Oy indeed. It's a pretty wretched film. On the topic of Mr. Band's music, I have a question for you, Roger, involving GHOST WARRIOR (two years too later, I know).
On Band's "Film Music Over the Years" album, the suite from that score sounds fantastic. Very lush, spacious recording with lots of reverb. Really favored the strings. On the Intrada album, the score sounds...drastically different. Sometimes entire sections of the orchestra are forced through just one speaker, a la mono, while a loud hiss will pour through the other speaker (the very opening of the cue "Human Antique" is a perfect example of this). The incredibly sweeping string rendition of the main theme heard in "Girl on the Move" (Mr. Band writing at his very best in my opinion) sounds like it was performed by an orchestra one-third the size of the one heard on the compilation album. It really doesn't sound like the same performance at all. Were the tapes in really bad shape or something like that? I noticed the same problem with the ALCHEMIST/ZONE TROOPERS album...the former score sounds incredibly tinny, flat and...small, for the lack of a better word...versus the original release paired with HOUSE ON SORORITY ROW (which is probably still my favorite Intrada album) where there was a very full, well-balanced mix that really maximized the ensemble's sound. Were Mr. Band's personal archives in poor shape for these particular scores? I'm so grateful you guys release his work and especially these two hidden gems, but it really diminished the impact of the music for me (and those not familiar with the superior releases elsewhere might have negative impressions of those scores because of this sound issue). I noticed that none of his other recent releases, like THE CALLER, THE DAY TIME ENDED or DUNGEONMASTER had this problem though. Any insights per chance? Again, not attacking Intrada, l love you guys and what you do to death. It just seemed the 're-mixing' on these two scores was really botched somehow.
|
