Some new sounds

Every once in a while I like to listen to some new stuff to keep my creative juices at least from being stagnant. Every once in a while I go through an "electronic music" phase. Right now is one of those times.
So here is what is going through my ears now:


What cool toys. I want one.

Halo Reach: The Score

Recently, Bungie and Microsoft released their newest addition to the Halo franchise called Halo Reach. So far, I haven't had the opportunity to play the game, but from what I've heard, read, and seen, it definitely looks like it could be the most epic of all those that came before it.
Up until now, the scores previously released haven't been high on my playlists, with the exception of Stephen Rippy's score for Halo Wars. Recently, I have spun the score for Halo ODST but it didn't have the effect on me that Reach does.
The scale of this score is a lot bigger than the previous efforts from O'Donnel and Salvatori. Not only is the sound grander, but the soundtrack is much longer as well... two discs with well over an hour and a half worth of music.
The first track is well titled: "Overture". As soon as it begins, its not hard to tell that the quality of O'Donnel and Salvatori's orchestral samples have definitely improved since their first Halo score. Musically, they're using a very middle eastern flavor, slightly reminiscent of Jarre's Lawrence of Arabia. I don't know if it's the orchestration, or the samples, but the overall sound is much fuller on this album. The choir or vocal sounds are also produced better and have a much more "real" sound than the earlier scores.
Through listening to this, I notice something that I hadn't in listening to any of the other scores; at 2:46 of "Overture" they have a variation of their Halo theme, and the orchestration they chose reminds me of the opening half of the melody from Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov.
A lot of the score is very string heavy with percussion, and at times they include brass as well. But they also include some very cool electronic sounds and distorted guitar and bass.
One thing I noticed in a cue called "The package," was a melody (0:16) that was so very similar to the first half of the "Fairy Tale Theme" from Shrek (0:12). This theme returns at different points around the score.


There are a lot of massive (length) cues on this score. Fitting for a game; many of them have parts that shift into semi-unrelated material. This makes sense, I presume, as one travels through the different parts of the accompanying video game. Sometimes, the electronic elements are well blended with the orchestral parts.
One great cue that shows development over all the franchise's scores is "Tip of the Spear." It includes the entire original melody, and throughout the first half of the piece it develops that into a complete idea. At about 3:04 the idea completes itself and the track continues on with an electronic idea that is unrelated.
Throughout, the team throw in snippets and slight variations of their original Halo theme, helping to tie this score in with all those that came before it.
Overall, I really enjoyed this score and look forward to playing the game. (I think my brother already got it for me for my birthday. If that's true, thanks bro! w00t w00t!!)

Holy Crap - LOTR music book !?!

Figured I should put this (ain't it cool article) and this (amazon link) on the blog before I closed my eyes.
Maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and it'll be my birthday (or Oct. 5th (which isn't my birthday, but the joy from this would be near that))!
Oh happy day!

The Dark Tower on film

The Dark Tower is a series of seven books written by Stephen King. They are his answer to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, and they are EPIC... epically awesome!
The first time I read through them was my sophomore year of college (the first time). I remember having a discussion with Mike S. (who doesn't have a blog to link to... I mean besides the Curtain Call production blog. Okay, I'll link to that one then) about how the first book is very unlike the two that follow.
Ever since I read the series and made the decision to make music my life, I had hoped that eventually I would be in a position to be part of the team that worked on the music if the series were ever put on the silver screen or the small screen.
It looks like I've missed the boat for both mediums (TV and movie). I saw a link from Mike yesterday that led me to  a deadline article discussing the deal that was recently reached. This deal would allow Ron Howard, Akiva Goldsman, and Brian Grazer to produce the books into three feature length films and a TV series with Universal/NBC.
Obviously, its my dream to see these books as visual media, but I definitely felt a lot more comfortable when JJ Abrams had secured the rights to create the films. I felt that his style would be more in line with the style of the books, but that fell through due to Abrams' schedule (apparently he's popular right now?!).
So now, its the team team that created A Beautiful Mind, and The Da Vinci Code. Both decent films, but a far cry from the subject matter that is The Dark Tower.
That's all neither here nor there. It's going to happen sometime, by someone. I can only hope that its going to be good. But now that it has potential again, everyone and their mom are making armchair casting decisions... so why not me?
Here's the plan. Howard says that he's going to direct the first film, and the first season of the television series with Goldsman writing. So my thoughts are that the entire production doesn't necessarily need to have only one composer (not that any of them have only one anyway. I mean just look at the first season of Fringe, which has three separate credited composers. And look at Kick Ass, which has 5 credited composers.)
Who would be the good choice for composer on this project/s (besides me... anyone? Please?)?

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• Michael Giacchino - If this project had only one person scoring the entire thing, I would want it to be Michael. If there were one overseer of other composers for this project, I would want it to be Michael. With the work that he's done on Lost, Fringe, Star Trek, and his countless other great scores, I would completely trust him with the sound palette and music for the Dark Tower universe. Potentially this choice may be my lingering feelings of having Abrams lead the project.

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• Marco Beltrami - He's done some great stuff. I would like him to contribute to the music from Roland's younger years. Maybe this is some typecasting from 3:10 to Yuma, but I'd like to hear it.

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• Carter Burwell - I think if Carter tapped his Fargo side, he could write some tunes for the Calla.

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• Mark Isham - I wouldn't want him as the singular composer for the project, but I think his style would be great for some of the episodic material. Very ambient and atmospheric, I think he'd write some great stuff for following the beam.

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• John Powell - I think John would be great for blending the orchestral with the electronic. He would be one I would consider as overseer for the entire project. Powell is still my number one choice for Ender's Game though, so if that project came up and were to conflict with The Dark Tower, then he'd only be able to contribute a small portion of music. If that were the case, I would want to hear Powell's "Blaine".

Overall, I based my decisions on the subject matter. I don't think a purely orchestral score will completely fit this project, because of the dimension hopping, the timelines involved, etc... But one cool thing about this story is that it has flavors of many things. It has classic western, New York City, crazy weird fantastical locales, Stephen King's home, alternate realities.
I'm not saying that this project couldn't be done by a few different huge names (ie. Hans Zimmer) but I just want the music to go a little deeper than what he may do... although I wasn't disappointed with Inception, but it still sounded like the samples that he uses for everything else. Nor would I mind if John Williams were on this project, but I think it needs more than brilliant huge orchestral writing and development of leitmotifs.
In one article (or article's comments) someone said that if the developers don't consider this project their legacy, they may do a huge disservice to the material. For me, this also applies to the score. Much like Howard Shore's approach to LOTR, whoever does this project I hope considers this their magnum opus. The project to which the rest of their life's work will be compared. No pressure, but if this isn't good... that would be bad.
All this being said, Ron Howard has most often worked with James Horner, who I wouldn't mind taking this project. Danger motif, here we come.
So there you have it. Now it's all up to KA. But in the meantime, have you read these books? If so, who would you choose?