Cinemusic
© Cinemusic
Score By: Chuck Cirino
Info: 25 tracks, 60.2 mins.
Publisher: BSX Records
"Cinemusic: The Film Music of Chuck Cirino"
By: Randall LarsonDate: Sunday, January 28, 2007
This limited edition (1,000 copies) promotional release was produced by BSX Records on behalf of Chuck Cirino, a composer specializing in low-budget horror and science fiction films who, by the sound of it, really ought to be destined for far greater films in the coming years. Beginning his career as a special effects programmer, Cirino has been composing music for TV commercials, Roger Corman movies, and other feature films (more than 40 so far – mostly low budget and mostly science fiction and horror offerings), while also serving as director for TV commercials, a number of Sci-Fi Channel projects, and for music videos for bands like Earth, Wind & Fire and The Dickies.
Comprising lengthy suites from three of Cirino’s most recent made-for-TV movies – A.I. Assault, Jim Wynorski’s 2006 action flick subsequently released on DVD as Shockwave, about a team of Navy Seals seeking a pair of top secret military robots lost when a plane crashes on a deserted Pacific Island; Komodo vs. Cobra, Wynorski’s enjoyably cheesy 2005 giant lizard confrontation in the milieu of Boa, Python, Boa vs. Python, and innumerable previous Komodo films; and Solar Attack, Paul Ziller’s 2004 end-of-the-world film about a big solar storm that ignites the earth’s atmosphere and threatened to singe the populace to death.
Cirino has a terrific knack and finding a compelling melodic and rhythmic hook in the music he composes, and each of the scores for this trio of films has an effective and very likable score. Cleverly making the most out of what are essentially predominantly synth scores, Cirino’s musical textures blend a cool fusion of electronic samples and synths effectively mixed with piano and percussion and result in a very pleasing union of provocative rhythms and melodies. From the driving riffs and machine sound effects mixed into the texture of A.I. Assault to the sub-sonic roars hidden within the tracks of Komodo vs. Cobra and the epic musical cataclysm of Solar Attack, each of these scores maintains a consistently interesting and stimulating melodic sensibility and a power to its orchestration and thrust that is quite intriguing, and each score works very nicely apart from its film on CD.
A.I. Assault maintains its metallic sheen and effective incorporation of musique concrete throughout its action cues, while “Killbot” is a poignant piano piece that morphs into a resolute rhythm piece for percussion-driven synths, a powerful twanging synth melody playing over the top of it, which launches into its own new and very frenetic rhythm and pace. A jangling metallic vibe builds a neat texture while the persuasive melody line drives home a powerful and purposeful relentlessness. “The Tower” is a brutal sonic assault, assembling an array of rough-edged percussive raps, guitarlike twangs, choral figurines, all of which build to an epic-like crescendo.
Komodo vs. Cobra is more organic sounding, less metallic in its tonality. After all we’re dealing with primitive lizards instead of robot weapons. Opening with a powerful Main Title that wouldn’t be out of place in a James Bond movie – or an Italian Western, once the guitar kicks in – Cirino builds a powerful an extremely attractive sound design, as smooth as a cobra’s serpentine undulation through the forested Pacific Island, and as graceful as a komodo’s briskly dance across miniature underbrush. “Bora Bora” makes up a pleasant island-type melody, a chilled out environmental riff for the island paradise soon to be invaded by the overgrown primeval denizens of the dark. “Reasons to Die” blossoms forth with a powerful, heroic melody from sampled horns, richly bold and evocatively exotic. “Sleeping Giant” resembles one of those wonderful, rock-riffing melodies from Italian sci-fi horror films from the 60s or 70s – Angelo Francisco Lavagnino’s Snow Devils, for example – Cirino’s Title melody from warbling sampled trumpets rising up out of the depths of its darker, more prevalent undercurrent of coiled synths. This is a thoroughly wonderful score.
The music for Solar Attack seethes with layered rhythms and tonalities; obliquely echoed horns reflecting off of quickly-riffing piano notes and melancholy, doom-full and dirge-like string passages, sounding an epitaph for the Planet Earth, soon to be scorched beyond recognition. Pulsing figures throb like swollen blisters in “The Sky Is Falling” as militaristic tones and drum beats set an urgent pace, and then the cue really takes off with a vibrant and insistent velocity, a high-end, repeated melodic phrase energizing the cue with a profound import.
The release includes a short bio of Cirino, notes about the composer and his music from A.I. Assault/Komodo vs. Cobra director Jim Wynorski and producer Dan Gilboy. This limited edition’s short run won’t be around for long, but the music is A-list quality. The cd is highly recommended and well worth seeking out.
