THREE NEW RELEASES FROM DIRECTORS CUTS


Directors Cuts: Mystery
Extreme Music DCD031
34 Tracks 55:37 mins

Directors Cuts: Weepies
Extreme Music DCD032
30 Tracks 46:52 mins

Directors Cuts: Terror Tools
Extreme Music DCD033
99 Tracks 54:52 mins


Three new releases from the extreme Music Library in their Directors Cuts series, starting with Mystery, which features a wide range of music, perfect for trailers or adverts where the desire is to create a mysterious, stealthy, creepy or ominous sound. A big gothic feel is given to the opening track "Immortal Enemy," by composers Hendrickson/Taylor/Emanuel, with a tinkling music box-like interlude and later subtle female choir and chiming bell. Their other composition, "Sweet Revenge" starts out as much more lighter fare, flowing quite nicely until it suddenly takes a sinister turn to end in cacophony. The other composers featured are David Inlander and Bobby Tahouri, and of their individual compositions "Cloak and Swagger" flows nicely, as do "Paradigm Shift," "Sleeping Dogs," "The First Staw" and "Tripple Take," with its bombastic ending. Somewhat darker and more menacing are "Complex Steps," "Sleuth Decay," "Make No Bones" and the eerie "Shades of Darkness . A reflective, piano-lead mood is created in "Minor Miracle," whilst female voices lend an almost religious feel to "Conspiracy Quest."
As far as pure listening pleasure is concerned, Weepies is the more attractive of the three releases and features some well-known members of the Remote Control fraternity. James Brett's "Weeping Beauty" is a sumptuous compostion, reminding somewhat of John Williams' soaring string writing; whilst the same composer's "Sweet Sorrow" is a more intimate, yet still lovely track, featuring acoustic guitar and strings.
Geoff Zanelli has four tracks: the melancholy, piano-lead "Vanishing Act;" the initially guitar-lead, then epic "Bitter Suite," which could easily have come out of Randy Edelman's Gettysburg score; as could the noble "Cry Tide" and the reflective "Gloom with a View."
Gavin Greenaway has two tracks, the poignant piano of "Silent Weakness" and the almost ehereal strings of "Saving Grace."
Matt Gates has just one track, the brief, but passionate "Venus Envy; whilst the remainder of the tracks are courtesy of James S. Levine, including the piano musings of "Unlucky Charm;" the desolate "Low Point;" the lonely piano of "Picture Imperfect" and "Grief Encounter;" and the somewhat more hopeful "Open Closure" and "Below and Beyond."
The third new Directors Cuts release, Terror Tools, is little more than a serious of very brief stingers, all composed by Trevor Morris, which are ideal in capturing that shock moment, but don't really make for any kind of listening experience as a stand-alone CD collection.
You can sample tracks from the Directors Cuts series by visiting the website at www.extrememusic.com.