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•	2012 Album

•	1994 Album

For Mancina's Speed, however, you have the opportunity to hear structural ideas and electronic sampling of the Media Ventures era that was in their infancy. Many of the rhythmic loops, electronic substitutes for real instruments, and musical sound effects are all recognizable from later staples of the Media Ventures studio. Aside from Zimmer, it would take the other similar composers another few years before their electronic output would mature into the form that most listeners grew accustomed to. While The Rock was really the coming out party for such enthusiasts, Mancina's own Twister would offer a more sophisticated blend of that evolved electronic sound mixed with an orchestral ensemble in the same year. The simplicity of the sounds in Speed do not detract from the score's ultimate achievement in the film, but their deficiencies do surface when hearing the score on album. On paper, the music for Speed is well written, with several effective motifs assembled around a decent primary anthem. This theme is performed with noble intentions as the opening credits role through an elevator shaft. A delicate piano and string performance of this theme is offered in the end titles cue. It is a surprisingly compelling identity for an otherwise brainless film. Short adaptations of this theme appear during the softer sequences in the film, leaving the cohesion of the action material up to Mancina's secondary, underlying action motif. This staccato, six-note keyboarded motif is sharp in performance (aided by an intentionally synthetic edge) and is varied in tempo throughout the score to fit into nearly every major cue. Despite its simplicity, it works better than the title theme in holding the work together. The scenes on board the speeding bus at the heart of Speed inspire the best action music from Mancina for the project, with "The Rescue" presenting a lengthy series of satisfying thematic performances. The rhythmic loops are typically stronger during the later scenes of the bus' journey, however other portions of the film suffer from an arrhythmic, more dissonant personality. The villain is treated to vague electronic haze meant to accentuate his psychosis, but such material devolves into sound effects into some cases and is challenging to appreciate on album.

The most frustrating thematic usage in Speed is Mancina's interlude to the main anthem, an optimistically rising series of chords heard once in the middle of "Main Title" and returning in full only during the pivotal cue, "The Gap." This secondary idea is pure Media Ventures in personality, emulating Point of No Return and Zimmer progressions in several other circumstances in its tonal muscularity, and the theme's sparing use in this score is a disappointment (in some ways, it would have made a more dramatic primary identity for the work). The difficult side of the Speed score is the fact that it is not as fleshed out as it could have been if sampling technology had been a bit more advanced at the time. As mentioned before, the synthesized representations of real instruments were not as well developed in 1994 and thus, some of the jumpy keyboarding and striking electronic cello renderings are badly dated. The percussive elements were already well enough established to compensate for the lack of the Media Ventures bass that rumbled through all of their later action scores. One notable sound effect heard throughout the work is one of declining pitch that very well represents the appropriate sound of a passing truck or bus air horn. The original score-only album presentation (following the popular song compilation album by a few months) was rearranged from film order to emphasize the four or five best cues at the beginning. After these true highlights, the album degenerates into more mindless territory before finishing with the redemptive, beautiful performance of the main theme over the end credits. In 2012, La-La Land Records produced a limited edition, expanded release of Speed with 25 additional minutes of score and the original Billy Idol song written for the film at the end. While the additional material and improved sound quality isn't stunning, its combination with a chronological ordering will make the CD a safe bet for early Media Ventures enthusiasts. Overall, it's a worthy action score, if not a bit underdeveloped, and it represented an impressive debut to the spotlight for Mancina on the big stage. Casual listeners will likely find Mancina's better orchestrated extension of the same themes (and an adjoining Caribbean spirit) for Speed 2: Cruise Control, also released by La-La Land, to be a more dynamic place to start with this franchise's music.  ***   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Mark Mancina reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.27 (in 15 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.12 (in 10,858 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.