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Posted: |
Apr 30, 2009 - 12:57 AM
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By: |
12-tone
(Member)
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This is probably the best Goldsmith album you can get this year (at least so far), and I've been sticking to it for a whole week.
The sound on this release, in my opinino, is superior to the Warner Germany release, though sometimes the LP arrangement delivers a better listening experience. (Hey, don't forget that this FSM release is designed carefully, so you can programme it as the 1983 album. )
However, there is one thing I don't like on the original LP programme - ends the piece with Constant's Twilight Zone theme.(No offence to the theme itself. In fact, I even enjoy this theme to Jerry's score to Segement 1) It should be left out as a single cue to finish the album, in my opinion. (Hey, but who cares? We are given the complete score, aren't we?) So, a really fair reason to own it, isn't it?
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Superb reissue.
Probably the best of the year so far.
What sound! Great notes!
A big thank you!!
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Posted: |
Feb 12, 2011 - 6:03 PM
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By: |
Grecchus
(Member)
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I've been soaking this up for the last 3 days. Seeing the film on it's initial theatrical release (at the Odeon, Leicester Square late night show) then maybe a couple of times on TV and video over a number of years left me with a pretty good impression of the main themes. I really wanted that TZ theme in clear and crisp sound (Jerry put alot of effort into getting that deceptively simple intro just right.) The other piece of music was the end title roll which always had something grand about it. Having the CD means that not only do I have those main themes, but everything in-between as well. The mix is a unique, sympathetically tuneful Goldsmith listening experience quite unlike anything else I can think of that he composed.
The detailed liner notes provide quite alot of information that emphasize some important historic aspects to the scoring. The input provided by Bruce Botnick was an interesting read. One noteworthy aspect is the way synths were blended in organically with the orchestra, so Jerry could have complete control over the way he wanted the music to sound, along with some of the problems inherent in the arrangement. Bruce describes the microphone placement strategy and other things besides. For once I actually tried to envisage all these technically involved soundstage aspects and how they fuse together.
My favourite segment is Nightmare At 20,000 Feet. Larry Cedar's gremlin and the Don Quixote performace by John Lithgow made for an unforgettable combination. Together with Jerry's music the result is dazzling film magic. Track 18, Hungry Monster/Engine Failure is ace. The signature motif for the gremlin, an agitated fiddle, is cleverness and subtlety incarnate. That motif was apparent the very first time I saw the film so I never could forget it. The gremlin admonishing Valentine is one of THE iconic moments in cinema IMHO.
The rest of the score has it's moments. Time Out is darkly reflective with notable synth, percussion and piano playing. I particularly like track 3, The KKK, Yellow Star with mixed drumbeat and bell chimes. Kick The Can provides the unforgettable upbeat, soaring sound that is inseperable from the TZ project and is perhaps its most strongly identifying feature. The other theme associated with TZ is from It's A Good Life and is a joy to hear with it's perfect balance of synth and orchestra. Cartoon Monster is a literal hoot - love it.
The additional and alternate cues are prolific. Indeed, they alone could have constituted the complete listening experience for Twilight Zone: The Movie. Squeezing them all onto the disc provides true value, and not just for money. They simply complement the whole in the best of artistic and technical ensembles possible. The two songs from Time Out are there too. 'Anesthesia' is sung by Joseph Williams, son of maestro Williams.
FSM has produced one hell of a fantastic CD for this score. This is how film scores were meant to be.
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Posted: |
Oct 30, 2022 - 1:35 PM
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By: |
Hurdy Gurdy
(Member)
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I find myself returning to this music/CD time and time again.
It will always be in my Top 10 JG scores, no question.
I remember seeing the film at the cinema towards the end of 1983 (with PSYCHO II being my next trip to the cinema, also scored by JG).
The film arrived with a lot of bad press and negative vibes attached to it (due to the horrendous on-set accident) but i enjoyed it overall (to varying degrees, obviously).
The George Miller segment was the stand-out for me (and many others), but I found something to enjoy in the other episodes too and I loved the spoofy/spooky intro prologue with Brooks and Aykroyd.
The music is just glorious.
4 terrific scores for the price of one.
Each a fantastic individual work but all wrapped up in Goldsmith's inimitable style.
I never tire of hearing them anew.
I loved my old LP and subsequent CD issue, which condensed each segment into lengthy suites, capped by a wonderful End Titles track.
The range of emotions on display is breathtaking, from the tense, pounding piano/percussion of TIME OUT, onto the beautiful lyricism of KICK THE CAN, the mysterious and comic shenanigans of IT'S A GOOD LIFE and capped by the driving/furious terror of NIGHTMARE AT 20,000 FT.
Film scores don't come much better than this for me.
This Expanded Edition is essential for any fans of the film or JG, perhaps not so much for casual fans who might think the original release was already generous enough.
But the usual 5 star booklet and packaging from FSM (we really did take these things for granted after a while, didn't we) also add some sugar to this delightful cake.
And the sonics are stellar too (but the original album did sound pretty good too).
Any love out there?
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1983 was a high-water mark for Mr. Goldsmith with this and Under Fire, two scores I expect to see digitally reconstituted once the entertainment conglomerates and the boutique score labels get coordinated on download releases.
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Yes, I'm a big fan of UNDER FIRE too, but of the three scores credited to Goldsmith in 1983, it actually comes third behind this one at the top and PSYCHO II in the runners up position for me.
But that's just an indicator of how much Goldsmith was on fire during this period.
We've been spending all this time on The Goldsmith Odyssey in Jerry's TV music, the scores usually in the 15-25 minute zone, each a complete composition with its own ideas, played out in full, often composed and recorded within one or two weeks of each other, especially in 1961, where we have (available) around 35 such works he did along with Lonely are the Brave and a TV movie we can't find yet. It's been the slow answer to my long standing question, wondering how he could not only complete four such unique scores in such a short period of time, but have each so fully realized that the CD is like having four old Varese albums, almost year's worth of his output, which alone would be one of his best years ever.
Radio and TV gave him so much practice, and then he'd done it on a feature before with The Illustrated Man, such that he was quite simply the best person for that job, hands down. He was the best four people! I think if each segment had had its own composer, we still wouldn't have gotten music as good and as different as those four scores.
Top Ten? Easily. Top Five? Yeah, very probably. I'm 100% with you on this one, KeV.
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The original LP (and the first WB release of the LP on CD) is very good, a very good representation of the score in very clean sound. There are about 10 minutes of more music of score on the FSM release (just a rough estimate, haven't clocked it), such as the lovely harp solo that introduces the "Kick the Can" segment, that are for completionists and die-hard Jerry Goldsmith fans. (So I had to have the FSM album.)
I would be the first to say if an expanded Goldsmith album tremendously benefited from expansion (and most certainly did), but the original TWILIGHT ZONE album is a tight album with well selected and edited cues. Even though I have the FSM, it is one of the very few original Goldsmith albums I still regularly return to, as it is an excellent listen on its own. Of course, the FSM album also has the album edits, so with that album, you have the best of both worlds.
So while it's great to have the complete FSM edition with booklet notes and the extra material, this is one case where I would say the expansion is not "essential".
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Yes, while it could be argued that the original LP and CD contained the lion's share of the highlights, all in a tight wrapping. I always wanted that harp opening of KICK THE CAN and...moreso...the sad cue when the old dude is being fobbed off by his kids about visits. Truly heart-breaking stuff.
It's also nice to have the end piece of KICK THE CAN WITH Scatman 'sitting around mopin' and NOT.
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