It seems a bit odd to head off into the new year with a review of a late 80s score, but the forthcoming release of The Dead Pool by Lalo Schifrin's Aleph label seems like a somewhat appropriate beginning to 2009.  It is hard to believe this score is 20 years old, but it ironically comes from an equally bad year for film music.

Dirty Harry fans now have had a chance to enjoy each of the scores for this popular Eastwood character.  Each of the scores for the series gives you window on the changing world of film scoring.  That can be seen in the jump even in the five years that separate Sudden Impact and this score.  This was not a really “great” year for film music looking back to it as a whole.  A quick glance at even the scores noted for critical attention at awards time illustrates the kind of changing world of film music (Jarre’s electronic score for Gorillas in the Mist, Zimmer’s Rain Man, Fenton’s Dangerous Liaisons, Williams' The Accidental Tourist, Grusin’s winning score for The Milagro Beanfield War).  Morricone’s beautiful score for Cinema Paradiso, though written in 1988, did not even appear here until the following year.

Into this unusual variety of styles and underscoring methods, steps Lalo Schifrin.  In The Dead Pool we hear Schifrin exploring a great deal of his past while also trying his hand at some of the contemporary tools of the trade.  “San Francisco Night” opens the disc with a sound reminiscent of the composer’s television scoring days.  Scored mostly for brass, this is a jazzier though quiet contemporized track recalling earlier Dirty Harry scores but only mildly placing us in the current period.  That is quickly accomplished in a heavily synthesized “Main Title” with the sort of rhythmic syncopation one expects from a Goldsmith electronic score.  Though sounding a bit odd in this day of over-synthesized music, Schifrin’s commanding use of electronics here and throughout the score, is one of the most striking new things that distinguish this particular film.  The music tends to avoid a grittiness that felt at home in the 1970s for a more sinister thriller sound.  There is some nice lyrical writing as well which gets a fuller display in the rather exquisite “The Rules.”  The thematic idea which opens the disc does not permeate the score, being hinted at briefly in spots, and only returning at the end of the music presented here to wrap things up into a satisfying whole.  The score has a few moments of action, often laden with electronics, that help add some variety and strings appear mostly for tension in the score, reminiscent of the composer’s work on The Amityville Horror.

There is a short essay by producer Nick Redman to wrap up the series of releases on the label in a way.  As with previous releases in the series, the score has been remixed and remastered from the original multi-track recordings.  The Dead Pool will not be a score for everyone (and there are no extras on this fairly brief disc), but for those interested in a score that shows off the combinations of Schifrin’s scoring techniques from the 1960s in a 1980s orchestral and electronic sound, there will be much to admire.

Time for just three fairly quick little reviews this week.

First up is music for the comic book series Spooks, a military horror comic book series that was turned into a graphic novel.  The four issues appeared together in July of this year after amazing sales last February.  The genesis of the story and art comes from Larry Hama and Ryan Schifrin, the latter is the son of composer Lalo Schifrin.  Ryan’s film Abominable featured a wonderful score from his father, one of the highlights from 2006.  The graphic novel featured this 20 minutes of music that you could download via iTunes and now a limited edition of the score on CD is being made available.  The disc features four tracks by Schifrin and four by Andy Garfield.  Garfield has been involved in mostly direct-to-video and TV series projects for the past decade.  This will be the first opportunity for many to hear his work highlighted.

The tracks by Schifrin feature exciting action cues (“The Forces of Darkness” and the similar “The Final Battle”) that is matched by a Garfield’s Zimmer-esque “The Department of Supernatural Defense” (which owes a lot to the action sequences of The Rock).  Schifrin’s “Omega Team” is like an updated synth mock-up of his Mission Impossible theme complete with asymmetrical rhythms and exciting accented offbeats.  “Zach and Felicia” is a lyric Schifrin track with a little jazzy feel arranged for strings and horn sounds.  Garfield shows off his understanding of contemporary aleatoric technique before returning to action/horror styles in “The Graveyard.”  In short, two different musical approaches from the old and new schools of film composition that will be a curiosity for Schifrin fans.

Then there is Towelhead featuring a score by Thomas Newman which he wrote prior to Wall-E (arguably one of the best score of the year).

Debuting at last year’s Toronto Film Festival, Towelhead has been appearing at a variety of festivals throughout the country and will receive a wider release this month.  The film is adapted from a novel by Alicia Erian by American Beauty director Alan Bell.

This is a fairly minimal score in many senses of the word.  The opening “Nothing is Private” is a lot like an African Drumming piece and one recalls Steve Reich’s minimalist approach in the following musical tracks.  Newman tends to repeat an idea and rather than change the accent, simply adds other interesting layers to his primary idea thus subtly changing the character of the sounds and music.  There is a seven-note pattern that appears throughout this meager score and while interesting in its 8-bar pattern, it really does not get much chance to do anything at all.  It appears as a guitar pattern later (“Glamour Shots”) which lends a contemporary urban feel to its otherwise primal versions.  Brief forays into ambient sounds and a track with some strings (“Rain and Good Weather”) help round of this more typical Newman score.  This will be a Lakeshore iTunes download only release since there is barely 15 minutes worth of music here.

Finally, Carter Burwell gets a chance to actually score a Coen Brothers film  in Burn After Reading. 

“Earth Zoom” is a percussion piece that opens the disc, and recurs for what sound like “intrigue” action sequences, before we move into the gentle low string arpeggios and quirky thematic ideas of “A Higher Patriotism.”  The music recalls the dramatic musical approach he used in Fargo and Being John Malkovich.  These simple arpeggio ideas which often land in unexpected harmonic territory make the score a fascinating listen and Burwell finds ways to vary the orchestral colors as well.  There appear to be two specific sound clusters, one the drumming ideas that overwhelm the texture and are over-ambient (perhaps underscoring action sequences), and the arpeggiated idea cast in different instrumental colors.  Occasionally bits and pieces of these ideas appear in quicker contrast to one another before one dominates (“Seating” features hints of the percussion with eventual string arpeggios).  Something creepy is implied a couple of times towards the end of the score with the addition of a scraping creepy metallic sound.

The score appears to take the story straight as a serious drama which may help point out its humor if the payoff works on screen.  Otherwise, this is a minimalist-styled score that often recalls Glass’s film music hybrids of minimal arpeggios with thematic ideas less strictly imposed and often meandering about in the texture.  The brevity of the score presentation here may actually be a benefit as their does not appear to be too much else that Burwell can do in this score, which suggests it will work fine in its film.                   

Burn After Reading then is a score that recalls some of Burwell’s best work with moments of richer orchestration performed by a larger sounding ensemble than he has seemed to have in past outings.  Rather than being held together by specifically thematic elements, the score is constructed around specific instrumental choices and the shifts between them.  It makes the listening experience interesting, especially for fans of the composer.  The running time for this Lakeshore release is about 36 minutes.

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For fans of limited edition releases of which there have been a plethora this year, Intrada has a few copies left of Friedhofer's Boy on a Dolphin, one of his Oscar-nominated scores.  Varese announces there latest club releases which hopefully will not be as underwhelming as most of there similar releases this year.

John Williams fans will finally get a chance to have expanded editions of his scores for the three earlier Indiana Jones films which will begin with a release of Raiders of the Lost Ark that seems slightly different from an earlier expanded disc from DCC.  Then in November a set of all the scores, including this year's Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (which is evidently the same disc as released earlier this year) will appear with one disc featuring an interview with the composer.  Supposedly, the 2nd and 3rd IJ scores will also be relesed separately over the next few months.  And, Michael Feinstein's "Sinatra Project" released this month features a previously unrecorded song penned by Williams with lyrics by the Bergmans. 

Classical Music fans stop by later this month for a look at the final release in Bis' wonderful recordings of the Beethoven symphonies with the Minnesota Orchestra.  I'll be taking a listen to the remaining recordings in this cycle.  The MN Orchestra has an affinity for Beethoven that goes back to the days of Skrowaczewski and it will be good to hear what BIS has to offer here.