SORRY ABOUT THE DELAY BUT ILL GET THE MUSIC FIXED ASAP
01 - Murray Gold - Doctor Who - Series 4 (Opening Credits)
02 - Murray Gold - A Noble Girl About Town.mp3
03 - Murray Gold - Life Among the Distant Stars.mp3
04 - Murray Gold - Corridors and Fire Escapes.mp3
05 - Murray Gold - The Sybilline Sisterhood.mp3
06 - Murray Gold - Songs of Captivity and Freedom.mp3
07 - Murray Gold - UNIT Rocks.mp3
08 - Murray Gold - The Doctor's Daughter.mp3
09 - Murray Gold - The Source.mp3
10 - Murray Gold - The Unicorn and the Wasp.mp3
11 - Murray Gold - The Doctor's Theme (Series 4).mp3
12 - Murray Gold - Voyage of the Damned Suite.mp3
13 - Murray Gold - The Girl With No Name.mp3
14 - Murray Gold - The Song of Song.mp3
15 - Murray Gold - All in the Mind.mp3
16 - Murray Gold - Silence in the Library.mp3
17 - Murray Gold - The Greatest Story Never Told.mp3
18 - Murray Gold - Midnight.mp3
19 - Murray Gold - Turn Left.mp3
20 - Murray Gold - A Dazzling End.mp3
21 - Murray Gold - The Rueful Fate of Donna Noble.mp3
22 - Murray Gold - Davros.mp3
23 - Murray Gold - The Dark and Endless Dalek Night.mp3
24 - Murray Gold - A Pressing Need to Save The World.mp3
25 - Murray Gold - Hanging on the Tablaphone.mp3
26 - Murray Gold - Song of Freedom.mp3
27 - Murray Gold - Doctor Who Series 4 (Closing Credits).mp3
THATS ALL FOLKS THANKS FOR CHOOSING MY BLOG TO LISTEN TO THESE PRICELESS (LITERALLY) SOUNDTRACKS
I AM GRATEFUL FOR ALL COMMENTS SO PLEASE LEAVE SOME
AND TELL EVERYONE OF THIS BLOG AND THAT I WILL KEEP THEM INFORMED AND UP TO DATE
THANKS AGAIN
Timelord50
Friday 23 January 2009
DOCTOR WHO SERIES 4 ORIGINAL TELEVISION SOUNDTRACK
Another welcome release from Silva Screen, this is a collection of the incidental themes by Murray Gold for the last series of Doctor Who. Gold has completed some stunning work for the show and certainly proved his many detractors wrong with the huge success of the Children In Need and Proms concerts as well the three albums that showcase his work. My only criticism is that some of his work is too often buried underneath all the other business of the show.
Anyway, we open with the slightly reconfigured Doctor Who theme which not only keeps the electronic swoops courtesy of Delia Derbyshire but also adds in a bit of the underrated Peter Howell wah-wah guitar-like electronics. He's also added in that expansive drum section too which gives the whole thing a kick up the arse. I'm not sure it's entirely successful. Onwards then to the lovely, infectious jazzy pop of A Noble Girl About Town which picks up on the motifs of The Runaway Bride Xmas Special and adds a playful vibe to the opening episode of Series 4, Partners In Crime. Life Among The Distant Stars is a wistful combination of piano, strings and woodwind and it's a musical motif that reappears throughout Series 4 in various guises. It articulates well much of Donna's eventual fate.
Bit of blood and thunder 'chase' type music with Corridors And Fire Escape, which frankly Murray can do in his sleep and it's a little too generic for my tastes. Much better is The Sybilline Sisterhood with its use of brass, wailing vocal motifs and high strings. This is further surpassed by Songs Of Captivity And Freedom, a melancholic piece of beauty, all aching strings but then punctuated by a soaring vocal passage that fits perfectly to the Ood's symbolic function in the story Planet Of The Ood as well as prefiguring the Song Of Freedom that would eventually get the full, bombastic treatment in Journey's End . Quite an exquisite composition.
...jaunty, chamber based pieces in a similar tone to the superb Anne Dudley music for Granada's Jeeves and Wooster.UNIT Rocks is essentially a beefed up version of the theme that was first introduced back in The Christmas Invasion. Big, bold, brassy. The brassier side of things continues into The Doctor's Daughter and it's given a Hermann-esque stridency and then climaxes with a choral motif from The Doctor's Theme. It doesn't stay around long enough as a cue to really make an impact. I'm also underwhelmed by The Source, from the same story. It's inoffensive but again doesn't have enough of a hook apart from the piano and string climax and there are little stings and reflections on the series main themes. Gold goes for Poirot-like bassoons on The Unicorn And The Wasp, some warbling electronic tonalities and jaunty, chamber based pieces in a similar tone to the superb Anne Dudley music for Granada's Jeeves and Wooster.
The Doctor's Theme gets another reinterpretation here, with a full choir and low strings. It's rather grand, baroque music, soaring and magnificent and actually gets this album back on track. Full on orchestra and stunning work from the choir. Another delight is the Voyage Of The Damned Suite with it's Mission Impossible opening going into a sweeping motif of The Doctor's Theme with cor anglais, insistent drum and brass. There's a breathy, floaty vocal piece for Astrid as well as a revisitation to many of the familiar themes for Series 3. And do I detect an organ in there too? It captures the epic scale of the story with some further stunning high strings, brass and pounding rhythms. The scoring for Astrid is a sweet, light contrast to the bombast and brings us to the end of the track on a bitter-sweet note.
The music for Silence In The Library/Forest Of The Dead does reek of Danny Elfman too much for me. It's the overuse of brass and high strings on The Girl With No Name that's putting me off here. The Song Of Song starts as a reworking of The Doctor's Theme with a treacly nursery rhyme aspect to it and goes into strident brass flares and soaring strings. Again, very Elfman. All In The Mind is a welcome, and left field, respite with woodwind and acoustic guitar and some shimmering organ painting us a Beatles-like picture of Donna's other life. Silence In The Library is better, with much more restraint being used, and is a superbly plaintive piece of scoring that doesn't outstay its welcome.
The Greatest Story Never Told is another stand out track. Murray certainly knows how to use a choir and this is shown off here with the male voices in a call and response variation on all The Strange Strange Creatures that then drops into a pulsing, slower passage, bringing in the sopranos and a rising, rising string passage. It ends with the orchestra belting out powerful brass flares and jogging strings. Stunning.
That combination of guitar lick, whistling motif, melancholic strings...well I'm off again, typing this through tears...Now, things really get interesting. For me the music from Midnight is the stand out here. The colorations are spot on with piano highlights, twitchy percussions and big brass attacks. It is slightly reminiscent of Goldsmith's music for Alien and Giacchino's incidentals for Lost but it's still a nerve shredding composition. That aggitated brass passage at the end is utterly brilliant. The music for Turn Left is also an opportunity to get away from the full on orchestra with its piano, synth washes, acoustic guitar. A moody composition with some breathy choral passages of The Doctor's Theme, rattling percussion to suggest the time beetle and atonal synth lines. I think I cried through A Dazzling End the first time I heard it properly here. Guitar, drums, shimmering layers of strings then added to with a soaring string melody line, brass licks and attacks. And it's all too brief. Still, you will weep buckets through The Rueful Fate Of Donna Noble which is a strong contender for the being the best track here. That combination of guitar lick, whistling motif, melancholic strings...well I'm off again, typing this through tears. Really, really beautiful.
Here comes Davros. Gold goes for atonal experimentation with treated percussion and big piano sections and groaning brass. Again, little echoes of the Giacchino music from Lost. Fantastically atmospheric and as far as you can get from the earlier over-ripe Elfman pastiche. And more Dalek choirs for The Dark And Endless Dalek Night. All very Wagnerian, and basically everything but the kitchen sink, to make this Dalek music to end all Dalek music. When it calms down a bit, it's a lot more interesting and has a feel of Janacek to it. The jittery electronic percussion of A Pressing Need To Save The World winds its way through bold brass and strings that have a brief echo back to A Noble Girl About Town as well All The Strange Strange Creatures and This Is Gallifrey. It's a real melting pot with Gold piling in as many echoes back to the previous three series. Then there's the Indian influence on Hanging On The Tablaphone which throws the whole thing into a bizarre left curve - electronics, tablas, shouting choirs and guitar washes. Very interesting.
There's a little too much careering between bombast and syrup for my tastes...Do I like Song Of Freedom? Not really. It's all a bit overblown and quite honestly, I'm sick to death of that choir now. It's an interesting use of electronics and percussion over the soaring voices but it doesn't do it for me, emotionally. Rather like the episode it comes from, Journey's End, it's a bit up itself. And we conclude with the series' Closing Credits, complete with middle eight, piano tinkles, swooshes and bashing percussion. A good album, beautifully produced but not quite in the same league as the previous albums. There's a little too much careering between bombast and syrup for my tastes and where it excells it's in the more experimental compositions and where restraint has been applied. Certainly for me, the music from Midnight and Turn Left are the highlights here, with the themes for Donna, Davros, the Ood and the Voyage Of The Damned Suite also well worth a listen. And it does feel like the end of a journey musically too as it would appear that Murray will not be composing for the series in the future. He has a talented protege in the form of Ben Foster whom I hope will take up the reigns. One thing is for sure, Murray has made the music for the series appropriately bold and cinematic and that's a stunning achievement.
The CD isn't out yet but you can download the album now from Silva Screen.
DOCTOR WHO - SERIES 4 ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK: Murray Gold (SILCD1275 Released 17th November 2008)
Michelle Ryan to liven up the Tardis as Doctor Who's sexy new assistant
Last updated at 1:07 AM on 23rd January 2009
Michelle Ryan looks set to become the next Doctor Who companion after landing a plum role in the show's Easter special.
The former EastEnders actress will appear in Planet of the Dead, which will be broadcast on BBC1 in April.
She will play Lady Christina de Souza, who accompanies David Tennant's Doctor on a dangerous bus trip.
Co-stars: Michelle Ryan, left, is tipped to be Doctor Who's (played by David Tennant) new assistant in the Easter special
Comedian Lee Evans will also make a cameo appearance.
Executive producer Russell T Davies said: 'The script is being kept strictly under wraps - however we can reveal that Lady Christina is a woman with a mysterious past who's going to have a huge impact on the Doctor.'
Both Tennant and Ryan were spotted filming on location in a bus yesterday.
The Easter special is one of four stand-alone episodes of the show to be broadcast this year. In each, the Doctor will have a different companion.
However, BBC bosses have not yet announced who will star alongside new Doctor Matt Smith in the 2010 series.
Tennant and Ryan filming in a bus on location yesterday
Show insiders said that Miss Ryan, 24, is a key contender to play Mr Smith's assistant.
A source revealed: 'Michelle's been in secret talks with BBC bosses.
'They are likely to announce her as Doctor Who's new assistant very soon.
'She is perfect for the role. She is good looking and the right age to star alongside Matt.
'Everyone agrees they look great together and reckon fans will think they're the perfect team too.'
The source added: 'The BBC launched Michelle's acting career as Zoe Slater in EastEnders and she will be thrilled to be back with them in such a legendary role.
'It's an incredible opportunity for her and even though she's had a lot of success already she is still young and at the start of her career.'
Doctor Who bosses have a habit for re-using characters and even actors.
Freema Agyeman, who took over the assistant role from Billie Piper, initially played the guest character Adeola in an earlier series.
Catherine Tate originally featured in a Doctor Who Christmas special as a guest star, but her performance was such a hit that producers asked her to return for the fourth series.
Miss Ryan unsuccessfully auditioned to replace Miss Piper when she left the programme.
However, it is understood that she has impressed Mr Davies with her work since.
Michelle recently returned from LA, where she played the starring role in TV series Bionic Woman.
But the show flopped and was not commissioned for a second series and the actress - already suffering jibes about her lack of star status and unconvincing American accent - was soon on a plane home.
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