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Review of The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (Brian Tyler)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you seek a good summary representation of the musical
identity of this franchise's initial four films on one product,
initially the sole score-only album to exist for any of the Fast and
the Furious soundtracks.
Avoid it... if the inevitable aggressive loops of electronic attitude and major roles for guitar and percussion detract from what could have proven to be a more consistent hybrid score when involving Tyler's usual ballsy orchestral style.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift: (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 The Fast and the Furious 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 The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo
Drift, 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, The Fast and the Furious:
Tokyo Drift 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 The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.
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. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 64:10
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes a list of performers and photography from the
recording sessions.
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