Glen here...

...for those of you coming in from "Coolnews", and usually don't visit Coaxial, go away! Just kidding. Welcome!!! You're now in the COAXIAL section of Aint It Cool News.

Weird stuff goes on here all the time.

Coax is an eclectic assortment of news & rumors, something of a hodge-podge governed by my own personal tastes, and the availability of interesting stuff to post at any given time. If you've already had enough - or when you're done with the Wing Commander stuff - you can CLICK HERE to exit to the AICN main page!

For those who may not know, I sometimes review CDs. Today, I'm reviewing a forthcoming release from Sonic Images. Specifically, David Arnold & Kevin Kiner's soaring score for Fox's Wing Commander movie (due in theaters March 12, with a brand-new Star Wars Prequel trailer attached for good measure).

Wing Commander is, simply, a score which is likely to go on long after the movie itself has faded into oblivion. It's not a tremendous score, but it is huge, energized and propulsive - drawing on many of the sensibilities which make its two composers so good to begin with.

The Wing Commander score is richly textured and incredibly layered, various melody lines dodging in and out of (and running beneath) action motifs create a sense of both consistent style within the score, and an ever changing tapestry in it's presentation. It's got a specific sound, but it's varied enough so it doesn't become boring.

Wing Commander's theme was composed by David Arnold (who, I am told, also served as something of a "supervisor" for the rest of the score). One may remember Arnold's work from Stargate, Independence Day, and the amazingly suave and cool score for Tomorrow Never Dies. In fact, Wing Commander's score manifests many of Tomorrow Never Dies' better sensibilities - if you dug Arnold's work in TND, you'll probably get a kick out of WC.

Arnold associate Kevin Kiner is credited with composing the WC score itself. Kiner has scored the Emmerich and Devlin series The Visitor (for which Arnold wrote the theme show's music and score for the first episode) and Stargate SG-1 (Arnold's theme is cannibalized and used throughout the series). In other words, Kiner knows how to work with Arnold as a guideline, and how to integrate his own "sound" with Arnolds' unique style. The result is a nice mix between the two composers, as Kiner's work is not entirely imitative, but recognizable enough as not to clash with with the efforts of the composer he is trying to complement.

Richly textured and densely layered, Arnold and Kiner's Wing Commander score should hit stores on March 9. Having not seen the film, I can not vouch for how well this score will work with the imagery it's meant to accompany. But on its own, this is a fun and exhilarating listen which may well become a cult favorite in the not too distant future.

Due to the unbelievable coolness of a few kind Coaxial readers, I am now able to provide the much-requested MP3 clips of the theme to the Wing Commander movie!

Very cool of you folks - this is appreciated by many people, including myself...