Die Hard

Die Hard (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Music Composed and Conducted by Michael Kamen

It's Christmas time and here at Renovatio Records we thought about tackling a title for the occasion. Thus, we present you Michael Kamen's original soundtrack for the 1988 thriller Die Hard, starred a yet-to-be-star Bruce Willis and directed by John McTiernan (Predator). In this action film, Willis plays New York cop John McClane who travels to Los Angeles with hopes of reconciling with his wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia) during a Christmas party at the office skyscraper Nakatomi Plaza. The party is interrupted by a German terrorist group led by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) that takes all party-goers hostage and plans to rob the building's vault. McClane, however, escapes undetected and becomes involved in a cat-and-mouse game with the terrorists, picking them off one by one to rescue the hostages. While originally expected to be a flop, the film quickly became a total hit after its release, become an iconic motion picture described by many as the movie that invented action films clichés.

Musically, Kamen received this assignment after working with the producer Joel Silver in the Lethal Weapon franchise. The composer provided an intriguing score for Die Hard incorporating musical melodies, namely from Beethoven's Ode to joy and the songs "Winter Wonderland" and "Singing in the Rain", to great effect into the majority of his cues. Furthermore, he included several motifs, the most-memorable perhaps being a 6-note strings theme for McClane, introduced in this album's track "And If He Alters It?", which remained a trademark throughout the subsequent franchise entries. With this movie, Kamen was also given a chance to prove how a master he was at composing action music, evidenced in this album by the tracks "Assault On The Tower" and "Freeing The Hostages", two frenetic orchestral cues with bombastic percussion and brass sequences that will rumble your house when listened.

The score received album treatment long before the movie's premiere. Before the 2002 release by Varèse Sarabande and the La-La Land Records three expanded editions, there were only bootleg versions of the score available with very low audio quality. Renovatio Records has now produced a new rearrangement of the score, presenting you the highlights of Kamen's work for a consistent listening experience crowned by a full rendition of Beethoven's 9th Symphony to end the album. Raise those glasses of champagne and enjoy!!

Track Listing:
1. Terrorists Arrive (3:17)
2. McClane's Escape (2:35)
3. Wiring The Roof (1:49)
4. And If He Alters It? (2:26)
5. Going After McClane (3:44)
6. Welcome To The Party (2:04)
7. Assault On The Tower (7:06)
8. McClane Meets Gruber (2:53)
9. I Had An Accident (2:22)
10. Opening The Vault (2:00)
11. Freeing The Hostages (5:29)
12. Final Showdown (4:15)
13. We've Got Each Other (1:56)
14. Beethoven's 9th (End Credits) (4:00)

Total Running Time: 45:56

Download Die Hard by Michael Kamen

Cover Artwork

Godzilla

Godzilla (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Music Composed and Conducted by Alexandre Desplat

After a long period of inactivity and to coincide with the upcoming release of Godzilla: King of Monsters, Renovatio Records proudly presents you our take on Alexandre Desplat's original score for 2014 Godzilla. In this new American version starring Bryan Cranston, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ken Watanabe, Elizabeth Olsen, Juliette Binoche, Sally Hawkins and David Strathairn, director Garreth Edwards went the extra mile and instead of making a movie focused on the destruction caused by giant monsters, he incorporated themes related to the modern world. He saw the potential of treating the titular character as a representation of nature in a man versus nature theme rather than the result of atomic bomb testings. Even though in the end, the film lacked well-developed characters and solid script, it was a commercial success with big praise to its tone, visual effects, cinematography and Desplat's score.

Edwards brought Desplat to his projects after making a playlist of his favorite soundtracks and realizing that the French composer had score most of his choices. Desplat's biggest challenge was discovering and sustaining an emotional center against a backdrop of the destruction caused by monsters. He approached the project with an organic score, using an orchestra to reflect emotional situations the main characters go through and to emphasize the situations they are thrown into. To accomplish this, he went for what he described as a "non-stop fortissimo, with lots of brass, Japanese drums, and electric violin." And that's not all, for he also developed motifs for not only Godzilla itself, but also for the family of humans and the film's antagonists, the fearsome MUTOs.

The score was originally released by Watertower Music and included a selection of Desplat's best cues for the picture. However, the mix for this album was ridiculously loud, sometimes causing distortion in the listener's speakers. For this new edition, Renovatio Records has re-enhanced a new selection of cues and improved the audio considerably using the recording sessions as source. So you are not only going to enjoy new portions of Desplat's score, you might as well notice new details which will help you appreciate the complexities of this composition. Turning the volume up is advisable... if you wish that your house trembles as if Godzilla itself was across the street!

Track Listing:
1. Godzilla (2:08)
2. Inside The Mine (4:13)
3. The Power Plant (6:33)
4. To Q Zone (2:27)
5. Back To Janjira (5:58)
6. MUTO Hatch (3:09)
7. The Monarch Files (4:21)
8. In The Jungle (3:24)
9. The Wave (3:24)
10. Airport Attack (1:48)
11. Missing Spore (4:50)
12. Vegas Aftermath (1:52)
13. Ford Rescued (1:22)
14. Following Godzilla (3:04)
15. Golden Gate Chaos (4:15)
16. Face-Off (3:17)
17. Entering The Nest (2:45)
18. Two Against One (3:58)
19. Last Shot (1:53)
20. Godzilla's Victory (2:56)
21. Back To The Ocean (3:40)

Total Running Time: 71:17

Download Godzilla by Alexandre Desplat

Cover Artwork

Predator 2

Predator 2 (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Music Composed and Conducted by Alan Silvestri

After the success achieved by Predator in 1987, Fox began thinking of a sequel which finally saw the light of day in 1990. However, since director John McTiernan was considered too expensive after his box-office hit Die Hard, Stephen Hopkins was brought to take the director's chair. On another hand, Arnold Schwarzenegger refused to return, so Danny Glover took the lead role as Mike Harrigan, a Los Angeles cop investigating the gruesome murders of warring Colombian and Jamaican drug gangs, eventually discovering that the extraterrestrial monster is behind all the slaughtering.

Alan Silvestri reprised his role as composer for the sequel and, while he retained elements of the original Predator score, he added many innovative and exotic ideas. Even though the film takes place in the city, Silvestri filled the canvas with tribal sounds attributed to the jungle-like nature of the main creature. From steel drums to bongos, Silvestri put together a vast tropical palette of instrumentation that recurs out throughout the score. Furthermore, he and bassoon player Ray Pizzi came up with a new instrument, known as the "hose-oon" (a garden hose with a bassoon reed stuck into it) that produces a wailing guttural effects present in almost every cue, ingeniously mixing tribal sounds with the urban setting. Last but not least, Silvestri revisits many of his main themes for the first picture, from the militaristic main theme and the "Taps"-like solo trumpet elegy, and even goes a step beyond, with the addition of a new piece of music with male choir and full orchestra, associated with the Predator's trophy hunt.

Silvestri's music for Predator 2 was presented by Varèse Sarabande in the form of two releases, one being a regular short album released in 1990 and the second one, a Deluxe edition containing the complete score, released in 2014. While the music is incredibly enjoyable, the first album lacked some key moments and was not presented in chronological order and the second one, was deemed to become quite repetitive, affecting the listening experience. Renovatio Records has developed this new presentation of Silvestri's score that includes its best moments and hopefully will satisfy all fans of this famed sci-fi franchise.

Track Listing:
1. Main Title (2:43)
2. Up On The Roof (2:48)
3. First Carnage (2:33)
4. Danny Gets It (4:11)
5. Truly Dead (5:24)
6. Rest In Pieces (1:34)
7. Subway Attack (4:33)
8. Tunnel Chase (5:04)
9. This Is History (6:45)
10. Meat Locker (3:19)
11. Rooftop Confrontation (4:14)
12. Predator Surgery (4:06)
13. Dem Bones (6:57)
14. End Credits (8:53)

Total Running Time: 63:04

Download Predator 2 by Alan Silvestri

Cover Artwork: