Intrada Soundtrack Forum

5/1/07

It looks like SPELLBOUND will be available in just about three weeks. While we've had our album ready for a few weeks, there were a lot of hands involved in getting our final packaging across the finish line, including a pass with Rozsa's publishers, members of his family and the estate of David Selznick. But the line's been crossed, so to speak. The album's at our plant now so we'll confirm an arrival date within the next two or three days.

I mentioned earlier we had a pretty hectic release schedule coming ahead. So in addition to SPELLBOUND you'll also have two new Special Collection releases to choose from this month.

And yes. We've found some more hamsters to keep the treadwheels spinning!

5/2/07

Swimming upstream. Something you can do while you wait for our three May releases.

Ponder one or two scores you just can't get your fill of. But think with a twist. Think swimming upstream. To you they're classics. To everyone else they're dreck.

Guilty pleasures don't count because you don't defend their merit, you just apologize and play on. I'm talking stuff so great it needs no apology for being. Classic stuff. Stuff the entire planet is wrong about and you alone are privy to the merits!

I'll leave a spot on our Forum for you to stick your neck out. I'll even stick mine out first. Then, to sort of paraphrase Roy Scheider in BLUE THUNDER, you can follow my lead.

TROY tops my list. Yep, James Horner's score, not the other guy's. It's absolutely brilliant. All the right emotions, all the right motifs. It's action-packed. And Achilles theme commands. I alone know this. The rest of you are tone deaf!

And the other one's by Jerry. Everyone else thinks he was smokin' something but I think he was clear-headed and right on target. DEEP RISING. I can't get my fill.

Your turn. Start swimming.

5/8/07

Mark McKenzie gets some attention this week. Two of his scores we released are (no pun intended) disappearing from our warehouse.

BLIZZARD was limited to 1000 copies. We're now down to less than 100. When those're gone, that's it. If you haven't heard this one yet, it's full of festive razzle dazzle. On the other hand, THE DISAPPEARANCE OF GARCIA LORCA is a title we did back in 1997. Though it wasn't a limited edition, after ten years, our license on it has expired so we're closing our books on it. If you've never heard this one, it's passionate. So this may be your last chance to combine festive razzle dazzle with passion!

5/9/07

Cleaning up some numbers. It took a while but Randy Miller's SPARTACUS is now part of Intrada history. Also earning a "sold out" moniker are LAST STAND AT SABER RIVER and NORMA JEAN AND MARILYN. We've been marketing these last two for years so you can't say you weren't warned. Not with a straight face, anyway.

I'll try to keep you abreast of stuff that's dwindling. I also know "down to the last whatever" messages can wear you down so I'll soft pedal the numbers. So other than maybe ELOISE, I can't think of anything else needing a spotlight right now.

For a different kind of numbers, here're some dates to note. We'll probably post our official announcement for the newest Special Collection title this coming week, probably on the 16th. It's a two-fer, meaning two scores on one giant... well, okay, on one normal-size CD. We'll begin shipping it on the 17th.

Hot on it's heels, we've got another Special Collection release scheduled for the 25th. Feel free to double things up and save on postage.

In fact, we may even have SPELLBOUND in stock that same day. So go ahead and triple things up while you're at it!

5/15/07

Be here tomorrow evening, at about 5:15 pm our time. In return, we'll post our latest Special Collection for sale. Golden Age stuff, in stereo from excellent condition master elements. We'll begin shipping orders on Thursday!

5/17/07

It's no secret I'm Hugo Friedhofer's biggest fan. Well, after Ron Pullium, anyway. It's been widely discussed how much of Friedhofer's work, mainly at 20th Century Fox, has been damaged or destroyed by time. So it's really a joy to find stuff from his golden period during the fifties that still survives.

Though unknown back then, recording music on 35mm film became a liability for storage over time. The format, for those unaware, requires synchronizing multiple projectors to play back different rolls of film simultaneously, each carrying different tracks of information. Many of these rolls have become so unstable they won't unspool from the projectors. Others have simply deteriorated beyond repair. On the other hand, we often forget there's an upside: the format allowed all this great LP-era music to be recorded in stereo long before stereo LPs were invented. This makes finding projects that survive all the more exciting!

WOMAN OBSESSED is a particular joy because it's a relatively long work (48 minutes) and every roll synchronized and unspooled with little damage. There's some minor wobbliness appearing at times to be sure, but it's a minor annoyance all things considered. For some reason clarinets and French horns are easy targets with 35mm recordings! Anyway, this score has a pretty large amount of powerful music with action sequences and surging material galore. Hearing it in true stereo is a blessing.

IN LOVE AND WAR really benefits from this luxury in a big way. Those multiple snare drums and stereophonic trumpet calls during the main title will generate goosebumps!

We haven't always been so fortunate. It's not a secret we've already tried re-assembling Friedhofer's complete SUN ALSO RISES. When Nick Redman and his Fox crew pulled the elements - only to find none of it could be salvaged - we collectively cried. Really. It was worse than having things simply be missing. With the latter there's still hope, with the former there's only pain.

So if you're a fan of Hugo's, here are two powerhouses that largely do survive. This guy's music is easily some of the most advanced, architecturally solid, truly intellectual stuff written in those days. It still remains so today. And that's no secret either!

5/22/07

Special Collection Volume 42 should be arriving by the end of the week. We'll post an official announcement this evening. I hope you like it, too. I alluded to it a couple of months ago. We're talking late sixties, brass players galore!

SPELLBOUND should be here about the same time as the above. Maybe a day or two later. In any case, we'll solicit orders for both at the same time so you can save on postage!

5/23/07

WWII. Train a bunch of misfits to fight Germans. Shove them into combat, hope for the best. Sounds like THE DIRTY DOZEN? Almost. It's THE DEVIL'S BRIGADE.

Maybe you had to be there. I was just a young teen when it came out but I was already into movie music. The opening credits to this one got me going. By the time all those tanks gather and those doors open up and reveal Santa Elia's been taken and Alex North plays that SPARTACUS-style fanfare for brass, I'm pumped!

As soon as the Saturday afternoon matinee ends I walk over to our BX (base exchange for you civilians) and - wow! - there it is, the soundtrack album. Well, sort of. Well, actually, not even sort of. The artwork's there, Alex North's name is there... but who the heck is Leroy Holmes?

No matter. It's got a track called Santa Elia Wrap-Up! So I stand at the register waiting to pay (or have my dad pay, actually) and I'm looking at the contents and... well, if you've ever heard the record, you know.

Fast forward many years. MGM finds the multi-track masters, we build audio files and start playbacks and... whooppee! All those brass players come back, proclaiming victory in Santa Elia. Trumpets and horns and trombones and baritones and euphoniums and tubas - as if brass were going outa style!

And best of all, we've got Alex back in command. Leroy's nowhere in sight.

Maybe you didn't have to be there afterall!

5/25/07

It's the sixties all over again! Well, for soundtrack collecting, anyway. I don't recall ever seeing so many cool albums arriving all at one time from myriad places yet focusing on my absolute favorite era for film music. Yep. The sixties. I'm one happy camper. And, I guess, responsible for part of the revival, too!

That's why I've got stacks of our DEVIL'S BRIGADE sitting next to me. In fact, sitting right next to stacks of FSM's DIRTY DOZEN. Coincidence? But there's more. Next to those are copies of FSM's SATAN BUG. Wow! Talk about excitement! And there's still more. My eyes and ears are also cast upon rows of La-La Land's HANG 'EM HIGH, that gritty score for Clint Eastwood's gritty western with a knockout main theme to match.

Man. I always said it was great to have discovered movie music during the sixties.

It still is!

5/29/07

Happy day after Memorial Day. We return to a pile of work, courtesy you people, but we thank you for it. So do the hamsters. We've already got another release coming up during the next two weeks. If it's one that tickles your fancy, we'll just keep these hamsters excercising non-stop. 'Cept they do like to be fed. Especially the one named George. He's into pretzels! (I prefer the Lays baked barbecue chips myself.)

Our recent Friedhofer disc is moving a little faster than most of the Golden Age stuff does. I see plenty at the moment - some 350 copies - but usually albums from these "old guys" trickle out rather than pour. So it's nice to see Hugo appealing to a few more people than normal. Now if only the treasure hunters could unearth JOAN OF ARC, we'd see his popularity shoot right up there next to Goldsmith. Almost.