Until now, Klaus Badelt has been known exclusively as an associate of Hans Zimmer, working from the Media Ventures base and contributing additional music to a variety of scores by Zimmer, most notably Gladiator, and receiving a full co-composer credit on the excellent score The Pledge. While The Pledge was a notable score, it was full of Zimmer trademarks and so it would have been reasonable to assume that Badelt would become another composer to emerge from the Media Ventures stable and end up sounding like a second-rate Zimmer. Which speaks volumes for the dangers of assumptions.

The Time Machine is a sensational score, as acutely impressive a début effort as I can remember in the last few years. The score does have a few things in common with the "Zimmer sound" but in general these are minor stylistic points and the wider comparison would be with the orchestral action music of Jerry Goldsmith. The album is split into two distinct halves - the first is more traditionally orchestral and concerned with the setting up and usage of the time machine from HG Wells's classic tale; the second gives a more tribal backdrop to the future Professor Hartdegen discovers when he travels 800,000 years forward through time.

The wistful opening cue sets the tone nicely; the romantic "Wish Me Luck" is very pleasant; the anthemic "The Time Machine" without question the highlight of the album; and the thrilling "Time Travel" where the Goldsmith influence can most readily be felt. Following this is where you can feel Badelt's association with Zimmer more closely - "Eloi" is a tribal anthem very much along the lines of The Lion King. "Morlocks Attack" is a truly thrilling action cue, completely breathless.

While I must admit that there is little new on offer here, it is refreshing after so much generic wallpaper has been heard from even the finest film composers of yesteryear during the new millennium that a new composer can come along and breathe new life into the classic way of scoring an action/adventure film. It marks a welcome return to the sensibilities of Williams and Goldsmith in the late 70s and early 80s and the concomitant early scores of Horner - it doesn't get bogged down in overemphasising the obvious, it just takes one step back and presents thrilling film music at its finest. While it is certainly not sensible to get carried away, based on this evidence it is difficult to imagine a film music future in which Klaus Badelt doesn't figure prominently. The Time Machine is without question the finest score of 2002 so far.

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