica soundtrack arrived. I held back on a review to see if a closer listen to both at the same time would reveal more connecting tissue, musically speaking, than there appears to be at first.

On reflection, though, I’m not sure why I’d expect there to be; Capirca isn’t Galactica. It’s a landlubber show as opposed to its spacefaring forebear, serving as a prequel to Galactica, with its events taking place over half a century before the destruction of the twelve colonies. Musically, it’s more traditional than Galactica; as the show takes place in a society that’s modeled somewhat on post-WWII America (except that there are maglev trains and interplanetary travel, and racial and political tensions to go with them), the music is in a minimalist orchestral vein. The exotic instrumentation of Galactica is replaced with a more traditional string ensemble here.

That’s not to say that there aren’t hints of Galactica here and there; a few tracks in particular jump out as being the very connecting tissue I was looking for. Galactica’s wall-of-percussion sound returns for three key scenes: “Terrorism On The Lev”, “Zoe Awakens” and “Cybernetic Life Form Node”. All three of these cues accompany pivotal moments that are just the beginning of putting Caprica on the road to hell, and two of them involve the very first Cylon.

There’s a subtler reference back to Galactica with the instrumentation of “Monotheism At The Athena Academy”, hinting at the “ancient” Mediterranean sound of Caprica’s predecessor, and an overt reference in “The Adama Name”, which is a warm, string-based rendition of “Wander My Friends”, a song from Galactica’s first season which became the theme for Bill Adama (not coincidentally, this music accompanies virtually the only major scene in Caprica’s pilot movie for Adama, who’s still a child at this point).

Much – if not most – of the rest of the score revolves around variations on “The Graystone Family”, the first thing you hear on the CD. And indeed that family’s story is absolutely vital to Caprica, but the funereal tone of the soundtrack here makes it all seem to blur together at times. I’m reluctant to pass judgement on the Caprica soundtrack because it is just the pilot – think about how much bearing the soundtrack from the 2003 Battlestar Galactica miniseries has on, say, the music from the series finale. (And at the same time, if that same downer “feel” pervades the show and not just the music, I might pass on Caprica altogether.)

The booklet accompanying the CD gives the impression that Galactica house composer Bear McCreary wasn’t necessarily considered a shoo-in for the job on Caprica. But at the same time, there’s no reason for him to not have automatically gotten the job; in the end, Battlestar Galactica’s music was one of the best things about the show, and as the story got murkier and more depressing, the music was honestly one of the few things that kept me around at times. If the tone of the pilot movie is any indication, Caprica’s going to need him too.

1. The Graystone Family (3:02)
2. Terrorism On The Lev (3:15)
3. Grieving (3:46)
4. Lacey and Zoe-A (4:08)
5. Cybernetic Life Form Node (3:16)
6. Zoe’s Avatar (3:04)
7. Daniel Captures The Code (2:29)
8. A Tauron Sacrifice (2:46)
9. Amanda Graystone (3:05)
10. Joseph and Daniel (4:18)
11. Tamara’s Heartbeat (1:42)
12. Delivering The Message (2:56)
13. Monotheism At The Athena Academy (3:34)
14. Children Of Caprica (2:30)
15. Irrecoverable Error (2:47)
16. The Adama Name (1:39)
17. Zoe Awakens (2:22)
18. Caprica End Credits (3:38)

Released by: La-La Land Records
Release date: 2009
Total running time: 54:17

Included as a bonus feature of the long-delayed (and long, long overdue) compelte series DVD set of the 1980s BBC SF series The Tripods, and also available as a download for those with no interest in the DVDs, the Pool Of Fire Suite is an interesting experiment: original Tripods TV composer Ken Freeman, a master of synthetic textures, composed new music for key story points in the season of the show that was never made. Despite the fact that over 20 years have passed, Freeman makes an effort to make it sound as though this music is coming out of his synth rig circa 1986/87 – with minimal hints of the massive advances that have been made in synthesizers and/or sampling in the intervening two decades.

“A Plan Of Action” immediately sets the tone with an extended, minor-key statement of the Tripods theme, but this time slowed down to a dirge: it’s easy to imagine this music covering the scenes picking up from the second season’s cliffhanger, in which Will and his friends discover that the base from which their resistance movement has been fighting the Earth-dominating Tripods has been laid to waste. As easy as it is to picture these things, Freeman is free to explore the material without the timing constraints of composing to picture.

Freeman delves into a surprisingly bluesy, guitar-centered sound with a percolating ’80s-style synth backing in “A Drink With Ruki”, an a similarly upbeat brass riff lightens things up in “The Pool Of Fire” itself. “Summer Wind” also keeps things light for a portion of the story involving the view from a hot air balloon.

After the triumphant strains of “Freedom”, “The Conference Of Man” brings the Tripods theme back to the fore, this time in a much more confident (and less mournful) interpretation, but there’s still dissonant unease waiting in the wings: without the Tripods to unit humanity in a fight against a common cause, the newly freed human race risks splintering into factions fighting over its own resources. Where this storyline could have gone is anyone’s guess: there were no further books carrying the story forward, and of course there were no further TV adventures. So we’re still treated to an unresolved cliffhanger – albeit a purely musical one.

I’ve always been a huge fan of the original Tripods music, so the very notion that the BBC would commission Ken Freeman to provide music for adventures never filmed is a huge hit with me. The music is sensational – and I’m sure I’m not the only one thinking that it’s the BBC’s (and the audience’s) loss that a third season wasn’t made that could have featured music like this.

1. A Plan Of Action (3:46)
2. The Green Man (6:40)
3. A Drink With Ruki (7:32)
4. The Pool Of Fire (6:31)
5. Summer Wind (4:40)
6. Freedom (5:30)
7. The Conference Of Man (5:33)

Released by: BBC Video (as part of The Tripods: The Complete Series DVD box set)
Release date: 2009
Total running time: 40:12

This is going to sound like a completely goofy reason to go and buy an album, but I went to get Regina Spektor’s Far purely because of one of the producers she worked with on the album. Seriously. Now, when you take into account that the producer in question is the reclusive former ELO mastermind Jeff Lynne, it makes a bit more sense – not only am I a lifelong fan of his, but any appearance by him on record is a rare and precious thing indeed.

That said, Far is, in places, a much better album than I expected, regardless of who’s manning the mixing console on a given track. My first exposure to Regina Spektor was – perhaps unfortunately – her duet with Ben Folds, “You Don’t Know Me”, from Folds’ last studio album. I thought she had a fairly distinctive voice, enough that I was intrigued, but when I went to Amazon to check out clips of her solo work, her back catalog just didn’t register as being “my thing”. Where Far succeeds, it succeeds spectacularly, and where it misfires, it does so equally spectacularly.

If I have a problem, stylistically speaking, with Ms. Spektor, it’s with her tendency to try to be a bit too “cute” both lyrically and in her vocal delivery, with a habit of over-enunciating words for effect. Once in a while, it’s okay, but it seems like every third song shows that tendency, which is a pity, because it distracts from the sheer beauty of some of the songs where she isn’t trying to hard to be clever. It’s jarring to veer from “Human Of The Year” or “The Genius Next Door” to something like “Dance Anthem Of The ’80s”, which literally revolves around her funny-pronunciation gimmick.

Where she does a straightforward delivery, Spektor’s work is just breathtaking – “The Calculation”, “Blue Lips” and “Laughing With” are repeat listening favorites. Where she only does a little bit of gimmicky delivery, such as “Machine” or “Folding Chair”, it doesn’t distract from her outstanding songwriting. These songs display a great command of crafting a song and, in places, surprisingly mature lyrics.

Where she loses me is with the stacatto, machine-gun syllables of
“Dance Anthem Of The 80s”; which really epitomizes the facet of Far that I greatly dislike, with lines like “You-oo-oo-oo-oo are-are-are so swee-ee-ee-ee-eet”…it’s like listening to a singing Dalek. I don’t mind a bit of musical comedy here and there, but when it becomes grating to listen to, I draw the line. There are a couple of “skippers” on Far – i.e. songs I quickly decided I could do without after the first couple of listens. Maybe there’s something I’m missing from not having seen her live, but the appeal of these songs evades me – it’s a true love/hate relationship.

Fortunately, Far has far more great songs than it does annoying novelty tunes, and on that merit I can recommend it. As for the Jeff Lynne-produced material, “Folding Chair” is one of the catchiest, most addictive songs I’ve heard all year (and Spektor’s humorous delivery actually works here as she delivers a short passage of the music in vocal “dolphin barks”). “Genius Of The Year” and “Wallet” are unusually stripped-down productions for Lynne, where “Blue Lips” is almost a little too Lynne-y. The download bonus track “The Sword & The Pen” is a bit jarring, with its sudden dramatic build-ups to the chorus. Still, it’s good to hear the man’s doing something other than endlessly covering “Mr. Blue Sky”. (Spektor was apparently compeltely unaware of Lynne’s ELO pedigree, knowing his work only via Tom Petty’s Highway Companion!)

With repeat listening, though, I really stopped caring who was producing what and just found myself enjoying the album – with a few exceptions.

1. The Calculation (3:09)
2. Eet (3:49)
3. Blue Lips (3:32)
4. Folding Chair (3:35)
5. Machine (3:52)
6. Laughing With (3:13)
7. Human Of The Year (4:05)
8. Two Birds (3:15)
9. Dance Anthem Of The 80s (3:43)
10. Genius Next Door (5:04)
11. Wallet (2:26)
12. One More Time With Feeling (3:56)
13. Man Of A Thousand Faces (3:07)
14. Time Is All Around (3:05)
15. The Sword & The Pen (3:46)

Released by: Sire
Release date: 2009
Total running time: 53:39

If there’s one group active currently that I wish would release stuff more often, it’s this Norwegian duo. Their dance music, which manages to be bouncy and chilled-out at the same time, is layered, well-arranged, and just fine for listening to even if you’re not dancing…and it seems like they take forever between projects. Then again, they have yet to turn out a clunker of an album, so maybe I shouldn’t complain. Junior, their third studio album, carried with it the promise of combining the best elements of Melody A.M. and The Understanding – two very different projects. I didn’t have any major issues with either of those two prior albums, so surely this wouldn’t be a bad combination.

Junior’s best tunes – and, by no small coincidence, its first two singles – are right up front. “Happy Up Here” is a peppy, laid-back dance number, and an awfully catchy one at that. But it’s followed by what has to be the catchiest damn song I’ve heard in all of 2009 to date, and one of the best things Royksopp’s ever done: “The Girl And The Robot”, an ’80s-styled piece of electronica featuring vocals by Robyn (still a familiar fixture in the European music scene despite seeming like a one-hit wonder ten years ago on the U.S. charts). The song is not only infectiously catchy, but perfectly arranged and produced – seriously, I can just listen to it over and over again, it’s that good.

The rest of the album is no slouch, though – “Vision One” and especially “You Don’t Have A Clue” are highlights, and “Miss It So Much” is catchy enough musically but hindered a bit by repetitive lyrics. Royksopp’s instrumental honor is upheld by the chilled-out but still interestingly-put-together “Royksopp Forever”. If there’s one track worth skipping, it’s “Tricky Tricky” – maybe this is a point at which I’m just too old for the material, but neither the lyrics nor the music appeal to me. The lyrics especially seem trite and silly; I realize that the lyrics aren’t really the driving force on a dance track, but if they had to have album filler, surely they could’ve done better than this.

That, however, is only a single song; the rest of Junior is strong enough that it’s still a more than worthwhile listening experience. Interstingly, Royksopp is planning to release another album, Senior, late this year – if it’s anything like Junior, we’re in for a treat.

1. Happy Up Here (2:43)
2. The Girl And The Robot (4:28)
3. Vision One (4:59)
4. This Must Be It (4:41)
5. Royksopp Forever (4:59)
6. Miss It So Much (5:01)
7. Tricky Tricky (5:59)
8. You Don’t Have A Clue (4:33)
9. Silver Cruiser (4:36)
10. True To Life (5:50)
11. It’s What I Want (3:06)

Released by: Astralwerks
Release date: 2009
Total running time: 50:55

Maybe we should’ve expected a release like this in a year in which the Star Trek franchise is suddenly coasting along on both warp power and the goodwill of a receptive public thanks to its big-screen relaunch, but this CD’s release caught me completely by surprise, and I hope it’s a sign of things to come.

Simply put, this CD gathers the complete score of James Horner’s celebrated, career-making music score from the second Star Trek film, in order, every note – even including material that was jettisoned after a studio-mandated reshoot required Horner to re-convene his orchestra and add more music at a late date. The soundtrack from Star Trek II has been released before, but this definitive remastered edition adds half an hour of music and represents every note heard in the course of the film. Add to that the usual lavish, well-researched booklet from Film Score Monthly, and you get a package worthy of one of the best scores in the franchise’s big-screen history.

Key passages of music that haven’t been heard before include – believe it or not – major movements in the movie’s climactic space battle, atmospheric tracks from early in the movie, and a brief piece of music that should be forever famous if for not other reason than underscoring William Shatner screaming “KHAAAAAAAAAAN!” Oh, and the death and funeral of one Mr. Spock. In short, the previously omitted tracks are not minor moments in the movie, and why they were left out on the original release is probably down to the fact that, in the LP-dominated days of the early 1980s, a 45-minute soundtrack album was considered more than enough unless, maybe, the movie’s title had “Wars” (rather than “Trek”) after “Star”. Even with that limitation in mind, some of the omissions from the original release are mind-boggling. This CD handily corrects that, and the improvement in sound quality is quite noticeable.

The booklet itself is worth the price of admission too: virtually everything you could possibly want to know about the movie’s music and its composer (including how he got the job and who else almost got the job) is here, lavishly illustrated, painstakingly researched, and the photos even reveal something I had never known about this movie: its composer can be seen in Starfleet uniform in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it walk-on part.

I’m literally praying to God (who may or may not need a starship) that Film Score Monthly isn’t going to be content to leave the Star Trek franchise alone after this release. The third through eighth films cry out for more fully fleshed-out soundtrack releases like this, and I wouldn’t kick FSM out of bed if they wanted to do something crazy like venture into unreleased music from The Next Generation or Deep Space Nine. A pipe dream? Maybe. But until FSM announced it, the expanded Star Trek II score seemed just as unlikely. It’s been worth the wait – great music finally getting a fitting treatment.

1. Main Title (3:08)
2. Surprise On Ceti Aplha V (0:46)
3. Khan’s Pets (4:20)
4. The Eels Of Ceti Alpha V / Kirk In Space Shuttle (3:54)
5. Enterprise Clears Moorings (3:34)
6. Chekov Lies (0:42)
7. Spock (1:13)
8. Kirk Takes Command / He Tasks Me (2:08)
9. Genesis Project composed & performed by Craig Huxley (3:17)
10. Surprise Attack (5:08)
11. Kirk’s Explosive Reply (4:03)
12. Inside Regula I (1:37)
13. Brainwashed (1:25)
14. Captain Terrell’s Death (2:00)
15. Buried Alive (0:58)
16. The Genesis Cave (1:11)
17. Battle In The Mutara Nebula (8:09)
18. Enterprise Attacks Reliant (1:30)
19. Genesis Countdown (6:35)
20. Spock (Dies) (1:55)
21. Amazing Grace (1:27)
22. Epilogue / End Title (8:47)
23. Epilogue (original version) / End Title (7:29)

Released by: Retrograde Records (Film Score Monthly)
Release date: 2009
Total running time: 75:16