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Known by his stage name of "Junkie XL," Holkenborg was introduced to film music by Hans Zimmer, who has used his influence to guide him to several solo projects in the 2010's. It's never a surprise when you encounter a Zimmer collaborator who branches off and, to some degree, emulates the original Zimmer "sound" in his own works. Such was the origin of the term "Zimmer clone." In Holkenborg's case, you can hear the Remote Control production element and personal Zimmer musical methodology all over his recordings, and it's rather shamelessly done. No matter the emotional response an artist like Holkenborg is attempting to create, you hear some vestige of Zimmer (or those who inspired Zimmer, such as Ennio Morricone) in the end result. Holkenborg's music for Mad Max: Fury Road is a prototypical Remote Control/Hans Zimmer score, with very simplistic thematic development, an emphasis on pounding rhythmic force, extreme favoring of a bass-heavy, sometimes distorted mix, occasional choral majesty with or without a brass power anthem, repetitive droning and pounding on key, and token melodic interludes without much attempt at sincere gravity beyond pleasant string meanderings. As has been written before and will be written again, any number of Zimmer clones could arrange this music adequately; it's almost relegated the musical presence to a mathematical equation or formula that simply needs the proper variable adjustments to be made in order to earn the paycheck and claim to someone in the media that the resulting music is "revolutionary." Of course, it isn't revolutionary. But it is, in some instances, quite effective, and that's the case with Mad Max: Fury Road. In many ways, this primordial, basic approach to this franchise is the more natural fit for it, the musical element on screen often as brutal as that heard in this score. With depictions of flaming guitars and percussion in an oddly nightmarish environment on screen, one cannot blame Miller for taking the Remote Control route. An emphasis on basic repetitive structures and driving percussion is precisely the order of the day here, so one cannot fault Holkenborg for generating music that speaks to the worst of audience blockbuster expectations. The obliging of those norms is so shameless, however, that you really do have to separate the music's purpose from a pair of album presentations that very clearly expose the lack of significant intelligence behind it, regardless of the layers of instrumental fury that Holkenborg has attempted to generate during the action sequences.

Instrumentally, the diversity of Mad Max: Fury Road is deceptive because the various elements at work in the score, from the electric guitar rips and synthetic manipulation to the brass and choral power anthems and soft string character interludes, never satisfyingly mingle. The score almost sounds as though several different composers wrote it without consulting with each other. The primordial chase sequences are the effective but most obnoxious portions, at times grinding with such sonic assault that they are totally insufferable on album. More palatable to the ears will be times when Holkenborg actually elaborates on one of the several themes and motifs he conjures for the score, mainly those for the brass to unleash in more harmonically satisfying performances. Look for the best of these to inhabit cues like "Storm is Coming," "Brothers in Arms," and "Chapter Doof" (though each of these cues has some atrocious portions that can be challenging to sit through as well). Finally, the soft string portions for the female characters (and Max) occupy a major portion of the work, and while they are comparatively easy listing, it's truly disappointing that none of the styles of dystopia managed to impress upon those sequences. Outside of those strings, all the other portions of this score are very heavily manhandled in the post-production process, the mixing process definitely not kind to the original recordings. The harshness of atmosphere, along with the sound effects, is not necessary in the dose applied here. If anything, a balance of brute survival and romantic appeal was merited. Instead, the score simply degenerates into pure noise at times, the repeating notes blasting away on key likely to induce eye rolls from Zimmer-weary listeners. Still, this music is certainly sufficient for the film's purposes and one has to acknowledge that Holkenborg didn't need to re-invent the wheel for this assignment. The album situation is unforgivable, however, not just because of the ridiculously overt dichotomy between the action and character sequences, but because of the Watertower Music releases of the soundtrack. As expected, there is a regular and an expanded edition of the score, but rather than placing all the score's highlights on the regular edition, a number of pertinent cues of value are placed only on the expanded product. No listener should be subjected to over two hours of music from Mad Max: Fury Road just to collect these highlights, especially with the redundancy factor figured into the product. In the end, Holkenborg has succeeded at the task but has produced a score that fails to transcend past expectations for any Remote Control-influenced project, and the album situation remains as disgusting here as it is with equivalents from Zimmer himself. Approach with caution and seek the power anthem highlights.   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

• Music as Written for the Film:  ***
• Music as Heard on Album:  **
• Overall:  **

Bias Check:

For Tom Holkenborg reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.16 (in 19 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 2.49 (in 6,119 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.