Listening to FSM's Heavy Metal for the first time and have fond memories of the score. Love the theme at 1:17 in Discovery and favorite cue has to be "The Flight to Temple". Also like the similar eerie sound he used in Ghostbusters. Stunning score!
This is the score that changed my buying habits. I'd never heard it, but heard so much about it & it was Bernstein, so I bought it...& I didn't like it! No criticism of the score, you can't like everything, but I'd spent the best part of £20 & sent all the way to America for it. So now I just buy the scores that I know I like.
Your album covers on AAX are much appreciated. I don't suppose you take requests?
As for the Heavy Metal score, it was a blind buy for me. I admit I didn't like it as much as I thought I would but there are a handful of tracks I enjoy ("Getting Bombed," the jazzy "Harry" and "The Next Morning," etc.). It's been a while so perhaps another listening is in order. Some scores take time to grow on me.
This is a score I really like from the old LP programme, but I don't like the C&C presentation as much. It's a lovely job from FSM, a thing of beauty, but I've only played the CD about twice and it's overlong for me. I maybe need to re-edit it back to the LP programme or trim off some of the fat.
This has long been a top favorite of mine from Bernstein's canon and I sought out the LP about 12 years ago. I didn't collect as much Bernstein at that time and while that is now a complete 180, HEAVY METAL is still a great listen. As far as sci-fi/fantasy, large-scale scores, it's akin to Horner's KRULL, North's DRAGONSLAYER and Rosenthal's CLASH OF THE TITANS for me.
I like this score but there's something that was missing from making it a knockout. After a few listens, I figure out what it was. It was the lack of Taarna's theme during most of the album which makes it somewhat disappointing since Taarna's theme is quite wonderful.
I like this score but there's something that was missing from making it a knockout. After a few listens, I figure out what it was. It was the lack of Taarna's theme during most of the album which makes it somewhat disappointing since Taarna's theme is quite wonderful.
But there is no reason for Taarna's theme to appear elsewhere in the score, her character is only included in the last 1/3 of the movie, in her own separate storyline. It is indeed a great theme, though, but I also happen to really love Bernstein's theme for Den, the Green Ball melody and his material in the "Bomber" section of the film.
This is a score I really like from the old LP programme, but I don't like the C&C presentation as much. It's a lovely job from FSM, a thing of beauty, but I've only played the CD about twice and it's overlong for me. I maybe need to re-edit it back to the LP programme or trim off some of the fat.
Kinda odd someone would say that about this score of any score, considering how episodic the movie (and thus the score) is.
I bought this on vinyl back in the day...along with Battle Beyond the Stars. It's ONE of the few albums I can listen to as just music. It's great stuff. Too bad I had to buy 3 bootleg CD's of various qualities of it over 18 years before FSM put out the legit version. Man I've got lots of boots that are just worthless now that I have the licensed versions. ugh.
This summer someone was watching this on TV while I was on my laptop. The overall style of the movie intrigued me, but I wasn't watching very closely at all, but I kept noticing how wonderful the music was. I IMDb'd it and saw that it was Elmer Bernstein, who I don't listen to nearly as much as I know I should.
I got the CD a few weeks ago, and it's making me want to go back and watch the whole movie.
The film's rather poor, to be honest, but the score is fantastic. Bernstein had Barry's talent for writing magnificent scores for hokey sf; just think what either could have done with a truly great sf film.
I enjoy Mr. Bernstein's much more than the rock/pop stuff. His music seems timeless to me while the rock songs do seem relegated to a specific era. Just IMHO.
coming soon. 
