Music From & Inspired By the Film Monster (CD & DTS DVD)

BT

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 1, 2004)
• Original Release Date: January 30, 2004
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Digital Sound
• ASIN: B0001ADAVU
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #88,749 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. The Unbalanced Equation (DVD)

2. Childhood Montage (DVD)

3. A Small Sacrifice (DVD)

4. Girls Kiss (DVD)

5. Virtue (DVD)

6. The Bus Stop (DVD)

7. Dark Lines (DVD)

8. Turning Tricks (DVD)

9. First Kill (DVD)

10. Set And Setting (DVD)

See all 24 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Childhood Montage

2. Girls Kiss

3. The Bus Stop

4. Turning Tricks

5. First Kill

6. Job Hunt

7. Bad Cop

8. "Call Me Daddy" Killing

9. I Don't Like It Rough

10. Ferris Wheel

See all 39 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Monster was an unflinching movie that took you to the edge of the abyss with Aileen Wournos, a prostitute who murdered seven of her customers in Florida in the 1980s. Director Patty Jenkins' film is a sympathetic portrait of Wournos and BT's (Brian Transeau) score ranges from hopeful to harrowing. Fans of BT's trance music won't find any of his familiar beats and techno strategies here, but a work that is just as immersive. Mixing ambient Americana, melancholic minimalism, and atonal atmospheres, this isn't the kind of score you might expect from a musician more associated with dance, trance, and pop music. But BT pulls out all the emotional stops here from the poignant opening theme, "Childhood Montage," with its haunting keyboard refrain, to the stomping guitar twang rave-up on "Ditch the Car." Instead of the usual soundtrack of truncated cues, BT has fleshed out his themes into extended works that segue through the disc. An additional bonus is a DVD-A 5:1 surround mix that puts you right in the middle of BT's spectral swirl. Adding an additional 9 tracks of music, BT paints a 360 degree sound world that is as enveloping as it is compelling. --John Diliberto

Product Description

DTS Entertainment is proud to release a CD/DVD two-disc set with 5.1 Surround Music of BT’s original music from and inspired by the critically acclaimed motion picture Monster, starring Charlize Theron and Christina Ricci. Blending Americana-inspired melodic sensibilities and non-traditional instrumentation, BT conceived and recorded the entire original score for Monster in 5.1 surround sound. This double disc package offers both a stereo CD of original music evolved from BT’s film score, as well as a "bonus" DVD with over two hours of original BT compositions presented in DTS 5.1 surround sound, plus numerous exclusive audio/video extras

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Revolutionary, December 22, 2004

By	Arnold Rimmer (Salt Lake City, UT USA) - See all my reviews

BT is a genius. He's one of the most innovative musicians of our generation, beginning as an architect of trance but never sitting still in one genre for too long. Somebody making movies noticed this, and let him do the score for the movie Monster. I hadn't seen the movie, but when I heard that he'd done the soundtrack I bought it immediately, sight unseen (so to speak). It didn't disappoint me.

First off, it's a two disc soundtrack. There's a DVD and a CD. The DVD is actually the primary medium for the soundtrack. It was composed for surround sound, and the DVD contains the soundtrack in DTS audio, as it was meant to be heard. It also has a stereo mix. It's about 2 hours long, which is another reason it was released on DVD, and it's pretty much a single work, with tracks fading into each other. Absolutely brilliant stuff. It's hard to believe it was composed by BT--it's not trance. It's very ambient, kind of like Eno, but with fascinating melodies and rhythms coming through often enough to make it more accessable than some other pure ambient music. It's played with real instruments, prominently featuring a hurdy-gurdy, but it has sounds and samples woven through it also. And the 5.1 is used to full effect, making it a completely immersive experience.

Of course, there's a CD with it as well. It contains a stereo mix of about half the tracks (mainly the more melodic ones), and it's great. Well worth the price of the disc even if you don't have the equipment to take advantage of the surround sound experience.

I'm getting a fairly hefty collection of soundtracks, and it's not often anymore that I'm really surprised by a movie score. This one did it for me. Just thought I'd share.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How a Movie Score Package should be presented as..., June 1, 2004

By	R. Ocampo "Artisan" (North America) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This is the greatest musical score package I've seen. It is presented in two discs, a DTS DVD featurette (labled as Disc One) and CD (labled as Disc Two) . I was lucky to get the limited edition autographed copy for the same price, but that's the only difference.

Disc One:
The best way to listen is of course in DTS 5.1 sound mix, but it can also be played as a normal DVD via PCM sound, which I don't recommend at all. I've switched between PCM stereo and DTS and the difference can't be compared as you miss out on the sonic quality and surround sound experience. The music score was actually mixed with DTS 5.1 as the artist has intended from the start so it's not like those DVDs that you buy afterward that was re-mixed to play under 5.1 surround, but the artist never thought to play it that way and the instruments are just all over the place. With this DTS mix, you get the whole feel as instruments creep from behind you right from track 1.

Since this is an audio disc, the concentration is in the audio quality. However, as you play each track there are video stills from the movie to remind you of the feel and event from where the music was inspired from.

As a DVD, there are extras such as Interview with BT and the Director, Patty Jenkins; Theatrical Trailer; Gallery; and even a Film Mixing Demo which gives you a glimpse of the three basic elements in a film sound - dialogue, music and effects - and which you can play altogether or separately in a snippet of the movie, Monster.

Disc Two:
This is the audio CD part. Although there is a confusing DTS logo on the disc (which only states DTS entertainment), there is no DTS surround here. In this disc there are only 15 tracks (versus 24 tracks in Disc One). I guess the reason also is because of the limitation in size of an audio CD versus a DVD. The arrangement is the same based on the movie theme. After listening to the first disc, this disc suddenly became bland. Where there was music coming from behind, this is the plain two stereo mix. Nothing to listen to, just a compromise to bring on the road since only a few (high-end) cars come with a DVD player let alone a DTS-capable deck.

A word of caution: if you're looking for BT's usual techno beats, this is not the album for you. This is a musical score inspired from the movie, Monster. However, this is still a good listen that presents itself as a ChillOut session which is still great to crank up or mellow down as a party/ambient sound. Enjoy!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All I can say is:, July 19, 2004

By	D.M.K "smart reader" (Las Vegas, Nevada United States) - See all my reviews

I have about 500 CD's of all types of music, rock, new age, electronicia, trance etc. etc. This is one of the best CD's I have heard in years. The movie was excellent and the score was incredible. I drive a lot in my profession and I listen to this CD and it makes a great background theme for life. I am very impressed with BT, in particular the work on this album. There are no weak tracks. I dont know what else to say to convey the power of this CD.