The film list presented for this new Horror movie music compilation from BSX records (available at www.buysoundtrax.com) features a number of selections that are cause for a raised eyebrow: Creepshow, Dawn of the Dead, Psycho II, Warlock, True Blood. The music runs the gamut from the innocuous Vic Mizzy music for The Addams Family and The Ghost and Mr. Chicken and Jack Marshall’s theme from The Munster’s; to several John Carpenter selections (Halloween, The Fog, and Christine; and Morricone’s music for The Thing); and a host of creepy classics from A Nightmare on Elm Street, to Fright Night and Shock Treatment. There are several other TV shows featured here as well: Tales from the Crypt and The New Outer Limits. Though the BSX catalogue includes original score releases from a couple of the films represented here, all of the selections are contemporary electronic recreations of these pieces. It does help that many of the selections were already synthesizer/electronic scores to begin with and that the state of the art sound makes many of these arrangements quite engaging.
Dominik Hauser is the primary producer/arranger/performer (he is either a good brass player, or has some great samples, or both) for selections in the first half of the disc. His performances/realizations of the Carpenter pieces are quite good and make for an engaging introduction to these selections. The little children’s march, “The Gonk,” from Dawn of the Dead by Herbert Chappell receives a performance that sounds like acoustic brass are being used as well as xylophone which helps break up some of the previous electronic material. It is a delightful change of pace and one of the albums highlights. His arrangement of “Carol Anne’s Theme” from Poltergeist is a fine example of samples used wisely to imitate a live orchestra though it can be a little stiff at times as is the “Overture” from The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Chick Cirino provides a fine arrangement of music from Creepshow, a suite from his score to 1989’s Roger Corman comedy Transylvania Twist, and music from Wendy Carlos’ The Shining which closes the album. Joohyun Park, who has worked on a number of Christopher Young projects, provides arrangements of Goldsmith’s music from Psycho II (a tantalizing take on the “Main Title”) and Warlock (“The Sentence”); and a good reproduction of Nathan Barr’s “Love Theme” from True Blood and music from Fiedel’s Fright Night.
There are some other fun surprises. John Beal performs his trailer for Graveyard Shift and provides an arrangement of music from Christine. And there is Dennis McCarthy’s chilling take on Charles Bernstein’s music from A Nightmare on Elm Street. Another potential point of interest are several songs performed by actress Victoria De Mare (Shadows-2005) from Shock Treatment (“Looking for Trade”), The Return of the Living Dead (“Tonight”) and Brian Hacksaw Williams from True Blood (“Bad Things”). Charles Fernandez (Robot Chicken, and orchestrator for the films The Butterfly Effect, Mr. Magoo and others) performs and provides arrangements for The Addams Family (a little too cutesy at times) and “The Haunted Organ” from The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (taken a little slow and a bit laboriously).
Overall this is a fun disc with a generous playing time that traverses a number of classic electronic scores and does a good job reproducing selections from those that were originally orchestral. The production values are high for the music. The booklet includes paragraph summaries of the films and little or no information about the performances or equipment used to pull these pieces off. The disc will likely sell best at Comic-Con with its built in fan base. There are still plenty of fine selections here though to warrant a look by fans of these scores looking for a sampler. The disc starts out fairly creepy enough but then slowly gives way to the lighter horror music, and pop-influenced selections. The first half is perhaps the msot succsessful part of the release.
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