Brundlefly 2,385 Posted December 5, 2017 Share Posted December 5, 2017 Important Jerry Goldsmith sci-fi action score from 1977 gets royal treatment! Jack Smight directs Jan-Michael Vincent, George Peppard, Paul Winfield, Dominique Sanda in expensive 20th Century Fox filming of Roger Zelazny post-nuclear holocaust thriller with gigantic scorpions, killer cockroaches and violent weather conditions rendering the planet barren and treacherous. Enter a half dozen survivors, two massive “Landmaster” vehicles and the extraordinary adventure begins! Highly troubled production happened alongside development of “smaller” Fox picture humbly known as Star Wars. The rest is history. Goldsmith saw inspiration in imaginative (if not entirely successful) special effects, creating incredibly ferocious action score for large 90-piece orchestra with extra brass and woodwinds (violins intentionally taceting) plus complex array of electronics. Unique, dry and often brazen sound results in cues that are aggressive, intense, powerful! Trademark rhythms abound, especially in dynamic low brass figures. The late 70’s saw Goldsmith in his most fertile period with one masterful score after another: The Omen, Capricorn One, Islands In The Stream, Logan’s Run, The Cassandra Crossing, The Boys From Brazil, Alien, Star Trek-The Motion Picture, others. Damnation Alley has previously seen only compromised selections released on album due to missing electronic elements, damaged orchestral masters. Elusive music becomes a legendary “holy grail” for many. Enter dream of Roger Feigelson with Douglass Fake in tow and Intrada rights this musical wrong. Under guidance of Producer Nick Redman and Fox team, search deep into vaults unearths complete multi-channel orchestral session masters. Co-producer Mike Matessino next performs restoration and stunning new stereo mix of entire orchestral score. Locating Goldsmith’s printed sketches and score follows, allowing commissioning of synthesizer wizard Leigh Phillips to accurately re-perform vintage electronic parts. Combined efforts of many results in Goldsmith’s relatively brief but unquestionably powerful, knockout action masterpiece to see complete release on CD with stunning stereo audio at long last! What’s more, several previously unreleased cues now appear, including dynamic action-infused “Signals”, “The Wrong Order”, plus resounding “Refueling Stop” with triumphant full brass offering ringing fortissimo respite from the gritty action. Terrific highlight: never-before-heard action cue, “The Voyage Begins (Alternate)”, scored for early scene dropped from finished production offers exciting, jagged brass rhythms unique to this deleted sequence. Other highlights in this score abound as well: Wild tour-de-force action cue “Don’t Bug Me” is surely one of the maestro’s most genuinely fierce and frenzied compositions of all time and warm trumpet solo-led closing theme in optimistic major key (tracked into film twice at end) is surely one of his richest! Stylish booklet essay by Julie Kirgo plus colorful “flipper-style” booklet design by Kay Marshall compliment Goldsmith’s work. Recorded in January/February 1977 at 20th Century Fox Scoring Stage. Arthur Morton orchestrates, Lionel Newman conducts. Intrada Special Collection CD available while quantities and interest remain! I think this just needs a seperate thread. Fans on FSM are literally freaking out about this. I have never heard a single note of this before, but Intrada basically released half of the score as samples! I have to admit this is one of few scores that needed less than 5 minutes to make me fall in love with it! Just one word comes to mind: creativity! I dare say this score epitomizes the infinite creativity Goldsmith had during the time of the late 70s and early 80s! I will definitely get this one! Thanks Intrada! And it seems to be one of the scores that have so little running time that, when the music set in in the movie, it was very noticable and like a punch in your face. A score very economically used to have the most powerful effect, like Patton or Papillon. Anyone knowing the score better than me? What else is there to say about it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Display Name 60 Posted December 5, 2017 Share Posted December 5, 2017 It's unbelievable! On jerrygoldsmithonline there's is still The Haunting The Deluxe Edition listed as latest news! The release has been discussed here and on FSM and is not even announced on the site where the news should at first appear! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koray Savas 2,251 Posted December 5, 2017 Share Posted December 5, 2017 Why should it first appear there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brundlefly 2,385 Posted December 6, 2017 Author Share Posted December 6, 2017 The sample of "Don't Bug Me" just blows me away! So agressive and filled with so many odd instrumental choices! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Display Name 60 Posted December 12, 2017 Share Posted December 12, 2017 I was somehow afraid that the synths would conspicuously exceed the orchestral recording quality-wise, but they somehow managed that and if you didn't know better, you would think it was recorded together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ollie 1,059 Posted December 12, 2017 Share Posted December 12, 2017 Mine got lost in the mail. I do believe it has been found though and rerouted to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Incanus 5,715 Posted December 13, 2017 Share Posted December 13, 2017 13 hours ago, El Jefe said: Mine got lost in the mail. I do believe it has been found though and rerouted to me. Ah the sweet time of the year when postal service is working overtime to deliver us our precious discs. Hopefully your package arrives soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brundlefly 2,385 Posted December 13, 2017 Author Share Posted December 13, 2017 Luckily I've ordered all my CDs via a German seller, so that they can't get lost anywhere in the world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ollie 1,059 Posted December 13, 2017 Share Posted December 13, 2017 Yes it shall be here today. Kind of of funny in a way, my LLL order wasn’t supposed to arrive until this week but it arrived the day my Intrada order was supposed to be here, which was last Friday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brundlefly 2,385 Posted June 9, 2018 Author Share Posted June 9, 2018 I wonder why the Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend-thread has ten times as much posts. This is the most exciting release of the year 2017! Luckily, I hadn't been waiting for it, because I didn't even know the score. And now, after a few weeks, it's one of my favourite Goldsmith scores. It's even one of my 10 favourite Goldsmith scores! Alien Legend Papillon Total Recall Night Crossing (underrated!) The Ghost and the Darkness Under Fire The Mummy Damnation Alley Extreme Prejudice (I'm serious) One reason for that is the cue "Don't Bug Me" which is probably one of my 5 favourite Goldsmith tracks. What an apocalyptic kickass cue! Yavar Moradi 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yavar Moradi 2,599 Posted June 9, 2018 Share Posted June 9, 2018 Oh yeah this score is several measures of magnitude better than Baby...and I even like Baby. Yavar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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