Hans Zimmer: Black Hawk Down soundtrack

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating: * * * )

Despite the name of producer Jerry Bruckheimer (who helped to invent the military movie-MTV alliance on Top Gun) over the credits, and despite Zimmer's last being Pearl Harbor, the soundtrack to Black Hawk Down is no gung-ho pocket symphony.

Closer to the ethereal and percussive score he did of Scott's Gladiator, the music to BHD has enough character and surprises to make an intriguing stand-alone album.

Certainly, the east African elements that Zimmer pastes into some tracks border on World Music cliche, but that doesn't stop this being an evocative soundscape, especially when the ostensibly American sounds (all high-tech, electronic helicopter throb and rock guitars) are set against the acoustic and rhythmic elements.

Add voices which range from French-Algerian Rachid Taha to Joe Strummer (who performs the Pogues-ish lament Minstrel Boy near the end), and the result is a score that largely exhibits more personality than the movie it sprang from.

Label: Decca