The Music of Tom Keenlyside, John Mitchell and David Iris - The Westwood Dub Score

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Dragon Ball Ireland
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The Music of Tom Keenlyside, John Mitchell and David Iris - The Westwood Dub Score

Post by Dragon Ball Ireland » Sun Jun 09, 2024 4:17 pm

To this day Shunsuke Kikuchi and Akihito Tokunaga are the definitive Dragon Ball composers. None of the artists who have followed in their footsteps have compared to their masterful work in the original 1986-1997 run of the anime.

The score that I have the most fondness for, however, as it is what I grew up with - the Westwood dub score. Now I must preface by saying this score was not composed for Dragon Ball Z, although there were some original pieces created for the show towards the end of its run.

The score is simply assembled by the Ocean Group's editors that pulled tracks from the company's sound library, which includes tracks by Tom Keenlyside, John Mitchell and David Iris. Many of which were heard in the Ruby Spears Megaman cartoon, Monster Rancher, but also other shows like Hamtaro. We also know their tracks were used for the Ocean dub of Kai, though whether much of it has since been heard in other shows Ocean worked on around the time like Deltora Quest, Scan2Go and LBX (which had some tracks used in the Westwood dub) remain to be seen.

What I always loved about this score was the ambient feel, its more of a chilled sound than the Faulconer Productions score with some more heavy rock-oriented tracks and moments of silence sprinkled in there. I've always found it a neat juxtaposition, and while the tracks were obviously not made with Dragon Ball Z in mind they were relatively fitting, the Monster Rancher tracks moreso than the Megaman tracks.

The Army Theme was great during all the moments of tension and did wonders, although you could argue it was used too much that wasn't the fault of the composers.

It's worth noting Keenlyside, Mitchell and Iris are incredibly skilled and esteemed musicians with long, varied careers, as we can tell from the versatility of their compositions. For anyone interested here's a short history on them:
Any other fans of this score out there?
Do you have any info about international non-English broadcasts about the Dragon Ball anime or manga translations/editions? Please message me. Researching for a future book with Dragon Ball scholar Derek Padula :thumbup:

Check out my blogs https://dragonballireland.wordpress.com/ and https://dragonballinternational.wordpress.com/

timjulius1122
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Re: The Music of Tom Keenlyside, John Mitchell and David Iris - The Westwood Dub Score

Post by timjulius1122 » Fri Aug 23, 2024 6:27 am

What do you think of the Westwood dub score for Dragon Ball Z, which used music from different shows and had a chill, ambient feel?

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