New Podcast - Philip Glass

[cdouglas]

Hey folks,

A new podcast featuring the music of famed minimalist Philip Glass is ready to provide you with listening pleasure! On this week's show, you'll hear selections from such Glass scores as:

Koyaanisqatsi
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapeters
The Thin Blue Line
Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh
Kundun
The Hours
Secret Window
Taking Lives
The Illusionist
Cassandra's Dream

Plus, my review of Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell. Give it a listen, willya?

Next week, join us as we examine the final film scores of many late composers, from Alfred Newman to Basil Poledouris.

[BrettCullum]

Wow! Another great podcast. Glass is a brilliant composer. I thought the CANDYMAN score was sheer genius, and I am a big fan of his track he recorded with Kronos Quartet to accompany the Universal DRACULA. So who's up next? Howard Shore? LOL!

[cdouglas]

Wow! Another great podcast. Glass is a brilliant composer. I thought the CANDYMAN score was sheer genius, and I am a big fan of his track he recorded with Kronos Quartet to accompany the Universal DRACULA. So who's up next? Howard Shore? LOL!

Thanks, Brett! Candyman is a personal favorite of mine, as well. Brilliant stuff. I actually meant to include some of his Dracula stuff on this week's show, but ran out of space. Ah, well. I'll include it in a vampire-themed podcast one of these days.

Actually, I'm hoping to do a show on the collaborations between Howard Shore and David Cronenberg the next time I do a batch of director/composer shows. It may scare some who normally listen to the show away, but a lot of good music has come from that relationship.

[BrettCullum]

No, I totally think Howard Shore and his work with Cronenberg is iconic. They are two that just go together! Sort of like Angelo Badalamenti and David Lynch. It's an example where score becomes character, or as much an equal part of the film as anything else. And when your film style is more impressionistic it becomes that much more vital.

Hmmm! Vampires? They do not normally get great scores, do they? But I do recall that '70s John Badham version of DRACULA with Frank Langella had a great one by John Williams. Very much underrated in my book. You would almost need to include the work from BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, the TV episodes. Cristophe Beck did amazing work there and in the sister shows.

Okay, way for me to hijack the thread from Mr. Glass!

[Gabriel Girard]

First of all let me add my love to the Candyman score.

Continuing Brett's thought about vampires I always thought that Glass wrote the score for Interview With A Vampire but it's actually Eliott Godenthal!

I'll listen to the show today - I usually like Glass' work.

Maybe you should start a show suggestion thread Clark.

[cdouglas]

Maybe you should start a show suggestion thread Clark.

A good idea, Gabriel. I'll do that shortly. It will probably produce more suggestions than I can actually handle, but I'll definitely do that. I suspect some cool show ideas will be generated.

Brett, there are enough worthy vampire scores to fill an hour of programming. In addition to the awesome Williams score you mentioned (and Beck's Buffy stuff, easily the best music he's created), there's also Goldenthal's Interview With a Vampire, Mancini's Lifeforce, Broughton's The Monster Squad, Kilar's Bram Stoker's Dracula, and some others. Some of those old Hammer horror flicks have some entertaining music, too.

That being said, the vampire-heavy television show The Hunger (sort of but not really based on Tony Scott's movie of the same name) features just about the worst main title "music" I've heard.

[BrettCullum]

I think the most famous vampire theme to me has to be the title sequence of DARK SHADOWS with thermin prominently up front. From that show you also have that haunting "Josette's Theme" and "Quentin's Song" both of which actually became hits on the radio back in the day. I could almost do an entire show of VAMPIRES ON TV if we contrasted Buffy with Dark Shadows.

I recall the LIFEFORCE being beautiful but distracting as if it did not quite fit the movie it was accompanying. I remember it pulling me out of the film to listen, and that always scares me.

BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA didn't impress me all that much in the score department. I did love the Annie Lennox song!

And by the way the official "score" to the movie version THE HUNGER was pretty bad as well. But it was cloaked with an awesome soundtrack selection which included New Wave classics mixed with incredible recordings of classical pieces. So the score was awful, but the song selection for the soundtrack was to die for. I never much got in to the TV series.

[Gabriel Girard]

Great show Clark!

Thanks for the Kundun track - I had a long, stressful day at work and it really cooled me down.

[Carl Wonders]

I recall the LIFEFORCE being beautiful but distracting as if it did not quite fit the movie it was accompanying. I remember it pulling me out of the film to listen, and that always scares me.

Everytime I hear the theme to Lifeforce, it reminds me of one of the classic NFL Films cues called The Equalizer. Listen to both and tell me I'm crazy (I'd hate to think Mancini ripped off an NFL Films track!)

Lifeforce Theme
The Equalizer

[cdouglas]

I'll compare those two cues when I get home, Carl (my work computer is sound-disabled at the moment). I do know that John Ottman ripped it pretty obviously with his theme for X2.

Brett, I saw Lifeforce a long time ago, but I honestly don't remember how well the score worked within the context of the film. I just know that I quite like it on album as a listening experience.

Glad you liked the show, Gabriel! Yeah, Kundun is a very interesting Glass score... to me, it feels a lot more personal than some of his work, perhaps because of Glass' connection to Buddhism (one of the primary reasons Scorsese hired him).

[Carl Wonders]

I'll compare those two cues when I get home, Carl (my work computer is sound-disabled at the moment). I do know that John Ottman ripped it pretty obviously with his theme for X2.

Hmm...I never really made that connection before, but I totally see it now that you pointed it out, Clark. The whole X-Men franchise has been pretty unlucky with music, since the only effort I really enjoyed was John Powell's for X3, but the movie was pretty poor. Oh well...

[Kevin]

His score for The illusionist was one of his best efforts in the world of film.