Drumline (Promo)

Review by Thomas Glorieux:

I have honestly no idea about the nature of this film is, or what it deals about, and so I can not tell you what I expected at first of this score. Sure, its a short promo by the hands of Mr. Cool, Funny, Pleasant, namely Mr. John Powell but still I assumed drums to play a large role in the outcome, and drums setting the rhythm. In a way, drums are noticed a lot, but luckily for us, Mr. Cool doesn't forget the theme nor the orchestra also and so Drumline becomes a fun short score, resulting in a theme you would hear normally in a movie like Evolution, or Chicken Run and by all means the funny marching main theme does work here also. But also the drums set a role in the outcome, often setting the pace of the score or setting the tone of it, but when the theme is played, its the orchestra at first place and this makes the outcome a lot better. It starts basically the way you imagined it, drums leading to an extremely loud halt, leading further supported by drums to the fun main theme in 'Main Title', as ever a typical Powell theme and don't take this the wrong way, because you want a theme from the beginning in a score as this, just because you don't want constant drum accompanying like The Bourne Identity did for example. And its easy to see where the director got that sound from, since 'As a Team' is basically a textbook example of the ambience mood the soft material stood for in that score. Also 'Devon' is that electronic moody ambience but doesn't hurt a lot because it doesn't appear too frequently. The main theme luckily a bit more, and its ever to fun fast whirling strings and light heroic feeling (like Evolution) is heard good in 'Rhythm on Drums', cool as ever.

Soft music, based on the main theme is heard in 'Stirring', piano in 'Takes over the Field', a lazy jazz feel with piano and bass in 'Go Ahead', a growing drum related version on heroic tones main theme in 'The Freshman's Skills' and some light emotional material growing a bit heroically in 'Dr. Lee'. It all is brief but good to appreciate. Still, the main theme does more then sound cool, in 'The Gridiron' it burst with those great trumpet blasts forward, in 'Competition' it suddenly blasts its forward speakers to your attention before setting a rhythmic happy feeling. And 'Drummer on the Sidelines' is just ever so good, the main theme on a beat of trumpets (almost a Conti Rocky feel) setting the flair just right. At times you wonder if this was not titled, "Trumpets blaze" because the trumpets make more attention then the drums, but as said the drums are always setting the rhythm, and who knows if the actual drum pieces were composed by Powell at all. Still, for its worth, you wouldn't call Drumline a score for a movie as this, but I'm sure it accompanies it perfect nonetheless. John Powell as ever is just typically fun to listen to and Drumline is for 23 minutes a breeze to appreciate, just because its appreciative. As said, Drumline will not bring much new to whoever wants to spend a lot of money on it, but it still carries a fresh tone which makes it irresistible to the fans of Mr. Cool. And hearing a score over a drum related movie as this makes it cool, I guarantee it.

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Tracks

Single Disc

1. Main Title (1.24)

2. Devon (1.33)

3. Rhythm On Drums (2.41)

4. Stirring (1.40)

5. Takes Over The Field (1.06)

6. The Gridiron (1.16)

7. As A Team (2.37)

8. Daring Feats (1.18)

9. Go Ahead (1.23)

10. The Freshman's Skills (1.34)

11. Dr. Lee (2.43)

12. Competition (2.23)

13. Drummer On The Sidelines (1.14)

Total Length: 23.00

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

=== Link to Composer Site: John Powell ===