Intrada Soundtrack Forum

12/5/06

Fess up time. Go out on a limb, let it all hang out. Something like that, anyway.

I speak - of course - about confessing your single favorite movie score that no one else likes. We've all mentioned guilty pleasures, we've listed favorites no one else talks about. Let's go somewhere else this time. Pick that one favorite CD you love but everyone else - and I mean everyone else - thumbs their noses at. The one disc you carry around with you but keep in the STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE jewel case just in case you bump into some other fan during your travels. Go ahead, show some backbone. I'll give you mine here, then you can pop over to the forum and give me yours.

TROY. James Horner. And herewith I valiantly stand alone. I accept that. Yep, I've heard the Gabriel Yared score, I've read about the nasty stuff that went on behind the scenes. But it don't matter one tootsie roll to me. I'm not budging. I play Horner's masterpiece all the time. The battle cues get my juices going. Ditto that heroic Lydian-ish fanfare for trumpets and French horns when we enter Troy. And that climactic fusion of high strings and high chorus reaching upwards when Paris' arrow strikes Achilles' heel. Wow!

Okay. I'm alone when I say this but Mr. Horner - you're the man!

Herewith endeth my courage. There's now a spot on the forum waiting for you to display yours.

12/7/06

Just another alert for bean counters. Two titles we mentioned dwindling in quantity have been doing just that in the background.

We're down to some 50 copies each of SPARTACUS and DAVID AND BATHSHEBA. Whether this has to do with both movies dealing with swords and costumes is unknown. But the music on each album is certainly worthy of your library. If you're on the fence with either of these you might want to make that jump pretty soon!

12/16/06

We're gonna break from our usual MO. We'll post our newest Special Collection release on Tuesday, December 19 at 5:15 pm our time. That part's sort of typical. But instead of shipping orders out the next day, we won't have the CDs in stock until mid-January.

It's an important release, made through the combined efforts of two estates, various producers, restoration authorities and whatnot. I try not to boast too often but I can honestly say we're offering you one of the great film scores, unearthed and presented from some truly landmark recording sessions. It all comes courtesy of the relatively recent discovery of the only known surviving copy of these historic actual soundtrack sessions. We're offering you a challenging score, complex and powerful. In terms of orchestral requirements, you can certainly call it a groundbreaker! To help you with the what, when and how, we're including liner notes penned by several noted authorities and persons related to this historic presentation.

Lots of questions have come up over the years regarding this complicated masterpiece. A lot of them will now be answered.

Since Christmas holidays are upon us, we take dents in both manufacturing times and pre-order fulfillments. Due to licensing restrictions, there will only be 3000 copies. Don't hesitate too long. This is one album I'm pretty sure you'll want to own! We would've held off announcing it until next month but in coordinating with the above estates and other producers involved, everyone agreed to announce things three or four weeks before we could actually ship.

Still, it's not too long a wait. In comparison with the roughly four decades that these master elements have been AWOL, four weeks oughta go by pretty fast!

12/21/06

They're trickling out but here's what's left on two titles just about gone now. Randy Miller's SPARTACUS is at 25 copies, Alfred Newman's DAVID AND BATHSHEBA hovers at 30 copies. I won't take bets on it but I expect they'll vanish over the holidays.

12/23/06

Sure has been lots of cool stuff coming out as we close the year here.

Two last minute arrivals from Prometheus hit the spot! KING SOLOMON'S MINES never sounded so good, QUIGLEY DOWN UNDER gets expanded beyond all get out. Wow!

Things also wrap well with new stuff by Alan Silvestri, John Powell and Christophe Beck. James Newton Howard's winter offering is no slouch. I hear people find James Horner's latest project a bit too cerebral and certainly it's more aloof than what Horner did for Mel Gibson in the past. But it's worth some study.

Patrick Doyle is around, so's Danny Elfman. Howard Shore stopped by a few weeks back, ditto Dario Marianelli.

Intrada brought gifts to the table, too. We reminded you how good Richard Band can be and kept things in season with a Christmas score by Mark McKenzie! A short while ago we offered Bruce Broughton doing his own Christmas thing courtesy of ELOISE.

MAN FROM UNCLE fans got another addition to an already spectacular trio of albums. The reknowned John Tavener offered his first film score, Clint Mansell offered his richest.

There are a couple of weird oddities that close out 2006, too! As of this writing, I can't enjoy Bill Conti's latest ROCKY score nor can I readily access that cool title song from CASINO ROYALE. Now these are what I call marketing disasters. Whether with good reason or not, to me they're blunders, plain and simple!

I miss John Williams not having something to wrap up under the tree this year. Even more, I just plain miss Basil Poledouris. While you share your holiday cheer, think about him and rejoice in some of his music!

As has sadly been the case throughout so much history, our world isn't showing much peace right now. Let's face it. People really do just muck up this planet sometimes.

But not always. If you're alive and well right now, play some recent stuff and join me in appreciating the composers who've shared their gifts with us. In fact, maybe even think with passion about life and what it sometimes can be. By all means share in good spirits over the holidays and do something to help bring peace to someone else.

Happy holidays!