Lesser known film composers

krudler

Any movie fan worth their salt can spot a John Williams or Jerry Goldsmith soundtrack a mile away, but this is for the lesser know guys, who probably scored a lot more movies you like than you can remember or even realise

John Ottman:

His action cues can be a bit generic, its hard to tell the difference between the incidental music of Fantastic Four and X-Men, but his theme for X-Men 2 is fantastic, pity the opening credit sequence is so short as the soundtrack versions is longer and way better, also his score for Lake Placid is one of my favourite of the last decade

Basil Poledouris:

His scores for Robocop, Conan the Barbarian and Starship Troopers are absolute classics, and his brilliant music for the equally brilliant tv miniseries Lonesome Dove is something most composers would kill to have on their cv

Elliot Goldenthal:

Had the unenviable task of following Danny Elfmans utterly classic scores for the first two Batman movies, did a good job with a new theme for Batman Forver, but its his work on Alien 3 that stands out for me, its almost like an opera, and the finale is one of the finest climaxes to a movie score you'll ever hear, similarly his music for the much maligned Final Fantasy:The Spirits Within is abolsutely EPIC in places

Graeme Revell:

A bit of a mixed bag, has a tendency to score a lot of crappy horror movies, but his standout score will always be for The Crow, that theme tune is beautiful, and his music for The Negotiator (7.00 into that video, look up the track Rise, its awesome)

Michael Kamen (RIP)

Now he's a fairly big name among soundtrack enthusiasts, and his cv is incredible in places, Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, X-Men 1, Band of Brothers, but your average moviegoer probably never heard of him, well they have heard him in the sense they've probably loved one of his pieces, his theme for Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is so good Disney use it as their dvd/blu-ray trailer music, and its also used for Morgan Creek productions, his Licence To Kill score is by far my favourite Bond music aside from the David Arnold stuff


Mark Isham

Probably best known for Crash, but its his score for Point Break that I love, really diverse with his film choices too

Christopher Young

Mostly horror movies, Hellraiser, The Fly II, Species, the remake of The Grudge, all supremely creepy horror scores, but has done plenty of action flicks as well, Hard Rain, The Core, Swordfish

Bill Conti

Ok ok, theres not a person alive who probably doesnt know the music for Rocky, but its his other stuff that may not stand out as much, a Bond movie for starters in For Your Eyes Only, an epic tv series in North and South, and a gloriously cheesy sci fi score in Masters of the Universe,not to mention The Karate Kid, and more recently The Thomas Crown Affair remake, it was great Sly brought him back for Rocky Balboa, it just wouldnt have been the same without him

Anyone got any other favourite composers/pieces to add, time for these unsung greats to get some love

Jako8

Basil Pouledouris and Michael Kamen are "lesser known" film composers?

I thought everyone recognised their greatness. (Read what you said about Kamen now :P, I'd definitely be a soundtrack enthusiast. Probably why I know him.)

Patrick Doyle:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUdfoPPYSdk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abyqtfTcuA8

Javier Navarrete:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W71thwOZxQ8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMqreLYta-k

Of course everyone knows Pan's Labyrinth but not many people know the man behind the score.

I'll post more when I think of them.

bnt

It's not just a man's game:

Rachel Portman won an Oscar for Emma, and did The Duchess, Chocolat, and this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2H8p4uqCZ0

Anne Dudley, from The Art Of Noise, won an Oscar for The Full Monty soundtrack, and is behind another great score:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxA6zseO5Ec

Debbie Wiseman has a list of credits to rival anyone's including this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J64T6FnYxlw

krudler

Good call on the American History X score, that has some excellent music in it, the basketball scene is a standout

Decuc500

I always look out for Mark Isham's scores. The Hitcher was fantastic.

spooky donkey

I have to say OP you really know your stuff. As a big sound track fan both in computer games and movies I have heard of a lot of them guys you mentioned. Just dident realise how much stuff they have done in the past.

cant wait till i get home from work I wana listen to all them you tube links...

Karl Hungus

Here's one for you, Carter Burwell. Not the most well recognised film composers, but he's got quite a canon of work, and I think most people here will know some of it. I love his score for Fargo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4NCC0dUXks

Ryuichi Sakamoto is another composer who is nothing short of incredible, won an oscar for his Last Emperor score, and a Bafta for his Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence score.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwkuS9FlB7M

And of course I can't go without mentioning Joe Hisaishi, the man is probably my favourite compsoer. His scores are just incredible, and he should be far more well known than he is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33SJ7Q_P54Q

I have to give mention to Johan Soderqvist for Let The Right One In, which is an incredibly powerful score.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TerKgrAFQ5k

Oh, and here's something from Nick Cave and Warren Ellis' Assassination of Jesse James soundtrack:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3zdYRW7jI0

Thomas Newman is an amazing composer as well, I love his work. Not that lesser known really, but I think he does get overlooked a little:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgXaVL1qkHw

krudler

Speaking of video games, they can easily rank among some of the best scores you'll ever hear, Hans Zimmers score for Modern Warfare 2 is fantastic:

Kameo:Elements of Power has a great fantasy score, very LOTR in places, the Hero Theme is well worth a listen:

Hands down though, Shadow of the Colossus has the finest score of any video game, I bought it from Japan after playing the game for about 2 hours when it first came out I liked it so much:

krudler

I'm really liking David Julyan's recent stuff, especially The Prestige and The Descent:

This track, Colorado Springs from The Prestige is my favourite piece of his:

krudler

And of course I can't go without mentioning Joe Hisaishi, the man is probably my favourite compsoer. His scores are just incredible, and he should be far more well known than he is.

Great composer, his themes for Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke are magnificent, really looking forward to hearing his work on Ponyo

Karl Hungus

krudler wrote: »

Great composer, his themes for Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke are magnificent, really looking forward to hearing his work on Ponyo

He really brings a lot to the films he scores, without a doubt much of the magic and power that Spirited Away has is in part because of his music. His score for Departures is incredible as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72UHlQ4TyHA

krudler

Michael Giacchino is really starting to grow on me as well, always loved his work on The Incredibles, big brassy Bondesque themes and a really cool 60's vibe to it:

And his great score for Up, awesome film, awesome music:

One composer you dont really hear much from lately is Mark Mancina, he scored two classic action movies of the 90's in Speed and Bad Boys, love both these tracks:

krudler

Trailer music, now who doesnt love a good trailer? some of the most used (or overused, depending on your viewpoint) music in trailers, that music that you know but dont know where from

Lucius Dei-Immediate Music (used in The Matrix Revolutions trailer)

Roll Tide (from Crimson Tide by Hans Zimmer) used in about a dozen action movie trailers, the good bit starts around 1.15 in:

Lacrimosa-Immediate Music (used in that fcuking epic Spider-Man 2 trailer)

Def Con-Immediate Music (nicely edited here to Assassins Creed )

God I love epic trailer music

Jako8

I think X-ray dog produce excellent trailer scores.

My favourite being...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fgnMZupoFk

which was used in...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFxqw0jbC2Y

More...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQEMdYpmIkU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEmcq0PW4qU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yH3t6xNrNns

The music they make is worthy of being in the films they are on the trailers for.

Aurora Borealis

Michael Nyman is my all-time favourite film composer. His music does not fail to give me goosebumps.

Drowning by number soundtrack - Trysting Fields is beautiful beautiful beautiful.

I do love Yann Tiersen too.

Amelie- Comptine d´un autre été: l´après midi.

Just realised I know not how to post a youtube clip. I am luddite hear me roar...

Jako8

AB_Realis wrote: »

Michael Nyman is my all-time favourite film composer. His music does not fail to give me goosebumps.

Drowning by number soundtrack - Trysting Fields is beautiful beautiful beautiful.

I do love Yann Tiersen too.

Amelie- Comptine d´un autre été: l´après midi.

Just realised I know not how to post a youtube clip. I am luddite hear me roar...

If you look at the URL of the video you see a v=

So what you must do is put everything after the = between the tags. (Without the space between the forward slash and the y in the second tag)

I agree the Yann Tiersen tracks used in Amelie are absolutely fantastic!

Arcee

I loved Patrick Doyle's score for Much Ado about Nothing. I think I heard that was actually him singing in the film too...

And more recently, I watched Zombieland and thought the score by David Sardi was amazing - particularly this short track

Aurora Borealis

Jako8 wrote: »

If you look at the URL of the video you see a v=

So what you must do is put everything after the = between the

tags. (Without the space between the forward slash and the y in the second tag)

I agree the Yann Tiersen tracks used in Amelie are absolutely fantastic!

Thanks for that.

foxyboxer

Love Dario Marianelli's stuff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVuRWdu_Ifg

youcancallmeal

Love Eliiot Goldenthal. This piece was apparently supposed to be used for the finale to Heat but it was rejected so he used it in Michael Collins instead. I couldn't imagine this fitting in well in Heat but in Michael Collins its perfect

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V75YEZQB2gI