Red Dawn Poledouris

RED DAWN is the kind of band that comes along only once in a great while. Originally released in 1993, "Never Say Surrender" was the debut (and only) album from melodic rockers Red Dawn. Highly over-looked gem deserves a home in any comprehensive melodic hard rock collection. There's no words to describe this virtual supergroup of musicians gave us a superb combination of AOR and hard rock with powerful vocals, brilliant keyboards, big guitars and great songs with class hooks to back them up. Red Dawn formed from virtuoso keyboardist David Rosenthal well known for his great work with Rainbow but also with Steve Vai, Climb, Departure, Whitesnake, Cindy Lauper, Vinnie Moore and many more…

Out of the black metal vaults slithers a perfect split just for the metal eclectic icepick wielding
schizos! The gems of doom 'Side Nebulah' were long dead and petrified only to be exhumed and offered up to the gods in all of their original pristine otherworldly lo-fi beauty.
Engangsgrill is the best of both worlds, featuring two very Norwegian tall cool ones,
the legendary Nattefrost of Carpathian Forest and Fenriz of Darkthrone.

Quigley Down Under interprets the modern Western score from a distinctly Australian perspective. Basil Poledouris' aw-shucks melodies and quirky arrangements employ French horn, banjo, and clarinet to create a vivid evocation of gunslinger life in the Outback. While Lonesome Dove remains Poledouris' definitive work in the Western arena, Quigley Down Under possesses no shortfall of charm or imagination; its playful approach bubbles with an energy quite uncommon to the genre, avoiding portent and ponderousness to communicate the joie de vivre of its characters and setting. Most impressive is Poledouris' stirring main theme, a bold, oddly funky reinvention of the classic Western fanfare that immediately serves notice that Quigley Down Under is a horse of a very different color.

Album released in U.S.A. that meets only a selection of 10 songs of all for the soundtrack of the movie "The Hunt for Red October' by the American musician Basil Poledouris (Kansas City, 1945-2006 ). This album only offers about 30 minutes of recording time compared to more than 60 of the original 29 tracks. The reason is undoubtedly the content restriction that publication in a single vinyl (LP) imposed and that the CD.

Basil Poledouris has always thrived amidst the carnage of the action film. Known primarily for his excellent work on Conan the Barbarian, Starship Troopers, The Hunt for Red October, and the television miniseries Lonesome Dove – for which he won an Emmy – some of the composer's best work can be found on the soundtrack to Paul Verhoeven's 1987 sci-fi revenge romp, Robocop. Capitalizing on the film's anti-corporate undercurrent, Poledouris weaves a larger than life score for an unlikely hero, offering a heroic theme that paints Peter Weller's tragic, disfigured Detroit cop in a savior's light. Like Danny Elfman's score for Batman, the tone is dark, oozing metropolitan seediness awash in midnight rain. When the theme is reduced to a quiet lament, like on the masterful "Betrayal," the composer's love for his protagonist is evident, an element that's sadly missing from many of the genre's original scores. Varese Sarabande's 2004 reissue includes four bonus tracks.

On Deadly Ground suffers without the orchestral firepower customary to Basil Poledouris' most memorable action scores, but its quirks – most notably the addition of Inuit throat singers Qaunaq Mikkigak and Timangiak Petaulassie – rescue the music from complete forgettability. Because Poledouris' action efforts operate in such bold, grandiose strokes, their impact is dulled in the hands of the smaller-sized orchestra employed here (presumably to compensate for the additional costs of star/director Steven Seagal's hair plugs). Still, the composer excels at evoking the narrative's emphasis on Alaskan ecological hazards and native mysticism, installing vocals and celestial electronics to capture the otherness of life in the Last Frontier.