Techno Beats in David Arnold's Bond Scores

Matt S

I was just listening to The World Is Not Enough soundtrack, which features them beginning to end. I used to be bothered by them. At the time I felt that they were too un-Bondian, while I was in favour of the jazzier beats that had come to be a hallmark of many of the classic Bond scores or the purely orchestral sounds of scores like Moonraker and AVTAK.

At the time of TWINE I thought they would date the film, but now I'm liking them more than ever. Like the TLD drum machine or FYEO's funky drumming, the TWINE and DAD beats and other electronic sounds are very much of their time. But they give the films so much energy and really make the music fun to listen to. I'm no techno expert, but to my ear they're done exceptionally well.

What are your thoughts on these electronic beats? Love them or leave them?

Barbel

They didn't bother me at all on TWINE, but I thought went too far on DAD. Apart from that, pretty much agree with you, Matt.

The Red Kind

Yes, its very much of its time. I think music is like fashion, it's only when you look back at it say 20 years later that you can clearly see or hear its of that time and instantly identifiable.

Like you Matt, I'll always prefer the orchestral, sweeping typical Bondian pieces but I have always liked the TWINE soundtrack and the PTS score works so well with the boat chase. There definitely seems to be an Orbital (and other bands of the moment) influence in there. To paraphrase Bond to Carver, the first rule of (commercial) songwriting, is to give the people what they want.

I think the heavily laden dramatic snappy percussion based action music scores from the last few years will be recognisable as 'of the era' in the same way, 20 years from now.

Matt S

The Red Kind wrote:

Yes, its very much of its time. I think music is like fashion, it's only when you look back at it say 20 years later that you can clearly see or hear its of that time and instantly identifiable.

Like you Matt, I'll always prefer the orchestral, sweeping typical Bondian pieces but I have always liked the TWINE soundtrack and the PTS score works so well with the boat chase. There definitely seems to be an Orbital (and other bands of the moment) influence in there. To paraphrase Bond to Carver, the first rule of (commercial) songwriting, is to give the people what they want.

I think the heavily laden dramatic snappy percussion based action music scores from the last few years will be recognisable as 'of the era' in the same way, 20 years from now.

I think I'm pretty easy to know when something is of its time at the moment. For me, it's because I'm averse to new things! But if it's not something you heard five or ten years earlier, it's pretty safe to say that it's of its time. I agree with your assessment of the percussion-based music of today. All music is of its time. Even John Williams' orchestral action music has some elements of its time, but it is some of the most timeless music in how it combines 19th century romanticism with mid 20th-century harmony and orchestration and applies it to late 20th century film scoring. And then it became a trend for late 20th century film music!

I find that TWINE (along with DAD) still has a very sweeping orchestral score. It just has the techno stuff on top of it. The La-La Land TWINE expanded soundtrack shows the orchestral gunbarrel separated from the electronic elements. It's fascinating to hear because the orchestra still has the classic Bond sound. The techno stuff on its own sounds pretty cool too, though it's a bit meaningless without the orchestral music that it accompanies.

Thunderpussy

"Techno, techno, techno .. big fish, little fish, ....cardboard box ! "
all the dance moves you'll ever need.

emtiem

I always thought the TWINE beats sounded like they were sort of going the same way as the ones in TND by Propellerheads, but had the feel of being sequenced by someone who wasn't really very well-versed in dance music and so felt a bit weaker.