Great listening
Stuart M. Paine | Arlington, VA USA | 11/23/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"HIGH VELOCITY is about a businessman's kidnapping by terrorists in the Philippines and a rescue attempt, by American former guerrilla fighters in Viet Nam, which goes bad. Goldsmith did his usual terrific job on the score.
track list:
1.Welcome to the Philippines / The Observers / The Sniper (5:59)
2. The Night Before (2:16)
3. The Mafia Marines (2:06)
4. The Hostage (3:07)
5. The Mission Begins (4:23)
6. The Rope Trick (1:48)
7. Night Flight (2:11)
8. The Ring / Not Thirsty (2:47)
9. The Archer (2:19)
10. Just a Little More / No Victories / End Title (4:07)
"Welcome to the Philippines", which makes up the first 2:22 of track 1, is performed by guitars, marimba, bass, maracas and drums joined briefly by flute. Its rhythm is fascinating. The lead guitar and the flute play in a relaxed common meter of 4/4 while the rhythm section of guitar, bass and percussion plays triplets but stresses them in a characteristic latin compound meter, an alternating 6/8 and 3/4 (counted: 123 123 12 12 12). This makes the lead guitar sound as if it's lagging at the end of each measure in a folksy fashion and is very cool. This theme recurs in tracks 4 and 8.
The rest of the score is made up of many different kinds of things. A second, mournful, theme which is introduced by the gypsy cymbalom in "The Sniper" near the end of track 1 and is then picked up again in track 2, "The Night Before", dominates. It alternates with action and suspense cues and airy, almost aleatoric passages. There's quiet guitar, marimba and flute and then there's excited trumpets, castanets, tambourine and energetically strummed guitar with strings and piano. And, not to forget, there's the cymbalom. The whole thing is a great mix of classical orchestral instruments, miked very closely and dry, with folk intruments associated with both Spanish culture and countries such as the Philippines formerly under Spanish dominion. For anyone familiar with Jerry's scores to BREAKOUT, BREAKHEART PASS or CABOBLANCO from the same period (1975-80): HIGH VELOCITY has a similar aspect.
This is very good stuff. There's not a dull moment. I don't think anyone has ever made ethnically characteristic music his own more convincingly than Jerry Goldsmith.
"
