Deadly Blessing - James Horner - Intrada (June 2023)

[EhTar 63]

From Roger Feigelson on FB Intrada Soundtrack Club page: "Nightbreed will probably be out in July, so in the meantime we'll squeeze this title in June."

 

[Edmilson 7,466]

Never heard about this movie, or score. According to Wikipedia, this even predates TWOK. Still, any new Horner is always good news (but where is Brainstorm?).

[EhTar 63]

Think The Omen a la sauce Horner. Beautiful choral writing. I love it since I heard it on the old promo Wolfen/Deadly Blessing.

[Smeltington 1,440]

Best artwork since Dracula! Although the monster in this movie appears to be just a guy with hairy arms.

[crocodile 8,017]

Intriguing.

 

Karol

[Edmilson 7,466]

Is the monster (?) giving the lady an orgasm using just a head massage? 

[Jay 37,369]

Fantastic news!!!

[1977 1,743]

Wow! Never thought this one would see the light of day. 

[Thor 7,512]

14 hours ago, EhTar said:

Think The Omen a la sauce Horner. Beautiful choral writing. I love it since I heard it on the old promo Wolfen/Deadly Blessing.

 

I remember I had that old WOLFEN/DEADLY BLESSING bootleg (not promo) back in the day. Don't have it anymore, but I seem to remember some interesting percussive textures. Cool release!

[Bespin 8,483]

A pre-Freddy Wes Craven movie... and a horror score from James Horner, interesting and totally unknown to me!

[MrJosh 892]

I'm always interested in the early Horner scores, I will have to pick this up. 

[Jay 37,369]

Man, I go on vacation and nobody picks up the slack!

 

Also, there appears to be no Roger write-up for this title, only the Doug write-up!

 

DEADLY BLESSING
James Horner
Label: Intrada Special Collection Volume ISC 490
Film Date: 1981
Album Date: 2023
Time: 61:19
Tracks: 25
Price: $22.99

 

World premiere CD release of exciting early James Horner horror soundtrack! Wes Craven directs in 1981, Maren Jensen, Susan Buckner, (young) Sharon Stone, Jeff East, Lisa Hartman, Lois Nettleton, Ernest Borgnine star. Early James Horner score written for large string section plus woodwinds, percussion, piano and chorus. Craven’s tale is about a former Hittite (a fictitious religious sect similar to the Amish) who left the faith to marry an outsider. Shunned, the man is mysteriously murdered and his young widow and her out-of-town girlfriends try to maintain the farm amidst a bizarre world of ancient practices, strange beliefs and a possible supernatural curse. Composer Horner writes to this satanic world with suspenseful strings, now turning violent, now turning creepy, always unsettling. When the action explodes, chorus joins in the rhythmic excitement. Unusually, the film uses almost all of Horner’s music where it was originally intended. Intrada is presenting this score, courtesy of Universal, from the only surviving complete set of 1/4” stereo elements in largely good condition. These precious ten rolls of stereo tape were originally dubbed at the slow tape speed of 7 1/2 i.p.s. and had seen better days, but they were complete, including all takes, pickups and choral overlays. The result is a satisfying listen to one of Horner’s most important previously unreleased scores. Tim Greiving supplies informative notes, Kay Marshall offers dramatic packaging. Dan Wallin records and mixes, James Horner composes, conducts. Intrada Special Collection CD available while quantities and interest remain.

 

Track List

01. Main Title (From Deadly Blessing) (2:23)
02. Incubus Painted On Wall (1:08)
03. Martha And Jim (1:57)
04. Unwelcome Visitor (2:03)
05. Jim’s Death With Tractor (3:19)
06. Brief Funeral (1:12)
07. Kids In The Barn/Pluck It Out (2:29)
08. Gluntz’s Demise (5:06)
09. This Century Is More Peaceful (1:12)
10. Lana In The Barn (4:37)
11. Gluntz Hangs Around (1:14)
12. Snake In The Bath (Original) (4:45)
13. John Gets A Licking (1:06)
14. Lana’s Dream (1:05)
15. Wind Blows In Martha’s Room (0:47)
16. Trouble In The Convertible (1:59)
17. Sour Milk (0:40)
18. Surprise In The Grave (4:12)
19. Martha And Faith Wrestle (2:02)
20. Faith Leaps Out (4:10)
21. The Incubus Rises And End Credits (From Deadly Blessing) (4:16)
Total Score Time: 52:28

 

The Extras
22. Snake Stinger (0:11)
23. Snake In The Bath (Revised) (4:22)
24. End Credits (From Deadly Blessing) – Alternate (1:44)
25. Deadly Blessing – Trailer (John Beal) (2:17)
Total Extras Time: 8:42

Total CD Time: 61:19

 

https://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.12821/.f

 

 

 

[Andy 4,138]

Want this one. Love early Horner and love the Omen it riffs on. 

[Jay 37,369]

Yea I'm excited for this one!  I've never heard a second of it before, and am not gonna check out the samples, just wait to hear the whole album at once when it arrives.

 

However I won't order it until Intrada releases Night Breed, so I wait!

[Yavar Moradi 2,599]

19 hours ago, Jay said:

Man, I go on vacation and nobody picks up the slack!

 

Also, there appears to be no Roger write-up for this title, only the Doug write-up!

Roger posted his write-up on the Intrada Facebook group; he just didn’t bother posting it on the Intrada forum as he has in the past (it’s been having issues so maybe he was told his IP was forbidden or something):

https://www.facebook.com/groups/95015405220/permalink/10168053851330221/?mibextid=S66gvF
 

“INTRADA Announces

DEADLY BLESSING
Composed and Conducted by JAMES HORNER
 INTRADA  ISC 490

Intrada announces the premiere release of James Horner's 1981 score to the Universal Pictures film Deadly Blessing. In the early '80s, Horner's career was just starting to take off and he'd scored a series of horror films, including Humanoids From the Deep, The Hand and Wolfen. Even though it was early in his career, Horner had an undeniable gift for human emotion and the mechanics of film drama and it is on full display here. Deadly Blessing presented an evocative, eccentric canvas and partnered him with the hot new master of suspense, Wes Craven. Horner composed a score featuring both orchestra and chorus, featuring a large string section, augmented with solo woodwinds, piano, chimes and percussion. In what generally seems uncommon, almost every cue heard in the film appears where Horner originally intended it to be!
 
The score is presented from the only surviving complete set of 1/4" stereo elements in largely good sound, although as producer Doug Fake mentions in his liner notes, "These precious 10 rolls of tape were originally dubbed at the slower tape speed of 7 1/2 i.p.s. and had seen better days, but they were complete, including all takes and pickups as well as all chorus overlays." The result is a satisfying listen to one of Horner's most important previously unreleased scores. 
 
Directed by Wes Craven, the film tells the tale of a former Hittite (a fictitious religious sect that live a lifestyle similar to the Amish), who left the faith to marry an outsider. The shunned man, who remains a farmer in the midst of his people, is mysteriously murdered—and his young widow and her out-of-town girlfriends try to survive within this bizarre world of ancient practices, strange beliefs and a possible supernatural curse.
 
Intrada ISC 490
Retail Price: $22.99
Barcode: 7 20258 54900 6
Starts Shipping 6/27

https://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.12821/.f”

 

—

 

Yavar

[Jay 37,369]

Ah, ok!  Yea, I only looked for it in the usual place I've always found them (the Intrada forum)

Thanks!

[Yavar Moradi 2,599]

19 minutes ago, Jay said:

Ah, ok!  Yea, I only looked for it in the usual place I've always found them (the Intrada forum)

 

Roger's been pretty frustrated by it because it randomly won't allow people to post at times -- including him! So he may have just written it off. Yesterday he posted his own writeup for Zeitlin's Invasion of the Body Snatchers on Facebook as well.

 

Yavar

[Jay 37,369]

His Snatchers write-up is in the Intrada forum

[crocodile 8,017]

I am listening to this for the first time. What a strange literal mash-up of Aliens and The Omen. I'm glad this came out. It's probably something later Horner would be slightly embarrassed of. It's amusing but quite enjoyable and cute.

 

Karol

[Jay 37,369]

Yeah!  I listened to it for the first time last week.  A mashup of The Omen and (what he'd later write for) Aliens is a good way to describe it.  I liked it, it's funny that for some reason no matter how often Horner repeats himself, I always end up liking the original and repeats, in different ways.

[Andy 4,138]

I need to get this!!!!

[A. A. Ron 1,742]

I probably should have grabbed this with Windtalkers, but oh well. I'm sure Intrada will put out something else I want this year.

[JTN 2,030]

19 hours ago, Jay said:

A mashup of The Omen 

That was my impression, too! The choral chanting in latin makes it sound just like an Omen-score. 

I agree with the rest of your comment as well. Horner copies (repeats) himself all the time, but what he does is always a little different and is always enjoyable. 

[Trope 527]

So this is now on Spotify but the sound quality is significantly worse than the samples on Intrada’s website. I don’t know why.

[Faleel 5,355]

44 minutes ago, Trope said:

So this is now on Spotify but the sound quality is significantly worse than the samples on Intrada’s website. I don’t know why.

Mp3 mastered?

[Trope 527]

30 minutes ago, Signals said:

Mp3 mastered?

No, the whole thing sounds completely fuzzy, as if it was playing under water. Very different to the clarity on the Intrada samples. I wonder if their digital sources got corrupted or damaged somehow in the upload process. I hope they fix it, because the music I'm hearing from under the ocean is actually quite good!

 

Comparing the audio sample on Intrada vs. the same track on Spotify, it is clear that something is afoot beyond normal compression. Enormous amounts of high-frequency signals are entirely absent! I checked the audio sample on Qobuz too, and it is the same as Spotify (missing the upper frequencies).

[Faleel 5,355]

Youtube sounds the same way I believe?

 

 

[Chewy 2,391]

First track spectrogram (from Qobuz file, 24-bit 96kHz):

 

 

This sounds so bad... Who's gonna ask Intrada or Back Lot Music to fix it?

[Holko 9,529]

And they're asking more money for this high-res version, right? At this point, shouldn't this be reported to some authority as a ripoff or something?

[Thor 7,512]

Any comments on the actual music?

[1977 1,743]

38 minutes ago, Chewy said:

First track spectrogram (from Qobuz file, 24-bit 96kHz):

 

 

This sounds so bad... Who's gonna ask Intrada or Back Lot Music to fix it?

 

Deadly Blessing: The Tweeter-less Edition

[Jay 37,369]

48 minutes ago, Thor said:

Any comments on the actual music?

 

On 10/08/2023 at 1:43 PM, crocodile said:

I am listening to this for the first time. What a strange literal mash-up of Aliens and The Omen. I'm glad this came out. It's probably something later Horner would be slightly embarrassed of. It's amusing but quite enjoyable and cute.

 

Karol

 

On 10/08/2023 at 2:54 PM, Jay said:

Yeah!  I listened to it for the first time last week.  A mashup of The Omen and (what he'd later write for) Aliens is a good way to describe it.  I liked it, it's funny that for some reason no matter how often Horner repeats himself, I always end up liking the original and repeats, in different ways.

 

On 11/08/2023 at 10:45 AM, JTW said:

That was my impression, too! The choral chanting in latin makes it sound just like an Omen-score. 

I agree with the rest of your comment as well. Horner copies (repeats) himself all the time, but what he does is always a little different and is always enjoyable. 

[Thor 7,512]

Two comments! Amazing.

[Andy 4,138]

I haven’t bought it yet @Thor, but I’m gonna get it with humanoids.  Fortunately I got Wolfen for a reasonable price from the estate sale Lukas Kendall was managing. 

[OneBuckFilms 323]

I might have to add this to my want list. I have Humanoids, and really am enjoying it.

[Trope 527]

11 hours ago, Thor said:

Any comments on the actual music?

 

On 22/9/2023 at 2:26 PM, Trope said:

The whole thing sounds completely fuzzy, as if it was playing under water. I hope they fix it, because the music I'm hearing from under the ocean is actually quite good!

[Faleel 5,355]

Has the youtube audio been fixed? It says it was updated...

 

 

[Chewy 2,391]

Track 1 has been updated and sounds much better now (even though it appears to be 44.1kHz audio resampled to 96kHz):

 

Track 2 still sounds and looks bad:

 

 

Many tracks are similar to track 1 (which sounds good but is fake high resolution).

 

Some tracks are still low quality like track 2, that includes: track 7, start of track 12, track 17, track 19, track 22 and track 23. None of these are available as samples on the Intrada website, so there's no way to check if it's the right master.

 

Anybody who has the CD can confirm those sound good on their copy?

 

[1977 1,743]

If the CD sound is bad I'm gonna be pissed

[Trope 527]

2 hours ago, JTWfan77 said:

If the CD sound is bad I'm gonna be pissed

You won't enjoy reading the FSM board comments about this release then...

[1977 1,743]

I don't see anything on there other than some of the cues sounding muffled, which presumably is a source issue. Nothing about all tracks having their high frequencies cut off like the digital.

[Andy 4,138]

Same. There are some saying the previous boot has more consistent sound to their ears

[1977 1,743]

Which blows my mind. How can a boot sound better than the legitimate thing? Shouldn't they then use the boot as the source? Or is it a case of some tracks having better sound than the boot, while others sound the same as the boot?

[Faleel 5,355]

Just now, JTWfan77 said:

Shouldn't they then use the boot as the source?

[Ollie 1,059]

7 hours ago, Chewy said:

Track 1 has been updated and sounds much better now (even though it appears to be 44.1kHz audio resampled to 96kHz):

 

Track 2 still sounds and looks bad:

 

 

Many tracks are similar to track 1 (which sounds good but is fake high resolution).

 

Some tracks are still low quality like track 2, that includes: track 7, start of track 12, track 17, track 19, track 22 and track 23. None of these are available as samples on the Intrada website, so there's no way to check if it's the right master.

 

Anybody who has the CD can confirm those sound good on their copy?

 

 

Those tracks are a lower quality on the cd. I would gather those were damaged or from a lesser source?

 

 

 

[1977 1,743]

1 hour ago, Signals said:

How so? The release is licenced from the rights holder.

[Andy 4,138]

1 hour ago, Ollie said:

 

Those tracks are a lower quality on the cd. I would gather those were damaged or from a lesser source?

 

 

 

Let me see if I understand.  I just bought the CD, but it has tracks that sound better on the digital download as well as the boot?

 

Edit: in other words, tracks on the CD itself are inferior to the digital version and perhaps the boot?

[Jurassic Shark 12,079]

Is Intrada ever going to get their act together?

[Faleel 5,355]

1 hour ago, JTWfan77 said:

How so? The release is licenced from the rights holder.

Not the boot....

1 hour ago, Andy said:

Let me see if I understand.  I just bought the CD, but it has tracks that sound better on the digital download as well as the boot?

 

Edit: in other words, tracks on the CD itself are inferior to the digital version and perhaps the boot?

No, he means that the tracks that are lower quality then the rest on the CD, are also the same tracks that are lower quality than the rest on the digital release.

[Jurassic Shark 12,079]

So the CD sounds the best?