May 13, 2009

  • Review: Torchwood

    Torchwood is a sort of sci-fi spin off series from the BBC's Doctor Who.  But that's not really the reason to be excited about the series...unless you like sci-fi.  The real reason to be interested in Torchwood  may lie in the music composed by Murray Gold.  Gold's three discs of Doctor Who music from the latest reboot of the series are among some of the most fun television music you can hear today.  It's cinematic in its scope and some of that has spilled over here to this series which first aired in 2006.

    Silva has released a collection of 32 tracks  on an ample 78 minute disc which is filled with more examples of how good Gold is as a composer.  Thematic content appears throughout the selection here, sometimes for specific characters, and sometimes feeling like a larger thematic thread.  Intimate solo writing ("King of the Weevils") gets set alongside big action cues and a mix of electronics and orchestra that are reminiscent of scores by John Powell but feel so much better orchestrated.  They also seem to have more character than Powell is able to get away with in some of his big action scores (which is too bad because he's a fine composer!).  Gold's music incorporates a little bit of everything here: action music, intimate almost eerie sounds, and ambient design elements.  It all works quite well as its own listening experience which is no small feat. 

    The music can take on a sort of independent film sound with rock beats set agaisnt strings that seems to be a popular approach in British film and television scoring, but Gold's music still sounds very much like his own music because it relies on thematic and motivic writing that cements the ideas fuller in the ear of the listener.  One can also hear how he works through developing the smallest ideas into larger themes, or makes subtle changes to texture as an insistent motive is given weight through repetition.  Harmonically there is a lot to admire too as Gold works through interesting chromatic shifts to create unsettling musical narratives.  Sometimes the music will flirt with a major sonority only to drift back into a more melancholy minor tonal footing.  There is also quite a bit going on texturally in his music which makes it interesting to listen to as well. 

    Ben Foster, who also conducts and orchestrates Gold's music for Doctor Who, also provide some of the music here and the two take a joint credit for the music.  Overall a fascinating contemporary score that is not a sci-fi extravaganza but an intriguing mix of orchestral and semi-contemporary pop rock minimalism in a richly-recorded release.