2014 review Another pretty good year for Jerry Goldsmith fans with 10 CD releases and one LP. The majority were expansions with just one premiere. La-La Land Records released the definitive presentation of a Goldsmith classic the Blue Max, and yes amazingly the sound was improved over the early Intrada disc. La-La also released the full score for The Sum Of All Fears; a huge improvement over the short and often sluggish album. I was amazed how better this score played and the extra music really did make this the album of the year for me. I wish they hadn’t combined tracks unnecessarily and left off the album version of the Mission but this was still a stunning release. La-La also released Dennis The Menace. Now for those who had the Big Screen Records CD I feel this expansion did not reveal any missing highlights. But as that early release has been out of print for so many years this full release did help a lot of newer Goldsmith fans get their hands on one of the composer’s biggest orchestral scores of his career. Tadlow talked of a Blue Max re-record but shelved it in light of the LaLa release, which I am glad of. We dont need interpretations of stuff we have available in its original form. In my opinion. Tadlow should focus on recording things we wont get now like their Salamander recording. Vareses CD Club remembered Jerry Goldsmith on his birthday with a premiere release of The List Of Adrian Messenger. A very clean mono sound played very well and reminded us all of his early talent. The rousing fox hunt music remains a genuine thrill ride. Intrada as always put a few smiles on Goldsmith’s fan’s faces with four releases; expansions of both Psycho II and Deep Rising - both CDs revealing a generous amount of music previously unheard outside the films. They also re-issued their tent pole Goldsmith title Night Crossing for the 4th time. My only annoyance here is a feeling of “over-mastering”. This new CD revealed the detail of the recording to the nth degree and for listeners with headphones anomalies and distortion that the previous CD master did not reveal. Deep Rising too had some problems with crackle and pop in a couple of the quieter moments too, which in that case I feel could have been fixed. Intrada also presented the Flint albums, which were re-recorded highlights of both scores, on CD for the first time - another real highlight of the year. Intrada finally gave us these lively 60s pop scores to savour properly. For me they sound and play better than the film soundtracks and got a lot of play this year. The Mondo label re-issued the horror icon score The Omen on LP with the usual limited edition artwork for those who love their turntables. That format just will not go quietly. I remember trading up to CD and disposing of all my soundtrack vinyl. And now the format may have more of a life than CD! And we hear Intrada will release some vinyl in 2015 too! Kritzerland presented the original Rio Conchos score for the most part in stereo. Mike Matessino utilising new technology to deal with “wow” that prevented the earlier FSM CD of the score containing this amount of stereo tracks. I adore Goldsmith’s early action adventure score and love this hugely aggressive presentation. Sadly my favourite track ‘Wall Of Fire’ was one of the few remaining mono tracks. Still hats off to Mike for an incredible job. I wonder if anything else can be rescued using this tech? The year ended with sadly no big event CD releases. I had hoped Varese’s CD Club would have come through with one of the big 90’s Goldsmith action scores but sadly not. I do hope these have not been forgotten and we will see them soon as none of us are getting any younger. The final CD of the year was another re-issue of King Solomon’s Mines. For those who missed earlier releases and wanted it in 2 CD form with the album tracks and no crossfades then this was the release for you. So we look forward to 2015 and hope for some nice surprises. Intrada mention a Goldsmith title for release in January and we should see a 2 CD set of the River Wild with complete Goldsmith score along with the rejected Jarre score at some point. So what did you all like in 2014 or not like and hope to see in 2015?
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 10:25:16 +0000
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