Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you're familiar with Brian Tyler's early horror music and are open to a creatively layered, wildly outrageous, and massively conceived variant of that sound. Avoid it... if a humorously robust title theme worthy of any Tyler compilation cannot float haphazard surrounding material that otherwise sounds concocted from Danny Elfman's initial genre entries. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
Terror Tract: (Brian Tyler) Produced in 2000 but airing finally on the USA cable television network in the fall of 2001, Terror Tract was a somewhat comical spookfest based upon three separate short horror stories. A real estate agent played by John Ritter introduces the three stories by showing you the homes in which they take place and serving as the overarching connection between the supposedly unrelated tales. Needless to say, you don't want to inherit the karma emanating from these properties, because the circumstances of the killings in each case are outlandishly weird or frustrating. Attempting to defy the low budget nature of the production were directors Lance Dreesen and Clint Hutchison, who were soundtrack collectors themselves and had used some of Hollywood's most famous horror scores as temp music in Terror Tract. They recognized that their film would need a symphonic sound in order to distinguish itself from the plethora of other B-rated television horror flicks, but their budget wouldn't allow for a large orchestral endeavor. Recommended to them after his second year of scoring films and television series, composer Brian Tyler entered the equation, still a newcomer but talented enough to make a small orchestral ensemble sound gargantuan. Every popular composer has a story about breaking into the industry at some point early in his career, and, for Tyler, Terror Tract was instrumental in the recognition it would provide him when moving on to the other horror films of the early 2000's for which he made his name. As Tyler stated about the directors, "We all had subversive senses of humor," and through his optimistic attitude about producing a full-fledged score to suit their needs, Tyler managed to construct enough cleverly arranged ruckus to accomplish just that. The composer wrote three mini-scores for a small ensemble and connected them with one common theme. It was an exercise in layering and editing, and Tyler was able to ultimately provide a sound worthy of a feature cinematic film through a bass-heavy mix and the wise utilization of every instrument available to him. Recording in Salt Lake City to further reduce costs, Tyler impresses in this effort even if the limitations of the ensemble can still be heard in the final product. The personality of the recording makes for an interesting and sometimes fun listening experience, even if it fails to overwhelm in the majority. Normally, the only reason a score like Terror Tract garners any attention is if its composer later goes on to become famous, and Tyler officially broke into the mainstream in 2003. While some learned film score collectors contend that his two best known scores by that time, Children of Dune and Timeline, were full of cliches and indicated only average capabilities, the work that you hear in a score like Terror Tract is a better indication of talent and hustle in adverse conditions. While Tyler was indeed primarily a horror score composer when introduced to the masses, Terror Tract is different from his other works in that it is both smaller and zanier. With a touch of derangement shared between the composer and directors, the score masks its size by being outrageously conceived and masterfully layered. The "Main Title" and "End Title" cues are fine examples of both these techniques together; Tyler takes a rather overblown gothic horror theme (seemingly devised on the chord progressions of Toto's title theme for Dune) and lets it rip into a rhythmic crescendo of superhero proportions. While he does this, he makes sure that each instrument has something to perform at every moment, remarkable counterpoint lines on brass a highlight of the entire work. The flute plays a funny role in that theme, fluttering around and making noise nearly uselessly while the brass players blare in the foreground while doing their best to emulate Elliot Goldenthal techniques. And yet, that kind of activity causes the score to become deceptively large in stature, and faux choral effects are added as among the only outwardly synthetic contributions to an otherwise organic sum. A madly thumping piano is also a noteworthy contributor. The majority of the underscore in between these performances, meanwhile, relies upon Tyler's consistently interesting and often tonal drama to keep it listenable. The stories all have some sort of pleasant situation gone horribly wrong, so you encounter cues like "Bobo" and "The Lake" which offer a break from the horror with soothing piano and guitar work. Likewise, the translation of the theme into romantic, sappy string and harp tones in "Animal Farm" is almost sickeningly effective, and it, like much of the score, is reminiscent of early Danny Elfman horror music as it degenerates into typical genre fare. 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 newfound name recognition of the composer. That said, the title theme performances are worthy of inclusion on a compilation of guilty pleasure moments in the composer's career. *** Track Listings:
Total Time: 47:18
All artwork and sound clips from Terror Tract are Copyright © 2004, La-La Land Records. The reviews and notes contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Filmtracks Publications. Audio clips can be heard using RealPlayer but cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 7/3/04, updated 10/14/11. Review Version 4.1 - PHP (Filmtracks Publications). Copyright © 2004-2013, Christian Clemmensen. All rights reserved. |
