Boom Tchhh. Mwaaauumm, mwau-mwaaauummmm

New recreation of the Blade Runner soundtrack on its way.

BuySoundtrax Records seeks to rectify that, with this new recording faithfully recreating the original music from the film, which proved a difficult task. Vangelis' score was composed entirely by performing on keyboards and recording it directly, so no written transcriptions exist. Edgar Rothermich was charged with reverse engineering the score–listening to the original music and a 1982 album mock-up and transcribing it by ear. He also had to recreate the sound of 1982 synthesizers and decipher if noise heard was due to recording on tape or stylistic choices by the composer.

Conan Rerecorded

I just found out this morning, that a rerecording of Basil Poledouris’s amazing 1982 score for Conan the Barbarian was released in 2010! And it is, quite frankly, a revelation of a score. A ‘complete’ two-disc soundtrack, featuring music taken from the film itself, Destroyer and the Adventures of Conan animated series, has floated around for years, but it suffers from horrible audio quality in places, even more so than previous recordings, whereas this new recording, 100 minutes long, is astounding in its clarity and depth.

Here a sizable excerpt for the splendid Filmtracks review of said score:

Poledouris himself had never been pleased with how his score was performed and preserved, fueling some of the aforementioned discussions about re-recording the entirety of the soundtrack. Through a partnership between James Fitzpatrick and Luc Van de Ven in 2010, Tadlow Music and Prometheus Records were able to give this monumental score a second life. The assembly of the score included the use of Poledouris’ original manuscripts and a precise, careful assembly of the right instrumentation, including percussive effects not rendered as intended in the original recording, to constitute the City of Prague Philharmonic (joined by its usual choral supplement). The Eastern European tone of the 100 singers of the chorus was an additional fortune given the weightier force of sound they could naturally supply to the Latin texts. The reconstruction of the actual lyrics used by Poledouris was another painstaking detail not overlooked for the recreation. [...] It is often said in reviews of music from the fantasy renaissance of the 1980’s that a precise re-recording of the full scores would be their own form of fantasy, and Conan the Barbarian has always been among such deserving candidates. To actually hear such an endeavor executed so well is stunning in a practical sense, not only from the technical performance aspect, but also given how expensive such prospects are. Thankfully, the 2010 re-recording of Conan the Barbarian is everything you could hope it to be. It’s a rare case in which your high expectations are actually exceeded, with perfect execution across the board and a collection of extras on the second CD of its set that includes a fantastic hidden gem in the form of seven minutes from Conan the Destroyer. To hear over two hours of Poledouris’ music for the franchise in this fashion is the kind of treat that every film score should greet with an open wallet. Simply put, no better film score album has debuted in 2010. More than ever before, now is the time to appreciate the music of Aquilonia.

Uh, Soundtrack Covers

So, I’m kind of into soundtracks. And I’m kinda, sorta, maybe, a little… a little anal about my music library and album artwork and those sorts of things. So when I came across a collection of iTunes Library-grade resolution soundtrack covers that I hadn’t even seen before, I think I peed my pants a little. A little.

I think most of the ‘non-normal’ ones are fan-made; but contrary to most fan-made things on the internet, these are actually in pretty good taste. And if nothing else, they’re great as alternates for the real albums, when you have unofficial extended cuts, promos or other cover-less albums in need of some nice coverflow-friendly graphics.

Check out this one for Fight Club which matches the limited edition DVD, or this Pan’s Labyrinth by Mike Mignola, a whole slew of very cool Zodiac ones and some Life Aquatic and Lord of the Rings ones under L. A neat Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within one, which matches the artbook (good ol’ Goldenthal doesn’t let us down). And this There Will Be Blood cover certainly kicks the crap out of the one that came with my purchase.

But reigning high above all the others, is Kill Bill (I always loved the Japanese ‘Kill is Love’ series of posters) and Star Wars.

Soundtrack Reviewer Schmuck

Alien and ripley from Alien3

If you don’t know scores, don’t pretend you can review them. While sifting through my soundtrack and movie score collection, I came across this piss poor Alien 3 score review, in which the ‘reviewer’ asserts:

“Alien 3: (Elliot Goldenthal) An abundance of noise, with little substance.”

and

“One of the major pitfalls of this score is the fact that it isn’t scary. Nor is it grand.”

Alien 3 was the score that made me recognize Elliot Goldenthal, who in the humble opinion of this blogger, is one of the best ‘new’ score composers out there. Whether you like or dislike his style is one thing. It’s a challenging score, certainly. But to accuse the Alien 3 score of not being scary and not being grand… Well that categorizes as ignorant in my book.

Personally I trust Score Reviews for my ehm… score reviews.

PS: I’m putting together a list of my personal favorites, any suggestions?

Update: Now here’s a guy who gets it:

“What is most worth noting about this score is that it conveys a distinct post-apocalyptic feeling, one of dystopia, devoid of any joy or hope. I think this is what makes Alien 3 repugnant for so many people. James Horner’s Aliens, despite its brutal action sequences and creepy underscore, still had an underlying heroic and adventurous tone to it that listeners accepted. Jerry Goldsmith’s Alien was more desolate, yet you could detect a few hopeful chord progressions nested within the main theme. But Alien 3 banishes all musical warmth, and the result is much like being imprisoned in a nightmare. The only glimpse of hope is achieved at the score’s climax, and it is the hope of self-destruction. Whether this is a good thing depends on what you consider good music, but I consider Alien 3 at least effective, if not uplifting.”

The Bounty by Vangelis

I am looking for the soundtrack for The Bounty by Vangelis. It has never been officially released, and as far as I know, has two bootleg copies on the market today, one from 1994 and one from 1995, both more or less identical. I have looked high and low, searched through endless p2p networks and newsgroups and even made a pact with the devil (who is now officially my cleaning aid, the looser).

I cannot find it.

If you can find it for me, I’ll surrender my header to you for 3 whole days.