The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – The Complete Recordings by Howard Shore and released by Reprise Records is a huge collection containing 3+ hours of music from the movie spread over three CDs and augmented by a video DVD documenting the soundtrack’s production. It’s so huge that a single review won’t do … Read more
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – The Complete Recordings by Howard Shore and released by Reprise Records is a huge collection containing 3+ hours of music from the movie spread over three CDs and augmented by a video DVD documenting the soundtrack’s production. It’s so huge that a single review won’t do … Read more
John Williams’ original Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone soundtrack was a whimsical, wondrous album with a hook that was instantly as memorable as anything he’d done for Star Wars or Jaws. The Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire soundtrack (Amazon) retains elements of Williams’ themes, but its musical evolution is nowhere near as … Read more
Superman Returns is the archetypal superhero soundtrack, expertly incorporating the full spectrum of full-color emotions — heroics, passion, dread, wonder, inspiration — while paying homage to John Williams’ original tracks. The soundtrack opens with the familiar Supes crescendo in “Main Titles”, calling to mind the engrained vision of Christopher Reeve’s Superman running down a Metropolis … Read more
The Chronicles of Narnia soundtrack has me torn. On the one hand, I’ve now got another fantasy-themed soundtrack that I can use in my role-playing game sessions. On the other, my geek music collection now includes a song by Alanis Morissette. I mean no offense to the women geeks out there, for whom this is … Read more
A few years ago, Audible.com offered up several science fiction short story anthologies from the big names in the genre: Asimov’s, Analog and the Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy. For a while it looked like they were going to have annual, or perhaps even quarterly, editions, but nothing ever came of it. It’s disappointing, … Read more
Radio Active #8 is dedicated entirely to the music of the Atomic Swindlers, a Ziggy Stardust-meets-The Fifth Element rock’n’roll band. The podcast features a review of the band’s album Coming Out Electric as well as two tracks from the CD. There’s also the first-ever Radio Active podcast, in which Nuketown’s readers and listeners in the … Read more
There are great movie soundtracks, ones that resonate with your soul, invigorate your blood flow, and generally kick ass. This is not one of those albums, but it is a very amusing album, and one that fans of 1980s “B movie” horror flicks should enjoy, if not outright love. The Deadly Spawn (Amazon) was one of … Read more
Battles is 12 track audio compact disc dedicated entirely to the sound of warfare. Created by Toxic Bag Productions, the disc contains battle “soundscapes” from four genres: Fantasy, the American Civil War, World War II, and Science Fiction. Toxic Bag is probably best known for their Gamemaster’s Collection, a collection of four CDs consisting of … Read more
At least a third of what made Halo such a great game was its original soundtrack, which combined good ol’rock’n’roll with synthesized orchestras and erie discordant notes to perfectly complement the action happening on screen. The music is just as important to its sequel, but just as Halo 2 is has a certain over-the-top, Hollywoodish … Read more