Hulk (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

If Danny Elfman the film composer seems ever farther from Elfman the former cult rock icon, his work on director Ang Lee's adaptation of the Marvel Comics legend suggests he may be reinventing himself yet again. While he seems to have largely abandoned his melodic interests somewhere south of Sleepy Hollow, the diverse concerns--ranging from bright, propulsive rhythms and repetitive wind phrases through ethnic modalities of (deliberately) undetermined origin and delicate pastoral touches--suggest a textural mindset more akin to Herrmann, but informed by the incandescent, hypnotic cadences and sonorities of Steve Reich and other post-modernists. While he occasionally lapses into the overbearing tribal drum sturm und drang that may have made some listeners of his overwrought Planet of the Apes score yearn for an umbrella, they are at least leavened here by slashing horns and Middle Eastern vocal flourishes. Subtle electronic sound washes ebb and flow throughout, serving up a percolating tension the composer gleefully punctuates with blasts of brass and thunderous percussion. This isn't your mother's--or Lou Ferrigno's--Hulk, and Elfman has done a fine job of musically propelling the big green fella into the 21st century. Also features the Guns N' Roses-meets-Stone Temple Pilots line-up of Weiland, Slash, Duff McKagen, Matt Sorum, and Dave Kushner performing the angular riff-rock of "Set Me Free." --Jerry McCulley