Thursday, December 06, 2007

The Future

Thomas L. Martin reviews Bear McCreary's Season 3 soundtrack album.

Throughout, 'Battlestar Galactica' has been a rewarding experience in writing, direction, acting and music. Bear McCreary's haunting soundtracks weave in and out of the program superbly, amplifying key moments with tense string movements, bold drums and assorted world music influences.

Season 3's soundtrack is probably the strongest collection so far. The other two soundtracks had some excellent pieces but I feel this one holds together as a CD better than those. McCreary heavily lifts the songs selected from the episodes 'Maelstrom', 'Unfinished Business' and the two-parters 'Exodus' and 'Crossroads'.

The string composition 'Violence And Variations' is a moving and dynamic piece and 'Heeding The Call' brings rock guitars into the mix with great effect. Each song has a distinctive feel that harks back to the individual episodes but the overall compilation is a good listen, too. Gaelic dance pieces, African drums and Indian sitars all feature to give this soundtrack a very diverse feel whilst never straying too far from the distinctive taut 'Battlestar Galactica' sound.

McCreary's rendition of Bob Dylan's 'All Along The Watchtower' from the season finale is probably going to catch all the attention and rightly so. Lifting an Earth-based familiar song for the first time in a non-Earth based series was a bold and ambitious move. Placed amidst the huge revelations of 'Crossroads Part II' the placement of the track was jarring and surprising, shocking the viewer at the perfect moment.

Rickey Purdin interviewed Jamie Bamber about Razor.

And Buddy TV reviewed Razor.
“All of this has happened before, and will happen again.”

These are the words that echoed throughout "Razor," the long awaited Battlestar Galactica movie meant to stoke our Cylon deprived brains between seasons 3 and 4 of the sci-fi series. Creator Ronald D. Moore promised revelations that would keep us theorizing until the season 4 premiere, and I'm happy to say he didn't disappoint. "Razor" not only managed to give us a different perspective on events in Battlestar Galactica's past, but gave us insight into where the show may be heading in the future.

No comments: