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TV Discussion Kevin Kiner Appreciation Thread

Discussion in 'Star Wars TV- Current and Future Shows' started by Master Jedi Fixxxer, Oct 27, 2022.

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Favorite Kevin Kiner Star Wars soundtrack

  1. The Clone Wars (Seasons 1-6)

    41.2%
  2. Rebels

    17.6%
  3. The Clone Wars (Season 7)

    17.6%
  4. The Bad Batch

    5.9%
  5. Tales Of The Jedi

    17.6%
  1. Master Jedi Fixxxer

    Master Jedi Fixxxer Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 20, 2018
    Anyone who was ever watched "The Clone Wars" and pays attention to detail, knows that Kevin Kiner has written what should by now be considered classic Star Wars music. A couple of years ago when TCW Season 7 was released, I was actually surprised to see that he has probably surpassed himself, as I find themes such as "Victory and Death" and "Burying The Dead" simply astonishing.

    Now, and I really hope others agree with me, but it seems that he shows a different level in his compositions. The music that accompanies the 6 episodes in Tales Of The Jedi, is amongst his best contributions in Star Wars. I think that I noticed his themes in those 6 animated shorts a lot more frequently than when watching Clone Wars episodes.

    Which one do you think is Kevin Kiner's best work so far?
     
  2. Guidman

    Guidman Skywalker Saga Mod and Trivia Host star 6 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Dec 29, 2016
    The music in Resolve was really great. I had to go with Rebels just because I absolutely love "It's Over Now". It's perfect for that scene at the end of Season 2.

    Honorable mention to "Gregors Sacrifice" from TCW. As all over the place as the Meebor Gascon arc was, that piece is great.
     
  3. Force Nexus

    Force Nexus Jedi Knight star 3

    Registered:
    Jun 22, 2022
    Had to vote TCW 1-6 because of "Ahsoka Leaves". Always makes me emotional.

    But TCW 7 and Tales of the Jedi were very, very good.
     
  4. clone commander bossk

    clone commander bossk Ostrich Velocity Expert star 5

    Registered:
    Nov 5, 2019
    The music when Sabine finds her people destroyed by the weapon she made is absolutely some of the best saddest music in star wars. Same with Ezra and Kanan's sacrifices and Ahsoka's duel with Vader.

    Rebels is good.
     
    Sproj and Master Jedi Fixxxer like this.
  5. darkspine10

    darkspine10 Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Dec 7, 2014
    I first wanna note that Kevin Kiner isn't the only composer of these shows (besides Tales), and it can sometimes be hard to identify specific artists behind each piece, but I'll talk generally about each one and treat them as 'one composer' :p

    I voted for TCW Seasons 1-6, which is a bit unfair on Season 7 but purely due to the quantity of excellent material from the length of the show's run. Kiner's variety of styles and musical genres just in the first season of TCW alone always stuns me. He tries out techno, digeridoo, Celtic fiddles, various types of choral work, military marches, Indian pop, tribal flutes and woodwind, and probably more I'm overlooking, all without ever losing the sweeping beauty of Star Wars action music, and that's only considering that initial 22 episodes out of the show. Ahsoka's theme and the Clone theme stand up there with the best in the series.

    Series 7 of course carried on that legacy, as well as also introducing some very effective tension building electronic synth ambiences (I've seen it described as like Blade Runner, but I can't compare myself) and carrying on the incredible action music. In the Siege of Mandalore especially Kiner lets quiet silences build up, paring back the instruments, so we get beautifully atmospheric moments like the duel between Ahsoka and Maul, done with a pulse-pounding drumbeat ratcheting up in intensity while retaining a simplicity of focus.

    I'd rank The Bad Batch next. Omega's theme is a lovely sweeping piece, capturing that innocence and beauty still present in the SW galaxy. The militaristic Bad Batch theme is a little over-the-top at times, but it is still used quite effectively. Remixing Cad Bane's theme from TCW into more of a western gunfight style was genius. The show's music is very solid, if perhaps lacking one real knockout punch of a musical moment like the others.

    I'm not sure about Tales yet, though it had some lovely renditions of Ahsoka's theme, and carried on the 'tension synths' as used in TCW's last season, which are still very nice and generating suspense, particularly in The Sith Lord. It calls back to Padme's Ruminations in a thematically potent way.

    Rebels, despite some individually outstanding tracks throughout its run, suffered quite a bit from falling back on reusing old cues from the movies, particularly the OT. It got very tiresome in the first two seasons. It did develop as it went on though, and there's some fantastic stuff in the back half, like Sabine's thematic material, the ominous yet inviting Loth-Wolf theme, the Twin Suns duel ambience. Basically all the big emotional moments hit well, its the in-between action music that tends towards the generic and forgettable.
     
  6. Jedi Knight Fett

    Jedi Knight Fett Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2014
    Rebels and for one song

    this

     
    Last edited: Oct 27, 2022
  7. ewoksimon

    ewoksimon Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 26, 2009
  8. Bor Mullet

    Bor Mullet Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Apr 6, 2018
    @Master Jedi Fixxxer

    Agreed. IMO, his music in Tales of the Jedi blows away his previous work. He's really outdone himself.
     
    Last edited: Oct 27, 2022
    Master Jedi Fixxxer likes this.
  9. Master Jedi Fixxxer

    Master Jedi Fixxxer Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 20, 2018
    It was very difficult for me to vote for that option, but I did it at the end. I am emotionally attached to his themes from all the previous shows, which have the benefit of time, but I had to be fair to his work in TOTJ. He has evolved as a composer and it shows.

    Thanks to the mods for changing the title of the thread, I didn't know if we already had one before for Kevin Kiner and I wanted to emphasize to this most recent work, but a more general thread about him is even better!
     
    Bor Mullet likes this.
  10. darkspine10

    darkspine10 Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Dec 7, 2014
    Since there's no Tales of the Jedi specific soundtrack thread, and I've finally given the score a good listen, I'll say a little bit about it here. Life and Death might be favourite of the six episode soundtracks, with lovely woodwind and dulcimer-esque instrumentation over the village introduction scenes. I dig that stuff, it reminds of TCW's Bounty Hunters, an episode with a highly unique score that evoked Asian musical traditions.

    The theme for Dooku that debuts in Justice is perfect for the Count, a series of almost droning chords that give off an air of detached disappointment, capturing Dooku's higher ambitions and sense of inadequacy with the state of affairs. A lovely moment comes at the end of the same episode, when Dooku and Qui-Gon have their conversation, its the one time the episode gets a hopeful moment against the bleakness.

    Choices has perhaps the weakest score of the six. There's nothing bad, but it lacks a standout 'wow factor'. The most interesting piece though is Dooku Investigates, which effectively builds up tension before hitting the action scene in the middle of the ep.

    The Sith Lord features many elements harking back to Padme's Ruminations without ever feeling like a direct quotation, which really fits the ominous sunset vibes. Kiner's work with heavy synths to create an overbearing sense of dread has been in practice since Shattered in TCW, but it continues to bear fruit. Strong use of the Force theme when Yaddle lifts the door too.

    I really like the heavy percussion based action scenes in Practice Makes Perfect, interspersed with the softer emotional beats along Ahsoka's journey makes it a score of two halves, with each having a strong identity. The montages of training sound unlike any previous Star Wars action scene, and that's really great to hear. The album takes the odd choice to separate out the action and emotional tracks into separate suites, rather than letting them interweave and go back and forth. Most of the other eps are in chronological order (barring a few other pieces in the Dooku eps). It can be fixed with a little audio editing at least.

    As has been pointed out before, the track Training Pays Off is a tracked mix of cues from Siege of Mandalore, and a very poorly edited mix too. The first cue runs for about 45 seconds, and fills a small gap that was missing in Victory and Death's score (from the scene where Rex and Ahsoka plan to confront Jesse in the hangar), but as it fades into the next cue (when the scene moves down into the hangar itself) things start to go off the rails a bit. The track awkwardly loops back to the end of the first cue, then runs into cue two again for even less time, before finally fading to an unrelated cue from Old Friends Not Forgotten (when Anakin gives Ahsoka her sabers back) over the credits. That last cue was already available in full from one of the composers posting it online, so its inclusion here in a heavily truncated form is a baffling choice. I guess whoever made the album just grabbed the Practice Makes Perfect episode mix without really checking for how it had been implemented in the episode. Anyhoo, it's not a big deal, just a little odd to my obsessive ear, and the 50 or so seconds of new material from TCW is a nice consolation prize.

    Resolve is another slightly weaker of the bunch, with some long, kinda unmemorable passages in the middle that meander a bit. Things are most interesting with the early establishing scenes on the farm planet, then again when the Inquisitor turns up. By the time we hit the incredible credits variant of Ahsoka's theme we're back in wonderfully solid territory. Her theme was always outstanding, but this rendition turns it up to 11. Makes me excited to hear if it'll be used in such ways in her own show this year.

    On the whole, I think it might just overtake Bad Batch, but only because it's a shorter collection of music, so the highlights stand out more, compared to Bad Batch's full season and two albums so far.
     
    Last edited: Jan 24, 2023
    Wolf43 likes this.
  11. Tuskin38

    Tuskin38 Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jul 15, 2010
    I was looking at his entire history, and wow he’s worked on quite a few things I’ve watched over the years, not just Star Wars.
     
    Last edited: Jan 25, 2023
  12. A Chorus of Disapproval

    A Chorus of Disapproval Head Admin & TV Screaming Service star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Aug 19, 2003
    While I very much like his performance in Life As A House I think a truly underrated role in his filmography is when he played Cole Porter in Delovely.