Aside from a preview of some of the messianic element at
the introduction of the underground hideaway of Zion, the conclusion of
The Matrix Reloaded provides most of Davis' highly attractive
material for this score, and while some of it touches upon the brazenly
heroic theme for Neo that stamped the end of
The Matrix with
grandeur, most of the pleasing and redeeming tones at the end of the
sequel are extensions of the love theme for Neo and Trinity. While this
theme begins to espouse the sense of romantic tragedy that will envelope
it in the subsequent score, it is still a remarkably refreshing glimpse
of hope in an otherwise troubling musical landscape. The solo horn
performance of this theme near the end of the commercial album's major
score suite is striking despite its low volume. In short, Davis'
intelligent mix of harrowing dissonance and awe-inspiring ensemble
harmony for the sequel is what many had wished he would have produced
for the original, though given that the first film had a much stronger
sense of horror to it, you have to forgive the necessary process of
evolution through the three scores in retrospect. But the story of
The Matrix Reloaded isn't finished there. The Wachowski brothers
hired the electronica group Juno Reactor to score the famed freeway
chase scene and a handful of other sequences. Existing in the
psychedelic trance and techno scene for a few decades, Juno Reactor's
core member, Ben Watkins, had recently shifted the group's efforts away
from the repetitive trance genre towards the use of additional live
musicians and an orchestral accompaniment. Watkins had contributed
popular cues to multiple
Mortal Kombat films, and the tone of his
music as the leader of Juno Reactor represented the desired combination
of hard electronica and orchestral depth that the Wachowski brothers
sought. It still seems odd that the brothers didn't ask Davis to provide
these sounds for the film himself, for he was certainly capable of doing
so, but they were so impressed with Watkins' "Mona Lisa Overdrive" cue
that they requested him to also provide that hard-nosed edge to the
"Burly Brawl" cue. Compared to Don Davis' contributions, the
Watkins/Juno Reactor cues are heavy and electronically persistent, and
obviously a switch of genre (though the lack of musical continuity from
scene to scene didn't seem to bother the Wachowskis in any of the
films). In general, these recordings offer more of the action-packed
thrill and less of the awe-inspiring beauty in the equation.
In an interesting twist of competence, Davis was
allowed to work with Watkins his contributions to
The Matrix
Reloaded, assisting in the large-scale orchestration effort behind
the electronic pulsations. Both of Watkins' cues feature a steady
orchestra as a powerful assistant, and the latter cue, "Burly Brawl," is
a perfect blend of the two styles, with Davis' alternating brass motif
omnipresent. In addition to Watkins and Juno Reactor, the Wachowski
brothers also wished to expand upon the use of "Clubbed to Death" by Rob
Dougan in the first film. Thus, they went straight to the source. Dougan
was also an artist combining electronica with orchestral sounds at the
time, and his heavily orchestrated pop music was often compared to
soundtrack scores even before this assignment. For the "Chateau" cue,
Dougan introduces his rising "Clubbed to Death" theme and expands it
into a full-fledged action motif with exciting orchestral accompaniment.
Dougan fans should note that he does not use his deep, rich voice in any
of the recordings for the score, however. While Davis was not a part of
the development of the orchestral elements in "Chateau," Dougan's
contribution is another well-placed piece in the larger musical tapestry
of
The Matrix Reloaded. It's an appropriate connection between
the training exercise in
The Matrix and the execution of Neo's
experience in this film, though it should be noted that the orchestral
cue that Davis originally wrote for this scene ("Chateau Swashbuckling")
is remarkably entertaining in a conventional action way. When pulling
back and placing the soundtrack's different artists in unison, the
regular orchestral film music fan will note that there are a small
handful of moments when Watkins' music doesn't completely mesh with
Davis' score. Davis may have been able to provide the electronica
elements for the chase and fight scenes himself, but the outsourcing to
achieve the proper talent was still handled well enough to result in a
coherent soundtrack. When the film was initially released, the standout
track on the main commercial album was the suite edit of several Davis
cues at the end of the 2nd CD in the product, a collection of the
score's best material that simply blows away the music provided by
Dougan and Watkins with its magnificent scope. For
The Matrix,
song and score albums were release separately; both were flawed, with
the song album not including some key, popular uses in the film and the
Davis score album short in length. For
The Matrix Reloaded,
Warner Brothers intriguingly offered both in one package, giving
consumers only a small taste of the score as a result.
On the initial commercial product, some of the songs
contained on the first CD are indeed in the film, and they fall towards
the hard rock and electronica side of the musical spectrum. The score
cues by Davis, Watkins, and Dougan occupy the second CD, which is only
40 minutes in length to accommodate the enhanced-CD extras that reside
on that CD. For film music fans, the first CD is a waste, with Dougan's
"Furious Angels" the only track tolerable to classically-inclined ears
(and, honestly, it should have appeared with Dougan's other cue on the
second CD). Marilyn Manson's insufferable "This is the New Shit" is
obviously not what most Davis fans are looking for. Regularly, the
forcing of score fans to purchase both the score and song CDs together
is a major detriment, but Warner Sunset and Maverick managed to figure
that they could turn a profit while offering the 2-CD set for the price
of a single album. Some American retail stores initially sold the set
for only $11.99, and this excused the bundling of the songs with the
score. After
The Matrix score was given expanded treatment in
2008, such an equivalent for
The Matrix Reloaded was inevitable,
and despite a few licensing hurdles that were never completely resolved,
La-La Land Records finally illuminated Davis's score, along with the
Watkins and Dougan material, on one limited 2-CD set in 2013,
eliminating the need for the bootlegs with that material that had long
been in circulation. While the true tonal highlights of Davis' music
were included in the previous album's suite arrangement, the fuller
renditions of those ideas are quite compelling, especially in the Zion
sequences. The intricacy within the composer's conversational cues is
fascinating, and the first two-thirds of the score features much more
accessible material than you may expect. The previously mentioned
"Chateau Swashbuckling" is among the best attractions. Those most
enthusiastic about this franchise's scores can use the 2013 album to
explore the development that Davis brought to the concept's themes in
preparation for their resolution in the subsequent score, even though
the composer claims that he did not coordinate the two scores explicitly
in that fashion. Overall, the music for
The Matrix Reloaded is
less frightening, dissonant, and disjointed than its predecessor, making
the 2013 album a great purchase. It hits most of its major beats in
stride, and its weaker portions can be forgiven because of their
brevity. It may not be as overwhelmingly attractive or easily memorable
as the conclusive statements in
The Matrix Revolutions, but it's
clearly a better listening experience than
The Matrix.
Deconstruction rarely sounds this good.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
