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Mark Snow's X-Files: Fight The Future (Expanded score from La-La Land Records July 29)


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http://www.xfilesnews.com/index.php/xfiles-news/latest-news/459-new-fight-the-future-soundtrack-to-be-released

LaLaLand will release Mark Snow's excellent X-Files: Fight The Future in expanded/complete form.

While the OST had much of the score, and all of the highlights (save the final cue) on it, it had rather poor sound quality which at times made the orchestra sound like it was synth.

According to the producers:

This special limited edition release features much improved sound and contains some music not previously released. Also, the incorrectly reversed stereo channels on the original soundtrack release have been corrected here. Produced by Mark Snow and Nick Redman, and mastered by Mike Matessino, this exciting release also contains exclusive liners by writer Julie Kirgo and an updated print interview with Snow conducted by film music writer Randall D. Larson.

The soundtrack will be available through the LLLwebsite and other online soundtrack boutiques; only 3000 copies were produced in this limited edition, and it will be sold at a retail price of $19.98.

TRACK LISTING:

01) Threnody in X 3:18

02) B.C. Blood 2:28

03) Goop 4:20

04) Soda Pop 4:46

05) Quitting* :53

06) Already Dead 1:43

07) Cave Base 1:32

08) Remnants 2:13

09) Plague 3:24

10) Fossil Swings :59

11) Goodbye Bronschweig 2:41

12) A Call to Arms :59

13) Elders / Crossroads* 2:35

14) Corn Hives 3:06

15) Corn Copters 2:36

16) Out of Luck 1:01

17) Stung Kissing / Cargo Hold 4:13

18) Come and Gone 5:29

19) Trust No One 2:53

20) Ice Base 1:35

21) Space Hole* 2:14

22) Mind Games 3:53

23) Nightmare 2:45

24) Pod Monster Suite 5:23

25) Crater Hug 2:04

26) Facts 2:35

Additional Music

27) Plague (alternate segment)* 1:29

28) Crossroads (album version) 2:20

Total Time: 75:48

* Previously Unreleased

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I've never actually listened to this score, apart from few random cues. But I'm familiar with X-Files: I Want To Believe from 2008. While a lot of the synth-heavy material is difficult to enjoy on album, there is some surprisingly tender and lovely material in there - the love and quasi-liturgical "faith" themes are really nice. Certainly, not what I would expect from a film like this:

The main theme variations in this one are a highlight of the score:

How does Fight the Future compare to this score?

Karol

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Why have I not been calling him FAT this whole time? Brilliant!

But seriously, I too am disappointed by what's missing. And I too will definitely be getting this anyway. It's chronological and mastered by Mike Matessino and will therefore be glorious!

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About that missing cue:

Ford A Thaxton says

My understanding is that this cue was done at the very last second (As I recall the scene in question was a added to the film at the last minute, I could be wrong) and Mark just knocked it out at his studio and sent it over to the dub stage and that DAT or D-88 has vanished in the last 16 years.

He didn't have a copy in his archive either. It happens.

MV Gerhard says

Then why not use the film stem, ala Hook?

1. No room on the cd

2. The studio, producers and composer didn't want to use anything off the stems

There were a few odds and ends that could not be found, but the real heart breaker was the final track Mr. Snow did last minute for the film. After nearly two years and thousands of dollars, we had to finally toss in the towel on the search and release it as is.

MV

and

What a loss, that cue is incredible. Doubly so if it's something Snow just tossed off last minute.

That's exactly what happened. Initially there was NO music in that scene. Last minute, Carter asked Snow to compose something so they can slap it in the film. He went to his piano and hammered something out and sent it in. That story comes directly from Mr. Snow himself during a conversation I had with him many months ago. Of all people who is bummed it can't be found it's him.

Maybe one day it will turn up, but after spending nearly 2 years looking for it (even going through each of his personal DATS dated within a year of the film and tv scores) we had to end the search.

MV

and

I wonder if Mr. Snow will be signing copies like the boxsets?

There will be signed copies.

It sounds bleepin amazing! The work that Mr Redman, Mike and Neil Bulk did on this is great! Julie's notes are sharp and informative...and Randall's 3 part section (3 different interviews conducted June 1997, May 1998 and April 2014) is fascinating to say the least.

And then you have Jim Titus art direction...

The cd will be out there soon -- July 29

MV

and

For your X-scholars out there:

Working on this, we did find some unused tracks (not in final film)

5m4 Roadside Memorial - 1:36

6m1a Man in the Shadows - 0:36

The track “Remants” comes between these two cues.

At the request of the composer, these tracks were cut from this final release.

These are the tracks that ARE in the film, but could not be located for this release...

2m2 Rooftops - :26

3m2 Hole in the Wall - :27

10m1 Bee Collar - :10

15m1 Smoking Telegram - 2:57

As stated before, the only REAL heartbreaker here is "Smoking Telegram"

MV

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Snow's music for the X-Files movies were terrific. I actually prefer them over the series' scores.

Glad a better version of Fight the Future is on the horizon.

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Thanks to John Takis for pointing this out - someone put the missing cue in question up on youtube (ripped from the rear channels of the Blu Ray)

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The show is brilliant, but Snow's music never struck me as anything I felt I absolutely had to listen to outside the show.

I completely the same. The first movie is actually among my favorite Sci-Fi movies, but the music, especially in the show, never really did anything for me. Its good mood music to be sure, but not something I'm compelled to listen to on its own.

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The following order #'s will receive a SIGNED COPY of X-FILES FIGHT THE FUTURE
ORDER #'s: 86708 - 86900
Thanks, y'all!
See you in a few weeks!
MV
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I'm listening right now actually. Sounds fantastic, and no glaring omissions (I'm sure that's not true for some people).

This is a nostalgia album for sure. Love the development of the theme in the opening cue.

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"Smoking Telegram" and the alternate "Pod Monster Suite" are the only extra cues I really wanted from an expansion; well those and the film version of "Teotihuacan," but I can just rip that from the blu-ray End Credits. Seeing as none of these cues are on the new release, it is a bit of a disappointment for me, but I guess I can accept MV's explanation of why the former cue is missing...

As for the sound, Audacity's built-in clipping detection shows minor clipping throughout the album, but it's all decent enough to my ears and I'm not really sure how accurate the software is anyway. I mostly bought the album for the chronological ordering and Mark Snow's autograph.

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I'm sorry, you judge sound quality by having it examined by a software program rather then listening to it?

The sound on this release is far superior then the OST. Not only are the sound-channels oriented correctly but it sounds more detailed, refined and better balanced. Nice to finally listen to Crater Hug without it starting to crackle at the climax!

Speaking of crackle, this is a cracking score. Excellent mixture of action music, Gothic epic/horror and 1970's suspense (complete with low paranoid piano registers ala Goldsmith) with excellent and inventive synths.

Snow employs a lot of clever orchestrations and instrumentation in both the orchestra and synth elements which never makes this boring. Even though it's a score with a lot of low rumbling suspense/atmospheric music.

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I'm sorry, you judge sound quality by having it examined by a software program rather then listening to it?

Failed assumption. I judge an album's sound based on listening and on my first listen of this album, the crescendos simply sounded too loud to me. I would never have pulled the tracks up in Audacity if they had sounded perfect to my ears right off the bat.

I have listened to the album twice since my last post and better sound equipment has made it clear that most of my initial criticisms were unwarranted. You can indeed hear a lot of detail on this release that was not as noticeable on the Elektra album, especially in the strings and on the piano. That said, there are also some details that seem a little more buried in the mix to me -- some of the background instruments near the end of "Threnody in 'X'" for instance. This isn't really a problem, it's just something that will take some time for me to get used to.

And I'm still lamenting that missing cue at the end. I have always loved "Facts" and it really does work better where it is now than where it was (just before "Crater Hug"), but it seems very anticlimactic when positioned at the end of the score.

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I haven't listened to the new release yet, but I read the entire booklet the other night. Jim Titus's art direction is top notch once again, I absolutely love the plethora of pictures included throughout on all the pages. I haven't seen the show at all (or either movie) since it left the air, so it was nice to see the whole cast again.

The main liner notes by Julie Kirgo were a nice read, learning a little bit about the development of the show and how it lead to the movie, and the approach Snow took to scoring it. Couple nice anecdotes shared, like that Bernard Hermann gave Mark Snow his baton the day before he died (which also happened to be the final day of the recording sessions for his final score [Taxi Driver]).

However, the interview with Mark Snow portion by Randall Larson at the end of the booklet repeated a big error multiple times which drove me nuts!

Julie's portion of the notes correctly note that the movie was shot between seasons 4 and 5, and was released between seasons 5 and 6, with the season 5 finale and season 6 season premiere dovetailing into the movie's storyline.

But then you get to the Randall Larson section, and it states there at least 4-5 times that the movie was between seasons 6 and 7! This includes Randall asking Mark a question about how he approached the season 6 finale and season 7 premieres as a result of the movie's score! And Mark responds as if those where the right seasons!

Too bad this little booboo wasn't caught by anyone, because it's a pretty big one. Oh well.

Can't wait to have time to listen to it now :)

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  • 9 months later...
  • 4 years later...

Was about to buy this but glad I read this thread first! That Finale cue is one of my favourites from this score, disappointing to hear it couldn't be found. I would've been so bummed if I discovered that when listening to the set.

 

That said, this release was 6 years ago and they've done quite a few X-Files releases since. Wonder if those elements ever turned up?

 

No doubt Disney will be logging everything from Fox's archives during the acquisition, but OTOH that acquisition makes a potential V2 of this score unlikely from LLL (which really sucks, given the handful of missing cues on this version).

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It's hard to wrap your head around, isn't it?

 

Doesn't fit under their brand at all... And I can't see it going on Disney+ anytime soon (or Disney commissioning another season to close things off, especially with Anderson walking away). 

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3 hours ago, crumbs said:

Doesn't fit under their brand at all... And I can't see it going on Disney+ anytime soon

 

More likely they'd stick it on Hulu with their more adult content.

 

3 hours ago, crumbs said:

or Disney commissioning another season to close things off, especially with Anderson walking away

 

I mean, if Seasons 10-11 taught us anything, it's that Chris Carter either can't or won't make an ending to this series.

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  • 1 year later...

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