English String Miniatures, Volume 2

Advantages: Inoffensive Happy Hardcore. Brilliant anthems that have been remixed over and over ever since.
Disadvantages: None

...Clubland X-Treme Hardcore Volume 2 came out in the summer of 2006 proving that the decision for Clubland to take it's X-treme series in the hardcore direction had proved an immense hit. Clubland has since released Clubland Xtreme Hardcore Volume 3 & 4 Bi-annually Basic Details Tracks: 48 Approx total runtime: 162 minutes Featured DJs: Styles, Breeze, Hixxy Label: Clubland, Universal, All Around the World. Other Titles in the Series: Clubland Xtreme 1 & 2. Clubland Xtreme Hardcore 1, 3 & 4. Sub-genre: Hardcore/Happy Hardcore Warning: Parental Advisory, explicit lyrics. What is Hardcore? For those of you whom quite like dance music as a whole but don't quite know what makes hardcore different to other types of dance music, for instance the music featured in Clubland 14, I will give a brief introduction... Read review

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Advantages: Bewitching performances from Thibaudet, ECO, et al., of Marianelli's gorgeous music, inspired by LvB.
Disadvantages: Too short! I want more!

...such power as can the beefier modern concert grand used on the soundtrack). It's a giddy, galloping miniature that detours into the minor keys along the way. With the addition of strings and some brass, it assumes a spaciousness that recalls the ravishing shots of the windswept moors in many outdoor scenes. 'Liz on Top of the World' has swooning string arpeggios and descending piano scales to sweep you away after a quiet opening. It grips you like a sudden violent wind, conjuring once more those gusty country greens. The same musical theme runs through 'The Secret Life of Daydreams', which repetitively traces a musical segment to distraction. With an urgency to the Phillip Glassian prelude, 'Darcy's Letter' turns from distressing to plaintive in a trice. A delicately subdued piano can be heard, shadowed by a sombre cello played... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: A wonderful extension of the first soundtrack album with some great new themes
Disadvantages: Fly Me to the Moon is starting to get exaggerated features

.... The other music is more earthy in nature in being concerned with different episode details. "A Crystalline Night Sky" is a beautiful little piece with twinkling "starry" piano over eerie strings, which reminds me very much of a stripped down version of Holst's "Venus" from The Planets. The middle part in particular is almost a Holst hommage with its more flowing violin melody. Only a small part of it was used in the series, so the complete version is a very nice thing to hear. The action music on this volume follows the same kind of pattern of edgy modernism that was inherent on the first volume. The two "Angel Attack" cues are not quite as contemporary as the first "Angel Attack" was, being more tuned to the "giant monster" attitude of old monster movies like Godzilla. Definitely easier to listen to than the first such track, they are still... Read review

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