The film
John McTiernan's remake of the seventies classic "Rollerball" flopped both commercially and
critically. It's initial release was heavily delayed, when it needed recutting because of
bad reception at the sneak previews screenings.
The story involves a violent sport, being exploited by a TV network. The cast includes
Chris Klein, Jean Reno, LL Cool J and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos. The film has been slain in
every review ever written, and reportedly suffers from very heavy editing of the action
scenes. Go and see it yourself, if you want to know any more.
The music
The soundtrack however is the first after a series of Serra releases that is
finally almost exclusively Serra's own work. There are 4 non Serra tracks in
between but they never really spoil the mood, so this album is more likely to
please the typical Serra fan.
The work resembles some of Serra's earlier work, but with a bigger focus
on pumped up action sequences. The arrangements flirt with both fast techno
as well as heavy guitar rock, with plenty of ethnic and even symphonic
influences.
The album opens with the energetic and driven "Eghnev", at first resembling
good old fashioned distorted guitar rock with some organ riffs, but shortly
after accompanied by edited drum loops and some genuine drumming, to up the
gear to some fast driving action.. A genre that is regularly revisited
throughout the album. But always sweetened with a few comfortably
recognizable Eric Serra sounds and touches.
Actually, Serra has explained in an interview that the music was originally
going to be a lot more ethnic, with Middle East styled music and instruments.
He had bought some Arabic instruments and planned to go to New York to
record his score there. He was scheduled to arrive there on September 12,
and obviously never got there, because on September 11 the terrorist
attacks happened in New York and Washington. Then the producers decided
that in the wake of this changed climate it would be not possible to use
too many Middle Eastern styles in the score, and Serra had to "rethink"
his plans. He build a small studio in New York and created this score in
a very short time span, and being limited in the possibilities to use an
orchestra in his recordings he used a lot of samples and sample loops.
It would have been interesting to hear the originally conceived Arabic
styled score, especially since the Arabic influenced tracks that did
make it to the CD are absolutely jewels. But the final result, on CD
at least, is also very interesting, showing more edge and balls then
ever before, with enough variation to remain interesting. It may not
be destined to be a best seller, but there are many reasons to fondly
remember this album, and to those who don't mind the edge and balls
is definitely a release to be labeled "back to form".
Released in 2002
Virgin . . . 07243 81216125
01. Eghnev 2:49
02. Letzgo 3:27
03. Body Go (Hardknox) 3:50 *
04. Kornovol 0:56
05. Kwinsky 3:45
06. Orora 2:00
07. Serokin 3:03
08. Koshmor 1:43
09. It's a Showtime (Rappagarlya) 4:16 *
10. Blootim 2:25
11. I Am Hated (Slipknot) 2:37 *
12. Shreflov 2:12
13. Reitnov 6:50
14. Oportu 3:14
15. Baroof 6:06
16. Enoff 4:06
17. Panchoff 2:00
18. Ride (Beautiful Creatures) 3:08 *
* = Not by Eric Serra
