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We're extra stoked that actress Anne-Marie Johnson ("Athena") is now part of the Creature Features Robot Jox event this coming Sunday at 2 PM, along with director Stuart Gordon, composer Frederic Talgorn and FX artist Paul Gentry. You can pre-order your personalized cd's here
http://creaturefeatures.com/shop/cds/robotjox/
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Posted: |
Sep 18, 2017 - 5:06 PM
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By: |
SBD
(Member)
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Well, since the thread's already here...
ROBOT JOX
Composed and Conducted by FREDERIC TALGORN
INTRADA Special Collection 389
Intrada presents an expanded reissue of Frederic Talgorn's soaring orchestral score to the 1990 sci-fi film Robot Jox. One of the most ambitions projects produced by Charles Band, it featured a large orchestral score by a composer new to the Empire scene. But he gave the film an epic sheen making the action on screen perhaps more grandiose than the budget would really allow, making it a very prominent and artistic element of the film. Worth noting is Talgorn's unique orchestra mix. While the traditional orchestral layout prevails—violins on the left, violas largely centered, cellos and basses to the right with woodwinds and percussion spread throughout— the brass are unusually placed: trumpets and trombones play behind the high strings; French horns are prominent with the low strings. Much of Talgorn’s writing is in higher registers and this unusual mixing allows brass sonorities to meld with the high strings and horns to counter the low strings. The final mix is vivid and punchy throughout and shines on this new restoration of the score.
The film draws inspiration from Homer’s The Iliad, reimagining the Greek epic as a Cold War allegory, set in a post-apocalyptic world where war has been outlawed. The battle for territory between the free Market and totalitarian Confederation is reserved for humans piloting towering machines. Market champion Achilles withdraws from competition after a spectator-crushing accident, but when the genetically engineered Athena commandeers his “bot” to take on the Confederation’s crazed Alexander for resource-rich Alaska, he returns to the fray to save his comrade in arms.
INTRADA Special Collection 389
Barcode: 7 20258 53892 5
Retail Price: $17.99
SHIPPING NOW
For track listing and sound samples, please visit: http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.10934/.f
01. Opening Scene (2:44)
02. Long Sting (0:51)
03. Crash & Burn (2:33)
04. Open Her Up (1:14)
05. Can I Go Now, Dad? (4:25)
06. The Jock Strap Bar (2:56)
07. That’s Not Going To Work (1:20)
08. Achilles’ Bedroom (1:37)
09. Goodbye, Jock Buddy (1:44)
10. Athena Pulls Herself (0:20)
11. Fanfare For Athena (0:46)
12. There Was A Time When (0:44)
13. Hey Jock Buddy, You In A Hurry? (2:01)
14. That Sly Jap Sonofabitch (1:10)
15. Alexander’s Four-Legged Robot (1:08)
16. Achilles To The Rescue/Alexander Smashes The Official’s Ship (1:28)
17. Achilles Into Space (2:23)
18. Achilles’ Robot Transforms (1:06)
19. Alexander’s Severed Arm/Robot Jox Into The Sunset (7:00)
Total Time: 38:06
The Extras (Additional Cues)
20. Now It’s Just Me (0:18)
21. Short Sting (0:04)
22. Long Sting (Alternate) (0:38)
23. Matsumoto Sighs Deeply (0:15)
24. I Don’t Know (0:17)
25. Overture (3:36)
Total Extras Time: 5:21
And how about that reduced price?
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Pleasantly surprised about the reduced price! The last time Intrada went down to $17.99 it was for an obscure LP reissue, but this is an expansion! Wonder how they managed it...maybe it helped that it was recorded by a Paris orchestra so no reuse fees.
Yavar
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Question for experts (which I'm not, I barely remember this movie and listened to the soundtrack for the first time last week on Spotify):
Why is the Intrada version of the main program shorter than the original album (by about a minute)? Especially as the blurb from Doug says some of the additional cues they found have been added to the main program? I'm wondering if it means some of what was originally in the main program is now in the extras section.
Here's the passage I'm talking about on the release page: "Intrada release completely re-assembles entire score in film sequence, newly masters everything for increased dynamics and clarity. While most of score appeared on earlier release, MGM-vaulted masters did yield handful of brief previously-unreleased cues. These are premiered as well, with cues adding to score’s depth playing in main program and short transitional cues appearing as extras."
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Question for experts (which I'm not, I barely remember this movie and listened to the soundtrack for the first time last week on Spotify):
Why is the Intrada version of the main program shorter than the original album (by about a minute)? Especially as the blurb from Doug says some of the additional cues they found have been added to the main program? I'm wondering if it means some of what was originally in the main program is now in the extras section.
Here's the passage I'm talking about on the release page: "Intrada release completely re-assembles entire score in film sequence, newly masters everything for increased dynamics and clarity. While most of score appeared on earlier release, MGM-vaulted masters did yield handful of brief previously-unreleased cues. These are premiered as well, with cues adding to score’s depth playing in main program and short transitional cues appearing as extras."
The Overture was just a shorter version of the end title editorially created for the Prometheus album. We cleaned up the edit and moved it to the extras section. I find the album has a stronger start now without starting tipping its hand on the main theme so early.
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Thanks, Roger! As I was comparing the samples with the original album, I wondered if it was exactly that.
Sold!
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Posted: |
May 21, 2018 - 5:20 AM
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By: |
Hurdy Gurdy
(Member)
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I held off buying this as there was other stuff to be got first and the expansion side of things was quite spare.
Playing it now, it's a really fine upgrade of the old Europrean release.
For a start, the decision to remove that awkward main theme/fanfare edit from the beginning of the score works wonders for the flow of the programme.
Also, having given Intrada a little flak in the past, for some inferior sounding (to me) sonic upgrades of releases, this one is a major improvement over the earlier edition.
There's a depth and clarity to the orchestral performance that really enhances the listening experience.
There's some spectacularly meaty and angry brass in this score. At times heroic and bright, other times gritty and dark.
And Timpani, man. Timpani with a capital TIMP.
Nice booklet and packaging too.
If you like old style, brassy John Williams scores (with a dash of cheesy Goldsmith synth tracks thrown in for good measure), this is right up your street.
Great stuff.
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Posted: |
May 21, 2018 - 10:40 AM
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By: |
bobbengan
(Member)
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Funnily enough, I have to disagree with you Kev about the remastering here, sounds kind of strange to my ears for reasons I struggle to articulate whereas the original release sounded just fine (it is, at least, not as "is this even the same music I'm hearing?!?!" impression I got from their reduxed FROM BEYOND)... But otherwise, yes, this is a glorious score, isn't it though?
T'was my intro to Talgorn's music and right away I could hear that there was a distinct voice here and a compositional acumen far more impressive than this film deserved. That he was only 29 or so when he composed this and his brilliant, still-unreleased EDGE OF SANITY speaks strongly to how sure-footed a musician he's been from the get-go. The end title is especially rich, with the gorgeous thematic development of the character-based material given a real sense of depth and richness that a Charles Band/Stuart Gordon enterprise surely didn't deserve.
What a shame that this didn't act as his BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS, catapulting him to bigger things as that score did Horner... But he's also done some of his best work in France (ASTERIX, RED NEEDLES, LA BRASIER etc.) so who's to say it wasn't the right move to leave Hollywood?
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