Musical Intrigue for A Scanner Darkly

By: Randall D. Larson
Date: Thursday, June 29, 2006

THIS WEEK'S RECOMMENDATION

Lakeshore Records has released Graham Reynolds' eerie score for A SCANNER DARKLY, Richard Linklater's "visually innovative" adaptation of the classic Philip K. Dick novel. Reynolds is a composer, bandleader, and musician based in Austin, Texas. Author of a number of classical pieces (two symphonies, two operas, a violin concerto, etc.), Reynolds is also the drummer-pianist for the Golden Arm Trio, a band known for its eclectic mix of styles and mores, which rollingstone.com has described as a "crossbreeding [of] classical futurism and punk esprit."

The film is a darkly comedic tragedy about drug use in the near-future in which an undercover drug agent (Keanu Reeves) follows an order to spy on his friends with paranoid and schizophrenic consequences.

To interpret the complicated novel, Linklater (DAZED & CONFUSED, SCHOOL OF ROCK, FAST FOOD NATION) used a unique technique incorporating live-action and interpolated rotoscoping which gave the film's visual look a stylish half-animated, half-live appearance. Reynolds' music follows suit with a fascinating interpretation of the film's visual dynamic. What the score does not provide in terms of thematic unity, accessible melody, and dramatic development it more than makes up for in the simple interestingness of its style and progressive musical behavior. Reynolds grabs for literally every musical evocation, style, semblance, and idiom within arms reach (and Reynolds apparently has very long arms) and concocts a compelling mixture that dazzles the ears with its sonic extremism while also intriguing the mind with its constantly shifting variations, textures, and colorations.


On the soundtrack CD, the cues tend to run into one another, making for a very interesting listening experience akin to a long progressive modern symphony freely embracing territories of rock, chamber music, electronica, jazz-noir, and much more. "The Dark World Where I Dwell" recalls the minimalism of Phillip Glass with its recurring riff for repetitive strings and dominant, slowly felt violin melody. "Sex, Beer, and Pills" features a discordant, nightmarishly howling electric guitar wail as deeply sonorous as the cry of a blue whale over a throbbing percussive pulse that seems to solidify its interpretation of the worse aspects of all three of its titular references. "Pose As A Nark" is a nightmarish dissonance of strange electronic tonalities over a vague gamelan beat, while "Do You Like Cats" has a sultry rhythmic riff from an accordion-like electronic sound over bells, and another low, throbbing beat. "Arobasocaine" rears up with a strident rock-and-roll guitar beat, but soon peters out into the windblown synthesis of "Part of the Plan," while "Your Move, Peterbilt" is a thickly-laid-on bit of jazz for high-as-a-kite sax playing backed by rhythm combo.

"All the sounds originally came from acoustic instruments, but for much of the film, they are processed, mangled, and otherwise transformed," Reynolds explained of this score, which was composed over a year and a half before rehearsals and recording began with his Trio In Austin. "The result is something very textured and organic, but also otherworldly, sounding drug-induced and unidentifiable."

The result is a very fresh and continuously interesting listening experience that both mirrors Linklater's visual style (electronically enhanced sonic textures to go with the director's stylized animated live-action. A SCANNER DARKLY is a quite attention-grabbing and unusual film score which Lakesore has nicely put into a provocative and very listenable CD. A pair of remixes are included (DJ remixes of film score tracks? Welcome to 2006!).

www.lakeshorerecords.com

and: www.scannerdarklymovie.com


FILM MUSIC NEWS

Typically, the 1,000-copy selections in Varese Sarabande's limited edition CD Club offerings for July have both sold out already - SKY BANDITS, a near-epic 1986 adventure fantasy featuring an enthusiastic, large-scale symphonic score by Croatian composer Alfi Kabiljo recorded with London's famed National Philharmonic Orchestra, and Christopher Young's rejected score for Lasse Hallstrom's 2005 drama, AN UNFINISHED LIFE. The other two CDs, with 2,000-copy runs, are still available as of this writing: the previously unreleased soundtrack to GLORIA, the hard-hitting 1980 Gena Rowlands drama featuring an excellent jazz-based score by Bill Conti (ROCKY, THE RIGHT STUFF), and David Newman's score for the Danny DeVito-directed dark domestic comedy, THE WAR OF THE ROSES, paired with the same composer's music for THE SANDLOT. Newman's symphonic scores are typically energetic and expansive, featuring the composer's gift for melody and exquisite orchestration. All four Club CDs will ship the week of July 17th. None of them have been available on CD previously. www.varesesarabande.com


Peter Melnick, a versatile composer who has written film scores since the early 90s, has been hired to compose the music for FARCE OF THE PENGUINS, the spoof of the French documentary MARCH OF THE PENGUINS. The film is directed by Bob Saget and features the voices of Samuel L. Jackson, Jason Alexander, James Belushi, Jason Biggs, Whoopi Goldberg and Jon Lovitz. It will be released by ThinkFilm later this year and Melnick is currently working on the score. Melnick's other upcoming projects include two stage musicals: The Last Smoker in America, and Adrift in Macao, which he describes as a "musical parody of film noir." Among his previous film credits are L.A. STORY, ONLY YOU and ARCTIC BLUE. via filmmusicradio.com

Speaking of 2,000 copy limited editions, Film Score Monthly will release on July 10th a gigantic 12-CD set compiling in their entirety each of the "Film Music Collection" recordings issued by film composer Elmer Bernstein in the 1970s on his own personal label. Entitled Elmer Bernstein's Film Music Collection, the thirteen original album recordings are spread across eleven discs, with a twelfth disc that showcases a brand new recording of Bernstein's never-before released 1963 score for KINGS OF THE SUN. The set is a limited edition of 2000 copies and is sure to sell out soon, despite the hefty $199.95 price tag. www.screenarchives.com

Digitmovies presents its volume two of the series dedicated to the italian Peplum releasing for the first absolute time on record the complete original soundtrack by Carlo Rustichelli for the film ARRIVANO I TITANI (aka My son, the hero) directed by Duccio Tessari in 1961 and starring the young and triggered Giuliano Gemma, in one of his first starring roles. If HERCULES and HERCULES ENCHAINES (Digitmovies first Peplum soundtracks) represent the pure Italian Peplum lacking in other genres' contaminations, instead ARRIVANO I TITANI represent very succeeded fusion of mythology and comedy. The CD will be issued next Monday July 3rd along with "CHI L'HA VISTA MORIRE?" (aka WHO SAW HER DIE?), an unusual Ennio Morricone score for director Aldo Lado's giallo. Morricone's effort typically goes away from the plots of the Dario Argento-styled movies that distinguish the genre. The personality of Lado attracted attention in the previous movie LA CORTA NOTTE DELLE BAMBOLE DI VETRO, that perfectly amalgamated a solid giallo structure with politic thematics , attacking ferociously the power. www.digitmovies.com

Former editor/publisher of CinemaScore magazine, Randall Larson was for many years senior editor for Soundtrack Magazine and a film music columnist for Cinefantastique magazine. He is the author of Musique Fantastique: A Survey of Film Music in the Fantastic Cinema (Scarecrow, 1984) and Music from the House of Hammer (Scarecrow, 1995). In addition to Soundtrax and Music News for Cinescape.com, Randall reviews soundtracks Music from the Movies, writes for Film Music Magazine, and in many other fields.


Recommended Soundtrack sources:

www.buysoundtrax.com
www.intrada.com
www.screenarchives.com
www.footlight.com
www.arksquare.com/index_main.html (Japan)
www.intermezzomedia.com/ (Italy)
www.moviegrooves.com
www.moviemusic.com


For questions or comments, contact the author at Soundtrax@cinescape.com