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Posted: |
Feb 23, 2019 - 2:12 PM
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By: |
NUMBER 6
(Member)
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Here is what John Bender in 1999 had to say in FILM SCORE MONTHLY VOL. 4, # 5 (page 33) :
Fear Is the Key ???? (1972)
CIN CD 002 • 10 tracks - 36:15
Cinephile of England has unloaded a batch of five major Roy Budd scores, and all are on the heels of their grandly packaged rerelease of Get Carter (FSM Vol. 3, No. 10, pg. 31); also new is Paper Tiger, to be reviewed next issue.
Budd produced some of the most powerful music of his career for Fear Is the Key, a 1972 action thriller.The 1973 British soundtrack LP became a worthy collector’s item (the only copy I ever saw was the one I bought in the early ‘80s). Fear has a good sound for those of us who like a big, clean ‘60s-style orchestral score. Rather than use extended full-form themes, Budd, like Barry, often made do with many bold and highly stylized melodic gestures.These spaciously orchestrated symbols,part of an emphatic film music short-hand, are carefully strung together and thus comprise the score’s dramatic and/or kinetic highlights. Fear Is the Key also features two bluesy, and wonderfully lively, big band blow-outs, “Louisiana Ferry” and “Bayou Blues.”The Southern affectation of these two set-pieces mildly permeates the rest of the score. My personal two favorite tracks have always been “The Hostage Escapes” and “The Car Chase.”The former is an archetypal example of ‘60s-style expressionism. Budd, and a number of his fellow composers then working for the film industry, recklessly messed with what they must have perceived as the traditional principles of scoring.The manner of the Golden Age was to rely heavily on compositional axioms transposed from European classicism. Budd, Barry, and the other pioneers instead formally structured their music to the timely cultural inspiration they were receiving from the screen.This is how film music developed a neo-cultural immediacy. It was pushed beyond an underlying classical orthodoxy, that could only occasionally reference popular formats, to become a progressive musical force unto itself.“The Hostage Escapes” is a brand of writing that eventually led to film music exerting an influence on the pop-media, whereas before it was only the other way around (point here being: Roy Budd was cool).
Sadly, this release is a major disappointment as regards “The Car Chase.”The cue is a spectacular orchestral jazz opus, a tsunami of brass and percussion that plays out at a whopping 10:11. On the Pye LP this magnificent piece was thoroughly ruined with the addition of automobile sound effects. How horrible it has been to discover that Jack Fishman, who produced these discs and who proclaims great respect for Budd’s artistry, has etched this otherwise fine-sounding CD with the corrupted LP version of “The Car Chase.”This type of thing is suitable only for children’s records; it is most certainly unacceptable for an historic film score. I refuse even to listen to the track in its present state. A rare opportunity to enact an instance of notable film music restoration has been tragically disregarded. (I haven’t spoken to Fishman. It is only fair to make note of the possibility that, for reasons unknown, it might have been impossible for him to purge the offending racket from Budd’s music. In any case, it is the editorial policy of FSM to invite Jack to respond.)
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For uk fsmers Fear is the Key is on tonight late at 12.30am on talking pictures.
I make no promises about the quality of the picture, if its in the best ratio or the fact you can still hear sound effects over the fantastic chase theme. 
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