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Review of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (Tom Holkenborg)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... only if you are prepared for the brutal mood of Tom Holkenborg's heavily processed action material for this franchise extended to occupy a full score with its oppressively unpleasant attitude.

Avoid it... if narrative connectivity is your aim for this score, the composer instead failing to develop any truly satisfying connections to the prior work while dumping most of the dramatic and heroic highlights.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga: (Tom Holkenborg) Credit concept creator George Miller for sticking with his obsession to develop his post-apocalyptic vision of Australia, bringing the concept into the 2020's with his fifth film of the franchise, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. Rather than continue telling of the endless, dusty trials of Mad Max Rockatansky himself, this entry instead functions as both a prequel and spin-off of the Furiosa character introduced in 2015's Mad Max: Fury Road. As an origin story, the movie shows how Furiosa navigated the wastelands and their corrupt and disfigured biker gangs to become a respected killer. She does the rounds as a sex slave before losing her arm but still becoming a valuable mechanic, and she eventually proves herself in battle against the newest silly villain, Dementus. Miller certainly has a knack for conjuring memorable names for his characters, though none of the Roman influence for Dementus and others in this film can compete with Lord Humungus from Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. Despite losing track of the original franchise storyline, Miller managed to reassemble most of his crew from the 2015 entry for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, and reprising his role is composer Tom Holkenborg. His entry to the cinematic series completely tossed aside the artistic strategies of Brian May and Maurice Jarre from the original trilogy despite their efficacy and cult status, instead satiating a new generation of listeners more in tune with Hans Zimmer's sound design methodology. On the upside, Holkenborg's rather early career effort for Mad Max: Fury Road did balance its brutal wall of sound for the action sequences with a handful of heroic orchestral interludes and dramatic, accessible themes that strove for better Zimmer memories. For Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, he ignores most of the development from that work and instead refocuses on the viciously processed and aggressively nasty action music, modulating that approach's intensity depending on whether he needs suspense or outright conflict. Perhaps this stale take on the concept isn't surprising, as there's only so much variation Miller can achieve with people wearing silly costumes and driving ridiculous vehicles for aimless reasons other than testicular satisfaction. The almost cartoonish shock value of May's original score, so prominent and memorable in context, has been long buried by angry sonic wallpaper like so much else in the industry. It's as unnecessary as it is expected.

Listeners hoping to hear the Furiosa material from Mad Max: Fury Road deconstructed and given its own origins posture here will be disappointed, because there doesn't seem to be any such intelligence in the design of the prequel score. Instead, this heavily processed extension of first score's lesser action material abandons all of the heroics and barely supplies any drama. The score for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga does open with the same nasty bass string notes, however, and Holkenborg and his team are quick to double down on the terrible distortion effects for any hint of adversity. The music is almost entirely comprised of rhythmic texture, with constant blurts of distorted low brass on key. A pitch slurring effect for horror starts at key and descends or vice versa. As typical with these Remote Control-related efforts, entire cues can simply drone on key with only the modulation of intensity and overlaid sound effects altered. In this case, a deep wailing siren noise often interjects, as at the start of "Dementus' Diatribe" and "The Darkest of Gods," likely as the most intelligent representation of the villain that Holkenborg can muster. There is seemingly a growling lion sound effect early in "The Darkest of Gods," too. Respites from the constantly menacing and unpleasant tone exist but are fleeting. A duduk is the only organic highlight of note, concentrated early in the score. A choir joins sparingly, as in "You Are Awaited." A promisingly dramatic orchestral fantasy crescendo for a moment early in "The Bullet Farm" is followed by a lesser version that tries to emerge early in "Dementus is Gaining" with the choir. Thematically, some motific devices for the chasing do return, but they were never memorable to begin with. A nebulously rising, four-note rhythmic motif occupies the latter half of "You Are Awaited" over militaristic snare and is adapted to brass at the end of "The Bullet Farm." The quick moments of tonality for character development are consolidated into just a few cues, including all of "Wives' Quarters" and "Epilogue" on strings, the first minute of "A Noble Cause" on a less breathy duduk, and the end of "Dementus' Diatribe" on that same instrument. Ultimately, though, it's the mass of oppressively obnoxious, overly processed action droning that defines the score for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, and it's a considerable wasted opportunity to build upon or foreshadow the prior score. The tiring album contains narrative dialogue in "The Pole of Inaccessibility" and "Epilogue" that is very nicely mixed, actually, though the latter insertion obscures the tonal string material. Seek only the aggrieved mood from this music, not any greater purpose.  *

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 70:35

• 1. The Pole of Inaccessibility (1:59) • 2. Dementus (2:52) • 3. The Promise (3:42) • 4. You Are Awaited (5:20) • 5. The Bear (2:13) • 6. You're Scum (4:16) • 7. Wives' Quarters (4:00) • 8. The Wig and the Seed (2:57) • 9. The Stowaway (8:42)

• 10. Fata Morgana (1:17) • 11. Gastown (3:18) • 12. A Noble Cause (4:37) • 13. The Bullet Farm (6:55) • 14. Dementus is Gaining (4:38) • 15. Dementus' Diatribe (4:21) • 16. At the Dawn of War (2:33) • 17. The Darkest of Gods (5:27) • 18. Epilogue (1:28)

NOTES & QUOTES:

There exists no official packaging for the digital version of this album.

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