: (Brian
Tyler) One would have thought that car junkies and street racers would
spend so much money on their ridiculously juvenile automobiles that
their Velcro wallets wouldn't have any cash left to float the franchise
of
to box office grosses in excess of a
billion dollars. But a cash cow this series of films has been, each
consistently good for $200 million theatrically. The least successful of
the first four entries fiscally was
, something of a mid-franchise detour from the dynamic star
power of otherwise lead actors Vin Diesel and Paul Walker. Set apart
from the other films in the timeline, this third film in the series was
the first to be helmed by eventual concept regular Justin Lin (after Rob
Cohen and John Singleton's higher profile endeavors for the initial two
features). The 2006 movie moved the setting of the franchise to Tokyo
for its diversion, detailing the brainless struggles of an American high
school student whose street racing troubles cause him to be shipped by
his mother to live with his father in Japan. Needless to say, he causes
the same troubles there, complicated by the expected cultural clashes
and the addition of the drifting technique into the racing scenes. For
anyone who considers the silly cars and dangerous habits of street
racing to be an eye-rolling annoyance,
was yet another pointless glorification of money
ill-spent. When Lin set out to find a composer to write the original
music for the movie, however, he couldn't have found a better match than
his previous collaborator, Brian Tyler. Not only was Tyler well equipped
to emulate and expand upon the franchise's established sound, but he is
a devoted automotive enthusiast himself. A 2008 MotorTrend Magazine
article detailed the extent of Tyler's own racing interest, as well as
the impressive (or sickening, depending upon how you look at it)
collection of manual-transmission European luxury vehicles he drives for
sport and work. In some ways, it's a horrifying article, because it once
and for all squashed any notion that Tyler was still among the class of
struggling composers on the periphery of the industry. In fact, his love
of racing runs so deep that his musical equipment reportedly exists
alongside a significant racing simulation setup that includes auto
pedals underneath his mixing board so that he can play video games like
"Gran Turismo" with his music crew during breaks. Beyond just his love
of cars and racing, though, his style of recording his own guitars and
percussion would make him particularly well prepared for the task at
hand in
One of the interesting aspects of the music throughout
the franchise of
The Fast and the Furious is the unimportance of
an overarching thematic identity. Brian Transeau (BT), David Arnold, and
now Tyler have all produced unique melodic lines for each film while
seemingly caring little about previously established ideas. Instead,
however, they have effectively embossed an overarching identity upon the
franchise through pure style alone, and it is in the blend of rock,
synthetic, and orchestral tones that the music succeeds in its most
basic purpose. The original 2001 film's score by BT was arguably the
most listenable, the orchestral elements simple but palatable and the
percussion loops and guitars tending to be tasteful. Arnold started from
his foundation with the techno-infused portions of his James Bond scores
and ran wild with it, maintaining some orchestral elements but really
cranking up the depth of his rock contributions. Tyler's approach to
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift is closer to Arnold's, not
only in the more adept handling of the orchestral portions, but also in
the sheer density of the pre-recorded solo performances and the
application of a softer, contemporary acoustic guitar identity for the
usual love interest in the story. While it was intended for Tyler to
only write about a dozen minutes of score for the movie, he ended up
providing over an hour. He added well over a hundred tracks of
pre-records to the contribution by 70 orchestral players, applying a
heavy dose of manipulation to the final mix to achieve the hip results
sought. The ethnic aspect is intriguingly sparse; BT's original score
handled the Asian badguys with a hint of exotic flair in his suspense
cues. On the other hand, Tyler relies primarily upon the juxtaposition
of the rock elements and Taiko drums to represent the culture clash in
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, and that's an unfortunate
misstep given that Taiko drums are heard so frequently outside of a
Japanese context these days (just listen to them reproduced in a slew of
television reality programs nowadays) that they don't have much of an
appreciable impact. That said, compared to Arnold's score, Tyler's live
percussion layers are at least a bit more interesting. The electric
guitar performances (with cameos by "Slash") are a bit more open and up
front, generating raw bass power in cues that will make you wonder when
the "bad to the bone" lyrics will start. The weight of the orchestra is
more heavy-handed than in the BT or Arnold scores, too, with brass
emphasis especially beefed up for this entry (despite fewer players).
Listeners will note that Tyler's gradual career adoption of some of the
tried and tested Hans Zimmer/Remote Control techniques in the area of
ostinatos and overbearing low brass can be heard here, too.
Thematically, Tyler handles
The Fast and the
Furious: Tokyo Drift with a more coherent set of motifs than his
predecessors. His primary idea is the centerpiece of the score, heard
with force in "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift," "Downtown Tokyo
Chase," and "Symphonic Touge." The two longer performances of this theme
feature a similar rendition of the same format (the first simply
includes the drums, guitars, and various loops) and even offer a strange
interlude for rising and falling violins that will make you swear that
Elliot Goldenthal had entered the scene for a brief reprise of his
1990's style. Trombones flub a few notes miserably in the fifth minute
of the purely symphonic track. A secondary theme exists in a handful of
cues related to the Neela character (and appropriately heard in the
tracks with her name on the album). It's a softly cool acoustic guitar
idea with pleasant guitar ostinatos, light percussion, and soothing
strings. While rather anonymous in personality, it at least provides a
respite from the testosterone-charged remainder. That remaining majority
of
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift has several leftovers
pulled from pieces of the main suite (and title theme) and a few cues of
absolutely insufferable noise. Unlike some of Tyler's assignments, you
get the feeling that at least he truly taxed his performance
capabilities for the scores in this franchise, especially in how he
assembled so many pre-records into the finished products. At the same
time, some of that technological wizardry produces moments of
ear-shattering pain in those works. In the case of
The Fast and the
Furious: Tokyo Drift, the obnoxious manipulations of electronic
mayhem carry over from Arnold's score, but Tyler takes the electronica
and techno moments to ludicrous levels at times. The synthetic
tone-sliding, fake ensemble hits, zapping electronic circuitry
emulations (a la
Tron), vocalized "yeah"'s, and massively
irritating drum banging are so insufferable in "Hot Fuji" and "Megaton"
that they threaten to kill brain cells while you listen to it. Go have a
prostate exam instead of wasting time on that music. Ultimately, though,
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift is a decent score, on par
with BT's effort and a step above Arnold's. Compared to Tyler's own
Fast & Furious in 2009, this earlier score has better highlights
but more frequent degeneration into obnoxious noise. The latter score
seems populated with leftovers from
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo
Drift but at least proves to be a more consistent listening
experience on album. This was the first score in the franchise to
receive its own score-only album, and for those only casually interested
in the music from the franchise's early years, it's a good
representation of what came before and after.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Brian Tyler reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.2
(in 41 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.13
(in 19,673 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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