![]() "Ankala" by Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars Timestamp: 0:12 | Scene: Archer walks with some goats on the hillside and is stopped by the army. Interspersed with clips of the diamond mine. Timestamp: 0:06 | Scene: At the G8 conference they discuss conflict diamonds. Timestamp: 0:05 | Scene: The RUF chop off the hands of the captured villagers. The RUF pull up and open fire on the villagers. ![]() ![]() Timestamp: 0:03 | Scene: Solomon tells Dia to stay where he is and runs back to his village to save his wife and daughter. Timestamp: 0:03 | Scene: The RUF approach Solomon's village as he and his son race along the beach. Solomon sends his son to school and then goes fishing. Timestamp: 0:02 | Scene: People fish at sunset. It comes highly recommended to both film enthusiasts as well as world music lovers, and can be found at the following links: .uk and ."Blood Diamond Titles" by James Newton Howard These pieces are non-original music designed to work with specific scenes in the movie, from which “Ankala”, a traditional African song, is definitively the best.Īll in all, Blood Diamond is a profoundly beautiful, evocative, stand-alone, mesmerizing and powerful soundtrack. That being said, every single track on this score has something special about it, that is until we hit “Ankala”, “Baai” and “When da Dawgs Come Out to Play”. It is an incredibly humane and heartbreaking piece of music, similar to other tracks like “Goodbyes” and “Thought I’d Never Call”. The most notable track has to be “Your Mother Loves You”, and can be said (all allusions to the movie aside) to belong at the heart of the soundtrack. “Archer Sells Diamond” even introduces a jazzy acoustic guitar into the score and “Goodbyes” is set to the quiet ballad of a piano, providing another level of musical interpretation and mood to Blood Diamond. ![]() Another brilliant aspect of Howard’s soundtrack is its abrasive string sections in tracks “Village Attack” and “Fall of Freetown”: they sway between African folklore and hysterical avant-guard. These tracks never feel forced however, they contain restraint, pain, and understanding of the story that lies behind the music (genocide, torture, rape, and terror), unlike the actual movie. Tracks “Archer and Solomon” and “Maddy and Archer” introduce even warmer colours to the score, with an almost quixotic sense of style. An electric guitar appears from time to time to provide an urban grisliness, used very wisely to express the dehumanisation associated with the armed militia groups killing their own blood via. “Village Attack” is highly original: it blends desperate African laments with high-octane violin cues, held together with intense African drumming. ![]() The whole score can be said to operate on this level, with the exception of a few action-orientated tracks. Opener “Blood Diamond Titles” pretty much sets the tone for the entire soundtrack, with a gorgeous and fluid African chant together with an equally poignant series of strings a piece of music that strikes us as not just referential to the movie but also evocative of any emotion your heart desires to attach to it. Without doubt, this score from James Newton Howard is one of the best and most original scores of 2006, alongside Clint Mansell’s The Fountain. You will be able to feel the unique quality of Howard’s score as soon as the first soft and beautiful African voice comes floating in on the opening track. In fact, the only traditional elements can be found in the string-works during the few action sequences, and that’s only covering 3 or 4 tracks out of 24. Blood Diamond is one hell of a score! Even the action cues are drenched in African instrumentation, xylophone keys, drumming, and chanting. ![]()
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