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The Snow Files (Compilation)
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Average: 3.3 Stars
***** 47 5 Stars
**** 71 4 Stars
*** 58 3 Stars
** 36 2 Stars
* 28 1 Stars
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All Selections Composed by:
Mark Snow

Synthesizer Performances by:
John Beal

Compilation Produced by:
Ford A. Thaxton
Total Time: 70:43
• 1. La Femme Nikita
(Club Version, produced and arranged by John Beal)
Main Theme (4:30)

• 2. Conundrum
Love Theme (3:17)

• 3. Seduced and Betrayed
The Dark Waltz (2:30)

• 4. A Woman Scorned - The Betty Broderick Story
The Murder (4:03)

• 5. Caroline at Midnight
Main Title (3:18)

• 6. The Substitute Wife
Main Title (2:48)

• 7. Oldest Living Confederate Widow
Having a Baby/All About Ned (3:13)
• 8. Smoke Jumpers
The Rescue (4:46)

• 9. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Arctic Night Walk (3:16)

• 10. Disturbing Behavior
Main Title (3:25)

• 11. The X-Files
(produced, arranged, and performed by John Beal)
Suite (31:28)

• 12. Dark Justice
Main Theme (by Jeff Freilich and Mark Snow) (1:54)

• 13. Max Headroom
The Lost Theme (1:00)

• 14. Pee-Wee's Playhouse
Bye, Bye! (0:33)

Album Cover Art
Sonic Images Records
(May 11th, 1999)
Regular U.S. release.
The insert notes contain information written by Randall Larson about each track, including the following excerpt:

    "Mark Snow has had a long but rewarding journey over the last two dozen years. Both he and his music have weathered the years well, each benefited from their experiences. "As I look back on my career, there's one thing that stands out as one of the great experiences, although at the time it was a real negative. I was working for Aaron Spelling doing a lot of episodic TV music, but I was basically doing the same thing each week. Then a new producer came in and said 'This is terrible! That guy - I want him out!' So, bang, I'm out. But that made me think - there's got to be more than one way to approach scoring a show. That really started opening my mind to all the different ways one could score a movie or a TV show. It made me experiment with a lot of different approaches, and it made me comfortable with whatever sense of style that I have now." As evidenced by the versatile examples collected on this CD, Snow's varied approaches have served him - and the many films he's scored - very well."

Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #1,254
Written 4/30/99, Revised 10/28/07
Buy it... if you've heard only snippets of Mark Snow's diverse, non-X-Files related talents through the years and seek a very competent and enjoyable presentation of his better efforts of the 1990's.

Avoid it... if you strictly prefer the original performances of Snow's more ambient, atmospheric styles.

Snow
Snow
The Snow Files: The Film Music of Mark Snow: (Compilation) Serving as an excellent sampling of Mark Snow's different composition styles for various media, this Sonic Images compilation features some of the best music written by Snow throughout the 1990's. With a career reaching back to the mid-1970s, Snow had created themes or full scores for over 100 television shows and films at the time of the 1999 compilation, as well as the addition of several notable video game and feature film scores in the few years just prior to the album's release. Snow is best known for his long-time affiliation with the television series The X-Files, and although many of his best works are fall into the category of dark and mysterious, he has also provided surprisingly effective and lyrical music for a variety of other genres. For the purpose of examining these different aspects of his career, "The Snow Files" is divided into these distinct genres. As such, the album is the best form of a promotional release that Snow has ever received, though through licensing efforts most of the performances on the album are the original recordings. Leading off the album is an extended performance of the La Femme Nikita television series theme, arranged by John Beal, perhaps the most capable imitation artist working in the trailer music industry at the time. The track features a "club mix" of Snow's theme, giving it a extra dose of sensuous and exotic energy, and it is accentuated by alluring female voice-overs and various crime-oriented sound effects. While the performance may drag on a tad too long, it certainly has strong appeal. The following four selections are categorized under the title "Darkness and Desire," and reflect many fans' favorite Mark Snow style. All four tracks feature an abundance of Snow's trademark minor-key themes, as well as a chilling and eerie effectiveness of melody.

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