No, what I am going to argue is that the abundance of practical effects in Terminator 2 \u2014 and the use of computer animation to look artificial intentionally \u2014 has come full circle in 2026. What was necessary technically and to stay under budget is now desirable with hindsight. And that has resonance in music production, too. <\/p>\n
Speaking of music, Brad Fiedel talks about producing the score in this great interview. It\u2019s all played live, which gives the music, ironically, that human feel. And he does the obvious thing the soundtrack needs: make the music sound like killer robots<\/a>. It has \u2014 and this to me the highest compliment \u2014 the energy of an excited kid singing along with the movie. Actually, let\u2019s let him explain how he did it, framed by a beautiful Sony display and a Power Max sticker and vintage Pro Tools display. (Those clues date the interview later in the decade.)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n A mark of good composition is that you can also sing the percussion part. (I recall a teacher demonstrated this with Beethoven \u2014 you can recognize any sonata by rapping the first bar on the side of a piano. To be non-Western-centric, you frequently also sing out the percussion patterns learning Javanese music, too.)<\/p>\n Let\u2019s talk about the landmark VFX in T2, which is the liquid effect. There again, it\u2019s not just the effect itself, but the combination with Robert Patrick\u2019s acting \u2014 and more of this effect involves practical effects than I expect a lot of folks recognize.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n There\u2019s this longer BTS which talks more about the practical effects. The film is best known for ILM\u2019s liquid effect, but part of what makes that particular effect land is that it stands out in a film that\u2019s otherwise so practical VFX-heavy. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n The timing of this discussion now is relevant; this week we had George Lucas claiming that AI is like replacing horses with cars<\/a>. And Lucas, for all his accomplishments (respect, sir), has become somewhat notorious in some films for overusing technology and underusing human actors. (Well, contrast James Cameron being so committed to shooting real-for-real that he risks drowning people.) So maybe Lucas is not the best person to consult. That model \u2014 that new tech is inevitable, that you replace new tech with old tech, that it renders the old tech irrelevant \u2014 contradicts the experience of artists. Lucas\u2019 own franchise is right now popular for its use of practical effects and real-for-real alongside new digital compositing and so on. I mean, the most popular character is a puppet. (And again, I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a fundamental difference between conversations in art, film, and music right now regarding this relationship.)<\/p>\n Back to ILM, though: you don\u2019t have to guess what that team would say now. They got together this month to discuss:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n DJ T-1000<\/p>\n I can\u2019t think of T-1000 without thinking of DJ T-1000, aka techno pioneer Alan Oldham<\/a>. We use the copy-paste history of techno a little too often, when we could expand that view. For his part, Alan was the original Minister of Information, designer for a lot of the Transmat look (which continues in his comics now), chief of Generator, and Underground Resistance member. <\/p>\n Talking about techno as Black music should be more than a way to score some social media points. It\u2019s refusing to erase the artists and originators. It respects the soul of the sound \u2014 jackin\u2019, banging, groovy, like words aside, things you\u2019d actually shake your ass to. Otherwise, you rip the music out of context and out of Detroit like an artifact at the British Museum, or it becomes trendy background wallpaper. I couldn\u2019t be there \u2014 next year \u2014 but that was the report from TEC-TROIT recently: music in the community with people actually dancing. I\u2019m especially glad to hear FBK made it, aka Kevin M. Kennedy \u2014 speaking of techno legends everyone should know. That\u2019s the only futurism I\u2019m interested in<\/a>.<\/p>\n And to link that to T-1000, this is machine music with groove, not just grids. Less Skynet, more this drum machines kills fascists.<\/p>\n It also easily skirts the line between techno and house. You need Alan\u2019s EP from May, Prisma, in your bag:<\/p>\n Prisma EP by DJ T-1000<\/a><\/p>\n Alan is also giving us a tour of the lost years of techno, reissuing oldschool releases from Generator like Woody McBride, DJ ESP. And because things can be cyclical, sometimes the past sounds more futuristic than the present does. Or maybe it\u2019s perspective or maturity working.<\/p>\n Transporter by DJ ESP<\/a><\/p>\n Alan also has an answer to Britney\u2019s Work B**** with this cut if you need some motivation<\/a>. But in case you slept on it during the pandemic, enjoy Detroitism:<\/p>\n Detroitism by DJ T-1000<\/a><\/p>\n I for one welcome our new techno machine overlords.<\/p>\n \t Tags: Alan Oldham<\/a>, artists<\/a>, Brad Fiedel<\/a>, compositions<\/a>, computer graphics<\/a>, DJ T-1000<\/a>, film<\/a>, film scores<\/a>, history<\/a>, ILM<\/a>, motion<\/a>, robots<\/a>, scoring<\/a>, T-1000<\/a>, techno<\/a>, Terminator 2<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"35 years later, the T-1000 is more relevant than ever. Terminator 2 debuted in the first weekend of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":695231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[231199,26420,231200,231201,231202,231203,96,2332,231204,1293,227073,68467,2839,5981,162949,231205,231206,231207,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-695230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-alan-oldham","tag-artists","tag-brad-fiedel","tag-compositions","tag-computer-graphics","tag-dj-t-1000","tag-entertainment","tag-film","tag-film-scores","tag-history","tag-ilm","tag-motion","tag-movies","tag-robots","tag-scoring","tag-t-1000","tag-techno","tag-terminator-2","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_1971-1024x683.webp\")
<\/a><\/p>\n