Rob Price
Gutbrain Records
rob + gutbrain.com = email


2022 August 15 • Monday

The 739th Soundtrack of the Week is Brian May's score for Patrick.

The “Main Title” starts with harp playing a rising and falling line,msoon joined by strings. Then it shifts into more love theme territory and after that a tenser mood, somewhat like Pino Donaggio’s music for Carrie.

“Matricide” is a nervy, dissonant piece for strings, ascending chromatically and then bursting into horror.

Tension gets mixed with some pleasanter, more wholesome-sounding musical ideas in “The Flat”. Piano states what sounds like a love theme at the end.

More dissonant and modern string ensemble writing creates a portrait of “The Intruder” while “Room 15l is introduced by choppy arco bass and more tense and eerie writing, including piano and clarinet. About halfway through it blends in the love theme and has some atmospheric sections for bass and some electronic instrument.

Harp and strings have something of a call and response in the beginning of “You Can Feel”. After that comes more unsettling and menacing-sounding music.

The next piece is a radical chsnge of pace and mood: “Bossa for Ed” is total lounge bossa nova. Nice piece, kind of druggy in a pharmaceutical drugs sort of way.

Then there’s another slinky lounge sort of piece, “Kathy’s Tune”, which has a cool shape to it as well as a lovely melody and nice groove.

But then it’s tension time again as the orchestra layers strings and vibes in various uneasy ways for “The Trance”.

“Patrick Power” is perhaps the first action-oriented cue, starting with some striking and explosive musical figures before shifting into less active scoring ideas. It’s another one that might remind you of Carrie. It gets into the love theme a bit at the end.

Then we get “Kathy’s Theme”, which is the melody from “Kathy’s Tune” and also the love theme that’s been appearing throughout. This version has a different groove and uses piano more.

The strings return to Carrie territory for “The Strobe”, which uses long tones and chromatic lines to alternate between effective suggestions of suspense and horror.

The strings take up swooping while lower notes drone beneath and what sounds like an electric keyboard of some sort comes in for “Exit Matron”. Near the end, harp comes in and the strings slide all over the place.

Another version of the Kathy theme is the focal point of “Kathy Looks for Ed”, which also dips into the well of threatening music before ending on a mostly peaceful note.

“Dr. Roget” starts with strings sounding urgent as they bow busily and push forward. But then comes a feeling of space and almost relaxation, soon replaced by dread.

Some of the Roget ideas continue in “The Needle”, another mostly ominous cue.

Aggravated chopping and sliding strings announce that “Kathy Returns” and then musical statements of varying density and intensity appear for “I’m Going Now”.

There’s a pensive mood to “He’s Dead”, which has harp in unison with the string section for some parts and then the various themes are reprised for the “End Title”.