Reviewed by: Mikael Carlsson
Newcomer Bear McCreary wrote additional music for the Battlestar Galactica miniseries scored by Richard Gibbs and has also written some music for films such as My Baby’s Daddy and Johnson Family Vacation. However, the scores for Sci-Fi Channel’s Battlestar Galactica series is his biggest gig to date and, maintaining and developing Gibbs' approach in the original miniseries, has resulted in a certain cult following.
The score is highly interesting in terms of the approach. Fans of ”traditional” space music will be astounded when they hear the beautiful celtic theme in ’A Good Lighter’, for instance. Is this really from a science fiction story? And where do all of the heavy taiko drums fit in? How about the handclapping, the asian flutes and Middle-Eastern chanting? And what happened to the good old Gustav Holst approach to space music?
When Gibbs, assisted by McCreary, developed the approch to the new universe of Battlestar Galactica – so vastly different than the original music written by Stu Phillips back in the 70s – the direction from the producers was all but vague. Their ambition was to reinvent science fiction, and the music played an important role. Hence, the music for the Battlestar Galactica of the new millennium is, no doubt about it, highly original in terms of the approach. On this new CD from La-La Land, presenting music from the first season of the TV series, we get to witness how this approach is developed and maintained faithfully throughout the whole duration.
World music as space music is not a bad idea. It gives the series an unexpectedly tribal rawness, but it also has philosophical implications. Space is infinite, it’s a bigger concept than any earthly musical form could really describe. Certainly, the cliche - 20th century orchestral music - is rather inappropriate from this point of view. Perhaps world music comes closer to the best way to underscore the vastness of space, this is music that evokes cultural aspects of our whole planet. We are not able to evoke the cultural aspects of the whole universe, because we don’t know what music sounds like in other galaxies. The closest we get is world music.
It’s a bold approach, because there are many pitfalls. Hollywood has a tendency to underscore post 9/11 terrorism using the duduk, for instance. In Battlestar Galactica, it has a different role. And for the Titanic generation, uillean pipes and Gaelic songs have much more to do with Leonardo DiCaprio than space. I applaud the producers, directors and composers for the guts to do something different.
Bear McCreary’s music is, with the exception of a few orchestral tracks, realised with sequencers, samplers and synthesizers in conjunction with various soloists, most of them vocalists. Percussion-driven cues form the bulk of the music on this CD, interspersed with beautiful themes (’Kobol’s Last Gleaming’) and low-key, calmer suspense moments (’Baltar Speaks With Adama’). The instrumentation is interesting: their percussion palette is huge with lots of different drums, sticks, metallic sounds and other things. It’s very well done.
There are some stand-out tracks that are different: there is a terrific little aria called ’Battlestar Operatica’, for piano quintet and two sopranos! This pseudo-classical music is further developed in ’The Dinner Party’, and amusingly contrasted by futuristic cocktail music in ’Battlestar Muzaktica’.
Not all of the music on this album makes for extended, repeated listening. Although I acknowledge the approach, the majority of the action music – the aforementioned percussion music – gets somewhat tedious after a few tracks. I feel that McCreary’s music is more interesting in its slower parts, where the nuances of the solo performances and the dense, ambient harmonies are allowed to breath and develop in a sort of hypnotic way. There are some stunningly beautiful moments on this CD.
