June 12, 2007

• Review: Oceans Thirteen

  I was all set to talk about Richard Strauss yesterday when the phone rang and my day was off and running.  So much for that idea.  Today, it's a 180 degree turn from that genre with a look at the score for Oceans Thirteen which opened last week.  Billed as the “final installment” of the Oceans Trilogy, Oceans Thirteen returns its stellar cast back to Las Vegas for another variation on the casino heist.  The score, by David Holmes, takes a more prominent role over song material this time.  The CD release for Oceans 11 was a rather disappointing affair.  It was filled with songs and score cues that were marred by dialogue from the film.  This time out, Holmes lets his score material play out. 

  The music for Oceans Thirteen is a throwback to 70’s soul-influenced acid jazz complete with Hammond organ sounds.  But Holmes has updated that sound a bit fusing a Hip Hop beat with the lighter air of musical sounds more than a quarter century old.  There is a quirky, yet engaging, funkiness to this music reminiscent of Schifrin.  Holmes adds in the occasional updated synthetic, manipulated musical, sound to the texture for variety.  Most of the score though has the sense of an introduction to a larger jam session or vamps along.  Regardless of any long term immediately identifiable thematic development (though the primary theme of the series shows up fully in “Snake Eyes”), there is a great variety in how Holmes builds each cue shaping his ideas so that even in the briefest segment there is a unity to the whole of the score.  When brass are added towards the central part of the cues included we are firmly in that 1970s Schifrin sound complete that Holmes adapts here and makes his own.  This is the music that was begging to be heard on its own in the previous installments of this series.

  

  There are nice touches of funky underscore here.  “Dice Men” adds some brass and electronic keyboard sounds to create a delicious throwback to the films of the 1970s.  Even the way the music is recorded seems to take a page from that period.  Even in smaller 30 or 50 second musical cues Holmes music captivates and works to sound like it is part of a larger whole.  It is quite an accomplishment for someone experimenting in this style.  “The Nose” adds low (bass flute?) flute and clarinet sounds updating Mancini’s spy sound.  It is one of those cues that is deliciously scored and coming at the halfway point serves to create a perfect relief from the previous tracks.

  Several source cues are added to fill out the disc.  These include one of those Isao Tomita synthesizer transcriptions of music by Debussy (“Claire de Lune”), an intriguing cover by Puccio Roelens of Ellington’s “Caravan,” Sinatra’s cover of “This Town,” and “Soul Town” by The Motherhood to end the disc.  The latter, by Klaus Doldinger, may have been written for the film specifically.

  Being prepared to dismiss this disc, I admit being caught off guard by the scores engaging take on acid jazz, soul, funk, and 1970s film music forms.  The fantastic ensemble Holmes assembled for this recording makes lends this music a real inspired touch.  It is also well-sequenced moving toward two perfectly matched source cues in its central portion before returning to additional score tracks and closing off with Sinatra and the soul track.  Oceans Thirteen’s score release turns out to be one of the unexpected highlights of the summer release season.  Definitely recommendable to those tired of uninspiring big orchestral scores, ambient atmospheric washes, or lackluster synthetic blends.  Holmes has been lauded for his work on the preceding films, this one far outshines them.  Not only that, he has put together a CD that works with its source material in a way that makes for a great listening experience.

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