After releasing a huge collection of music from Superman: The Animated Series and The New Superman/Batman Adventures, La-La Land continues to explore the work from Shirley Walker’s studio of composers that worked on Batman: The Animated Series.  Most of the composers represented in this set have shown up in the previous collections and in other DC Comics animation projects that La-La Land has continued to mine over the past few years.  This features over 5 hours of music in this limited edition.

This set builds on two earlier releases and provides further exploration of how Walker and her teams were able to craft some exciting big Hollywood music for this series.  The 65 episodes that appeared over 1992-1993 are among the most popular and respected animation programs.  The show came on the heels of Tim Burton’s Batman and fortunately the producers of this series continued that connection using Danny Elfman’s primary theme to shore up the “Main Title” and “End Credits”.  The former is fairly similar to Elfman’s film theme making use of orchestrations by Mark McKenzie.  It is presented without all the sound effects that were added in for broadcast.  La-La Land has also found a 2-piano demo made by Shirley Walker that is used to open disc three (another version of this appeared on their volume 2 set).  Twenty-four episodes are spread across the 4 discs.

Disc one focuses its first portion on the two-part episode “Robin’s Reckoning” which focuses on a story arc introducing the Boy Wonder.  Carlos Rodriguez’s music for the part one focuses on establishing more emotional undertones to the story.  The brass sections in parts of this episode feel a bit tentative at times (this may be due to a drier recording acoustic).  Peter Tomashek took over responsibilities for part two and uses a theme and variation technique to accompany this episode which also features a brief cue from William Stromberg (“Redial”).  This somewhat heroic idea begins to peak through in the opening “Circus Memory” and even gets a bit of a waltz-like dance in the following “Fencing Memory”.  “P.O.V.” is one of two Shirley Walker scores on this disc.  The music follows a series of flashbacks as the story progresses and a variety of thematic ideas are used to explore the aspects of the story through the eyes of Bullock, Wilkes, and Montoya.  Elfman’s theme is interwoven into the final sequence (“Batman Fights the Mob”) as was the case in what is one of Walker’s earliest episodes in the series.  There are some early examples of scene climax music that will become familiar in the series as well.  The use of a character-defining theme can be seen further in her other contribution on this disc, “See No Evil.”  The episode introduces a villain who obtains a cloth that can make him invisible ultimately hoping to abduct his daughter from her mother’s custody.  The use of the glockenspiel here makes the music quite creepy with dark Herrmann-esque colors in the orchestration adding to that quality.  Rodriquez’s first scored episode was for “The Clock King” and uses a theme developed by Walker for the Temple Fugate character.  It allowed the composer to explore Herrmann-esque music similar to Walker’s own occasional parallel sound but also has some good off-kilter writing with the clock ticking away.  The other episode included here relates to Catwoman, “Tyger, Tyger” and features music by Todd Hayen.  A bit of the jungle atmosphere is hinted at early on in a presentation of Walker’s theme for Selena Kyle before shifting into Hayen’s music for Tygrus.  It does provide a bit more interesting action sequences coupled with some sinuous writing along the way.

Music from Harvey Cohen’s score for “Cat Scratch Fever” that utilizes some of Walker’s Catwoman theme along with Cohen’s own interesting waltz-like motif for the character that is spread thought the episode.  This score would lead to his first Daytime Emmy nomination in 1993.  Walker is represented by two scores on this disc as well.  The first of these is the steel guitar and harmonica Southern flair music for “The Forgotten” (which features Tommy Morgan)  making this a fairly distinct episode musically.  Of additional interest is an early use of Walker’s Batman theme against an intriguing orchestral set of colors in string pizzicato and low reeds.  The score sometimes does feel like something for a classic 1960s show, with a few updates.  Her score for “Terror in the Sky” will close off the disc with the story revisiting the Man-bat mutated scientist Kirk Langstrom.  Walker reuses her theme for the character with an interesting technique used to simulate how bats “echo” sound to track prey.  It all leads to an exciting climactic final sequence complete with hints at her Batman theme.  Michael McCuiston’s first scoring screen credit came with “Be A Clown”, an episode that featured Batman grappling with the Joker.  Though he would use Walker’s thematic threads for those characters, McCuiston would incorporate two of his own, the first appearing in “Jekko the Magnificent” and another for “Jordan the Stowaway.”  The circus atmosphere combines Walker/Elfman-like dramatic underscoring very well.  Four additional source cues show off the composer’s skill with a carousel piece, and an unused “Circus Source” that would find its way later into future animated projects.  There is even a brief organ toccata.  An episode with the Scarecrow, “Dreams In Distress”, features music by Todd Hayen noted for some extraordinary dream sequences.  He also finds use for Walker’s themes written for each of the villains appearing in the episode integrating them into the music.  Finally, a joint effort by Lars Clutterman and Stuart Balcomb appears in “The Underdwellers” which introduced a rather odd character, The Sewer King.  Highlights here include a dark march (“Be Our Guest” has it filled out best with interesting scoring) and interesting orchestral colors.

Some ethnic flair enters into the opening episode presented on Disc Three, “Night of the Ninja”.  Mark Koval uses occasional Asian scale inflections and is notable for the inclusion of a shakuhachi (played by renowned artist Masakazu Yoshizawa).  It is quite beautifully on display in “Karate School/Flashback”.  The atmosphere of this episode is continued in “Day of the Samurai” which aired much later and features a score by Rodriguez.  Further exploration of the shakuhachi’s expressive capabilities is made here along with a host of additional traditional Japanese and exotic instruments (kabuki blocks, koto, taiko, angklung, and otsuzumi).  Additional striking ideas created with trombones are also on display.  The more avant-garde approach is apparent from the opening track making this one of the more unique musical segments of the collection.  Lolita Ritmanis is one of the few team members who created one of the villain themes.  In this case it was for Poison Ivy who appears in “Eternal Youth”.  A couple of source cues, used for sequences on a cruise ship, make for a fun “Love Boat”-like orchestral disco number and a more lush “Spa Cue.”  The Riddler becomes the focus in “What is Reality?” scored by Richard Brodskill.  Here he uses techniques from horror genre scoring to create the creepy atmosphere along with the inclusion of some synth.  His scoring does have an often Herrmann-esque darkness at times in this episode as well with a bit more punctuation to fit some screen action.  Shirley Walker is represented by two episode scores on this disc.  The first of these “Prophecy of Doom”, incorporates her theme for the villain Nostromo, and displays her ability to incoproate, or suggest, more familiar music (in this case borrowing inspiration from familiar sections of Holst’s The Planets—most pronounced as the episode comes to a close).  There is also a bit of wit in the almost Hollywood-like opening track “Prophecy of Doom” which soon slides into more dramatic implications.  “Mudslide” closes off this disc exhibiting her ability to provide deeper musical suggestions to the sides of the villain Clayface and his relationship to the woman who loves him, Stella.  A classic Hollywood scoring idea is also heard in “Movie Source”.

Music by McCuistion (“I Am The Night”) opens the final disc.  The episode is considered to be one of the best in the series featuring the Jazzman.  Overall it is one of the darker scores in the collection.  Also notable is for notating the music such that is sounds as if it is being played backwards in the climactic sequence (“Batman Saves Gordon”), and the final music that combines Batman and Jazzman themes.  In  the two-part “Heart of Steel”, composers Brodskill, Kline, and Johnson, each had a hand in shaping the scores.  “Blind as a Bat” uses music by both Steve Chesne and James Stemple and incorporates Walker’s Penguin and Elfman’s Batman themes.  The final episodes represented, “Paging the Crime Doctor” and “The Man Who Killed Batman”.  The former story’s crime syndicate focus leads to some noir-ish music and a good opening action sequence.  The latter features the appearance of The Squid and The Joker and is notable for the inclusion of organ, especially for the fabulous concluding sequence.

The presentation of episodes is done to provide a more interesting listening experience and so they are not presented in episodic order.  Fortunately though, there are plenty of notes here to help discuss these episodes that receive multiple tracks and titles in the booklet.  John Takis takes readers on the journey of the show and its music to help provide further context for the release.  There are, by the nature of the type of music, a lot of tension-building sequences that are intended to end with a stinger for commercial breaks revealing some of the functional need of the scores.  However, La-La Land has done a fairly good job of providing each disc here with exciting music that moves well from one idea to the next, though disc three feels like it holds some of the series’ most interesting and engaging scoring.  There are “bonus” and special tracks spread nicely throughout the set as well.  One generally though forgets rather quickly that these scores were for animated television!  For fans of the series, this will be a must have.

One of the huge releases from La-La Land this year must certainly be this massive limited edition collection of music from Superman: The Animated Series and The New Superman/Batman Adventures.  These latter 1990s series continued the great work of animated television music that Shirley Walker had created for Batman: The Animated Series and her team of composers (Michael McCuistion, Lolita Ritmanis, Kris Carter, and Harvey Cohen) helped insure that these programs had some great musical support.  Most of the team here, minus Cohen, would work on DC Comics Batman: The Brave and the Bold which also saw a 2-disc release from this label concurrently.  With over five hours (!) of musical material, one cannot attempt to be terribly exhaustive, though a few comments are certainly in order about the release and its content.

First up, is the main title that Shirley Walker created for Superman: The Animated Series.  The music was used during the series’ first season (1996-1997) but subsequently dropped when the show was aired as The New Superman/Batman Adventures.  (It was put back for subsequent video release of the episodes. )  Of course, that main title is also included and is used to bookend the music on disc two.  Other nice touches are the original end credits and a few promo cues that help start or conclude a disc, plus a fuller presentation of the theme as used for the video end credits.  A few additional “bonus” tracks are sprinkled throughout.

Disc One focuses mostly on the three-part episode, The Last Son of Krypton including a bonus track of music and effects.  Essentially a feature-length program when edited together, the storyline begins the story arc that follows the birth of Kal-El and the last days of Krypton as the baby is sent to earth.  The music tends to only hint at the primary Superman theme in music that is both epic for larger action sequences, and equally touching for moments with Kal-El’s family (a dedicated “Family Theme” presents this music).  The first part of this music focuses on the conflict between Jor-El and Brainiac.  There is an interesting electronic idea that occasionally flits over the music suggesting appropriate menace along with dark dissonant harmony.  A more Williams-esque style sort of asserts itself in the central episode with great brass writing and many skittering strings that really soars in “Clark’s First Flight”.  The final episode tends to create a variety of interesting off-kilter melodic ideas and interesting use of tension building devices with drone ideas alongside big symphonic adventure music.  The team of Ritmanis, McCuistion, and Cohen each take one of these sections and manage to build on the previous musical ideas over the course of this story arc.  Two additional episodes (“Monkey Fun” and “Tools of the Trade”) fill out this portion of the release.  “Monkey Fun” adds some appropriate jungle feel with an increase in percussion effects resulting inreally interesting action music in tracks like “Monkey Business/Babysitting with Fleas/Bacteria Attack.”  In “Tools of the Trade”, themes are introduced for several characters (Turpin, Kanto, and Darkseid) which will become further developed throughout a larger story arc

Disc Two focuses on music from the three-part “World’s Finest” from season two which features the Joker, and music from “Myxzpixilated”, which introduced the character Mr. Myxzptlk, and “Father’s Day”, the first episode to feature an entire score by Walker.  There is a fun little “bonus” here written as background string quartet music.  Fans will appreciate the appearance of the Joker (with its Elfman-esque bounce) and Batman themes from the Batman: The Animated Series as well as new thematic material for Lex Luthor and a jazzy love theme for the relationship of Bruce and Lois Lane throughout the “World’s Finest” selections.  It is marks one of the first integrated collaborations for McCuistion and Ritmanis.  There are some interesting electronic/theremin-like sounds (first appearing in “Joker Undoes Carlini”) as well as some great large-scale orchestral music.  Cohen’s music for “Myxzpixilated” is another great highlight running the gamut of Stalling-esque cartoon styles to Mancini (for some source music in an apartment sequence) and even a little Herrmann.  Walker’s score adds more rhythm percussion and some guitar ideas to give the music more of an edge at times.

For discs three and four, we move into music from episodes that focused on additional characters: Green Lantern (“In Brightest Day”, which received an Emmy nomination and is the source for the theme that would be used in Justice League as well as featuring some large orchestral scoring); Lex Luthor and Mercy Graves (“A Little Piece of Home”, which revisits Walker’s Lex Luthor theme and features some jazzy music as well); “Livewire” (showcasing more electric guitar and rock styles);  Darkseid, Orion, and New Genesis (“Apokolips…Now”, a fascinating blend of a variety of character themes with hero action music and even a little noir-ish style); Kara/Supergirl (“Little Girl Lost”, another Emmy nomination, and featuring some excellent Copland-style Americana and Williams-esque writing, as well as some interesting percussion and electronic additions); and Parasite (“Feeding Time”, an episode with a more involved score with interesting rhythmic challenges and intensity).  Disc four culminates a story arc involving Darkseid in the two-part “Legacy”.  The score is easily among one of her most brilliant equally paralleling her work for Mask of the Phantasm.  The amazing orchestral writing is often quite stunning to hear and one cannot help but feel that the world lost such a talent way too soon!

The massive presentation here includes a good booklet with information related to each episode and identification of who worked on what project, or whose music was included in a given sequence.  Air dates and summaries are also all here.  This time, the booklet features all the track title labels while the back of the package lists episodes and track numbers which works very well for a quick glance.  The music is all great superhero music and fans of the genre will certainly find much to enjoy.  Each of the contributors for these scores finds a way to create music that is uniquely their own, while also managing to provide some connection to the style setup for the series as a whole.  The pairing of these composers with specific episodes certainly allowed each challenges which they were able to tackle with great end results.  Apart from their being a host of music, the bottom line is that the sequencing of these discs makes this entire package an amazingly engaging listening experience.  One forgets rather quickly that these scores were for animated television!