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Filmtracks Recommends: Buy it... if you are part of the relatively new Brian Tyler fan club or if you love wildly outrageous, massively conceived horror themes. Avoid it... if low-budget, zany horror material (like that which came early in Danny Elfman's career) doesn't interest you. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
Normally, the only reason a score like Terror Tract would garner any attention would be if its composer would later go on to become famous. Tyler is halfway there, with 2003 serving as his breakout year. While some mainstream fans contend that his two well-known scores (for Children of Dune and Timeline) were full of cliches and indicated average talent, the work that you hear in a score like Terror Tract is a better indication of talent and hustle in adverse conditions. While Tyler has indeed been primarily a horror score composer, Terror Tract is different from his other works in that it was both smaller and zanier. With a touch of derangement between the composer and directors, the score masks its size by being outrageously conceived and/or masterfully layered. The main titles are a fine example of both these techniques together; Tyler takes a zippy horror theme (seemingly devised on the chord progression of Toto's Dune title theme) and lets it rip into a rhythmic crescendo of superhero proportions. While he does this, he makes sure that every instrument has something to perform at every moment. The flute is a funny highlight of the theme, fluttering around and making noise nearly uselessly while the brass blare in the foreground. And yet, that kind of activity causes the score to become deceptively large in stature. The majority of the underscore, meanwhile, relies of Tyler's consistently harmonic nature to keep it listenable. The stories all have some sort of 'pleasant' situation gone horribly wrong, so you end up with cues like "Bobo" and "The Lake," which offer nothing less than soothing piano and guitar work. On album, Tyler's Terror Tract is more of a curiosity than anything else... a glimpse at a score that probably did not warrant a widespread release if not for the name newfound name recognition of the composer, although the title theme performance is worthy of compilation inclusion. An interesting, sometimes fun, but not overwhelming experience. ***
The insert includes extensive information about the score and film (written by the composer, producer, directors, and an Elfman nut). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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