Elmer Bernstein's WILD WILD WEST (1999) - 2020 Varese Deluxe Edition

[Richard Penna 3,676]

I loved it as a 13 year old kid. I still think it's harmless fun it you completely turn off your brain.

[bruce marshall 1,315]

12 minutes ago, Richard Penna said:

I loved it as a 13 year old kid. I still think it's harmless fun it you completely turn off your brain.

At least it didn't have that I insufferable hambone Ross Martin!

 

😆

[A. A. Ron 1,741]

18 hours ago, BryonDavis said:

 

It's not that simple.  If we combine the cues, we get grief from a whole different segment of the fanbase.  We've always chosen to go with the layout the composer/engineer gives us.  It's all a creative choice in the end.  Some releases get combined, some don't.  Hope that explains the methodology.

 

That makes a lot of sense, thanks for the insight. Personally I don't even mind, since it's easy enough for me to combine cues on my own. I just thought this represented a new trend for Varese since cues were left separate on several recent deluxe editions (e.g. The Big Fix, Running Man, U.S. Marshals).

[BryonDavis 172]

29 minutes ago, A. A. Ron said:

 

That makes a lot of sense, thanks for the insight. Personally I don't even mind, since it's easy enough for me to combine cues on my own. I just thought this represented a new trend for Varese since cues were left separate on several recent deluxe editions (e.g. The Big Fix, Running Man, U.S. Marshals).

 

Big Fix was overseen by Mike Matessino. Running Man had strong input from Harold and US Marshals was Bruce Botnick. Its also hard for me and Cary to combine some things as we do try and listen to what fans tell us. We do combine. You will see this on some releases coming soon. A lot of factors determine it. In the end I care most about sonics. I have been heavily pushing for the best sources which means good sound quality.

[bruce marshall 1,315]

The only people crazier than the anti- combo crowd are the anti- crossfade crowd.

Those folks are psychotic!

 

😆

I'll repeat what I've said countless times.

When you watch a film , the screen doesn't go black after every shot; the individual images are stitched together to produce a smooth flow. Occasionally, the screen fades to black or two shots are joined by crossfades.

A soundtrack album should mimic this aesthetic.

Their should be a logical, narrative flow. A.catalogue of recorded cues is antithetical to musical progression

[BryonDavis 172]

2 hours ago, bruce marshall said:

The only people crazier than the anti- combo crowd are the anti- crossfade crowd.

Those folks are psychotic!

 

😆

I'll repeat what I've said countless times.

When you watch a film , the screen doesn't go black after every shot; the individual images are stitched together to produce a smooth flow. Occasionally, the screen fades to black or two shots are joined by crossfades.

A soundtrack album should mimic this aesthetic.

Their should be a logical, narrative flow. A.catalogue of recorded cues is antithetical to musical progression

 

I get it but I will just say I roll with however the creatives involved want to lay out the music.  Personally, I am a fan of combining cues but that doesn't mean I am going to tell people closer to the music how they should lay it out from their perspective.  To each their own I guess.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

33 minutes ago, BryonDavis said:

Personally, I am a fan of combining cues but that doesn't mean I am going to tell people closer to the music how they should lay it out from their perspective. 

 

We're customers, we do that all the time.

[BryonDavis 172]

2 hours ago, PuhgreÞiviÞm said:

 

We're customers, we do that all the time.

 

And I respect it.  I truly do.

[Faleel 5,341]

11 hours ago, bruce marshall said:

The only people crazier than the anti- combo crowd are the anti- crossfade crowd.

Those folks are psychotic!

 

😆

I'll repeat what I've said countless times.

When you watch a film , the screen doesn't go black after every shot; the individual images are stitched together to produce a smooth flow. Occasionally, the screen fades to black or two shots are joined by crossfades.

A soundtrack album should mimic this aesthetic.

Their should be a logical, narrative flow. A.catalogue of recorded cues is antithetical to musical progression

But music DOES have rests of silence.

 

And books have chapter divisions with titles.

[Richard Penna 3,676]

Nothing inherently wrong with combining cues, especially if they're heard that way in the film.

 

But crossfading in our context usually means joining two cues that don't go together in the film, and that often doesn't work. I've got a couple of expansions where crossfading was done between unrelated scenes, and it doesn't work, because you don't get to properly exit the tone and emotion of the first cue.

 

I reckon that if you're buying an expansion, you're sacrificing some ability to ask for it to be presented with proper flow like an OST would have. I'd suggest that more people buy an expansion because they like the score in the film, and therefore would put a higher preference on the expansion containing the complete score in chrono order.

[Brundlefly 2,385]

On 8/28/2020 at 8:04 PM, Holko said:

Varese has really dropped the ball on cover art lately, haven't they?

That is the first cover art in a long time that is okay.

[bruce marshall 1,315]

6 hours ago, Spider-Fal said:

But music DOES have rests of silence.

 

And books have chapter divisions with titles.

Did you even read what I wrote?

I said " occasionally the screen fades to black".

 

 

One alternative:

Tribute didn't combine cues BUT..

They ran them almost back to back.

Most cues had barely perceptible pauses.

This is one of my top five favorite scores, and even I was satisfied with forty seven individual cues!

However, if there were distinct breaks between every short cue, it would have been disastrous.

 

[bruce marshall 1,315]

On 8/29/2020 at 1:09 AM, bruce marshall said:

You make good points.

But, there are ' casual' film score fans too.

I love Goldsmith, but compared to Moradi I'm a ' casual' fan. Same goes for JW; compared to Thor , I'm a dilettante. 😆.

 

 

'Casual fan ' collection.

😛

[FunnyML 81]

On 8/29/2020 at 12:44 PM, Thor said:

As for the cover art, it's almost exactly the same as the OST back in the day, so I'm not sure what people are reacting to?

Here is a link to a good image of the poster art for comparison: LINK

 

Well, I have only done a few custom artworks for scores and I'm no expert, but my biggest complaints are:

• The background plate with the spider is zoomed in, there's much more art on the sides and bottom they could have used. The spider would be more recognizable that way IMHO.
• The Deluxe Edition banner could have been on the top like most other Deluxe Editions from Varése - there's no reason for it being on the left side.
• "Original Motion Picture Score" is black, "music [...] by" is white - they could have been both white like on the OST
• Elmer's name is way to big for my taste compared to the other text, they might have presented them on separate lines as well
• that yellow color for Elmer's credit is pretty ugly. They could have used that orangy color from the background instead to integrate it a little more or just white as the OST was. And the size difference was smaller on the OST, too.
• I don't like Varése using always the same font for their releases, but in this case, it's the same font the poster uses I think. However, the key art has a grungy pattern used for the letters.
• I think with 30% of material composed by him, Peter Bernstein should have been credited on the front, but I guess that's a legal thing.

 

[bruce marshall 1,315]

I wish VSD would spend a little money and give us decent spine lettering. Fill up the space , enlarge the letters, be bespoke instead of generic.

[BryonDavis 172]

13 hours ago, FunnyML said:

Here is a link to a good image of the poster art for comparison: LINK

 

Well, I have only done a few custom artworks for scores and I'm no expert, but my biggest complaints are:

• The background plate with the spider is zoomed in, there's much more art on the sides and bottom they could have used. The spider would be more recognizable that way IMHO.
• The Deluxe Edition banner could have been on the top like most other Deluxe Editions from Varése - there's no reason for it being on the left side.
• "Original Motion Picture Score" is black, "music [...] by" is white - they could have been both white like on the OST
• Elmer's name is way to big for my taste compared to the other text, they might have presented them on separate lines as well
• that yellow color for Elmer's credit is pretty ugly. They could have used that orangy color from the background instead to integrate it a little more or just white as the OST was. And the size difference was smaller on the OST, too.
• I don't like Varése using always the same font for their releases, but in this case, it's the same font the poster uses I think. However, the key art has a grungy pattern used for the letters.
• I think with 30% of material composed by him, Peter Bernstein should have been credited on the front, but I guess that's a legal thing.

 

 

It's a legal thing or else we would have credited him on the front.

9 hours ago, bruce marshall said:

I wish VSD would spend a little money and give us decent spine lettering. Fill up the space , enlarge the letters, be bespoke instead of generic.

 

Sigh.

[Jay 37,322]

Don't let the trolls win, Bryon

[bruce marshall 1,315]

What?

It's a legit complaint.

It's unreadable on my shelf and nobody else uses such TINY print!

 

At least I didn't bash the cover

9 hours ago, bruce marshall said:

Need my reading glasses....

Don't need my reading glasses.

😁

[BryonDavis 172]

2 minutes ago, bruce marshall said:

What?

It's a legit complaint.

It's unreadable on my shelf and nobody else uses such TINY print!

 

At least I didn't bash the cover

 

Bash away.  Doesn't really matter what I say or what the reasons are. I respect your complaint and I respect others but seems i should just stop spending time responding.  Thanks.

[bruce marshall 1,315]

Just now, BryonDavis said:

 

Bash away.  Doesn't really matter what I say or what the reasons are. I respect your complaint and I respect others but seems i should just stop spending time responding.  Thanks.

I'm not bashing, just asking you show ' mercy' on us ' visually challenged' folks!😊

[BryonDavis 172]

Just now, bruce marshall said:

I'm not bashing, just asking you show ' mercy' on us ' visually challenged' folks!😊

 

Lol, thanks. Ok...good take.

[Richard Penna 3,676]

Has anyone ordered this from the international store, and more importantly, received it?

 

I haven't heard a sqwawk from Varese since ordering (8 days ago) and just got back from a trip and no sign of it. I'd hoped this era of long waits for speciality releases was over, but apparently not

[bruce marshall 1,315]

On 9/1/2020 at 7:34 PM, BryonDavis said:

 

Lol, thanks. Ok...good take.

If it makes you feel any better..

I like the de of THE RUNNING MAN.

Extra music is good!😁

 

[12-Mile Reef 123]

19 hours ago, Richard Penna said:

Has anyone ordered this from the international store, and more importantly, received it?

 

I haven't heard a sqwawk from Varese since ordering (8 days ago) and just got back from a trip and no sign of it. I'd hoped this era of long waits for speciality releases was over, but apparently not

I e-mailed Awesome Distro (who dispatch the UK orders) to enquire about this as there was nothing to indicate that it was not yet in stock when it was announced. I heard back this morning and it turns out they were indeed waiting for stock but it has arrived and should ship in the next day or two.

[Richard Penna 3,676]

Cool, thanks for the info. I just had a dispatch e-mail 20 mins ago, so I should receive it tomorrow.

 

I was really hoping that this was an arrangement where either Distro were doing the pressing themselves, or Varese shipped over a certain number of units in advance so that Distro were in a better position to dispatch them sooner.

 

Given that we're paying £2.00 or so over the exchange rate, I guess that contributes towards a mass shipment to the UK, then £2 or so more for UK postage. We'd normally pay at least £10 for shipping, so while we still have to put up with the wait if we order on release date, they've essentially halved the shipping cost with this arrangement.

 

On 9/1/2020 at 1:16 PM, FunnyML said:

Here is a link to a good image of the poster art for comparison: LINK

 

Well, I have only done a few custom artworks for scores and I'm no expert, but my biggest complaints are:

 

Replace 'complaints' with 'minor quirks I noticed', and remove anything where 'taste' is mentioned, and I can agree with one or two of your points.

 

I can't even remember what the covers look like on some of my recent purchases.

[1977 1,743]

Available digitally:

 

 

[Jay 37,322]

On sale for $10

 

https://www.varesesarabande.com/collections/spring-cleaning-2022/products/wild-wild-west-the-the-deluxe-edition-cd

[Yavar Moradi 2,593]

Personally I found this expansion to be a revelation, adding a ton of development and good variety to what was a fun but much more disposable score on the original half hour album. For $10 it’s a steal!

 

Yavar