The Red Canvas/ James Peterson [mp3]

Scores like The Red Canvas by newcomer composer James Peterson are all too rare. Accompanying a little-known film about underground mixed martial arts, Peterson’s score is filled with panache and reckless sophistication, with a thoroughly symphonic construction which impresses with its depth and elegant classical beauty even as it thrills with its raw power and churning energy.

The two "Death and Resurrection" cues (the lengthiest in the score aside from the monolithic "Ballet for Brawlers") showcase the score’s unabashed drama at its finest and most lyrically brutal, providing an excellent survey of the score’s tone and construction in general. The tender woodwinds over strong bass strings with highly melodic violin counterpoint in the first of these cues, as well as in "A Great Fighter," are album highlights.

Providing some intriguing respite from the brooding power of the main score are some fine specialty moments, namely the jazz-flavoured "Jazz Cafe" and the noble trumpet solo in "The Attic," as well as a high flute solo in "Grease Monkey Prelude," a disarmingly calm cue before the raging percussion and brass sections in "Grease Money Brawl," easily one of the standout action cues from any film score of 2009; a short reprise of this intense action style occures in "Jungle Rumble" before the score culminates in what is easily a film music highlight of not only 2009, but the entire decade – the nearly twelve-minute "Ballet for Brawlers," one of the most outrageously energetic, thrilling, propulsive and thunderous action suites in recent memory.

The Red Canvas

1 Out Of The Darkness 1:56
2 Awaiting The News 2:22
3 Death And Resurrection I 3:41
4 A Great Fighter 2:01
5 Jazz Caf� 1:43
6 Johnny Likes Extortion 0:27
7 The Attic 1:30
8 Grease Monkey Prelude 1:44
9 Grease Monkey Brawl 3:01
10 Maria Cries 1:37
11 Calling All Gladiators 1:08
12 The Meeting 1:32
13 Death And Resurrection II 3:28
14 Bills And Tears 1:27
15 Jungle Rumble 1:36
16 Prayer 1:09
17 A Not-So-Conjugal Visit 2:50
18 Ballet For Brawlers 11:29
Moving Images Suite (Bonus)
19 Moving Images Fanfare 0:31
20 The Sorcerer 1:56
21 Americana 3:35
22 A Quirky Machine 2:46
23 Moonlit Desert Chase 2:32
24 Pastorale 4:35
25 Transylvania: 1955 2:56
26 Epilogue

PM to ME for link

Already got this but had to echo your remarks. Pity the fella’s scoring career seems to be going nowhere fast.

Art is hard.

Link received, thank you very much, Phideas1!

This one’s a winner, highly recommended!!!