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Taking the world by assault
in 1999, Andy and Larry Wachowski´s Matrix brought the deserved recognition to composer Don Davis, who composed
a score that it was distinguished from the electronic music that had been
included in the film´s soundtrack. In that occasion 2 soundtrack albuns had been
released separately, a more commercial including rock and techno songs, another one
from the Varèse Sarabande label with mere 30 minutes of Davis music. This time
for Matrix Reloaded, the consumer was benefited by the decision of Warner
Records to release a 2-disc set, the first one dedicated to the songs used in
or inspired by the film and the second one with the score tracks. But with
an important bonus, at price almost equivalent to a single disc.
The first
disc is irregular, although in my opinion it is more satisfying than the
song compilation from the original film, since it includes some instrumental
tunes. Rock fanatics probably will prefer Marilyn Manson and Rob
Zombie´s tracks, while those that prefer techno and electronic music will
be delighted with Paul Oakenfold, Fluke and Rob Dougan´s rhythms. But for
me and for the majority of the
film music lovers, the best comes in the second disc. But sadly it only
has 41 minutes of running time and did not contains a great part of Davis
work, probably to make room for the CD-ROM content - previews from Matrix Revolutions and the game
Enter The Matrix. Among the score material included, the highlight is
the 17 minutes "Matrix Reloaded Suite", where Davis congregates the main
themes of the film (with the exception of the "Main Title" that opens this
disc).
The dynamic score that Davis composed for the first movie was
really good, however in such a way a bit cold and poor in harmony - anyway,
as intended. For Reloaded
the score is structurally richer and more complex, demonstrating that the
Wachowski brothers had given greater freedom
for Don Davis. Thus, the composer does not limit himself to rework previous
motifs and to rerun the established musical standards; he truly develops his
themes and composes more elaborated, epic and melodic music. As a result,
now we have a
truly human and hopeful content, that signals the further victory of the humanity against the synthetic Matrix and its
servants.
Moreover, it has another factor that distinguishes this score. In the first film at no moment
orquestral music was mixed to the electronic rhythms, heard usually in action scenes and fights.
This time we have both electronica and orchestra in some tracks. In "Chateau"
Rob Dougan used orchestral samples in a way that reminds me David Arnold´s
work in recent Bond films. But the best is yet to come. Don Davis opted to
blend the orchestra with the electronics in two pieces, with the techno rhythm provided by
Juno Reactor, led
by composer Ben Watkins. The first track of this audacious contribution that could, in principle, to sound
awkward, is "Mona Lisa Overdrive", where in its 10 minutes in lenght we can hear
sharp orchestra interventions over the rhythms and sounds proportionated by the best
that the contemporary electronic music can offers. Additionally it´s here where the
choir is heard for the first time in the album, helping to make this theme definitively memorable. The combination of styles follows in the frantic
"Burly Brawl",
that underscores the confrontation of Neo against agent Smith and his 100 clones. As the fight goes
more and more crazy, Davis makes his music follows the action´s faster
rhythm, extracting a remarkable performance from the orchestra. Juno Reactor still makes a solo appearance in the short
(and good) track "Teahouse", where we have the taiko drum of Gocoo.
The Matrix Reloaded
score exceeds the screens and pleases the listener, and makes us to complain
only about the missing parts of Don Davis work. Who knows, maybe some day
we will get an expanded edition of this score. Let us start to wish... and to wait.
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