2019 October 21 • Monday
Tito Arevalo's music for
The Mad Doctor of Blood Island is the 592nd
Soundtrack of the Week.
The "Pre-Title" and "Title" cues blend blaring wind instruments with strings,
percussion and wordless vocals to create a powerful atmosphere of danger and dread.
Then things get mellow and even a bit sweet with “Number 1”, a much more relaxing
piece which still generates some suspense while mostly sounding like a love theme.
Most of the other cues are “Number 2”, “Number 3” and so on and generally deliver
solid dramatic underscore, admirably crafting a wide range of tension, terror and
action with a relatively small ensemble.
“Number 7” stands out for being a tender and even perhaps pastoral-sounding cue.
“Number 12” likewise has a wistful and vulnerable quality to it.
Hand percussion, chanting and some unusual-sounding reed instruments create
the dense layers of “Dance, Pt. 1”. “Dance, Pt. 2” has a different feel and
slightly different instrumentation.
“Distant Drums” lives up to its name.
And finally, “Finale” winds things up on a quiet and elegiac note.
2019 October 14 • Monday
The 591st
Soundtrack of the Week is
Richard Band's score for
Dr. Heckyl and Mr. Hype.
Much of it is a reworking of the jaunty main title theme, which
suggests that this movie is a horror comedy (as the title also might indicate).
There’s a nice blend of acoustic and electronic instruments with some
synthesizer elements that reminded me of old episodes of Doctor Who.
“Madame Puree’s Last Foxtrot” is indeed a light and old-fashioned dance number.
“The First Transformation” is a very effective horror cue and “Coral’s Love
Theme” is a wistful and beautiful piece of music for piano with strings.
Another stand out is the dreamy and gently swinging “Hoo Dies” cue, a piece of
music that manages to be touching and yet kind of goofy at the same time.
2019 October 07 • Monday
Kicking off Halloween month, the 590th
Soundtrack of the Week is
Dracula music by John Williams!
The “Main Title and Storm Sequence” starts things out very dramatically with
a stirring theme that Williams threads through the score.
The arrangements and instrumentation reminded me of some of the music for
Raiders of the Lost Ark and I assume that Angela Morley made significant contributions.
There’s a great love theme heard in “For Mina” and some pulse-accelerating
high-tension writing for “Grave Trampling and the Asylum”.
And of course there’s suspenseful, eerie and creepy music to accompany
scenes like “Into the Crypt”, “The Attack” and “Casting a Spell and The Visitation”.
2019 October 04 • Friday
Once a proofreader, always a proofreader, I suppose.
These books look good and I bought them to read,
but what's going on with this front cover blurb?
Is it from The Guardian or the Observer?
Oh, it turns out that the Observer (or is it
The Observer?) is part of The Guardian.
Then what about that Oxford comma? With or without?
You can take your pick here! It's madness!
2019 October 02 • Wednesday
