CD Review: Gojira-Mosura-Kingu Ghidora: Dai Kaiju Soukougeki

by Michael Ware

Gojira-Mosura-Kingu Ghidora: Dai Kaiju Soukougeki ***

KOW OTANI

TKCA-72279

36 tracks- 57:37

Shusuke Kaneko's well-received Godzilla-Mothra-King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack is fitted with a new age electronic score that serves the religious underpinnings of the G mythos with admirable bite. The most angst-ridden score of the series, it runs counter to the Ifukube template only in the style: very much contemporary pseudo-pop new age glitz on a keyboard, with dance beats you can't dance to, and Media Ventures-like military pomp. If that sounds uninviting to you also, I would hasten to mention that the motifs are sharper and cut from spikier intervals than American scores, and moreover, the idea is fundamental to the spiritual tack of the film, with minimal thematic figures mixed in from specific angles adding up to a compelling reading of the Kaiju dynamic with a sadistic edge.

The CD is 57 minutes of 36 brief cues making this a tough listen unless you are used to anime scores, which this essentially is -- big, loud and hyperbolic. The primary Godzilla motif ("Main Title," "The Destruction God") is an eight-note 007-ish figure maxed-out in ominousness. When combined with contextual cues and especially in concert with the motifs for Mothra and King Ghidorah, it certainly suggests a shitload of ill-tidings avalanching down. It reminds me of Kiyoshi Yoshida's note on his bitter new age album "Asian Drums II" of consciously thinking about bad images in creating the music. The structural approach seems to be about separate components related in an interlocking pattern, but whether this means Nice Score, or Nice Tool Kit, is up to individual taste.

The story line involves a Japan in decline with the youth deeply in ignorance and disrespect for the traditional verities. A young woman is involved in Weasel News Channel (I meant Fox News Channel, sorry!) style tabloid journalism and an "Enigmatic Old Man" warns of the prophecy of Godzilla, a demon set to avenge the dead of WWII. The other Kaiju, Mothra ("The God of the Sea", given an airy minimalist take on the traditional invocation-"Mosura ya" ), Baragon ("God of the Earth") and King Ghidorah ("God of the Sky") are awakened to defend Japan. Guilt and retribution are defining characteristics. The score moves well, creating adequate energy and outlining the basics ("The Terrifying Arrival on Shore" sounds just like that). "Raging Mad Godzilla," "A Tense Moment," "Miracle of the Three Holy Beasts" -- it plays like WWF at times, but then occasional moments of translucent beauty as in "Determined to Protect the Future" remind that the Godzilla sound is about serious spiritual issues given credence and light. There is nothing to compare with the Ifukube sound, but it's a nice change to a glitzy media-saturated contemporary sound competitive with Gen-X Cops movies and the more torturous reaches of recent Japanese horror films. The Ifukube themes are present as well in a kind of greatest hits roll-out at the end of the program. The CD is available in Japan (try specialty outlets here). Recommended. Arigato!
 
 
 

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