Customer Reviews

Waking Life - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Recently, an Austin friend turned me on to a Glover Gill CD called Solo Tango. I liked it a lot and so looked him up on this site to see what else of his I could find. After reading the reviews of this one, I sort of half-heartedly ordered it.
Mistake!!! This is a fascinating piece of work. No, its not warmed-over Piazzolla as some have insinuated. The mere fact that it displays the characteristics of "new tango" doesn't automatically mean that the music will be a Piazzolla clone.
I've listened to and enjoyed lots of tango in my life, from the Guardia Vieja all the way through El Troesma to the present, and I can hear plainly that Glover Gill knows tango. The brooding melancholy jumps out and if you close your eyes, you can imagine being in the arrabal. Guess I'll have to see the movie, too!
Those familiar with tango of the 20s-40s will recognize snippets of some of the most famous tangos expertly worked into Gill's compositions. This is a great CD to kick back to and just enjoy. I've had it on all day soaking up its many pleasures. If I had to chose a favorite piece, Nocturna and Super Sport would vie for that honor.
If you have an open mind about tango and the possibilities of the genre, you should find as much to enjoy here as I do. I look ahead with eager anticipation to the next offering of Glover Gill and his Tosca Tango Orchestra.

This soundtrack is actually quite incredible, an excellent achievement despite what some others say. The music has a distinctive quality that makes it entertainment all on its own; it hardly needs a film to go along with it (although the film was fantastic).

One of my favorite aspects of the music is that it doesn't remind me of certain parts of the film-- I do like being reminded of parts of films in some soundtracks, but this is great.
An exception is track 8, El Cholulo, which brought to my head images of the group of people just tangoeing, and it was actually a good thing to have a familiar image for part of the film. I also love the opening and finishing tracks, which are quite haunting and beautiful.
Simply listening to the samples in the record store, my face broke into an involuntary smile as I listened to it...
Enough said. This is great music. Get it.

This score, performed by the current road orchestra for David Byrne and written by the one-time keyboardist for 8 1/2 Souvenirs, is a beautifully spare companion to Richard Linklater's animated musings. Using Austin artists seems like a natural choice since the film takes place on the streets of Linklater's former stomping ground. Mostly piano and strings, it oscillates between dark broodings and the hopping tango; often, the accordion gives it a decidedly French feel. A great disc to pick up since the movie is mostly music peppered with dialogue (or vice versa). As a result, the cues are long.

A skillful turn on Piazzolla's Nuevo Tango. Dark, brooding, discordant, and--by turn--sweetly melodic. And more than most soundtracks, it recalls the images of the film and the dreamlike confusion that 'Waking Life' evoked.

So many films have such dismissable soundtracks. Each track meant only to underscore the film and be ignored. This rarest of soundtracks actively engages the listener and is absolutely impossible to ignore. The movie: Good. The soundtrack: Rocks.

I bought this because I loved the movie, both visually and philosophically. The soundtrack goes very well with the movie and is responsible for much of the surreal feel of it. But even listened to independently it's great.
The recording is kind of raw, there is little processing, and it may even be considered careless, but that's part of its charm.
The sound itself is pretty original (to me anyway). It's strings (one violin, one cello and one double bass, I think), piano and accordeon. The result is refreshing. That's probably the best word to describe this: refreshing, and of course, dreamy.

I know nothing about tango; I got this soundtrack because I like the movie so much, and the music is such an important part of the movie's wandering, convoluted and dreamy feeling. I don't think I'll probably buy other Glover Gill albums, but this one is wonderful -- I often put it on while I'm working; it's great background music but it somehow manages to stay in the front of your mind.

Some reviewers have lamented the inclusion of Chopin's Nocturne on the album, but this CD was my first experience of the piece, and I love it. It has a totally different flavor from the rest of the tracks, so it provides a nice break.

The only bad thing about this album is that it gets a little repetitive. That's part of the nature of the music, which makes sense in the movie, but because many of the tracks have these climbing melodies that repeat and spiral ever upward, I find that after one listen to the whole thing I've had enough, and I'll stay away from the CD for a while. But that doesn't diminish its value in my opinion -- certainly one of the more interesting soundtracks I own, and I recommend it especially to people who've seen the movie, but also to the more adventurous of those who haven't.

I do think that possessing a fondness for the film helps (of which so many here have expressed), but by no means is it necessary. If anything, I find the seldom, more reflective, somber moments ("Mi Otra Mitad de Naranja") to capture the film's oft-haunting imagery to beautiful effect. The rest of the score, in my case, doesn't work as an album because of what it guts out of the film; it works because it's fabulous music.

Very distinct, too; I've never heard a film's score sound quite like 'Waking Life'. Really, that's where most my admiration comes from; it's not only an enthusiastically charming score, but it's uncommonly unique. That always earns points, whether or not the music is appealing; 'Waking Life' is effortlessly both.

Although I admit knowing him personally, Glover Gill's music is incredible. Mark my words, in 10 years from now, if her isn't already, Glover Gill will be the greatest Tango musician in the United States.

Other reviewers have described this music well, but none so far as identified the source for this particular variety of tango-derived music as coming from the New Tangos of Astor Piazzola. When I went to the film I assumend that the group was playing Piazzola until I saw the credits. For those of us who wish Piazzola had not died as young as he did, it is excitng to find some Texas-based musicians carrying on his ideas, and especially exciting to see them being used in Linklater's brilliant film.

I could wish they hadn't bothered to include the Chopin track, but otherwise I highly recommend the works on this disk.