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Posted: |
Nov 15, 2019 - 2:33 PM
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By: |
Graham Watt
(Member)
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THIERRYYYYY!!!!! I keep callin' to you here, but you're not paying me any attention! You even wrote a message on the "For MV" questions thread (he's too fed up with us to reply to anyone) - but I've been keeping you up to date! Now listen up - You ordered from Music Box? They have it listed "in stock" now. Let us know when you get it, and above all- after you've listened to it of course - your thoughts.
I dithered about this one, and so I'm still waiting for it to appear as "available" at Rosebud in Spain, then I'll order - although I know I should pre-order... I just have very vague memories of "studying" at university when it was on the telly in the '80s - I have a particularly strong/vague memory of a friend/flatmate going "BAAAWAaau" every time Dom Front went on a pitch bender. But I think I'd like to hear (own, possess) this. I'm almost more intrigued at the prospect of hearing the Duane Tatro material on Disc 2 than I am intrigued by how Dom Front's pitch-bending may conjure up images of my student buddies in 1983/84 (?) That really unorthodox Tatro theme from Queen Martin the First's volume (THE MANHUNTER - 0:54 seconds) had me exploring his fascinating jazz history, and remembering some startling TV Movies he did. One was THE HOUSE ON GREENAPPLE ROAD. That was a Queen Martin TV Movie, and it scared me even when I was too old to be scared by mere title sequences and music for make-believe telly things.
As I'm on a rant - and kind of dovetailing back to my opening comments - What do you European-based folkies do when ordering a CD? I only occasionally go through the US-based outlets. I did go direct to La-La-Land for something I really needed to have, about six months ago? Something by some Gil Mellé guy maybe? Did I mention him before? I just couldn't wait for that to arrive in the European stores. But I generally wait and get "bulk" purchases (three, sometimes four CDs at once!!!), mainly because I'll ask for a few European-pressed titles along with the US-pressed stuff, and so it works out cheaper. Apart from that, I'm trying not to be obsessive.
So - THE INVADERS... Not ordered yet.
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New hi-fi up and running.
Now playing: THE MUTATION
Great to hear extra little details here and there after years of hearing this music only behind dialogue and sound.
I'd recognise Dominic Frontiere's string arrangements anywhere. I think he got the players to really rein in their vibrato, lending his music an eerie sound when required.
Yes.
The main reason I don't like Golden Age scores is.the way the strings play.
You have a good ear!
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Posted: |
Jan 26, 2020 - 10:08 AM
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By: |
Graham Watt
(Member)
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There are a few threads already about this release. Can we make this one the official one please?
Well Graham, since you asked that question more than two weeks ago and nobody replied, I guess we could interpret that as a yes. Go ahead, it's fine by me.
Thanks!
Right then, any more comments about the actual MUSIC on this release? I've given it all a good few spins and am really beginning to love it. I took a while to warm to it but now I've been taken over.
I think I made the mistake at first of wanting to take in everything in one go, as if it were a long film at the cinema with no intermission. Hey nutmegs, that's not the way you HAVE to listen to soundtracks! Disc 1, the all-Frontiere CD can get a bit head-doing and seemingly repetetive after about an hour. It's all pretty intense, and I used to think that it was very "samey" all the way through. Then I relistened to the scores one by one, and while the pitch-bending "BAAWOoou" does begin to grate, each score is indeed a separate entity with its own character and emphasis. The same thing happened to me when listening to QM 1's DAN AUGUST scores, and particularly FSM's ASSIGNMENT VIENNA (Grusin) scores on the TV Omnibus release from a while back. You have to separate these things or they just tend to wash over you in the end.
I can't say what my favourite Frontiere-scored episode is here - each one has something unique about it, but the overall flavour is the same. A LOT of it is in the style of THE OUTER LIMITS (even though THE OUTER LIMITS had a wider scope than THE INVADERS, given the range of stories and the amount of music written), and some of the motifs are seemingly repeated from one episode to the next, but with many more variations than a first casual listen would suggest.
"The Mutation" seems more moody and mysterious than the others overall. The action cues towards the end of the episode begin to pile up and are curiously old fashioned, reminding me of the Skinner/ Salter (?) monster mash fight scenes from the mid-to-late Universal horror cycle.
"The Experiment" has some terrific complex writing in it, along with the jittery unnerving material. Quite bold and powerful. Again there are a few seconds which seem a throwback to Herman Stein's theme from TARANTULA - a coincidence I'm sure.
"The Leeches" has the advantage of making brief use (twice) of the closest thing to a love theme in the entire set - a really beautiful flute piece followed by solo violin. Very OUTER LIMITS, and not in the least corny. But the moody/scary/action/paranoid cues are already beginning to become a jumble in my tiny mind. Wait - Was that bit that I'm thinking of actually in "The Leeches"? No, it was in "The Mutation." Wait - perhaps it was in all three. And so it's time to listen to it again. And lo and behold it actually IS worth listening to all this great music two hundred times.
Disc 2 didn't do much for me on first listen. It seemed characterless and routine. But stick with it nutmegs. If you appreciate good music, even if it may be deemed run-of-the-mill by people who don't care or know that real composers wrote real music for '60s SF TV shows, you'll be rewarded by several revisits. Well, I was at least. Sidney Cutner? Wasn't expecting much but it's solidly good writing. The Richard Markowitz is very good too. Hang on, I can't quite recall the details of that one - time to play the two CDs from beginning to end for the rest of my life. The Irving Gertz actually WAS a throwback to his '50s SF sound. It may sound a decade out of date, but he was a splendid composer. The Duane Tatro stuff is REALLY interesting - I'd been intrigued by this guy ever since I saw THE HOUSE ON GREENAPPLE ROAD ("A QUEEN MARTIN PRODUCTION!!!") when I was a newborn baby. Duane Tatro interested me so much that when the computer was invented in 1943 I investigated his career. He was only 16 then but already playing with Stan Kenton, I think! But he's still alive, just about to turn 93. Are there any interviews with him out there? Watch the other side of the board - I might do a thread on his jazz album(s).
I like most of the source cues too, mostly by Don Ralke. Hang on, I think I really REALLY like the sultry, mellow jazz one by Willard Jones (?). It's all good "girls in bikinis dancing around the pool" music. The only one I don't like too much is the Frontiere strip club one from "The Mutation". Never was a fan of strip club music.
La-La Land - You did good! I like this set! I'm not such a crazy nutmeg that I'd say it's the best thing since the invention of the wheel, but it's one of the best things that's happened to me in my miserable January 2020 existence so far. Oh, and although I'm not an audiophile, the whole thing sounds spectacular! Yeah!
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I haven’t picked up this release yet Graham, but wanted to let you know I enjoyed reading your thoughts on it! 
Yavar
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Posted: |
Jan 27, 2020 - 3:31 AM
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By: |
Graham Watt
(Member)
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Thanks Yavar! It makes me feel better to know that the half hour it took me to think all that out and type it wasn't half an hour of my life wasted!
moolik (and others)- Do we KNOW that QM Vol. 3 will be THE STREETS OF SAN FRAN? It would be logical, since it was one of Quim/Queen Martin's most popular shows, and the music is a fan favourite. Come to think of it, do we know that there'll even be a Volume 3? Some have even mentioned a Volume 4! I wonder if there is a possibility of surprising us all with QM's THE MEPHISTO WALTZ, with the missing elements restored. I don't really keep up to date with these things. Yavar?
The great thing about losing your memory is that you're constantly discovering "new" information, and then you see that you already knew it. There I was blabbering on earlier about how interesting the Duane Tatro stuff is on THE INVADERS set, and then I checked the comments on the QM Volume 1 release, and I'd already commented - at the end of May last year - that his very brief theme from THE MANHUNTER was intriguing enough that I looked into his jazz background. Well, now I've looked into his jazz background twice.
Anyone care to try to articulate the different moods evoked by the three Dom Frontiere INVADERS scores? Or at least certain "hooks" or devices used in the three scores which are particular to those scores alone? I attempted it in my earlier post, but I got confused and I don't think I did it very well.
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