Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (2 CD Bootleg)

Review by Thomas Glorieux:

Under Siege 2 is the result of the collaboration between actor Steven Seagal and composer Basil Poledouris, due to the fact that Basil scored the year before On Deadly Ground, the directorial debut of indeed actor Steven Seagal. Undoubtedly, Steven will have pushed for the presence of Basil on the set and this is the result. Under Siege 2: Dark Territory is a normal action film like Basil has scored many in it's genre and the score sounds that way also, normal as you would expect an action score to sound like. The original soundtrack (released by Varese Sarabande) is available in a good shop but the bootleg has twice the material to offer and so I directly went for the big thing instead. The big problem is of course, bootleg's are filled with short tracks, track listings are difficult to find and different versions of certain tracks keep repeating themselves on the CD. It's difficult to enjoy it in the begin but when the second CD starts, it keeps pumping up the speed and volume and then it is more then a good listening experience.

Basil Poledouris starts off with a rousing fanfare in the first track, directly followed by the same track in a somewhat shorter version, it happens also with tracks 11 and 12, 20 and 21 (these are 20 seconds long) and 15 and 16 of the second album. Of course, the material present isn't much of newly heard action material but the longer cues are definitely good stuff, especially the second album is good to hear. The main theme is heard more often on that second album which explains much. The biggest problem of bootlegs is the material itself. The end of album 1 contains some weird stuff, which I think is not from the original movie. Tracks 22 and 23 are waltzes played on accordion (are there dances on the train?) and 24 contains 1 minute of sound effects, like they were stolen of the Star Trek set. The second album ends with the song we can hear on the end of the movie. Enough material present, but waltzes and sound effects? True, the movie is vaguely in my memory but still. Under Siege 2: Dark Territory is good fun, not special but it will entertain the fans of Basil Poledouris. The track listings aren't present on this score and that makes the job a little more difficult and harder. For those who find them, please let me know. The original soundtrack has the most interesting material, I think. I haven't heard him yet but the double CD release has of course twice as much material. So this score is the typical dilemma between score fans, the original will please a lot of persons but this one is only meant for the true collectors of film score bootlegs and of course for those who search for anything of Poledouris.

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Tracks

Double Disc

Disk One: 44.33

1. Track 1 (2.46)

2. Track 2 (2.40)

3. Track 3 (0.45)

4. Track 4 (2.07)

5. Track 5 (0.54)

6. Track 6 (1.52)

7. Track 7 (1.01)

8. Track 8 (0.20)

9. Track 9 (5.21)

10. Track 10 (2.35)

11. Track 11 (1.10)

12. Track 12 (1.11)

13. Track 13 (2.44)

14. Track 14 (0.28)

15. Track 15 (1.40)

16. Track 16 (0.28)

17. Track 17 (1.36)

18. Track 18 (1.12)

19. Track 19 (2.17)

20. Track 20 (0.28)

21. Track 21 (0.28)

22. Track 22 (2.18)

23. Track 23 (2.02)

24. Track 24 (1.08)

25. Track 25 (4.49)

Disk Two: 43.32

1. Track 1 (0.42)

2. Track 2 (1.50)

3. Track 3 (6.57)

4. Track 4 (1.23)

5. Track 5 (1.00)

6. Track 6 (1.45)

7. Track 7 (2.12)

8. Track 8 (0.36)

9. Track 9 (0.37)

10. Track 10 (0.43)

11. Track 11 (1.15)

12. Track 12 (2.18)

13. Track 13 (2.14)

14. Track 14 (3.56)

15. Track 15 (4.22)

16. Track 16 (4.23)

17. Track 17 (1.38)

18. Track 18 (3.54)

19. Track 19 (1.36)

The use of artwork or photos is posted for non profitable reasons

=== Link to Composer Site: Basil Poledouris ===