Welcome to Synth soundtracks – the OFFICIAL SampleNerd lowdown: part V. This is the SampleNerd.com catalogue of the best synthesizer soundtracks listed as being amongst the best of the genre. According to Redbull.com; movieweb.com and MusicRadar.com.
Let’s go!
Starman
Year: 1984
Score: Jack Nitzsche
Verdict: Underrated both as a movie and a soundtrack. I was very pleased to have been recommended this film. Not quite as strident as Big Trouble or Escape but certainly as synth deep as both of them. If you haven’t seen it yet, go watch it.
Image credit: pinterest.com.mx
Beverly Hills Cop
Year: 1984
Score: Harold Faltemeyer
Verdict: wasting no time in getting to a car chase we are given a brief tour of the city to the upbeat classic: To the heat is on.
The now-famous Axel F fills our ears, here are some interesting factoids!
- The “F” in Axel F stands for “Foley,” which is a term used in the film industry for sound effects that are added to enhance the audio. This is a nod to the main character, Axel Foley, from the movie “Beverly Hills Cop
- Harold Faltermeyer recorded “Axel F” using five instruments. The distinctive “supersaw” lead was provided by a Roland Jupiter-8, the bass by a Moog modular synthesizer 15, chord stab brasses by a Roland JX-3P, the marimba sound by a Yamaha DX7, and the drum programming was done on a LinnDrum
- When Faltermeyer first presented the track to the film’s producers and director, it did not receive immediate approval. It was only after director Martin Brest voiced his approval that the producers showed enthusiasm.
- The song gained renewed popularity in the early 2000s when it was remixed by the animated character Crazy Frog. This version became a viral sensation, introducing the tune to a new generation and becoming the subject of countless memes and ringtones
Pumps and gun at the ready Axel Foley takes on the crime in action!
Swopping the. Dark rain soaked streets of Detroit for brighter climes Axel takes a vacation to Beverley Hills to the sounds of I’m not gonna take it any more by Twisted Sister.
Linn drum? Drum machine, bass and high register synth accompany Foley’s warehouse investigation.
Swopping the now dark dry streets for a very 80s nudie bar. It’s hard not to watch this without thinking of Garfield! As one of the cop duo played John Arbuckle in the Garfield cartoon.
Not quite sure why Foley needs to be followed everywhere, but hey it makes for a story.
Axel F resounds for another Axel follow, side stepping the need to accommodate normal human needs!
Foley finds himself back at police HQ. Music is fairly understated settling for Linn Drum and bass. Not exactly the show stoppers of other 80s fare. With synth brass making an appearance.
The soundtrack works perfectly for the movie, with just the right amount of movement to keep the action and dialogue smooth. It’s quite a percussive score.
Aside from the Call me movie, this is the only movie that utilizes its theme so extensively.
Films signs off with the up tempo song we heard at the start of the film “I’m not gonna take it anymore.”
Enjoyable film. Been a long time since I’ve watched this! Axel Foley is quite a charming character.
Image credit: movierankings.com
Ghostbusters
Year: 1984
Score: Elmer Bernstein
Verdict: starting off impressively with (hand waving over sensor instrument) and orchestra. It breaks into a brief excerpt of the now famous namesake by Ray Parker Jr.
The score in these opening scenes is a mix between playful bass, screechy violins and a light coating of synth, shifting quickly to Rock and Roll as they get chased out the library.
Elmer Bernstein weaves a colorful and playful score adopting an adjunctive selection of musical pallets and incidental music.
The use dotted through of rock and roll is a clever device adding levity and a sense of fun. This mixed with Bernstein’s playful and incidental score accompanies the film rather fittingly.
The first full outing of the now famous song now plays to a sequence of outtakes of the team making waves in the city.
Bernstein ratchets up to sober and grandiose pitch with a levitating Dana Barrett as the Ghostbusters start to get a sense of the severity of the situation.
Bernstein’s ability to shift focus and pace providing a musically mature and accomplished score is an excellent complement to the movie!
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen this movie, one I remember from childhood. To the appearance of Stay puff the marshmallow man this movie is pretty genius.
Elmer Bernstein passed away in 2004 he also composed scores for the movies The Ten Commandments; The Magnificent Seven and The Blues Brothers.
Image credit: cinepollo.com
A Clockwork Orange
Year: 1971
Score: Wendy Carlos
Verdict: This unpleasant and dryly executed movie saw a UK cinematic rerelease in 2019 courtesy of the BFI (British Film Institute).
Donning many famous classical pieces set to the infantile exploits of four pampered youths. Kubrick’s Orange caused quite the storm upon its release, seeing its banishment from popular consumption for nearly 26 years – the year Kubrick died.
Wendy Carlos provides in places fairly gothic horror fair on synthesiser. Which to my mind could have also fittingly been the score to a 60s Hammer Horror movie.
Aside from a synth rendition of the 9th symphony. Wendy is pretty quiet until she’s called upon again for the Ludovico technique scene later on, incorporating much darker elements.
The score does however venture to a rather curious Tudor-esqe melody for a bit demonstrative boot licking. Cured at last!
Beethoven’s mind might have boggled at the inclusion of his likeness and his masterful 9th symphony being included. Perhaps Beethoven was chosen to be the titular characters version of Wagner?
I thought the film bore similarities to Anne Rices Interview with a Vampire…. although Orange lacks the character development.
A movie that isn’t what it appears, or is it?
This film is yet another candidate for “why has it been included on the greatest synth soundtracks?!” Considering that the majority of the score is a classical soundtrack! See the *conclusions* article for more on this.
This entry could I suppose have spoken more about the music, but its use in this context is frankly not very interesting. Yes, it ‘goes’, it’s suitable. But aside from the mention above (the supposed intention behind using Beethoven) there’s really not that much to show.
Not that one can necessarily use what becomes a cult classic as a barometer to our collective cultural health, but to me at least it hasn’t gone unnoticed. In fact we have two others from this series: Scarface and Requiem for a Dream. They also achieved cult status…
But as many “intellectuals have found acres of social and political meaning,”[in the movie] to quote Leslie Halliwell (author of the respected Halliwell’s Film Guide), I came across another quote recently which I think fits just as well “when someone shows you who they are, believe them… (the first time).” Maya Angelou.
Image credit: anglotopia.net
Apocalypse Now [final cut]
Year: 1979
Score: Carmine & Francis Coppola
Verdict: Opening to the sound of helicopter blades which turns out to be the sound of a ceiling fan. The Doors play alongside.
Synth surfaces at the commission of a new mission. Dramatic low held note accompanied by an upper melody.
With much narration as we are then introduced to Michael Sheens character.
The introduction to this famous war film is fairly low key and a clever use of arpeggiating a single note to a quick pace to sound like the tempo of a copter.
Ride is the Valkeries launches the helicopters into battle.
After I can’t get no satisfaction our lead man finds himself taking a trip to Cambodia by boat as he is charged with murder. Dis harmonious synth notes play as he learns he’s wanted for murder on the way to Cambodia.
With background that wouldn’t sound or of place in Stephen King’s IT our erstwhile soldiers enter the trenches for some old school machine gun warfare.
In general the music is that which might accompany a nightmare. Fitting I suppose. Although for a war film the score is appreciatively low key.
Where the synth does appear it is generally “nonsensical” and I got the impression it isn’t meant to “say” anything in particular. Or to evoke any particular feeling other than the onset of some kind of incoming attrition.
Glassy like tones accompany the death of a fellow soldier. As the boat ghostlike travails the foggy river.
Synth like an show organ wulitzer becomes whimsical as protagonist chats to a French bird after a spiky dinner.
Glassy like tones reappear for the bed scene. Including gentle chime sounds. With a jazzy like wine glass piano overlay.
Combining the ethereal and unsettling
The river Styx like scene incorporates industrial-like sounds with a waning electric guitar like sound over the top.
Generally, the score to this film has featured recognizable tempos overlayed with dis harmonious or random or “nonsensical” notes.
Our main protagonist seems to be on a quest to apply sense to the incongruous on his journey. Inspite of his dilapidated beginning prior to the quest. He’s very much the one generally who is actually normal – and the cool headed one.
With almost paint like colours the remaining hour of this classic has a dream-like quality.
Perhaps to demonstrate the madness of war. And how ‘incredible’ situations are commonplace.
“The end of the River” shows a group given over to paganism and vile practices proving the point that without civilization it doesn’t take long for humans to become barbaric.
Mission complete. We hear high strings and gloomy chords. With the movie signing off to the cover of rain. Leading onto sustained metallic sounds, disordered tribal-timpani, tree- bells, and singular notes.
Francis Ford Coppola took two years to make out of nine hours of Apocalypse Now footage!
“In 1970, Captain Willard on R&R in Saigon is given a secret mission by the top brass to travel the perilous river route through war-torn South Vietnam into neighbouring Cambodia to ‘terminate’ a decorated American colonel who has gone rogue and is presumed insane.
Regularly voted one of the greatest films ever made, Apocalypse Now is based on Joseph Conrad’s literary classic Heart of Darkness.”
Image credit: fubiz.net
Flashdance
Year:
Score: Giorgio Moroder
Verdict: Oh dear, oh dear… What a dreadful film! Obviously the film has been on my cultural radar for many years, but this the first time I watched it. I suffered it for you dear Giorgio!
Encapsulating to an even greater degree – the self centered sentiment of 80’s solipsism.
Oh well, I suppose I’d better write about the use of the Jupiter 8 in the Maniac music video…
Image credit: comingsoon.it