I’ve been watching Farscape for the first time recently and it has a fantastic soundtrack. Really bridges the divide between musical and zany. The Star Treks, in all their glory, are a bit vanilla…and the Voyager theme is slightly nauseating in its saccharine heroic melody, if you ask me.
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The Ron Grainer/Delia Derbyshire’s Doctor Who theme looms large of course.
If I can extend it to movies, Annihilation has some of my favorite sci-fi sound design of the last decade.
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I watched the trailer and will likely check out that film but I feel like too many of these modern sci-fi shows and films have very similar menacing type sound design that cross over into birdbox territory.
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in Annihilation (as well as Arrival) were involved two of the biggest (IMHO) sound design talents around…also creators of some of the most beutiful Kontakt libraries: S+A (Slate + Ash)
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As a horror fan, I don’t mind the menace (and Annihilation is horror as much as it is sci-fi).
Maybe the Severance soundtrack is more your speed? Less menace, more off-kilter:
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Let me also throw in the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex OSTs. Industrial techno, Trip hop, Jazz and whatever other genres Yoko Kanno gets her hands on:
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Yes, I do like that. Is Apple TV worth getting for that show? Too many subscriptions already…
I looked into the Farscape sound track and the producers wanted something that sounded tribal and medieval which I guess it sort of does.
I still think that Skinny Puppy should of been asked to do the music on the Dr. Who re-boot.
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Funny. Just last night I was watching some first season tos Star Trek and reflecting on how great a lot of the incidental music was when taken in context. Some of those early episodes have an almost noir vibe that is supported by the music. I’m thinking about closeups where someone’s eyes are over lit while the rest of the frame is fairly dark. The music and lighting together makes it feel like it’s from the 40s instead of the 60s.
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I watched the first Ghost in the Shell film for the first time the other day…I think the visuals and story were so engrossing that I didn’t pay much attention to the music which in a way might be the sign of a really good soundtrack.
the first ghost in the shell film with that japanese choir and those gong sounds is fucking incredible. but the first time you watch it, reading the subtitles, everything is a blur.
there’s some incredible remixes of that choir theme.
not really sci fi but that show dexter pops into mind for soundtracks.
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Exactly, although I watched a dubbed version–which I never do for live action films, and it was a mistake as they talked really fast and felt rather out of synch with the mood of the scenes.
wait are you talking about scarlett johansen ghost in the shell?
No, the original anime (which is on Mubi now btw)… no way in hell I’d watch the other.
I grew up watching dubbed Starblazers on TV so I guess it seemed natural at first.
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I’m so used to hearing japanese language I can no longer watch dubs. It’s like watching someone make fun of asian people and it upsets me in a way that is not appropriate for the fact that they’re just trying to be voice actors but they are so campy doing it that it lands far from the mark.
At least the dub of ghost in the shell is old so they took it seriously, not like these modern wankers where you get the same cast of no talent hacks dubbing everything that comes out just because they are in the dubbing production company’s talent pool of people who work cheap.
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Yeah the collection isn’t huge but the quality across the board is really high. Shrinking is one of the best comedies of the last ten years
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I really liked it! John Turturro and Christophen Walken are especially good in it.
Sounds like I need to watch Farscape.
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I don’t know much about Japanese (the language) outside of “r” being a really hard for native speakers to pronounce but I’m guessing English needs more words to express the equivalent in Japanese as they were hammering off the dialogue at 130bpm.
Well, at least maybe to check out the music–I’ve really gotten into the show but it’s very much an acquired taste and annoyed me for the first couple episodes. It’s like Fragglerock in space for adults.
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Not just work cheap. Frequently aren’t given prep time for their dialog. You can hear the difference in Studio Ghibli dubs, for example, which have Disney money and resources
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english puts the subject at the beginning of the sentance, japanese puts the subject at the end. an english statement “you are the criminal”, in japanese would be more like “the criminal, is you”, so what you end up with is emphasis in different parts of the dialogue. meaning that when they go to dub it and they are focused on matching lip movements and pauses. they’re emphasizing the wrong parts but trying to use the pauses that most languages use for dramatic emphasis. Also the speaking fast, there’s a lot of inferred information in japanese dialogue which is just to say they have a lot of assumption that the viewer or audience will already know some things, and english is used to dialogue that beats around the bush a lot so they add all this stuff to make the dialogue more contextual but it results in more words than are intended to express various things. it’s frustrating to watch dubs when you start to understand these things. it makes my head hurt even thinking about it. but it’s why you’ll see the reaction of the faces don’t match what people say in dub, like the “you are the criminal” they look angry or suprised on a delayed reaction at the end of the statement which is unnatural to us, but to them, the person saying it didn’t drop the bombshell until the very end of the statement so the suprise isn’t delayed, it’s right on time. oh god I really just explained all that didn’t I. boring.
I agree it’s different but even in for example steam boy where you have patrick stewart and alfred molina, who are excellent actors and also good as voice actors, it’s still wonky.
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