Stuff I'm Listening To - #68 - A Week of Soundtracks - Tron Legacy

This week I thought it would be fun to explore the music from some movies that have made their way onto my personal favourites playlist. 

The criteria for this is simply a piece (or pieces) that have specifically been written to accompany a motion picture.


Artist: Daft Punk 

Movie: Tron: Legacy

Favourite Tracks: 'End Titles' and 'Solar Sailer'

Why?:  
A movie with motorcycles (OMG, Peanut is finally talking about motorcycles!), deadly Frisbees, guys in glowing skin tight outfits and hockey helmets and it's all inside a computer? Say no more! 

The original 1982 'Tron' movie blew me away. The 1980s were clearly all about throwing as much fantasy and science fiction at my impressionable mind as possible. I am a child of 'Star Wars' as much as I am of 'Star Trek'. I still have anxiety about the horse named Artax from 'the Never Ending Story'. 'Blade Runner' still shapes the way the world looks where I write my own dystopian science fiction. I still have a crush on the Gobin King from 'Labyrinth'. I could run on. Stories in science fiction and fantasy had an enormous affect on me as a child. Fantasy meant unicorns and magic were real. Science fiction meant traveling beyond the stars at warp factor nine or faster than twelve parsecs.

When Disney announced way back (the movie came out in 2010), that they were going to work on a sequel to 'Tron' I was thrilled! The original movie was groundbreaking even if it failed at the box office. It was a visual treat. Remember those light-cycles? I wanted one back in the 80s. And if I couldn't have one, well, I'd settle for a regular motorcycle. A simple quest story placed in a virtual world filled with so much story telling potential. And that's where 'Tron: Legacy' went. The concept of a digital world, a micro-universe within computers. There are a couple of scenes in the movie where Jeff Bridges talks on about how this digital universe could cure all the world's problems. It was a beautiful thought all around.

A digital universe meant that an appropriate soundtrack should be overlaid right? Who better than Daft Punk? 

Many of you will be familiar with the piece 'Derezzed' which takes place in the bar fight scene, and featured as a music video with Olivia Wilde, was released as part of the film promotions. But that song is the earworm for the movie. It's the piece that sometimes leaves you confused, because the rest of the movie's soundtrack has a completely different feeling. 

If you saw the movie and barely remember the soundtrack, that's fine. The soundtrack often sits in the background and is designed to colour your mood to better fit what's happening onscreen. Not every one of them can be a John Williams overture of dramatic proportions. I think Daft Punk did a wonderful job of fitting the mood of the movie with their compositions. Remember, 'Derezzed' is part of a bar fight.

Tron's universe was a dark, oppressed digital world, that suddenly is filled with hope on the arrival of the hero after what would have been several generations in our timeline. Daft Punk did a good job of mixing an electronic sound with some impressive orchestrations. Listen to the piece 'Recognizer' or even 'Adiago for TRON' for some beautiful orchestrations. For a push into a more digital soundscape, 'Armory', could have been a backing track to a menu screen in a video game, and 'End of Line' incorporates video game sounds into the track. 

But for me, I have two favourite go-to tracks. One of my favourite pieces is the 'End Titles', which is a great piece of electronica, that sums up with entire soundtrack with a dance floor ready beat. I think it neatly wraps up the movie. It is also one of the louder pieces of the film. 

As you all should know by now, I ride and pieces with lots of volume changes don't work that well. It's also a bit of a meditative piece for me because of the repetition as a dance-able track. It helps me get myself into a mental state where I'm able to focus on whatever I need to focus on, like, riding through downtown traffic. *quietly admitting if hooligan riding is involved, this is the track I'll queue up*.

This being a blog where I've called myself Motorcycle Peanut, I suppose I owe some discussion about the Ducatis featured in the movie. Slight problem though. I'm not a fan of Ducatis. So I'll tell you Sam's bike is a Ducati Sport 1000 Biposto, which was discontinued shortly before the film's release. It's a pretty bike, as with most Ducatis. And Kevin's older bike is the Ducati 750 SS. I was never a fan of rounded fairings so it got an automatic no from me. If you're a Ducati fan, there you go. I'll stick with dreaming about a Busa, Ninja or HD. (Just don't tell my possessed motorcycle. She's already tried to kill me a couple of times now!).

The other favourite? 'Solar Sailer' is posted below. It fills in a beautiful scene in the movie, where they make their escape on what's essentially a ship with a giant sail. This is where Jeff Bridge's speeching about how the code could fix the world comes in, all the while, you start to take in the complex beauty of this digital universe, despite the darkness, it's gorgeous. It's a piece with a lot of volume changes so I don't listen to it as often, but I think it's a lovely atmospheric and dreamy piece that stands alone quite well. 

As for the movie, I would strongly recommend it. But watch the first one and keep in mind when the movie was released. (1982!)