Intrada Soundtrack Forum

1/14/10

A promise kept.

Roughly one year ago Lukas Kendall told me about his plans to put together a box of CDs by Miklos Rozsa. A big box. An ambitious box. Everything he could locate from the vast Turner library at Warner Bros. Virtually every score not yet already represented from the years 1949 through 1968 plus outtakes, alternates, various bits and pieces to familiar chestnuts as yet also unreleased. It'd cost him a lot, it'd have to sell for a lot. But impressive it would be. I promised if he pulled it off I'd celebrate the project right here.

He pulled it off... and impressive doesn't say the half of it.

Now available to own is his 15-CD Miklos Rozsa box set. It's his vision literally come to life. Packed. More music than you can shake a stick at. And what music! Everything that survived from early stuff like THE RED DANUBE, THE MINIVER STORY and THE ASPHALT JUNGLE. Stuff some of us will just now discover like THE LIGHT TOUCH and CREST OF THE WAVE. Every single surviving piece of music from QUO VADIS. A world premiere CD release of the classic re-recorded 1961 MGM LP for KING OF KINGS in stereo. The entire alternate British recording for KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE. All those previously unreleased fanfares for six trumpets written for IVANHOE. The complete (and incredibly flamboyant) ALL THE BROTHERS WERE VALIANT plus another half hour of revisions made by Conrad Salinger and Johnny Green. YOUNG BESS. TIP ON A DEAD JOCKEY. SOMETHING OF VALUE. To paraphrase Messala after the chariot race: It goes on...

Where does it stop? With the complete score for THE POWER, made from recently discovered 35mm stereo scoring session masters.

A handsome box that melds in with other box editions from FSM plus complete track listings and details for everything inside a colorful booklet all add to the glow.

Lukas promised he would make this thing the most impressive box set I would probably ever see.

He kept his promise.

1/17/10

If you like great movie music... really great movie music, pop over to our site Monday, January the 18th and consider our latest Special Collection CD. 2500 copies are available and start shipping the following morning, Tuesday, January 19. Great music it is!

1/19/10

Thanks to you folks, we've moved roughly 2000 copies of THE BLUE MAX already. Since the title has been to the well a few times, I wasn't sure just how positive the response would be. Happily, it was solid.

Considering the age and considerable use of the master elements, I believe we managed to bring out the best sonics possible. Part of this is really just due to the fact that we opted not to heavily "process" the sound, something previous issues had done. It's worth keeping in mind that the score was recorded in London when stereo recording techniques were still seeing a growth curve. Yet the tapes themselves revealed a considerable amount of detail and stereo imaging. We were able to deliver more of it than has ever been done before. Personally, I'm just not a fan of making old analog recordings "imitate" 21st-Century digital recordings because... quite simply, they aren't. It also helped that we had access to all of the first generation elements as well, and not just copies of copies and safeties and whatnot. Us soundtrack labels are not always so lucky!

1/22/10

We get a lot of letters asking about the remaining quantities of BACK TO THE FUTURE.

We originally negotiated a special arrangement with the union to allow 10,000 pressings so we could get copies into as many hands as possible. Happily, the union has now become extremely helpful in making arrangements like this, enabling releases of all manner of previously unobtainable soundtracks. Regarding BACK TO THE FUTURE, I'm happy to say we've sold just under 6000 copies to date.

Normally I wouldn't discourage sales on an Intrada release (perish the thought) but, just the same, here's a good time for collectors still thinking about BACK TO THE FUTURE to take note. We should have copies around for while. Assuming you need to stretch your budget (like most of us), use this window to chase down some of those other goodies out there... like that magnificent early Trevor Jones score for NATE AND HAYES, or the massive Miklos Rozsa box set from Film Score Monthly, or... well, face it. There're lots of goodies out there!

One of those goodies was THE BLUE MAX. Given the multiple versions released over the last forty-plus years, we certainly had some discussions over the viability of yet another one, even an improved one. Mostly, it was a major challenge to obtain licensing from all the parties still involved, especially since the Sony release was still readily available. But everyone finally jumped on board and made it happen, to which I am very grateful. And I'm especially grateful to all of you who plunked down yet another twenty bucks on a score you no doubt had already spent a small fortune on over the years!

1/31/10

Two new Intrada CD releases coming up! They'll be announced tomorrow (Monday, February the 1st) and orders will begin shipping on Tuesday, February the 2nd. One's limited to 1500 copies, the other's limited to 3000 copies. Both are part of our Special Collection series. How I love that stuff from the seventies!