 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
It's easy. I base it like this. LOGAN'S RUN is a bad movie with a good score. TWATL is a better movie with a fantastic score. Subjective? Yes.
I think Logan's Run IS a good movie!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I agree. I believe this score is higly overrated when you consider his other works in the genre (Alien, Planet of the Apes, Star Trek).
I much prefer Logan's Run over Alien, which I find quite turgid - both in terms of score and film.
|
|
|
|
|
|
However, where the original album was a very good listening experience - JUST the right mix of orchestral dissonance, synth beeps and more melodic material (including that great source cue!) - the C&C was grating, exhausting and just plainly annoying. I sold it.
funny, I have the complete opposite opinion!
I never cared much for the albums of Logan's Run, Capricorn One, The Wind And The Lion and Jaws, because of their playlist. while the expanded albums just get spin after spin in my player.
for once, the chronological presentation (something which isn't really necessary, even with complete scores) of Logan's Run sounds more fluid and logical, than the previous album versions.
ok, there are a couple of long synth tracks that are aquired taste, but as a whole, the complete album does it for me.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Posted: |
Jun 11, 2009 - 12:11 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Thor
(Member)
|
I usually program "Love Shop" out but I find the other electronic cues very interesting listens (on the other hand I find most of the electronic material in The Illustrated Man too grating). And Thor, I get the point, but what's the use of further discussion? My question would be is there any expanded score presentation that you DO enjoy?
Yes, a few. I like the Arista box STAR WARSes, for example.
In any case, while my C&C critique can be applied to most expansions in general, it still takes different form depending on what score it is and what aspects, exactly, that constitute the grating. In this case, it's the extended portion of synth beeps and plings in the middle that does it (plus "functional" bits here and there that should have been weeded out).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Jun 11, 2009 - 2:34 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Thor
(Member)
|
Well, one man's functional is another man's fascinating. I can think of very little of the added material that I don't love--one of my favorite cues plays when Logan and Jessica come out of a tunnel and are confronted by other Runners with some kind of poison gas light stick weapons. Goldsmith is just playing the three-note motif that opens the score played by electronics, but he's doing it with cellos and double basses and the effect creates an entire environment on its own as the motif plays against itself. The Cathedral sequence leading in to the cubs, the entry into Box's chamber, the return journey to the domed city and the swirling swim music through the pump machinery...all this stuff is 'functional'?
Don't ask me about the film and what music goes where, since I've seen it only once and that was a few years ago (entertaining, albeit cheesy 70's sci fi that didn't really leave an impression), but yeah, to me many of them work that way on album. But again, I haven't been sharing bed with this score and film, like many others. I'm just in it for the music and the overall album experience.
Incidentally, I don't necessarily dismiss that the overall story arch described above could also work on album (the sonata form of electronic ambiance, then orchestral timbres and back to electronic ambiance again). But it would have needed to be re-conceptualized, selecting representative cues and also cutting off the grating sounds when you've had enough - shuffling around with the sequence to insert orchestral warmth when you've just about had it with the weird noises. Come to think of it, that's the way the original album works, so I guess that takes me back to that again! 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
When I purchased the FSM, I was not looking forward to more of the electronic music. On the LP based release, I had found it to be merely interruptive. It was certainly misplaced, but there was also the sound quality to handle. Electronics suffered more at the hands of the technology of the times than did physical instruments in sounding almost immediately dated.
But the electronic bits on the FSM were a revelation. I hate to toss out an overemployed term, but it's warranted. The clarity, stronger bass, and separation do amazing things, making these pieces alternately rich and cutting. I believe I read that the production team on the FSM had to essentially recombine a lot of this music, at least the electronic stuff, or perhaps recreate the stereo mix. I can't recall specifically enough, and I couldn't find what I thought I'd read on the site. Perhaps Thor knows the thread and can direct us, as he so helpfully does often, or Messrs. Bond or Kendall could chime in and correct me.
If I am right, then they are to be applauded for taking the sound of this work from dated to timeless. Like the updated special effects in the classic Trek series, only the style evokes the time of their creation. They otherwise read as 'today'.
While I used to program out the electronics on the Bay Cities disc, I often do the opposite with the FSM. I select the tracks which are wholly, or most prominently, electronic, tracks 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 12 and 21, play them on a system with excellent separation, and make sure the bass is set to be quite warm. A little ambient room echo helps too. It becomes a 31 minute work of sound art rivaling any of Goldsmith's other fully electronic work. No wait, in this form it IS my favorite electronic score.
The remaining tracks make up a 43 minute analog (symphonic) score that works well in its way. This has the same feel, as a whole work, as does the entire album presentation. The thing is, with everything properly sequenced, and because the first half of the score features an avoidance of melody, and some discord, the electronic tracks now feel organic as it all plays along. There is less reason to do this on the FSM, other than to hear what Logan's Run might've felt like (mostly) sans electronics.
I know I've said this before, but people who think they already know what they're getting with FSM's Logan's Run, based on previous releases, are very much mistaken. This provided a surprise where I did not think one was possible.
- David
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Jun 13, 2009 - 4:35 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Ubik
(Member)
|
It's funny, but this score, which is almost universally thought of as a film music master work was not a particular favorite of its composer. I know because when I asked JG about "Logan's Run" in a 1986 seminar , adding it was one of my favorite film scores, his reaction was almost dismissive, like "what's the big deal?" I recall he said his favorite up to that time was "Islands In The Stream", which was written about a year later than "Logan.
He probably said that because the film 1). was science fiction, and 2). was not cricitally well-received, either when it came out or in later years. He certainly worked hard on the score: in 1991 he said, "I agonized for a month looking for an approach to LOGAN's RUN. Once I found it, the music took off like a racehorse." Like others here, I find this to be a brilliant, musically diverse score, as intellectually sophisticated as PATTON buth with much more emotional wallop.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
. I will have to check out the FSM sales this summer though for some purely orchestral stuff...though I guess I should make an exception for Illustrated Man.
