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Posted: |
Sep 10, 2019 - 8:50 AM
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By: |
Graham Watt
(Member)
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With the possible exception of The Gambler, there doesn't seem to be anything that hasn't been previously available. Still no music from The Camp on Blood Island, The Headless Ghost or The Two-Headed Spy.
Curious that the new Chandos disc won't have any music from The Bedford Incident, Cone of Silence or The Lost Continent.
... but we'll be getting a little more music from Laurence Harvey's The Ceremony ... and I'm for that! 
In a twist of fate which proves the existence of the supernatural, and ghosts and UFOs, I was toying with the idea of placing my order for the new Prawn-Cocktail release of Shurmann's scores. But after being reprimanded and ridiculed in Zarzoz's Speech to the Nation, I felt that I really needed to see if the old crackly acetate-stained CD linked to in this post still existed. After having read good things and bad things about the new Rumon Prawn-Cocktail compilation, I began to feel a little sorry that I'd never got the old "taped-straight-from-the-telly" CD when it came out sixty years ago. I like the contents of the old one better too, with longer pieces from the Schurmann scores I like most. Ah but on first glance the old CD seems to have disappeared.
Oh but who's that on the WhatsApp machine? Why if it ain't my old mate Mike! We both share a love of horror films, and he told me that he'd come across the old compilation when rummaging around inside his drawers for something to do at the weekend. He'd bought it way back for HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM and KONGA, but more as a souvenir than anything else. Then he listened to it and decided he didn't actually like the music as such. So he's sending it to me.
I don't know if I'll be put off by the dry snap, crackle and pop of the Rice Krispies version, but the end result is that the Prawn-Cocktail's off the menu for now.
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I'm glad people love this series and Mr. Gamba. That is what makes horse racing. I rarely play any of them - I'm always happy to see a new one, always buy it, am usually eh about it and file it away. I especially didn't enjoy the Herrmann disc, but different strokes. I enjoy the Gerhardt discs - those sound like film music to me, not scratchy "old" film music, whatever that means. Chandos was hardly the first label to do these things, you know.
My actual favorite of the Chandos recordings is the very first William Alwyn disc conducted by Richard Hickox - that is fantastic.
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Posted: |
Sep 11, 2019 - 5:07 PM
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By: |
Ray Worley
(Member)
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I'm glad people love this series and Mr. Gamba. That is what makes horse racing. I rarely play any of them - I'm always happy to see a new one, always buy it, am usually eh about it and file it away. I especially didn't enjoy the Herrmann disc, but different strokes. I enjoy the Gerhardt discs - those sound like film music to me, not scratchy "old" film music, whatever that means. Chandos was hardly the first label to do these things, you know.
My actual favorite of the Chandos recordings is the very first William Alwyn disc conducted by Richard Hickox - that is fantastic.
I pretty much agree with all this with maybe a few differences on specific pieces. I get these CDs and will continue to get them but really wish they sounded more like the Gerhardt recordings. While some bits are quite wonderful, there are some that are just disappointing. Without going back to older discs and just discussing the new Schurmann, DR SYN and THE CEREMONY are well-performed and great to have. HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM and THE LONG ARM not so much. LONG ARM has a fantastic, dynamic Main Title but that wasn't chosen and the performance of the piece that was included is....meh. All the discs, IMHO, suffer from poor dynamic range and that stuffy "Classical" sound rather than sounding like film music, as Bruce said.
But to be more positive...I'm glad somebody is recording this rare film music and I will continue to purchase them. Every disc has something to recommend it...except maybe the Herrmann.
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Here's my breakdown on the Cloud Nine CD in light of the upcoming album:
Horrors of the Black Museum is on tracks 1 through 4, totaling 8:04 minutes.
The Chandos CD will have only 5:18 on this. (the museum must have cut back their hours of operation)
Track # 5 = Cone of Silence = 4:08. This title will not be in the Chandos program (silence indeed)
Track # 6 = The Bedford Incident = 7:50. This is also getting blown out of the water by Chandos.
The 9:04 minutes on track 7 is "The Smugglers' Rhapsody", which shall be hauled into 20:49 minutes and referred to as "Dr. Syn, alias the scarecrow". (the smugglers are getting paid double time)
Cue 8 is Konga, whose 7:59 minutes will shribble on Chandos to 4:23.
9 & 10 = The Lost Continent = 6:28. Chandos told Hammer to get 'lost'.
11 through 13 is The Ceremony, totaling 8:11. Service time will elongate to 16:32 on Chandos.
Track # 14 = The Long Arm = 6:50. Chandos went out on a limb & amputated this down to 1:48.
15 through 17 is Attack on the Iron Coast, totaling 8:16. The Brass ordered a retreat down to 3:21.
18 through 20 is Claretta, totaling 11:25. She'll lose 2 minutes for Chandos.
No wait, I didn't mean to post that. I got confused. I was doing two things at once.
Right, nobody saw my fo-pah - everything's okay, isn't it?
Why am I babbling on here? Because I want to give birth to multiple rabbits, and I just don't have the time, nor in many cases the inclination. So here my friend says he has the old Gerbrand Schurmann CD and I goes, "Schur mann, if you don't like it, send it to me for free." So he did, and here we are today in this mess.
It's probably a bit weird for me to be "reviewing" the new Prawn-Cocktail release here on this thread, because I haven't got it. So I'll get by that by saying that I'm only talking about the 1993 Cloud Nine release, which fell into my hands 26 years on, as fate would have it. And please feel free to comment on differences/better things/worse things between the two releases.
First off, I have to say that the sound on a fair bit of the Cloud Nine release is atrocious. David Wishart explains it in his notes. I'll add that while I'm happy to have this music at all, I'm also surprised that some of it got the green light to be released in the first place. But if Prawn-Cocktaill is too genteel and concert-hallish I won't know what to think.
Zardoz Spoketh about the diffs between the old Cloud and the new Prawn. Let me scroll back a bit. I think I quoted him. Wait... Hmmm...
Yes, HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM. I'm glad I've got the 8 minutes here, and not the reduced Cocktail. It's good music throughout, vibrant and busy.
CONE OF SILENCE - So happy to have this on the old Cloud. It's not on the Cocktail list at all. Great music, with hints of both Friedhofer's (ABOVE AND BEYOND) and Goldsmith's (A GATHERING OF EAGLES) musical approach to flight, even if CONE OF SILENCE mostly takes place in an office. An unexpected hint of Rózsa too in the violin theme. Great.
THE BEDFORD INCIDENT - Once more, it's off the Prawn-Cocktail menu, but it's a superbly tense piece on the old Cloud 9.
DR SYN got blown up! He's a mere 9-minute smugglers' rhapsody on the Cloud, but on the Cocktail menu it's a doble Martini. I don't think I'll miss it. It's not one of my favourites on the old one. Too hectic. But I'll get back to that.
So KONGA's 8 minutes is cut in half by the Prawn. Pity. One of my faves from the old Cloud. And funny how it's mentioned in the Cloud notes that KONGA's theme reappears in ATTACK ON THE IRON COAST, but no mention that THE CEREMONY uses exactly the same theme as THE LOST CONTINENT.
THE LOST CONTINENT - Prawn-Cocktail said no. Maybe because THE CEREMONY used the material first, although it didn't stop Cloud 9 (to be fair, the themes were well-chosen enough so as not to totally duplicate material).I like this score but I have it complete on the GDI label, so I don't "need" more. And wasn't it re-re-re-used as part of "Six Sketches of Bacon Sandwiches"?
So back to THE CEREMONY - One of my faves on the old Cloud 9. Would be interested to hear (your views) on the Prawn-Cocktail interpretation.
ATTACK ON THE IRON COAST gets short shrift on the Cocktail list. The Cloud 9 is longer. I like this score, its having made me appreciate the theme for "News at Ten" through a geeky film-music nerd's eyes in 1971. There's an almost Ron Goodwin war-genre approach to some parts here, unusual for Schurmann. Stiff upper lip, verging on comedy, The joy of war.
THE LONG ARM - A longer arm than Cocktail's, but even with my high tolerance for poor quality, it's almost unlistenable on the Cloud. Good music shines through, with memories of cassette tapes in front of the telly. I actually heard this today pretending that it was pouring with rain just outside the window, and that's what caused the surface noise. Impossible on headphones. Even if Prawn-Cocktail (or rather Gerard Schurmann himself - it was his idea was it not?) pruned it, is it much better dynamically?
CLARETTA - This is the one I didn't immediately like on Cloud 9. It's the 1980s, and where's Gerard Schurmann's real voice? Well, it's there in a Wagnerian way. I'm, growing to like it. Is it really great under the baton of Prawn-Cocktail?
On the whole I like Gerard Schurmann very much. I was initially eager to get the new recording, but when my friend presented me with the old crackly 1993 release I thought I'd be able to do without it. I can of course, but I'd still be interested to hear more thoughts. Maybe the softer concert-hall sound would help after all... Schurmann can get a bit much in one sitting. Maybe I will pick this up. The Cloud 9 would be the heavy starters and prickly, bitter main course, and the digestive dessert would be the Prawn Cocktail. But shurely that should be a starter?
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Double post, and I have no more to say on the matter.
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And I'm impressed that Thor got this album.
Curious, though, why this music feels 'ancient' to Thor?
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