Review of Graeme Revell : The Negotiator
For variety alone, Graeme Revell's score for F. Gary Gray's high-tech action movie about hostages and bad justice deserves some attention. Revell is, after all, a pioneer of industrial music and has provided soundtracks to movies like The Crow; so it comes as no surprise to hear this olio of somber orchestra textures, angry machinery, apocalyptic choruses, and less desirable moments of synthesized rhythm and noise. This is a musical exercise in urban black magic that mixes the exotic with the staid. Without seeing the film, one gets the sense of an adventure full of ill will, self-doubt, predictable chases, and even a warped touch of romantic mystery as the eerie and fashionable specter of Celtic melody makes a brief cameo. --Joseph Lanza

Users's Reviews - Graeme Revell : Stalled Negotiations
Composer Graeme Revell, in my opinion, can create some great film music for one film, like he did for The Crow. And then, his next score can be pretty awful, as his score for The Saint demonstrates. His score for The Negotiator falls somewhere in between those two extremes.

The soundtrack mixes a synthesiser and orchestra with pulsating rythmns and grand buildups. However, nothing really stays with you. "Elegy" has a celtic influence but it never goes anywhere beyond acting as a filler during a funeral sequence. If there's one thing I have noticed about Revell, it's that most often he likes to use choral sounds, when it seems like he's run out of creativity. Now, for a film like the Crow, that makes perfect thematic sense. Here that tact, only serves to undercut the story. Nothing about the film says choral motif anyway; it's just a Die Hard style actioner...that's all. The soundtrack's best bits are those that underscore any suspense/true action sequence. "Blow Up" and "Escape" are pefect examples of "action" in the score. A rather average soundtrack otherwise.

The CD has 15 tracks with a running time of 41:28

Your latest reviews - Graeme Revell : Revell in top form
Graeme Revell can write a good theme when he wants to and the theme for Street Fighter is a good one. With the famous London Symphony Orchestra performing incredibly well for this score, Revell utilizes power for this one. The score starts out with a bang immediately in "Showdown In Shadaloo" which is very similar to Basil Poledouris' The Hunt for Red October, which was mentioned in one of the reviews on here as he was right indeed. The theme is featured in this track which is bold and brassy, two things that the London Symphony Orchestra know how to perform. The majority of the score is top notch action music with lots of trumpet sound and snare drums. This is present in several cues including "Showdown In Shadaloo", "Colonel Guile Addresses The Troops", "The Stealth Boat Attack", "Game Over", "Chun Li & Bison", "Raise the Chamber", "Clash of the Titans", "Guile Faces Bison", "Vega & Sagat VS. Ken & Ryu", "Bison Dies", and "The Aftermath". Some darker sounds are present in "General M. Bison" in which Revell uses a haunting choir. A humorous cue is found in "Honda Is Tortured" with synthesizer effects, a brash tuba solo, and a pedal steel guitar that gives a humorous sound to it. Esperanto lyrics were used in "Bison Troopers Marching Song" that were written by the director of the film Steven de Souza. Another great track to mention is "Habanero" which is a tune composed by Georges Bizet and the arrangement here by Graeme Revell and Tim Simonec is excellent. A truly great score that never makes you want to hit the stop button, until you get to the last track "Attitude Adjuster" which is performed by The World Beaters that is a dumb song with basically a bunch of noises and off beat lyrics. This is the kind of score that makes me like Revell more and more.