This site was conceived as a side project by a "tekkie" friend of mine who suggested I use my journalistic experience to write about something I love. We bandied about some ideas before settling on this one - largely because I had collected movie soundtracks for much of my life and thought I could write about them. We wanted the site to be user friendly, well-written and reliable.
Over time, I hope to attract other writers keen to contribute to the site, who don't mind foregoing the financial benefits they may be used to in the short-term for something that may, or may not, be profitable further down the line.
The gradual demise of the cd format, re-emergence of vinyl, along with the expansion of blu-ray dvd and downloads translate to an ever-changing market place; despite this, most of us still buy cd's and dvd's and I hope that you will use the Amazon links on this site to buy online.
We have also included mini YouTube video links that accompany the reviews, so that you can listen to your favourite theme music while watching a related trailer or clip from the movie; because film is a visual medium, there seems no better way of presenting it.
Finally, a note on the type of soundtracks featured. Though purists generally view albums such as "Top Gun", "Flashdance" and others like them, as unworthy of coverage on a film soundtrack site, preferring instead to focus on orchestral scores, we have taken the view that these albums have earned their place based on their continued saleability and affection with a large section of cinema-goers. We wanted to reach as broad an audience as possible and have developed the site with this in mind, without forgetting those fans for whom composers such as Bernard Herrmann and Jerry Goldsmith, among many others, are considered on a par with the master composers. We hope you can find your best movie soundtracks on this site.
This well crafted psychic chiller, starring Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie, about a couple whose grief for their dead daughter is derailed by a psychic’s disturbing premonitions, is an atmospheric tour de force of visual tricks and twists. Pino Donaggio’s beautifully understated score largely hangs on the simplicity and versatility of its main theme (‘John’s Theme’) which features first as a childlike motif at the beginning of the film (‘John’s Theme: Children Play’) before maturing into a fully fledged love theme (‘John’s Theme: Love Scene’). Donaggio’s trademark staccato strings, here combined with woodwind, percussive and some electronic effects, as the horror elements kick-in, (‘Christine Is dead’) are given a less glossy, pre-Brian De Palma edginess (Donaggio composed scores for many of the director’s slick thrillers, including ‘Body Double’, ‘Carrie’ and ‘Dressed To Kill’) that plays well alongside the film’s decaying Venetian settings. Though most of the score is written to convey the thoughts and feelings of Sutherland’s character, who takes a more integral role in the story, cues written from Laura’s (Christie) perspective are beautifully judged, with soft strings and Spanish guitar. An atmospheric and extremely European sounding score with plenty of panache. Don’t Look Now Movie Soundtrack. Review: Tim Mowbray.
Track Listing:
1. John’s Theme (Children Play)
2. Christine Is Dead
3. Candles for Christine
4. John’s Theme (Love Scene)
5. Strange Happenings
6. John’s Theme (Laura Leaves Venice)
7. John’s Vision (Laura’s Theme)
8. Searching for Laura (Laura’s Theme)
9. Through the Streets of Venice
10. Laura Comes Back
11. Dead End
12. Laura’s Theme (The Last Farewell)
Brian DePalma’s stylish conspiracy thriller (his homage to Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up) stars John Travolta as a b-movie sound man who accidentally captures an assassination on tape before becoming a target himself. Though relatively unsuccessful at the box office, the film has become a deserved cult hit with DePalma’s legion of fans, high on his heady mix of seedy sex, gruesome violence and glossed-up production values. The score, penned by DePalma favourite Pino Donaggio easily lives up to the demands of the film and much of the time goes that few steps further turning what could have been a straight forward thriller score into a multi-layered character study, primarily thanks to the main theme with its melodic, melancholic piano motif. Add to this Donaggio’s talent for high drama and strings and you have one of his lesser known, finest scores for DePalma. Expanded liner notes and a limited pressing of 2,500 also make this collectable. Blow Out Movie Soundtrack. Review: Tim Mowbray.
Track Listing:
1. Theme From ‘Blow Out’.
2. Jack Saves Sally.
3. Hospital To Motel.
4. Jack On The Move.
5. Jack Cuts Pictures.
6. Freddie And The Mobster.
7. Jack And Sally In Café #2/Burke Kills Redhead.
8. Jack Discovers Gunshot.
9. Jack Hides The Tape And Film.
10. Burke At Phone Booth/Burke And Manners/Evil Burke #1.
11. Sally Slugs Karp.
12. Evil Burke #2/Jack On Phone To Donahue/Burke Calls Sally.
13. Burke To Phones Booth/Burke Kills Hooker.
14. Sally To Station.
15. Burke Meets Sally/The Station.
16. Car Through Glass Window.
17. Burke Kills Sally.
18. Jack Kills Burke.
19. Good Scream/End Credits.
20. Jack And Sally In Café.
21. Coed Disco Frenzy.
Joe Dante (Piranha/Gremlins) made a small but not insignificant splash with this cult werewolf movie that is largely memorable for its black humour and Rob Bottin’s groundbreaking special effects. The story of a television news reporter (Dee Wallace) whose near death experience at the hands of a serial killer lead her to seek help at a remote colony populated by werewolves, is a tongue-in-cheek take on the monster movie, something tried successfully in Dante’s Jaws-alike, ‘Piranha‘. Pino Donaggio’s score is suitably melodramatic (something he does extremely well) with plenty of strings and Herrmann-esque shocks: ‘Wolf At The Door’ and ‘Run For Your Life!‘ are great examples of this; ‘The Howling’, which appears near the beginning of the film when Karen White (Wallace) comes face to face with the werewolf serial killer is also creepy and mesmerising. The drawback here is that the cues are extremely short, the briefest running to only 17 seconds, which is a bit jarring. While the longer cues, including the acoustic ‘End Titles’ go some way to resolving this, there is a disconnection here that makes the listening experience rather stop start and your engagement with it goes the same way. Curious. The Howling Movie Soundtrack. Review: Tim Mowbray.
Track Listing:
1. Opening Titles/Phone Call/Dark Streets.
2. Sleaze/Karen’s Nightmare.
3. Eddie’s Room.
4. Doctor’s Orders.
5. The Howling.
6. Spectre/Escape from The Morgue.
7. Something Nasty In The Woods.
8. Hunting For Shadows.
9. Wolf Bites Man!
10. Terry and Karen/Delirium.
11. Animal Magnetism.
12. Wolf At The Door.
13. Run For Your Life!
14. The Big Bad Wolf.
15. Wolfing Down Terry.
16. Eddie Loves Again.
17. Transformation.
18. Welcome To The Colony.
19. Fur From The Madding Crowd.
20. Shapeshifters.
21. To Make You Believe.
22. End Title.
Bonus Tracks:
23. Flashback To Eddie.
24. “I’m Going To Light Your Whole Body Up!”
25. Karen Screams/Eddie Shot.
26. Remembering Eddie.
27. The Cabin.
28. Karen Transforms.
29. Channel 6 Update News Theme.
