Mondo レコード& CD

Review: There really is no stopping Ramon Djawadi. The German films score composer, conductor and producer has given us a number of very high profile soundtracks since he first began working professionally in the late-1990s, with the past decade seeing him rise to real prominence. Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon, Clash of the Titans, Pacific Rim, Iron Man, Prison Break, Jack Ryan, and a number of video games (Medal of Honor, Gears of War 4 and 5) all feature his name in their credits. Here we are with Westworld Season 3, then, another huge addition to his oeuvre, both in terms of the status of the TV show and the tracks on the record itself. From woozy string overtures we can only imagine complemented death or redemption scenes, to rough and ready metal and hard rock ('Moto'), huge percussive cinematic climaxes ('Start A Revolution') and lush ambient ('Caleb'). Simply put, this is epic sounding stuff.

Review: Now reissued via Mondo, the soundtracks for the ultra-acclaimed video game series Silent Hill were first released over the course of the noughties by Konami. Of these, perhaps the soundtrack most dear to the hearts of the horror franchise's fans was the one for Silent Hill 2, composed by specialist game composer and producer Akira Yamaoka, the go-to composer for the Silent Hill franchise since its origin. Silent Hill 2 is widely regarded among by much of the wider gaming community as among the greatest horror video games of all time - and we don't believe it's a coincidence that the soundtrack also just so happens to be deeply, ambiently affecting, going above and beyond the call of duty for most soundtracks of its time; we'd wager it was Yamaoka's hand that sculpted the game's legacy. Strange ambient-poppy shiftings in the murk; horrific trip-hop twinklings; and lingering, ghostly memories channelled through ghost-town guitars and cosmic, thousand-yard-stare drones; it's all there.