K-PAX
| # | Track | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Grand Central | 4:38 | |
| 2. | Good Morning Bliss | 2:47 | |
| 3. | Taxi Ride | 3:50 | |
| 4. | Constellation Lyra | 2:41 | |
| 5. | Blue Bird | 3:52 | |
| 6. | 4th of July | 4:14 | |
| 7. | Prot Missing | 2:30 | |
| 8. | Sarah | 3:03 | |
| 9. | New Mexico | 6:24 | |
| 10. | Powell's Return | 1:11 | |
| 11. | July 27th | 4:40 | |
| 12. | Coda | 3:20 | |
| 43:10 |
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Most of my friends think I have a single minded view about music. True, I have ten times as many soundtrack albums as I do for all other genres, but the umbrella of film music does cover a multitude of styles and genres. When people think film music, they generally move towards Titanic or Star Wars, but there are plenty of scores which are not huge orchestral numbers. The reason I tend to be so harsh on certain types of music - dance/club music, in all its forms in particular - is that even songs that have interesting ideas are rarely developed beyond repetition and more digital tinkering. That's not invention, that's just padding for the sake of it and tedium through lack of imagination.
K-Pax, in places at least, could easily be one of those morning after chill out trance albums. It has laid back beats, twinkling piano and a restful, but not actively cheerful, vibe that is ideal (I assume) for unwinding after a night out on Ibiza or wherever. While I wouldn't necessarily have one of these albums for myself, they are generally more to my taste than hard core dance albums and tend to suffer less from excessive digital tinkering and mindless noise. Of course, since Edward Shearmur is a protogé of Michael Kamen and a reasonably accomplished composer generally, the results here are considerably more interesting.
Most of the music takes the form of the aforementioned trippy rhythms, gentle waves of digital percussion that honestly sounds better than it can be described. Orchestral passages are laid over the top from time to time, mainly wafting strings, sometimes using eerie harmonics against occasional ambient digital effects. However, the most prominent acoustic instrument is the piano which pervades pretty well every track and tends to be the instrument left behind when the percussion dies away. Certain moments tend to urge the listener to be reminded of Thomas Newman, but Shearmur goes for gentle - but pleasingly not too banal - melody rather than anything too quirky. The melodic content is mainly brief motifs and ideas than any big tune.
It is hard to rate the music too highly on purely musical terms and is, in fairness, fairly simplistic. However, it is a very enjoyable and a generally very relaxing album. If I didn't know better, I'd never have suspected it was a film score, there are no dramatic joins or transitions, just a gentle ebb and flow, the drama is almost shades of grey. That is not meant in any derogatory way, it is simply a film that does not require heights of romance, despair, comedy or action. Despite the 'composed and conducted by' credit, most was evidently created in the studio and anyone expecting some more traditional is likely to be disappointed, but for a quietly mind expanding score, it's well worth checking out.
K-Pax, in places at least, could easily be one of those morning after chill out trance albums. It has laid back beats, twinkling piano and a restful, but not actively cheerful, vibe that is ideal (I assume) for unwinding after a night out on Ibiza or wherever. While I wouldn't necessarily have one of these albums for myself, they are generally more to my taste than hard core dance albums and tend to suffer less from excessive digital tinkering and mindless noise. Of course, since Edward Shearmur is a protogé of Michael Kamen and a reasonably accomplished composer generally, the results here are considerably more interesting.
Most of the music takes the form of the aforementioned trippy rhythms, gentle waves of digital percussion that honestly sounds better than it can be described. Orchestral passages are laid over the top from time to time, mainly wafting strings, sometimes using eerie harmonics against occasional ambient digital effects. However, the most prominent acoustic instrument is the piano which pervades pretty well every track and tends to be the instrument left behind when the percussion dies away. Certain moments tend to urge the listener to be reminded of Thomas Newman, but Shearmur goes for gentle - but pleasingly not too banal - melody rather than anything too quirky. The melodic content is mainly brief motifs and ideas than any big tune.
It is hard to rate the music too highly on purely musical terms and is, in fairness, fairly simplistic. However, it is a very enjoyable and a generally very relaxing album. If I didn't know better, I'd never have suspected it was a film score, there are no dramatic joins or transitions, just a gentle ebb and flow, the drama is almost shades of grey. That is not meant in any derogatory way, it is simply a film that does not require heights of romance, despair, comedy or action. Despite the 'composed and conducted by' credit, most was evidently created in the studio and anyone expecting some more traditional is likely to be disappointed, but for a quietly mind expanding score, it's well worth checking out.