CD REVIEW - GREEN WING


Green Wing
Music by Trellis
Silva Screen SILCD1245 (UK)
23 Tracks 44:59 mins

I am not familiar with the Channel 4 comedy series Green Wing, which first aired in 2004, nor any of the other largely comedic shows scored by Jonathan Whitehead (AKA Trellis), so when this disc first dropped through my door I didn't really know what to expect. And the publicity was very off putting, saying that, although the music for the series won the Royal Television Society Best Music Original Score in 2005 and was also nominated for a BAFTA that year, it was an "electronic score." Knowing the kind of music budgets we are often talking about in TV, I expected the worst, but actually the music turns out to be really quite enjoyable and, though it may have been produced in the composer's studio, he combines electronics with what certainly sound like live instruments and voices to provide melodic, rhythmic, quirky and very fresh and inventive music. Stylistically, it's all over the board - there's rock, reggae, opera and even Hawaiian to be heard here, with a touch of the otherwordly along the way. If you've got any mundane tasks to perform and you want to put something on to help you on your way, this may be just the kiddie, and it all flows pretty seemlessly. Great fun!