Review Category: Audio

Ennio Morricone’s score for the 1966 Sergio Sollima Western La resa dei conti (aka The Big Gundown) has not lacked for vinyl releases. Originally released in Italy, the United States, and the UK upon its original cinematic offering, along with a US reissue in 1974. It also saw two reissues in 2015, with Dagored re-releasing the remastered original score, and Mondo putting out a double LP expanded edition.

Music On Vinyl’s At the Movies sublabel marks another edition, but for those who’ve yet to snag a prior version, it’s well worth owning. The jacket artwork pulls from the original Italian poster, making this an excellent-looking presentation when paired with the orange and yellow swirled vinyl within the sleeve. That’s a purely visual assessment, however.

The music itself is as stellar as always, and benefits from the excellent in-house pressing from Music On Vinyl, with a robustly clear presentation. The label’s work is such that the soaring sounds of Il Maestro can be turned up to concert hall levels and not suffer any clipping or distortion, while still maintaining clear tonal separation.

The score also features the vocal song, Run Man Run, featuring Maria Cristina Brancucci, along with featuring the talents of I Cantori Moderni di Alessandroni on Corri Uomo Corri, rather than the usual wordless vocal accents. While certainly familiar as the work of Morricone – La Resa certainly brings to mind The Ecstasy of Gold in its build and soaring horns – the composer uses some interesting devices to create a slightly different interpretation of the Western score.

Most notably, it’s the interpolation of Beethoven’s Für Elise on La Condanna that most grabs the ear. With its deft switching from delicate piano to jangly mariachi guitarra, the piece feels as if it’s two worlds coming together to create something new – not unlike what Morricone would do with psychedelic electric guitar a few years later on another Sollima picture Giù la testa. While not among Il Maestro’s most famous works, there’s much to be discovered here.

In 2019, La-La Land Records presented something which seemed impossible: the debut release of the original Franz Waxman score to James Whale’s 1935 Gothic horror masterwork, The Bride of Frankenstein. Surprisingly, the full score itself has only been available since the early ’90s, when it was recorded for Silva Screen by The Westminster Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Kenneth Alwyn, despite being widely regarded as one of the finest examples of horror movie music.

However, thanks to the original acetates housed at the composer’s archives at Syracuse University, along with producer Mike Matessino’s discovery of further elements, La-La Land was able to compile a 43 minute program that retained the majority of the score’s most notable moments.

Now, just over a year later, that release makes its vinyl debut courtesy of Waxwork Records, and it’s a whopper of a release. Rather than simply go with the admittedly classic poster imagery or stills from the film itself, as have past releases, Waxwork had Phantom City Creative craft original artwork which not only captures the flair of the original imagery from Whale’s picture, but interprets it in a new and exciting way. From the moment one looks at the artwork on the gatefold jacket, they know that they’re in for something special.

Once the needle hits the black and white swirled coloured vinyl, one can immediately hear the work which producer Matessino put into restoring and remastering The Bride of Frankenstein. According to his liner notes, this particular release was crafted from multiple sources, with up to 13 different recordings available for each particular track, requiring a keen ear to identify ‘the best quality for every phrasem bar by bar, for each surviving cue, and then ‘stitching’ it all together so that this indisputably landmark score could make its debut.’

For an 85 year-old recording quite literally ‘Frankensteined’ together, this is a marvelous record to which one can listen. It is, perhaps, a bit muted, but this is likely more due to the fact that the recording technology of 1935 was essentially single-track – forcing the engineers to equalize on the fly, if at all – and thus Waxman’s score is more of a live recording of an orchestra performance, as opposed to a recording session as might be considered today.

That said, it thrills. While the previous re-recording by The Westminster Philharmonic Orchestra might be more complete, this is the music as heard in the film itself. There’s something particular about the way the phrasing comes through on iconic cues like the main title theme and Presenting the Bride – The Explosion that one is more than willing to sacrifice thoroughness and audio fidelity for the simple ability to be able to listen to them without the overlay of dialogue and effects.

The Bride of Frankenstein is available from Waxwork Records.

After 25 years of composing for video games and film, Michael Giacchino finally released his first-ever non-score album via Death Waltz Originals. Performed with his Nouvelle Modernica Orchestra, Travelogue Volume 1 tells the story of a space traveler seeking solace on a planet that isn’t as broken and lost as her own distant world, upon discovering earth the story unfolds throughout its 11 captivating tracks.

Pulling deeply from the classic lounge and exotica music of Les Baxter and Martin Denny, the outer-space vibes of Giacchino’s album also lean into more modern interpreters of the genre like Combustible Edison and Air, keeping this from feeling as though it’s just an homage to a bygone era but rather a continuation of a tradition.

While the music is, at its heart, locked into that ’50s and ’60s lounge feel, some pieces manage to go further. Sidereal Day 6 features some funk wah-wah guitar mixed with Yma Sumac-like vocal workouts, which is not a mix one would normally think would work, but it’s absolutely refreshing in just how groovily otherworldly it sounds. The sweeping strings and soaring, lyric-less vocals do an amazing job of conveying emotional weight, while also feeling as though the listener is soaring through the cosmos.

While the narration throughout Travelogue Volume 1 is at first perfectly alien in its almost monotonic delivery, as the space traveler goes about her journey, there’s an amazing level of heartbreaking growth to be heard. The use of the storytelling device brings together the tonal variations, allowing Giacchino’s album to be more than a mellow backing track, and instead, causing it to be interwoven with the sound of the world around it.

As the story of the album progresses, the listener gets a sense of change and progress and learning, and when one reaches the penultimate track, Sidereal Day 39, and its insistent repetition of the phrase, “Everything is going to be okay,” the mantra-like delivery over the sound of breaking waves will drive one almost to tears in just how perfect it is.

The final track, Remembrance, takes its influence from Santo and Johnny or the instrumental work of Les Paul, sleepwalking its way to the end of the album with aplomb. The entirety of this record is a peaceful, dreamy exercise takes the music which Giacchino has done for film and goes interstellar. Think of it as The Incredibles, but once they’ve had a chance to relax, and maybe Bob is having himself a cocktail.

The double LP release of the album comes pressed on 180-gram coloured swirl vinyl, and the gatefold jacket allows Henry Abrams’ artwork – which looks as though it was taken right from the era being referenced – to really shine. The printed inner sleeves help tell the story presented over the course of Travelogue Volume 1, and are loaded with detail which will keep the listener’s eyes glued to them. It’s as captivating a visual experience as it is an aural one.

Travelogue Volume 1 is available from Mondo.

FORMAT: VINYL / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Spikerot Records’ vinyl debut of Carlo Rustichelli’s score for the 1964 Mario Bava giallo Sei Donne Per l’Assassino (Blood and Black Lace) is a thing of beauty. Pulled from the CAM archives, the 31 tracks on the LP have been remastered from the original master tapes for vinyl by Carlo Altobelli and comprise the full session recorded for the film.

While originally released as a double compact disc by Digitmovies in 2005, along with the composer’s score for La frusta e il corpo (The Whip and the Body), that edition is long out of print. The vinyl debut sounds astonishingly vibrant, and there are so many brilliant moments, one feels the need to repeatedly flip the record, listening to the various alternate takes included to hear the minor changes. While the main theme, Atelier, is a brilliant piece of exotica, replete with noir-ish brass and snappy bongos, the rest of Rustichelli’s is ever-increasing in its alternating sense of dread and dreaminess. Designed to keep the listener off-kilter and ready for anything, this is, as the liner notes state, ‘MUSIC TO KILL’.

The limited edition black vinyl release was only 100 copies was pressed on ‘Atelier Della Morte’ (yellow with black and red splatter) vinyl, and came with a repress of the original 7-inch single featuring the main theme, Atelier, along with Defilè, but sold out quickly. The less-limited The Masked Killer variant is still only 400 copies on grey 180-gram vinyl, and features the same striking gatefold sleeve with artwork by Eric Adrian Lee (known for his excellent work for Spun Out of Control and others), and includes a brief reflection on the film by the director’s son, Lamberto Bava, also a director of some note himself, along with an excellent overview of the film and Rustichelli’s career by Dannata Balera Radio’s Andrea Fabrizii.

Sei Donne Per l’Assassino is available on vinyl LP from Spikerot Records.

FORMAT: VINYL / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

The Netflix documentary L.A. Originals documents the simultaneous rise of photographer Estevan Oriol and tattoo artist Mister Cartoon from 1992 onward, and their contributions to the world of hip-hop and pop culture at large. While viewers might not have known their names, they certainly knew Cartoon’s logo for multi-platinum rappers Cypress Hill or Oriol’s iconic photos of everyone from Snoop Dogg to the Beastie Boys.

The soundtrack for the documentary leans heavily into the era when the pair initially met. While L.A. Originals does feature ‘newer’ songs like Terror Squad’s Lean Back from 2004 and 50 Cent’s 2005 track Disco Inferno, the vast majority of these cuts all come from the early ’90s, when Oriol and Cartoon were introduced at a party. There are classic tracks like Snoop Dogg’s Gin & Juice, Erik B. & Rakim’s Juice (Know the Ledge), and Mobb Deep’s Shook Ones (Part 1), to name but a few, and it really helps to ground the documentary with a sense of temporal place.

Interestingly enough, while you’d think the inclusion of a less-directly confrontational party cut like Young MC’s Bust A Move would stick out like a sore thumb, it gives the L.A. Originals soundtrack a chance to ease back while still having fun. The soundtrack is also not just a collection of music used in the documentary itself, but also reflects a selection of artists photographed by Oriol or inked by Cartoon, giving the music a deeper layer than simply existing as a mixtape. However, as a mixtape, it’s a pretty solid primer of 1991-93 era hip-hop.

FORMAT: VINYL / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

There is something unfathomably joyful about the manner in which Colin Towns’ score for the 1986 George Pavlou film, Rawhead Rex, goes from light fantasy into abject terror in just a few tracks. It begins lightly and whimsically, with the main theme and Welcome to Ireland, and even Rawhead Appears starts off bright, but once the strings begin shrieking, that’s it.

It’s utterly intense from that point forward, working less in terms of melody than presenting an overarching sense of dread. The use of drone, occasionally shot through with high-pitched, attacking stabs is a definite recurring theme, but the insertion of more melodic aspects, such as the organ in The Vicarage, demonstrates that Towns knows how to keep things interesting.

Unfortunately, as the score progresses, the traditional orchestral instruments are overcome by synthesisers. While the pairing of orchestra and electronics worked well to create that sense of terror, when the technology overtakes Rawhead Rex’s music, it begins to sound thin and from there, terribly dated. Howard Discovers a Strange Glass Window in the Church is meant to raise gooseflesh on the back of one’s neck, but all it ends up raising is a bit of a smirk and a questioning eyebrow.

That said, the score for this Clive Baker-penned creature feature has been long-awaited by fans, so the very fact that it’s seeing release over 30 years after the film itself is something to be noted, even if it’s not aged so well.

FORMAT: VINYL / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Director Eric Power’s festival favorite, Attack of the Demons, is a mix of South Park‘s paper cutout animation style, Italian horror splatter, and hipster ennui, crafting a

film that’s silly, splattery, and not a little distressing. Anchoring the picture’s stunning visuals is the score by composer John Dixon, who uses a bank of synthesisers and a mess of guitars to craft an auditory identity to this eye-popping film.

While Dixon’s work leans at times toward latter-era John Carpenter film scores, with the main title theme’s mix of electronics and riffy guitars paying homage to the likes of In the Mouth of Madness and Ghosts of Mars‘ more metal leanings, that’s not a bad thing. Given the fact that Attack of the Demons takes a lot from Bava films – as in Lamberto, not Mario – the score is perfectly suited for a story whose plot revolves around a small-town music festival.

Switching between the mellow tones of Jeff & Kevin and Grandma’s House to the more energetically aggressive sounds of Cabin Assault and the main title theme, there’s a lot of variety to be had, but the consistently melodic approach Dixon takes gives Attack of the Demons a listenability even when divorced from the film’s visuals.

As a bonus, the soundtrack includes as its final track the song Sleeping Trees, by the character Natalie’s favorite band, Teek. Mixing acoustic and electric guitars, with a fuzzy, dreamy vibe, it perfectly encapsulates the 1994 setting of Power’s movie, and ends Attack of the Demon‘s soundtrack on a slightly hopeful note.