H.E.R. has released a new video for her song 'Fight for You' from the 'Judas and the Black Messiah' soundtrack. The short clip offers a condensed history of the Black Panther Party and the events that led to the assassination of Fred Hampton, the subject of the new movie.
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have released their original score for 'Mank', David Fincher’s new movie about Citizen Kane co-writer Herman Mankiewicz. The Nine Inch Nails duo exclusively used period-authentic instruments from the 1940s to compose the songs for the ode-to-Hollywood movie.
"In tribute to Connery's Bond (the only true Bond), the Cold War's American-British alliance, shaken martinis, white tuxedos, honesty and honor, karate chops to the neck, Monte Carlo casinos, eye patches on villains, tiny dogs in the arms of bad guys, valet parking, hats that killed when thrown like a Frisbee, and Connery's perfectly lined face and after-shave looks" - JazzWax brings the opening title sequences of his seven Bond films - here.
"There are fewer pleasures greater, at the movies, than the moment a perfect track starts at a perfect moment, and the marriage of music and film creates an entirely new beast, a work of art in that new connection alone" - the Quietus writes in the introduction to their great list of 50 best "needle-drop" moments in films (complete with all the videos).
Warner Bros. released the first trailer for Matt Reeves’ 'The Batman' set to Nirvana's 'Something in the Way'. Strings added to the Nirvana original, and the grandiose undertone in general make for an impressive trailer. Forthcoming re-imagining of the Batman stars Robert Pattinson as The Dark Knight, set in grey and realistic Gotham City. Zoe Kravitz is seen in the trailer as Catwoman.
British TV series 'I May Destroy You' is well-received by the critics, and it's the music that "adds surprising emotional depth and valuable cultural texture to author Michaela Coel’s haunting and remarkably nuanced story", LA Times writes. The soundtrack is a mix of oldies and current hip-hop, R&B and electronic music, and it made musicians like it - Adele called the series “the best thing I’ve seen on British TV for yeaaaarssss”. The music is used, the co-director Sam Miller says, to "sort of counter-punctuate - trying to take you away from the emotional thread of the story and keep you on edge”. So it's about how the music's used - Rev. Milton Brunson's old gospel song plays while the main character exits the bar where she has been drugged, Daft Punk where there in a romantic scene, new English bands Ramz, Paigey Cakey and Arlo Parks add tonal colour to London, etc.
"My favorite thing about scoring is that every time it's a unique opportunity. I get to invent a new array of solutions with novelty and identity. I hope the music has not existed in the particular guise and aesthetic before that" - saxophone player extraordinaire Colin Stetson says in an interview about scoring soundtracks. His last - 'Color Out of Space', an H.P. Lovecraft adaptation starring Nicholas Cage.
The soundtrack for the 1997 Studio Ghibli's animated classic 'Princess Mononoke' will be available on vinyl for the first time on July 24, The Vinyl Factory reports. Three different editions of the soundtrack are being released - the original score by composer Joe Hisaishi as it appeared on film; a 1998 symphonic suite that Hisaishi arranged for performance by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra; and the promotional 'Image' album, common in Japan, in which actors perform songs as their characters to give a sense of their personalities.
Iceland composer and cellist Hildur Guðnadóttir got the 2020 Oscar for Best Original Score, making her the fourth woman composer to win overall, the first to win for a dramatic score, and the first Icelander to win any Oscar. She makes modern classical musical - "a moving fusion of ambient drone and contemporary classical that places an emphasis on exceptionally controlled tone", as Pitchfork describes it before they choose 7 of her essential tracks. There's some interesting music there: Mr. Schmuck's Farm - her project with Schneider TM, improvised electronics with scraping cellos sounds; on her second album 'Without Sinking' she improvises with layers of sound; on her project with Berlin pianist Hauschka they composed tracks inspired by colors; on her album 'Saman' (meaning "together"), she added her crystalline voice; she has done impressive work on the soundtrack for HBO series 'Chernobyl', haunting from a distance; her score for 'Joker' is special - she began composing before filming even started, an unusual practice, with director Todd Phillips and main actor Joaquin Phoenix using her music for inspiration; her latest track is 'Fólk fær andlit' ("people have faces"), released late January, about the (mis)treatment of immigrants on Iceland.
Lauryn Hill released her new song 'Guarding the Gates', for the 'Queen & Slim' soundtrack, Crack Magazine reports. The song has been a part of Hill’s live show for a while, it’s a six-minute soul track with a divine lyric “What a tragedy, you can laugh at me, but I’m in love”. The movie is […]
The critics say that HBO's series adaption of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ classic comic 'Watchmen' is better than the movie, and it seems the same goes for the soundtrack. Brooklyn Vegan says Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross‘ score for the series is "terrific, splitting the difference between the more ambient work they’ve done for films like 'The Social […]
The list goes from Bromley Davenport's minimalist analog synth, haunting melodies, whirring electronic effects and woozy waltzes in movie 'Xtro' he also directed at spot 35, to John Carpenter's 'Halloween' with minimalist piano at spot 1. Check the full list here.
