Intrada Soundtrack Forum

5/7/10

It's our time of the month. Every two weeks, in fact, just like clockwork. (Usually, anyway.)

Two new Intrada releases hit the shelves for sale on Tuesday, May 11. They'll be posted for ordering on Monday evening prior, which is the 10th.

One's a limited edition in our Special Collection series, with 1000 copies to go around. Being that it's an action pic from the seventies with some name value attached, it may sell quickly. The other title isn't limited and is part of our MAF series. Our target audience is a little wider than what we typically go for. The movie was a mega-hit in the eighties with a hugely successful song-driven soundtrack album as well. We're releasing for the first time ever the score, which features lots of electronics with a rhythm section, plus some gorgeous piano material before becoming powerfully orchestral for the finish. I have to say it's certainly an impressive movie for us to be attached to!

5/18/10

Prometheus scores a hit with their mammoth recreation of Dimitri Tiomkin's classic THE ALAMO. The players in Prague are up for the task and the engineers are at the top of their game as well. Happily, producer James Fitzpatrick opts for close mike techniques with his recording plus a minimal use of reverb. This lets his recording showcase all the complexities and colors Tiomkin so expertly fashioned. And what music! Florid, melodic, sensitive, heroic, exciting... all of that and more! Don't miss this one.

My quick thoughts on the new ROBIN HOOD score by Marc Streitenfeld. It's okay, nothing more. I haven't seen the movie yet but the album doesn't motivate me all that much to get in line. The Blu-ray will probably suffice. But, with all that said, I must mention how the CD ends... it doesn't!! Friends know my fixation on having albums finish. Composers should be able to wrap up their music so there's shape and architecture to it. And, sadly, that's a composing technique mostly absent from the world of film music today (excepting James Horner and John Williams, who happily do finish what they start.) So it goes with this new Varese Sarabande CD. The final track plays somewhat incongruously to the earlier stuff. Okay, not that big a deal. Then, suddenly, the fiddler getting all the attention just quits as if he walked off the stage in mid-performance. The CD is over and this listener is left unsatisfied. Come on, guys. Finish your score. Even a brief final coda will do!

And a last observation here. Readers of the brief capsules I contribute to the web store listings might notice the "bullseye" rating I give the new Shorty Rogers CD called "You Shorty, Me Tarzan!". It's the soundtrack for the 1959 MGM production of TARZAN, THE APE MAN with Denny Miller. I grew up with this LP as a kid and played it non-stop, often with my own trumpet providing another voice (and lots of sour notes) to Shorty's big band. Originally titled "Shorty Rogers Meets Tarzan", it's a dynamite early stereo recording. Sure, the music is somewhat removed from what you'd expect a Tarzan film score to sound like. But jazz fans should be delirious!