The Dead Have Their Day While SPIDER-MAN, LOGAN'S RUN and THE TIME MACHINE Hit CD

Springtime promises a wealth of film music treasures

By Randall D. Larson     March 20, 2002

THIS WEEK'S RECOMMENDATION

I Hear Dead People: The music for George Romero's DEAD saga was inaugurated in 1968 to the accompaniment of an assemblage of vintage library music with NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (re-released in 1998 in a new version by John A. Russo with an all-new musical score composed and performed by synthesist Scott Vladimir Licina). Its sequel, DAWN OF THE DEAD in 1978, included an amount of library music as well, but was much more dominated by a brutal, mesmerizing and fiercely guttural rock and roll score by the Italian group Goblin (SUSPIRIA, PHENOMENA, etc). Goblin laid down some amazing rhythm tracks that energized the visuals and gave much of the film its aural intensity (a 1998 "20th Anniversary Special Edition" Italian CD on Cinevox CD MDF 308 best represented the Goblin music under it's European name, ZOMBI).

In 1985, the final entry in Romero's trilogy, DAY OF THE DEAD, received an original score by composer John Harrison, fresh off of composing a terrific score for Romero's incarnation of Stephen King's CREEPSHOW. Originally hired to compose linking material between the library cues Romero intended to use, Harrison's music wound up being so effective that he composed nearly all of the score.

Released only on LP in 1986, this inaugural entry from Numenorean Music (NMCD 001 limited to 3000 copies) represents the entire score, including a number of previously unreleased cues and a lavish selection of music-and-sound-effects tracks. Harrison's music is mostly electronic, and bristles with relentless and often volatile excitement. Built around a bass rhythm riff with a myriad of synth tones, chords, and notation constructed above it, the music is part John Carpenter, part Goblin, part CREEPSHOW. Harrison who has gone on to become a notable horror director on TV has concocted an excellent score that survives very well on CD. There are four music only tracks, two songs, and five music and effects tracks, with a total of nearly 73 minutes of music. The 19:39-minute "Dead Suite" opens the CD an amalgamation of the score's best moments which introduces the material.

"We made a conscious effort to go for a very contemporary sound with this score," Harrison told me in 1985. "Rather than take a traditional classic horror approach, we tried to soften some of the horror with a more melodic kind of score. It has its moments of outright scares and eeriness, but it's more melodic and less abrasive than one might expect, and yet at the same time it has a very contemporary feel." Harrison's score is compelling and catchy, a subterranean rock opera for the zombie species a Dance of the Dead, if you will.

The CD booklet includes solid remembrances on the film and music from Harrison and Romero. Very worth checking out. You can find the CD at www.numenoreanmusic.com.

SOUNDTRAX NEWS

Dan Goldwasser of SOUNDTRACKNET reported on Danny Elfman's recent scoring sessions for Sam Raimi's SPIDER-MAN. Surf over to http://www.soundtrack.net/news/article/?id=331 to check it out, and also note Ryan Keaveney's report on this score recently posted to Danny Elfman's web site, MUSIC FOR A DARKENED PEOPLE at http://elfman.filmmusic.com/films/spider-man/index.html. Recorded with a 90-piece orchestra from February 11th to February 15th, the score was described by Goldwasser as "bold, brassy, relatively thematic, percussive and pure ELFMAN... Close to the Elfman of BATMAN and DARKMAN but with the modern Elfman percussion and electronics." Columbia Records will issue a score CD on April 16th.

MFADP also negates the recent Internet rumor stating that Elfman is slated to score TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES (tentative title). This is neither confirmed nor entirely reasonable, according to MFADP, since composer Brad Fiedel has scored both TERMINATOR films and is quite capable of handling the third.

A couple of years ago John Debney (DRAGONFLY, THE SCORPION KING, CATS & DOGS, JIMMY NEUTRON, THE RELIC) scored a 60-minute musical "walking sound and light show" about the American Revolution which plays throughout the streets of Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, called LIGHTS OF LIBERTY. A CD, with Debney's full score performed by the 100-piece Philadelphia Orchestra, is now available in limited quantities from http://www.buysoundtrax.com/lights_liberty.html.

Basil Poledouris [IMG3R]is currently in China, scoring THE TOUCH, a Michelle Yeoh martial arts thriller for director Peter Pau (cinematographer on DRACULA 2000, CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, THE BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR). Prometheus Records released Poledouris' pounding heroic adventure score to Paul Verhoeven's FLESH + BLOOD, complete with bonus cues.

FSM has released the complete score to Jerry Goldsmith's 1976 blockbuster, LOGAN'S RUN (FSM Col5 No2). Earlier issued on Bay Cities in 1990 with a dozen tracks (mirroring the score's 42-minute 1976 LP release), FSM expands the offering to 74-minutes and 23 tracks, resequenced into film order and remixed and remastered from the score's original multitrack elements. Goldsmith's quirky synth score is the antithesis of his previous science fiction score, the famed 1968 PLANET OF THE APES music, in that he achieves similar claustrophobic, otherworldly effects, doing with electronic instruments what he accomplished acoustically in POTA. (www.filmscoremonthly.com)

Jerry Goldsmith is also featured in a splendid reissue of a 1989 concert recording, GOLDSMITH CONDUCTS GOLDSMITH (Silva America SSD 1135). This 71-minute concert recording, newly remastered in Dolby Surround for a stunning new listening experience, includes Goldsmith's concert renditions of music from GREMLINS, POLTERGEIST, LEGEND, and THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E., as well as a number of non-genre scores.

Next week, [IMG4L]Varese Sarabande will release original soundtrack CDs for THE TIME MACHINE (Klaus Badelt, 15 tracks) and DRAGONFLY (John Debney).

Howard (LORD OF THE RINGS) Shore's score for the latest David Fincher's THE PANIC ROOM will be released April 2nd by Colosseum Records. On April 22, Colosseum will release THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES as a 2 CD-set. The release will feature seven new songs by King Black Acid on CD 1, with CD 2 featuring the original score, highly sensitive and sometimes dark music composed and performed by Tomandandy.

ROLLING STONE reports the music for QUEEN OF THE DAMNED, co-written by Korn's Jonathan Davis and Oingo Boingo's keyboardist Richard Gibbs, was composed for a 92-piece orchestra, with five songs penned by Davis for the soundtrack. One song features lyrics by Rashad Haughton, brother of the late singer/actress Aaliyah, who portrays the film's title character. Davis also provides the vampire Lestat's singing voice. "I'm not the happiest guy in the world," Davis told ROLLING STONE. "So it was really easy to play this character. I'm down with the dark side." (Quoted at http://www.reallyscary.com/news011402.asp.)

Rhino has released, for the first time, the complete music to Miklos Rozsa's epic score for the life of Christ, KING OF KINGS (78348). This two-disc set for MGM's 1959 follow-up to BEN-HUR (Rozsa's magnum opus) has been assembled and remastered from the original 6-track session tapes. The release fills a huge gap in Rozsa's recorded music collection, since previous releases of the score on both LP and CD were incomplete. With 27 cues released here for the first time, and totaling more than 2 hours of original soundtrack music, Rozsa's thunderous and poignant symphonic and choral music for KING OF KINGS can finally be heard in all of its inspiring glory.

Composer Christopher Young has been elected President of The Film Music Society, succeeding Elmer Bernstein, who served in that post for the past five years. Recently nominated for a Golden Globe Award for his score to THE SHIPPING NEWS, Young (self-dubbed the "Lon Chaney of Film Music") has composed more than 70 motion picture scores including HELLRAISER, URBAN LEGEND, VIRTUOSITY, and SPECIES. "I'm thrilled to be able to lead this group and I am committed to furthering the Society's efforts," he said. The Film Music Society is a Los Angeles-based non-profit corporation that strives to preserve and restore movie and television music in all its forms. The FMS recently catalogued and archived the film music collection at Paramount Pictures, preserving scores for approximately 1,500 feature films and shorts dating back to 1929. Young's mandate for the Society is to expand the organization's focus and interests beyond historical preservation to include modern-day film and TV music, as well as to promote the future of the art form. Under Young's leadership, this year the Society will reorganize and establish its new headquarters, The Film Music Center. The Center will house historic film and TV music collections to make them available for research, and will be the group's primary site for its preservation and restoration activities. The facility will also include spaces for screenings, conferences and live concerts. Established in 1984 by professionals in the entertainment business, The Film Music Society (formerly the Society for the Preservation of Film Music) is the leading organization devoted to protecting the film and television music legacy, with members in 18 countries. Visit the website at www.filmmusicsociety.org.

FILM MUSIC ON DVD

Urban Vision's

new DVD release of Yoshiaki Kawajiri's anime spectacular VAMPIRE HUNTER D: BLOODLUST (UV1093) includes not only a massively stunning, widescreen and Dolby 5.1 rendition of the film, rendering Marco D'Ambrosio's score in a thunderous sonic dynamic, but its behind-the-scenes featurette features a lot of material on the film's music. The featurette isn't focused on any particular aspect nor does it follow a given thread, but compiles interviews with various crew members and couples them with footage of the film's sound recording including D'Ambrosio's score. The composer describes his intentions for the score, we see him interacting with the film's Japanese creators, and we see sequences from the film matched with footage of the orchestra performing the music. The film is one of the most amazing animes of late, and D'Ambrosio's orchestral score gives it a tremendous power. The music has been nicely delineated on DVD and interestingly described in the featurette. (The score is also available on CD from Japan; available via AMAZON.COM).

The two-disc special edition DVD release of THE 6TH DAY includes isolated score with commentary by composer Trevor Rabin on its first disc, with a featurette on the making of the film on disc two.

Criterion's double-DVD release of Federico Fellini's 8½ includes, amidst a cornucopia of extras, a 48-minute documentary entitled NINA ROTA: BETWEEN CINEMA AND CONCERT, a fascinating exploration of the composer's work, initially made in 1993 for German TV. It provides an intriguing look at the composer and his unique work for Italian cinema, especially that of Fellini, for whom he scored sixteen films.

Soundtrax is our bi-weekly movie soundtrack column.