I can’t help but remember that dance club scene in The Matrix Revolutions. I mean that place looked like the most extreme Goth gay club ever. But this kind of scene shouldn’t be much of a surprise especially when your director dresses like a woman and listens to Marilyn Manson. So the music on this original soundtrack should be no surprise either. It seems just like the stuff that iTunes puts on their lesbian dance club hit essentials playlist (they always pick these dancy tracks so I now feel gay when I dance to something electronic). Strangely enough only two of the songs on this soundtrack are actually dancy and seem to fit at such a club. Rob Dougan’s
Chateau and Juno Reactor’s
Mono Lisa Overdrive. They both have that dark themed industrial touch to them that fits this moody bleak film. Not only do they get your groove going but they also incorporate a symphony to give the music a more complex and overall darker feel. The horns and strings really shine on the 10 minute
Mona Lisa Overdrive, they build this excellent tension and pave the way for hypnotizing techno synths and drums. Even opera vocals are called in to really get that dramatic feel across. Rob Dougan holds the dancier side of the electronic spectrum with a more of a trip hop feel.
Chateau has some great industrial-esque, trippy programmed beats from our favorite drum maestro Mr. Dougan.
The other original scores don’t necessarily seem to belong at some weird Goth bar but man do they seem as creepy as a pedophile who knows where you live. The
Main Title and
Trinity Dream are very tension building and masterfully done. The main title has this bone chilling breakdown with electronic breakdowns that just scares the hell out of me. The scores still use electronics to give the music its dark new age feel but not as heavily as two afore mentioned tracks.
Burly Brawl is the pinnacle of the tension building songs. The strings are just screeching and make you cringe, all in a listenable kind of way. It’s quite relentless in its attack and for five whole minutes it’s an onslaught of symphony gone mad.
Teahouse brings some diversity with tribal drums and flutes and provides a short interlude between the scores and the dance songs and shows Don Davis’ diversity as a composer.
All of these songs lead up to the epic 17 minute
Matrix Reloaded Suite. It goes through several mini songs and they all intertwine. The whole product is a mass masterpiece of orchestra genius. It has tension inducing builds and soothing ambient doodles and glorious operatic vocals. This song just feels huge in sound. It really keeps you interested and focused on the music the whole time. In fact this whole album does sound huge and catchy. Don Davis creates some of the most memorable and well recognized scores. Everyone instantly knows what movie this music is from. He can actually make symphony music listenable not just as background music. I must say it’s quite catchy. Not only is the Matrix one of the most memorable films of the past decade but its music is too. Without a doubt this is one of the best soundtracks of the last 5 years.
Plus this album’s liner notes has sweet hax for the Enter The Matrix game.
