Music Composed by Tom Holkenborg a.k.a. Junkie XL
Renovatio Records now takes you to the sandy wastelands of
civilization with its next release: Mad Max: Fury Road by composer Tom
Holkenborg, known by his stage name of "Junkie XL”. The 2015
post-apocalyptic action film is directed by George Miller (who also directed
the now classic Mel Gibson trilogy) and is starred by Tom Hardy, Charlize
Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Riley
Keough, Zoë Kravitz, Abbey Lee and Courtney Eaton. Set years after the collapse
of civilization, the film tells the story of the warrior Imperator Furiosa
(Theron) who flees from the tyrannical cult leader Immortan Joe (Keays-Byrne),
after rescuing his five wives. Escaping in an armored tanker truck, Furiosa
forges an alliance with loner Max Rockatansky (Hardy) against the ruthless
warlord and his hordes of henchmen, leading to a deadly high-speed chase
through an endless wasteland. In spite of being in development hell for more
than a decade, the film ultimately became a critical and commercial hit,
becoming the most awarded motion picture at the 88th Academy Awards
and leading Miller to start developing further entries in the franchise.
While the original trilogy counted on more classically
oriented scores, Miller turned to Dutch musician Tom Holkenborg, who at the
time was mostly known for his trance and DJ productions. After having been
recently introduced to film music by Hans Zimmer, Holkenborg of course emulates
the original Zimmer “sound”. Thus, a Remote Control production element can be
heard throughout his score for Mad Max: Fury Road. Thematically, the score is
very simple, but it has a very unique identity that makes it stand out from the
plethora of contemporary film scores jam-packed with Zimmer’s mannerisms. After
watching a rough cut of the movie, Holkenborg claimed that it was so insane
that it needed to be a rock opera, utilizing lots of drums and electric guitar
passages. To channel the emotional weight of the movie, largely inspired by the
work of Bernard Herrmann, Holkenborg resorted to strings.
Right from the get-go, the “Survive” track presents two
identities that stand out. One of them is a very dark low bowed string motif,
usually consisting of the same note played from 1 to 3 times, which serves as a
sort of fanfare for Max, to represent his state of mind in the post-apocalyptic
world he’s forced to live. The other identity is a frenetic descending staccato
string motif, which Holkenborg associates with danger and uses for most, if not
all, the action sequences in the film. The patriarchal antagonist of the film,
Immortan Joe, also gets his own theme: a progressive rising 4-note ominous
motif that is effectively placed not only when Joe is on the screen, but also
when his fearsome beliefs imparted to his gang of war boys start playing a
part. At around the 1 minute mark in the track “A Storm is Coming”, for
instance, Joe’s motif slowly begins to gain force as one of the war boys
prepares to sacrifice himself in the name of Joe’s founded religious cult that
worships V8 engines. This track also presents one of the highlights of the
score: a strong and harmonically brass progression that plays as an elegy for
death. This motif also has a lovely arrangement for strings at the end of the
busy “Final Chase” track. However, the biggest accomplishment in Holkenborg’s
score is the material written for Imperator Furiosa. Namely consisting of
string passages, the theme is hinted at in early tracks of the score like “We
Are Not Things” and “Moving On”, before making its debut in full form in “The
Return to Nowhere”. The dramatism and emotion conveyed by the string section in
this track is simply astounding, as it expresses the pain and oppression
that women of this male-dominated world are forced to endure. The track later
dissolves into a lovely and motherly lullaby dominated by a gorgeous duduk
performance.
The loudness of the action music, while quite obvious in its
approach, is incredibly effective with its propulsive rhythms and electric
guitar riffs. What may be initially regarded as a noisy mayhem is actually a
carefully orchestrated dance between the music and the stunning visuals of the
movie. Take the “Pursuit Party” track for example, with its drum beat ostinatos
matching the tribal drummers of Immortan Joe’s onscreen music troupe. When the
electric guitar kicks in and you see the guitar player with flames coming out
of the end of the guitar neck, you cannot help but smile at the ludicrous yet beautiful
image you’re witnessing: a perfect marriage of music and film in its own
twisted way. Tracks like this, as well as the relentless “Brothers in Arms”,
will have you hitting the repeat button over and over again.
Holkenborg’s score was released in 2015 in the form of two
presentations by WaterTower Music: a CD album and an expanded deluxe edition.
Both albums had the same problem: they were incredibly long. At around 80
minutes of music (and that’s just the regular release), many listeners found
themselves struggling to finish it. Renovatio Records’s release addresses this
issue and presents you with a balanced album that contains the best parts of
the score and provides plenty of respite for the listener to truly appreciate
Holkenborg’s surprising work for the movie. Though superficial and at times
unoriginal in the approaches the composer has taken, at the end of the day, it
cannot be denied that he has succeeded in providing an effective action score
that transcends expectations for any Zimmer-influenced project.
1. Survive (4:31)
2. The Citadel (6:04)
3. Pursuit Party (2:39)
4. A Storm Is Coming (7:05)
5. We Are Not Things (1:37)
6. Moving On (3:36)
7. Brothers In Arms (4:50)
8. War Rig (5:11)
9. The Return To Nowhere (6:58)
10. Final Chase (15:34)
11. My Name Is Max (2:19)
12. Finale (2:36)
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