Juno Recommends Soundtracks June 2023

Review: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Nope by Micael Abels accompanied the Oscarr winner Jordan Peele's famously expansive horror epic and helped take it to the next level. This is their third project together and maybe the most ambitious score of the lot. It draws influence from sci-fi, horror, action and westerns and there is a real blend between original score and source music. It is at times a terrifying listen and at others full of grand adventure, awe and wonder. The sounds scale up when needed to match the pictures and totters they make for a superb experience, but the soundtrack alone is one hell of a ride.

Review: "People have described their music as ambient, although that's a description they don't care much for. It's certainly atmospheric and there's something about their sunny-sounding guitar that seemed appropriate to a book that, although published in 1927, didn't become popular in America until the 1960s."
So says writer and director Gerard McInulty about The Durutti Column, the group he drafted for the soundtrack to his 12 Stars group production of Treatise On The Steppenwolf, first staged in Glasgow in 2003. This is what that sounds like - call it what you like, essentially it's just beautiful music to captivate and enthral, without insisting on itself - and you also get an additional trio of extended movements that were used to score the Human Avatars art installation at MOSI, Manchester, in 2005. Ace all round.

Review: Not the first film to be named Babylon and to feature an incredible soundtrack (we'll leave the sleuthing up to you), Justin Hurwitz's soundtrack to Hollywood's latest hedonic product is a perfect match to the movie's 1920s LA setting. Opulence, narcissism and decadence - being a rather fashionable set of subject matters - are among its most pressing themes, and this is most readily portrayed by Hurwitz's liberal use of golden-timbred brasses, big strings, and velvety razzamatazzing claps, on cuts like the aptly-titled 'Champagne' and 'Wild Child'.

Review: The original Japanese version of The Ring was such a cult favourite amongst horror devotees, it was hard to believe a Hollywood remake could live up to it, but the 2002 version surely did manage it, and that's in no small part thanks to Hans Zimmer's chilling score. It's loaded with the emotion behind Samara's story, but it equally knows when to turn the dial up from stirring mystery to outright scares. Horror soundtrack experts Waxwork have gone to town like always to present Zimmer's work in lavish style, cut across two discs and presented in a heavyweight gatefold sleeve with original artwork.

Review: Gerry Anderson's Stingray is one of those superbly nostalgic and cult TV shows that, when thinking about them now, transports you right back to your childhood - unless you're lucky enough to be too young to have seen it first time around that is. The series followed the World Aquanaut Security Patrol (WASPs) on several underwater adventures with a superb soundtrack from Barry Gray adding style and drama to the aquatic odyssey. From minimalist electronic pieces to lush strings, jazzier motifs and driving military marches, this gatefold silver vinyl version of the completed soundtrack is a real doozy.

Review: The trend for video game soundtracks to be please don vinyl continues apace and we're here for it, frankly. This one on iam8bit is a masterclass in authentic jazz music from Kristofer Maddigan based around the Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course game. This superb collection of ditties will remind you of everything you loved about the game - and if you didn't play it, it will have you wishing you did. The opening theme is fill with zippy sounds and from there come harmonised vocals from a 1930s club, epic jazz workouts with big brass energy, and plenty ore treats besides.

Review: Who doesn't love Toy Story? It's an on going classic with a heart of gold, some of The best animation in the film world and most loveable characters to ever make the silver screen. Whether young or old, snuggling down to watch this sone is always a treat, and now you can bring some of that magic onto your decks with the red vinyl compilation album. It brings together some of the best tracks and favourite musical moments of the movie such as, of course the most notable song of them all, 'You've Got A Friend In Me (Para El Buzz Espanol)' as well as 'I Will Go Sailing No More' and 'We Belong Together.'

Review: .It seemed like half the music industry stopped on 28th March 2023, when news broke that Japanese composer, record producer, musician, actor and solo artist Ryuchi Sakamoto had died. Tributes poured in from across the spectrum of sounds and scenes, although perhaps most vocally within electronic circles, indicative of just how influential and groundbreaking his work was. Monster is an aching tribute to that genius. The movie, directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, is dedicated to the artist, who delivers one of the most beautiful scores we've heard in some time. A patient thing that largely divides time between pin-drop, candlelit piano sonatas and fuller string movements, it's musically astounding stuff which - even without the back story - would be capable of reaching straight for the heartstrings.

Review: John Powell could almost be seen as the Hans Zimmer of animated movies. His oeuvre to date includes Antz, The Road To Eldorado, Chicken Run, Shrek, Robots, Ice Age 2 and 4, Happy Feet, Dr Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!, the first two Kung Fu Panda films, and Mars Needs Moms, among many others. Including the entire How To Train Your Dragon trilogy.
Hugely successful, the action packed adventures of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III - a young Viking and heir to the throne of Berk - really needs equally exciting music to accompany it. That's exactly what we get here, with a classically-inspired swashbuckling score doing more than setting the scene: some tracks hark back to the golden days of kids movie soundtracks, when the songs themselves told large chunks of the narrative.

Review: If you've seen the TV series The Last Kingdom chances are you're pretty hyped about the idea of a feature length movie. Before that, though, we get Destiny Is All, an album made up of sounds from the super-popular Viking drama that stands out for many reasons. Whether you consider this dinner party music is a question of taste, but in the grand scheme of tunes made to score historical shows this is a cut above so much.
Forsaking tradition in favour of innovation, the arrangements here seem to transcend the period in which the narrative was set, and yet are so evocative of that age. A time of heroes, myths, legends, thunderstorms, rituals, runes, and an overwhelming sense of adventure, all those things are captured here but through the combination of orchestral bombast, choral voices, chants and electronic equipment.

Review: Composer Michael Abels and Oscarr winner Jordan Peele have hooked up plenty of times on the big screen before, and this is another hugely successful partnership. Us was released in March 2019 and is an original nightmare that is set in present-day Santa Cruz on the Northern California coast. Lupita Nyong'o and Black Panther's Winston Duke star and the score features many highlights such as a 30-person choir, ten of them kids, on 'Anthem', while plenty of Eastern European instruments, violins and percussion were also employed. 1995 hip-hop anthem 'I Got 5 On It' by Luniz is also included and never fails to stand out.