The Enchanted Path is the introductory effort on Day of Life. At four and a quarter minutes, the track still seems to go by like a flash. Each note created by Koch fits perfectly and sets the stage for the rest of the album. While Flowers on the Mountain barely reaches the three minute mark, the track is able to dovetail nicely into Morning Silence. The hopeful feelings that are…
Downpour opens up Daytime Dreamer, and it provides listeners with a tremendously dynamic and uptempo feel. While there are not vocals present, the piano line that Akram lays down provides a considerable amount of narrative. The track taps out at a hair over four minutes and leads into Dancing With the Wind. Dancing With the Wind is a softer and more introspective effort, where Akram delves into the corpus…
Cowboys and Indians is an independent film that benefits considerably through the presence of a set of compositions by Henrik Åstrom (who also created the score for 2011’s Jake and Jasper). While the visual component to the film is stellar and will draw viewers in, Åstrom’s 26 compositions for the film do more than highlight what is being shown on the screen. Rather, Åstrom’s work shines brilliantly on its own.…
Via delle Grazie is the latest effort from the Netherlands’ Red to Violet. Waiting for the Sun is a carefully-crafted piece of indie rock. The band is able to open up into a post-modern type of rock that is influenced by 90s alternative rock (Sean Lennon, Hedley) and the more emotive acts of the 00s (Brand New, Dashboard Confessional). The band’s instrumentation is smart, while they maintain an intensity to…
Jack Kerouac is a difficult author to transfer to the big screen, but Big Sur is a title that imbues the silver screen with the inimitable Kerouac style. The title benefits from accurate scenery, language, and overall zeitgeist captured during the feature. Big Sur focuses on Kerouac’s life in the months immediately following the success of On the Road. Rather than bask in his success, Kerouac attempts…
Rewind This! Is a title that looks to showcase the unique qualities of the history behind video cassettes. While home entertainment has moved past the VHS and DVD formats, there is a specific allure to the era that allowed smaller film companies and those with a passion for film the ability to cheaply and easily get their titles to a wider audience. Rewind This! focuses on interviews with those that…
Max: The Curse of Brotherhood is a sequel to 2010’s Max & the Magic Marker that released across the Wii, Playstation Network and a variety of touchscreen devices. Developer Press Play has gone exclusively to the Xbox One for their 2013 sequel (with an Xbox 360 version reportedly in the works for 2014), and their outing represents one of the few post-launch downloadable titles available on the Xbox One to…
Funky Bouriel has a funk meets New Jack Swing flair that immediately draws listeners in; Madame Freak’s vocals pull double duty in the furtherance of the narrative and in the creation of the overall flair of this track. Ow!!! brings Follow The Crack into a bold new direction; a small amount of scat-like singing opens up into an eclectic mélange of early-nineties dance and Chic-like pop. Ride It straddles…
The film reinvigorates both the fight club and the young virtuoso gains valuable skills from the master genres, with Keanu’s role as Donaka providing an anchor that allows individuals to moor themselves on. Keanu’s Donaka pays Tiger Chen (Chen Hu) for eir skills, erupting into chaos when Tiger Chen learns that ey is a pawn in an underground fighting league. The action is fast-paced and realistic, while the grimy scenery…
Sweetwater is set in the last years of the 1800s, in an America that is still incredibly rough and tumble. Ed Harris and January Jones are put up against a considerable foe in Jason Isaacs, who has a delightfully evil turn as a fundamentalist leader. The costuming and set design make it incredibly easy for viewers to immerse themselves in Sweetwater, while the dialogue fits the period without confusing viewers.…
