Movie Mania! Movie theme anthologies

 

Because I'm a bit short on time, I'm continuing this feature with another soundtrack installment. This time, I'm covering something a bit different, the compilation/ anthology album. I'm featuring two from a fair number in my collection. It just happens one of them is among the most notorious of its kind. Here's closeups of the album inserts and backs.

Of the pair, the one on the right is the more routine of the pair. I bought it because it included the Krull theme as the opening track. Others include Bride of Re-Animator, Dark Star, They Live , and the title track Psycho (famously almost indistinguishable from Re-Animator). All of the tracks are from the original soundtracks. A good part of the CD is either easily obtained "standards" like the Star Wars Imperial March or semi-obscure movies. The best of the latter is from Near Dark, a 1987 vampire movie featuring the late Bill Paxton which I actually haven't seen. (I don't do vampires.) The whole thing is copyrighted 1992 by Silva Screen Records Ltd. Per Discogs, the preceding albums in the series featured Dirty Harry and Star Wars. The same label has also released albums the City of Prague Philharmonic Science Fiction Album, which is so enormous I have spent a decade buying up tracks from it.

It's the second one that's the stuff of legend. It was recording by a group calling itself GSO, or Galactic Sound Orchestra. In fact, all the tracks are played on a synthesizer, with some accompaniment. From it's reputation, you might think this was a psychedelic thing from the '70s or early 1980s, but the copyright date  on the earliest version is 1989. It covers a wide range of music, including a number of European TV and movie themes that American listeners will probably have never heard of. The most famous/ infamous (and my original introduction) are tracks of Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek The Motion Picture, the last of which is omitted from my copy. The actual best are Twilight Zone, Raiders of the Last Ark and Time Tunnel, a zippy number scored by John Williams in his early career. The album was released by Laserlight Digital, better known for releasing classical music and public-domain videos. I was independently familiar with them for making the first recording of Beethoven's 7th Symphony I ever heard, which gets them my love forever.

So, are these good or bad? The first one is no better or worse than the original music, though listening to the whole thing starts to drag well before the end. The second is a different animal entirely, part of a genre of music that cropped up in the 1980s. It's somewhat hard to comprehend in hindsight, given that studio-produced soundtracks were readily available for a few bucks. But they certainly remain endearing, and this one has earned its following. Some of the tracks are barely distinguishable from other covers that can be unearthed if one goes looking. Many more hit their own very odd vibe and stay with it to the end, especially  the Raiders cover that ends the version I own. One of the tracks missing is the Godzilla theme, which I must investigate further.

So, there's another of my random pop culture experiences, and I'm wrapping up while I'm feeling ahead. More to come!