Music Composed by Mark Isham
Rating: ***

La La Land Records has stepped up their game the past six months, breaking the bank to license three big action titles, Mark Mancina’s Bad Boys, David Arnold’s Godzilla (in complete form no less) and Mark Isham’s Point Break, perhaps the most interesting musically of the three. What makes Point Break that much more satisfying than the cranial crushing of Arnold’s Godzilla and Mancina’s proto-but-passe sound in Bad Boys is Isham’s new-age sensibilities creating a deft mix of a full orchestra and shimmering synth textures guaranteed to cause severe 1991 flashbacks.

After a cresting solo trumpet and orchestral “Opening”, the score settles into a low-key wash of ambient textures (”Pappas’ Theory”, “Both Parents Deceased”, “The Tackle”, “Night Surfing”) that churn with slick insistence, if not particular urgency. The vintage charm (”Fight With Razorheads”, “Car/Foot Chase”) keeps Point Break from becoming just another action score. Perhaps not written with a soundtrack release in mind 17 years later, slow, steady synth drum and bongo beats aren’t what they used to be. Point Break is from an era when Paula Abdul was on the charts, not a judge on American Idol.

Mark Isham

Isham has always had the chops to write sweeping orchestral passages and there are several here to satisfy. “Night Surfing” might start out with a throbbing groove, but it slowly shifts into the orchestra’s territory (with synth elements as accents), while “Tyler Misunderstands” gives the plutonic surfer-couple Reeves/Swayze relationship some steely gravitas. The album’s highlight is no doubt “Skydive”, a near perfect mixture of expansive orchestra and percolating electronics that could make Jerry Goldsmith light up a cigarette and sweat. From there Isham cuts the breaks, shifts into action mode and sends the album careening for the next 20 minutes (”Bank Robbery”, “Shootout At The Airport” — which evokes some of the composer’s militaristic original piece “On The Threshold of Liberty”, and finally “No Parachute”). The album concludes with “Freedom”, a breathtaking eight-plus-minutes with the final minute-and-a-half a major highlight.

Music Composed by Mark Isham; Orchestrated and Conducted by Ken Kugler; recorded and Mixed by Stephen Krause; Album Produced by Mark Isham and Ford A. Thaxton; Label: La La Land Records, (LLLCD 1065); Availability: Limited to 2,000 copies; U.S. Release Date: January, 2008.

01. Opening (2:16)
02. Pappas’ Theory (2:28)
03. Both Parents Deceased (2:25)
04. The Tackle (1:15)
05. Fight With Razorheads (2:18)
06. Bohdi And Utah (1:07)
07. Night Surfing (3:00)
08. Love On The Beach (2:23)
09. Razorhead Raid (1:32)
10. Utah, Tyler/Four Horsemen (2:27)
11. Outside Pappas (1:29)
12. Car/Foot Chase (3:28)
13. Tyler Misunderstands (1:29)
14. Campfire (1:32)
15. The Shadow Gun/Found Out (1:48)
16. Skydive (5:01)
17. Post Parachute/TV (1:27)
18. Bank Robbery (5:28)
19. Shootout At Airport (4:21)
20. No Parachute (6:37)
21. Love In The Desert (2:39)
22. Freedom (8:34)

Total Playing Time: 65:04