Unavailable on vinyl since its original Cinevox release in 1980, Stelvio Cipriani’s score for Nightmare City, also known as Incubo sulla città contaminata, has been given a deluxe double LP release from Death Waltz Recording Co. Pressed to 140-gram “Contamination Green” wax, this expanded edition goes far beyond the original eight cues on the original version, which ran a scant 23 minutes.
This new edition features 18 additional tracks, heretofore only available on Digitmovies’ 2013 compact disc reissue. Death Waltz’s double LP presents the original soundtrack release as the first LP, with the second chockablock with alternate tracks (including seven versions of “Incubo” and two takes on the main theme, “L’attesa”).
Sister Hyde’s artwork ably conveys Rendezvous DJ Alfonso Carrillo obi notes, wherein he refers to Nightmare City as a “radioactive contaminated zombie (?) film,” because maybe the creatures onscreen in Umberto Lenzi’s madhouse of a film are and maybe they aren’t. Hugo Stiglitz never seems to find out, and given the film’s notoriously cyclical ending, neither does the viewer.
It’s apt, then, that the listener is given so many options for alternate takes on the second LP, as it allows for aural glimpses into other ideas regarding the tone of the picture. Interestingly enough, the two alternate versions of “Una città deserta” are “Virus Mortale” and “Ombre Nel Buio,” which translate into “deadly virus” and “shadows in the dark,” respectively, making it a toss-up as to which particular kind of film this could be.
The disco-lite tracks like “Masquerade” and Grace Jones’ “I’ll Find My Way to You” are light and fun, though stereotypical of most Italian gut-muncher scores of the period, and fine, but it’s the bass-and-organ-heavy groove of “Incubo,” the flute-laden hauntingness of “Una notte pericolosa,” or the dirge of “L’attesa” which more ably capture the nightmarish qualities of Nightmare City.
Nevertheless, whether one prefers disco or dirge, Stelvio Cipriani’s score for Nightmare City is an absolute necessity for any horror fan’s record collection, and there’s no more complete recording than this one. With robust sound, wherein the bass really hits hard, it sounds great while also looking like the stereo has been irradiated.
