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Godzilla's Musicverse [from Showa to Monsterverse and beyond]


Gojira

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Discuss music for any Godzilla movie/anime here. Please refrain from spoilers as long as a movie or series is still fresh and not released worldwide (like GvK right now: no release date in Europe due Covid 19), thanks!

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Let me start with Holkenborg's Godzilla vs. Kong: A huge disappointment to me, mainly because of an uninspired theme for Godzilla. Kong's theme is better (maybe because of the little girl's bond to Kong as seen in trailers) but the bulk of the score is quite generic and nondescript action stuff which could be from any other action movie. Rarely there is a "monstrous" feel to the music. But since I cannot see the movie in Switzerland right now, the music is all there is to get my Godzilla vs. Kong fix and I listen to it plenty (but with none of the joy I had listening to McCreary's KOTM when it was fresh and new. Here's looking forward to the music from the Netflix series Godzilla Singular Point.

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Junkie XL talks about the Godzilla vs Kong score

 

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Biggest bruh moment in that article is him saying that the classic Godzilla themes would not work in a modern setting. Dude... your score comes right after one that successfully updated them. Also, the majority of those themes were written when Godzilla was still an antagonist.

 

On a slightly different note, my personal favourites from the Japanese films are the original 1954 film's score, Godzilla vs Destroyah, and Shin Godzilla.

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I’m a huge fan of Ifukube’s scores. 
 

I also have to give thumbs up to Michiru Oshima for her scores in the Millennium series.

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1 hour ago, Giftheck said:

Junkie XL talks about the Godzilla vs Kong score

 

Source

 

Biggest bruh moment in that article is him saying that the classic Godzilla themes would not work in a modern setting. Dude... your score comes right after one that successfully updated them. Also, the majority of those themes were written when Godzilla was still an antagonist.

 

On a slightly different note, my personal favourites from the Japanese films are the original 1954 film's score, Godzilla vs Destroyah, and Shin Godzilla.

 

Maybe Junkie was just pissed that Bear grabbed the 62 King Kong vs. Godzilla theme for KOTM :mrgreen:

 

My favorite Ifukube scores are Godzilla, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II and Godzilla vs. Destoroyah. Monstrous music, monstrous fun scores. Recently I rediscovered Godzilla's Revenge (1969) from Kunio Miyauchi: such a charming score for a charming movie (yes, the King of the Monsters is also a master of versatility and can be charming too)

15 minutes ago, Ollie said:

I’m a huge fan of Ifukube’s scores. 
 

I also have to give thumbs up to Michiru Oshima for her scores in the Millennium series.

Yes, Oshima is great! I love every entry of hers in the series :)

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9 minutes ago, Gojira said:

 

Maybe Junkie was just pissed that Bear grabbed the 62 King Kong vs. Godzilla theme for KOTM :mrgreen:

 

 

I don't remember hearing that in the film. I assume you're referring to the chanting that's part of King Ghidorah's theme.

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Nope. It's the opening of "Godzilla Main Title" (which is part of the end credits in the movie) in KOTM. The same motive pops up for the first time 1962 in the opening from "Godzilla's resurrection" (on Lalaland's King Kong vs. Godzilla disc).

 

And Junkie sort of "abbreviated" this motiv for his Godzilla theme (or used it as "inspiration", if you wanna call it that way)

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Interview with Junkie about his work on GvK:

 

https://www.comingsoon.net/movies/features/1167841-cs-interview-tom-holkenborg-spills-the-details-on-his-score-for-godzilla-vs-kong

 

This is what he had to say about his Godzilla theme:

 

Quote

“I wanted a monster theme that reminds us of like, 50 or 60 years of Godzilla’s history. And so that was very important. When you hear it, it’s like, ah, that’s Godzilla! You know, unmistakably. That is a ridiculous, big brass section that played that in the lowest octave of their instruments and it sounds nasty, but it does put a smile on your face.”

 

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6 hours ago, Edmilson said:

Interview with Junkie about his work on GvK:

 

https://www.comingsoon.net/movies/features/1167841-cs-interview-tom-holkenborg-spills-the-details-on-his-score-for-godzilla-vs-kong

 

This is what he had to say about his Godzilla theme:

 

 


He has the Zimmer bullshitting down to a tee.

That lazy hack took the Godzilla fanfare, changed a few notes, flattened the meter, and called it a day. Presumably to get back to finishing his Mount Everest sized Justice League turd.

 

Hot flash for him: the entire score consists of a ridiculously large brass section. 

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GOJIRA ( 1954) is on my " Top forty" scores of all-time.

KOTM was my favorite score from last year.*

G vs. GHIDORAH is also excellent, though it does reuse many themes.

 

 

*first idiot who says " it came out TWO years ago" gets sentenced to listening to twenty four hours of Fauci interviews

 

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Great idea for a thread! 

Besides the great Godzilla theme by Ifukube, the main titles for the 1960s Toho Godzilla vs King Kong is a favorite. The requiem Ifukube composed for his last score, Godzilla vs Destoroyah is beautiful.

 

The new Honkelborg score is so-so, but found it a little better than his usual output, which I tend to dislike. There's a few electronics in the lenghty Tasman Sea that sounded cool, but that's it. Godzilla's new theme is hammered down in the same format all the time, Kong's theme is very unmemorable to me, and couldn't find any really good material.  We could only dream how awesome McCreary's score would have been. 

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Confession time: I listen to Holkenborg's score alot right now, mainly because I'm a sucker for all things Godzilla and that's all there is to have of Godzilla vs. Kong in my part of the world since the movie theaters are closed and HBO Max not available. Eather the music did grow a little on me or I just got used to it by now but I enjoy it more now than right after the release. But I also think it's a rather weak entry in Holkenborg's cataloge. I dig his Fury Road a lot and there is good stuff in Alita. GvK seems quite uninspired in comparision.

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Holkenborg's score is better than I expect, not the best in this series, but better than many non Ifukube Showa Godzilla score.

 

The best Godzilla score to me is King of Monster.

All Ifukube's works are great.

The Michiru's works are very close the Ifukube's traditional sound too.

 Shin Godzilla is in fact typical Shirou Sagisu style. I think his new Evangelion movies score is better.

Kow Otani's score has very cool variation of Ifukube's theme, his Garmera's score is worth listen to as well.

 

 

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7 minutes ago, bruce marshall said:

Do you have the recent rerecording of GOJIRA?

It's the CD on top, left...

 

I have it too and highly recommend it

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13 minutes ago, The Big Man said:

They did a re-recording??

https://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/KICC-1276?s_ssid=e435836069592fa5eb

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I'm really surprised so many people like the Junkie score. NOTHING stood out to me except for how knockoff the Godzilla "theme" sounded. If he was worried about the original theme not being appropriate for the times, why did he just write a more generic version of the same thing? 

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Why does everything Holkenborg records have to sound dramatic? These fucks only know one tone. ONE. Drama. And even more drama Heavy drama. 

How can someone listen to this album entirely and not think about a high ledge? 

 

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2 minutes ago, gkgyver said:

Why does everything Holkenborg records have to sound dramatic? These fucks only know one tone. ONE. Drama. And even more drama Heavy drama. 

How can someone listen to this album entirely and not think about a high ledge? 

 

If there's one thing I've learned about the way general audiences react to music, even orchestral, it's that most people have very low standards. 

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I saw Shin Godzilla recently, right after watching Neon Genesis Evangelion and End of Evangelion funnily enough, and I absolutely adored its score by Shiro Sagisu. This track in particular has such wonderful divine and dark bombast to it (ignore the title, this was actually composed by Shiro): 

 

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On 4/3/2021 at 11:00 PM, The Big Man said:

They did a re-recording??

 

10 hours ago, superultramegaa said:

Thank god for this thread mentioning the 1954 remaster! Listening to it now, and this rerecording is beautiful!

Glad you found it!

 

Arent you both glad I " trolled" you 😊

On 4/3/2021 at 11:43 PM, The Big Man said:

Didn't know.

 

Although I've been using this resource for over 20 years.

 

http://www.godzillamonstermusic.com/godzilla.htm

I think you need a new 

Resource.

 

 

 

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I wish people stopped reading bullshit by composers and just evaluated the music. Then maybe evaluations wouldn't start with the mandatory "I'm not saying I don't like him but..." in order to not offend the amoebae who love this. 

 

It's entirely okay to hate this hamfisted effort. 

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