Oh, and the music changed a bit too. Space: 1999’s first season relied on a library of new compositions by longtime Gerry Anderson collaborator Barry Gray, as well as the music Gray had composed for other Anderson productions such as UFO, supplemented by occasional commercial music library tracks. Gray declined to take part in Space: 1999’s second season, leaving the composer job up in the air. While commercial library tracks would still be used, the new theme tune and all incidental music custom-made for the show was composed by Derek Wadsworth – and like the revised costumes, the new score was as colorful and shiny as the first season’s was dour.

Not that this will rate as an improvement for every listener. Fans of ’70s TV scoring – which often relied on the disco style prevalant on the radio at the same time – will find much to enjoy here, while those who preferred Barry Gray’s outstanding but bleak season one score may be left scratching their heads. Wadsworth’s music seems to be based largely on the arrangement and production style of Gamble & Huff’s “Philly soul” sound – it’s classic early disco, and in places it’s really good listening on its own, especially the track “Escape From Psychon”, from which excerpts were endlessly reused in moments of tension throughout the season. Whether or not modern sensibilities will decree this as suitable music for an ostensibly serious SF series is another matter, though it’s also worth noting that in its second year, Space: 1999 was seriously descending into the “camp” category – and then toward the end of that season, any hope of the show recovering its reputation was literally blown away by a little movie called Star Wars.

Culled from a limited-edition 2-CD set (now hopelessly rare and excruciatingly expensive) originally issued by the Gerry Anderson fan club Fanderson, this general release from Silva Screen concentrates entirely on Wadsworth’s work, which is good in that there’s a stylistic unity to the whole thing. Silva’s first season soundtrack included some library tracks, but that isn’t the case here. Again, I’m grateful to Silva for bringing this music to those of us who aren’t willing to skip a house payment to buy a soundtrack CD.

Space: 1999 Year Two is good listening if you have a stomach for 1970s musical styles. Even if the arrangements were very 1970s, Wadsworth’s dramatic instincts were fairly sharp, and the lush arrangements for orchestra-with-some-rock/disco-elements indicated that the show’s producers were still spending money on the music. For those who can’t conceive of this being the sound of a TV science fiction series, Space: 1999 Year Two will either be an education or it’ll drive you crazy.

1. Space 1999 Year 2 Main Theme (0:49)
2. Strange Light (3:00)
3. Rendezvous In Space (5:53)
4. Escape From Psychon (9:14)
5. We’re All Aliens (1:57)
6. A Swarm Of Space Bees (2:32)
7. The First Capsule (3:06)
8. The Exiles Emerge (4:40)
9. Return To Golos (7:23)
10. Make Me A Pretty Nose (1:10)
11. Garden Of Vega (2:37)
12. The Strongest Passion (2:35)
13. Seduction (5:26)
14. Alpha Ahoy (1:54)
15. The Emporium (4:13)
16. The Abduction Of Maya (4:02)
17. Sore Loser (1:51)
18. Light Years Away (5:28)
19. Space Animal On The Loose (4:21)
20. Showdown At Copernicus (7:06)
21. Space 1999 Year 2 End Titles (0:32)

Released by: Silva Screen
Release date: 2009
Total running time: 79:49

This revival is two-fold: the first-ever live-action film based on the classic anime series is expected at the end of this year. The first animated continuation of the original series in over a decade was released at the end of 2009. To say that both are eagerly awaited is an understatement along the lines of “Those Gamilon planet bombs sure are reducing property values around here.” This soundtrack, of course, is from the recently-released (but apparently not very financially successful) Space Battleship Yamato: Fukkatsu Hen (Space Battleship Yamato: Rebirth Chapter). Clocking in at over two hours, the movie may have gained bad word of mouth by ending on a cliffhanger promising resolution in further movies… which, naturally, could be endangered by this film’s cool reception at the box office.

So much time has passed since the last movie in the series (1983’s Final Yamato) that there were numerous impacts on the new film(s?), including the death of the original voice actor behind lead character Susumu Kodai and even the death of Hiroshi Miyagawa, the composer who created almost all of the original Yamato themes and scores. For Rebirth Chapter’s music, it was apparently decided to mix-and-match existing music from Miyagawa’s previous work (in the form of new arrangements with new bridging material by Naoto Otomo. If that’s not confusing enough, Final Yamato themes by the late Kentaro Henada are also referenced.

And then, if we aren’t already right on the edge of losing musical cohesion (though Otomo’s arrangements do wed the Yamato film and TV compositions quite nicely), roughly half of the soundtrack is taken up by selections from the classical canon. Perhaps the classical music is explained as a plot point of some kind in the movie, but simply as a listening experience, it’s disconcerting (ha!) to hear a thundering, hard-rock-with-orchestra remake of the original Yamato theme and then wind up with Beethoven and Grieg a few tracks later. As much as I love the new treatments of Miyagawa’s music, I really find myself wondering if a more cohesive end result couldn’t have been achieved by finding some new talent and allowing them the freedom to reference Miyagawa and Haneda – if they wanted to – among their own original work.

The highlights of the soundtrack are the first track – a gorgeous new recording of Miyagawa’s “The Universe Spreading To Infinity” theme (but not a significantly altered arrangement) – and especially track 6, “Yamato Hasshin”, which is the aforementioned rocked-out new version of the original Yamato theme, featuring J-pop band The Alfee. My favorite revived piece of Kentaro Haneda’s is “Fly-By Warp”.

It’s hard to really judge fairly the odd balance of classical music and more-recent-but-still-recycled Yamato music without knowing what role the classical pieces may (or may not) play in the narrative. Someone’ll have to translate it for the western world so I can make that determination. But purely as a listening experience, Space Battleship Yamato: Rebirth Chapter’s soundtrack is pleasant enough, but never really establishes a feel that’s truly all its own.

1. Mugen Ni Hirogaru Uchuu (Miyagawa) (1:42)
2. Cascade Black Hall (Mahler) (2:39)
3. Kodai No Kikan (Miyagawa) (5:55)
4. Wakamono Tachi (Miyagawa) (1:43)
5. Hyoukai Ni Nemuru (Miyagawa) (3:13)
6. Yamato Hasshin (Miyagawa / featuring The Alfee) (5:45)
7. Senka No Uzu He (Kousuke Yamashita) (3:50)
8. Fly-By Warp (Haneda) (2:47)
9. Amar (Tchaikovsky) (5:35)
10. Golui (Beethoven) (5:33)
11. Joou Ilya (Chopin) (5:27)
12. Mirai Heno Tatakai (Beethoven) (5:46)
13. Sus Dai Yousai (Grieg) (5:46)
14. “Fukkatsu Hen” No Tame No Symphony (Haneda) (4:17)
15. Metzler (Kousuke Yamashita) (2:45)
16. Kono Ai Wo Sasagete (featuring The Alfee) (6:00)

Released by: EMI Japan
Release date: 2009
Total running time: 65:32

Melle is associated with more traditional scoring, especially in the suspense/horror genre (Kolchak: The Night Stalker and Rod Serling’s Night Gallery being among his best-known work), but for this movie he used decidedly non-traditional means to create his music, with only a smattering of familiar instruments. The first three tracks really don’t make many concessions to an audience not already familiar with electronic music; “Desert Trip” is really the first truly tuneful track on the album. (“Desert Trip” also has a place in my own local history: one Fort Smith radio station which has held an annual Easter Egg hunt has used the middle portion of “Desert Trip” as the background music for on-air clues for as long as I can remember.)

“OP” and “Xenogensis” provide more material that borders on actually being melodic, but “Strobe Crystal Green” brings things full circle into the abstract. For those not accustomed to early electronic and radiophonic music, The Andromeda Strain soundtrack – away from the movie – can be a challenging listen at best, in the same vein as the music from the Doctor Who story The Sea Devils (broadcast the following year). Quite a bit of it isn’t just atonal, but eschews just about any notion of melody, harmony or rhythm, in either the western or eastern traditions. It’s not just noise, though: there is structure, just not in a traditional musical sense.

I frequently dock big points for a running time that clocks in well short of the capacity of a compact disc (especially at the premium price Intrada charges for its excellent limited-run soundtrack CDs), but there’s actually a historical reason for this one: when initially issued on vinyl in 1971, The Andromeda Strain’s soundtrack was released as a hexagonal LP, and its running time was a byproduct of that unusual shape, since all of the tracks had to fit within a circular area within that hexagon. Intrada’s CD is round, but as it uses the LP master tapes as its source material, it has no more music than that hexagonal LP. Let the buyer beware of the running time vs. price ratio here.

1. Wildfire (2:46)
2. Hex (4:00)
3. Andromeda (2:24)
4. Desert Trip (4:14)
5. The Piedmont Elegy (2:23)
6. OP (2:45)
7. Xenogenesis (2:40)
8. Strobe Crystal Green (4:55)

Released by: Intrada
Release date: 2010
Total running time: 26:07

An Electric Storm starts out promisingly enough, putting the two most interesting numbers up front. “Love Without Sound” and “My Game Of Loving” were the A and B sides of the originally planned single, showing off the concept behind White Noise very well: to apply the working methods of the Radiophonic Workshop to something that was intended, from the outset, to be a pop song or two. Even these two songs aren’t without issues, however. “Love Without Sound” has a fantastic, mysterious feel, with vocals that anticipate the singing style of the new wave and new romantic genres by a good ten years, and “My Game Of Loving” isn’t bad either, with almost Brian-Wilson-esque vocals.

But both songs become novelty tunes with the addition of intrusive laughter on the former and orgasmic moaning on the latter. The “instrumental” backgrounds – and I used that term loosely since, as with Derbyshire’s famous version of the Doctor Who theme, few traditional instruments were used – are intriguing. Any album with Derbyshire and Hodgson involved would have been spectacularly well-produced at the very least.

Though I’m not as fond of the music, this leaves the relatively uncluttered “Firebird” and “Your Hidden Dreams” as the gems of this album. “Here Come The Fleas” takes things firmly into novelty song territory.

The last two tracks on An Electric Storm are wanna-be epics that wind up weighing the whole endeavour down. “The Visitations” clocks in at over ten minutes, and few of those minutes stand out as interesting music, while “The Black Mass: An Electric Storm In Hell” is a noise montage with track after track of overdubbed screams, resulting in a piece that, quite frankly, I’d be happy never to hear again. Legend has it that the trio cranked out the two longest tracks in the shortest amount of studio time simply to fulfill Island’s demands for a full album. An Electric Storm in hell, indeed: it’s almost as if the group made a deal with the devil and was in a hurry to get out of it.

To be blunt, An Electric Storm is really the A and B sides of two decent, if trippy, singles, and a further collection of filler material that’s not worth the time (and keep in mind, very few times in theLogBook.com’s Music Reviews has it ever been said that anything’s not worth at least one listen for curiosity’s sake). There would’ve been no honor lost in just doing a four-song EP – and my opinion of this collection minus the three filler songs would’ve been raised considerably. White Noise actually continues to this day, having released an album each decade since An Electric Storm, though most of the “group”’s output since this album has been Vorhaus on his own; Derbyshire and Hodgson went their own way following this album. It’s a pioneering piece of electronic pop music, but the artistic achievement isn’t quite on par with the technical prowess on display.

1. Love Without Sound (3:07)
2. My Game Of Loving (4:10)
3. Here Come The Fleas (2:15)
4. Firebird (3:05)
5. Your Hidden Dreams (4:58)
6. The Visitations (11:14)
7. The Black Mass: An Electric Storm In Hell (7:22)

Released by: Island Records
Release date: 1969
Total running time: 36:11

Not only that, but Scott was trying his hardest to make his experiments pay for themselves: he marketed his unusual new sounds as music beds and jingles for commercials, with some success. The two-disc Manhattan Research, Inc. collection chronicles and archives that material, with a selection of Scott’s finished spots (both with and without announcers/singers) as well as demos and experiments that never made it to radio. The commercials range from obscurely local/regional campaigns (Baltimore Gas & Electric Company) to major national campaigns (IBM, Bufferin, Vicks, General Motors and a Sprite radio campaign that remains famous enough that it’s now become an ironic cover song). In a way, Scott achieved his aim by getting a new style of music into the ears of millions of listeners – but until now, not with any recognition.

While the commercials are a nostalgia trip that goes back even before the writer of this review was born, some of the purely instrumental pieces are startlingly ahead of their time: the “Night and Day” track on the first disc could’ve caught on in the 1980s had it been revived then. “Take Me To Your Violin Teacher” could easily be mistaken for modern chiptunes performed with 1980s video game hardware… and yet it was recorded in 1969. “Ripples (Montage)” anticipates abstract-but-tuneful electronic film scoring. “Cindy Electronium” sounds like late ’80s/early ’90s video game music.

There are a few throwbacks as well; Scott tries out completely electronic renditions of his existing compositions including “The Toy Trumpet” (which becomes almost unrecognizable) and “Twilight In Turkey”, both of which featured in their original, jazzier forms on Reckless Nights & Turkish Twilights. Some of his electronic music beds are also quite obviously very close cousins of the music from his Soothing Sounds For Baby albums. There’s also one very interesting guest star on a few tracks: the voice of none other than Jim Henson graces some tracks recorded in 1969, including “Limbo: The Organized Mind”, a free-form ramble set to Scott’s electronic sounds, and a couple of Bufferin commercials which seem to have sprung from “Limbo” both conceptually and musically.

A lot of this information, incidentally, is included in a book that clocks in at around 140 pages and covers Scott’s entire life and career, not just the material on these two CDs, in a wealth of detail.

Raymond Scott is still overdue for a reassessment of one of the electronic music pioneers in the United States, to say nothing of being a composer whose works influenced generations of children (by way of Warner Bros. cartoons). Manhattan Research, Inc. really isn’t a “general audience” listening experience, but it’s an invaluable archive for anyone interested in how electronic music gained a foothold in our national consciousness: in little snippets, 30 or so seconds at a time, behind commercial announcers and jingle singers.

Disc One
1. Manhattan Research, Inc. Copyright (0:11)
2. Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. (Instrumental, Take 4) (1:14)
3. Bendix 1: The Tomorrow People (1:06)
4. Lightworks (1:52)
5. The Bass-line Generator (3:10)
6. Don’t Beat Your Wife Every Night! (1:44)
7. B.C. 1675 (Gillette Conga Drum Jingle) (3:16)
8. Vim (0:59)
9. Auto-Lite: Sta-Ful (Instrumental) (0:47)
10. Sprite: Melonball Bounce (Instrumental) (1963)
11. Sprite: Melonball Bounce (1963)
12. Wheels That Go (0:50)
13. Limbo: The Organized Mind (4:33)
14. Portofino 1 (2:13)
15. County Fair (1:01)
16. Lady Gaylord (1:02)
17. Good Air (Take 7) (0:38)
18. IBM MT/ST: The Paperwork Explosion (4:31)
19. Domino (0:33)
20. Super Cheer (0:34)
21. Cheer: Revision 3 (New Backgrounds) (0:39)
22. Twilight in Turkey (1:32)
23. Raymond Scott Quote / Vicks: Medicated Cough Drops (1:34)
24. Vicks: Formula 44 (0:46)
25. Auto-Lite: Spark Plugs (1:00)
26. Nescafe (1:06)
27. Awake (0:35)
28. Backwards Overload (6:04)
29. Bufferin: Memories (Original) (0:59)
30. Bandito the Bongo Artist (1:30)
31. Night and Day (Cole Porter) (1:45)
32. Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. (“395″) (1:07)
33. K2r (0:19)
34. IBM Probe (1:56)
35. GMGM 1A (1:49)
36. The Rhythm Modulator (3:37)

Disc Two
1. Ohio Plus (0:17)
2. In the Hall of the Mountain Queen (0:49)
3. General Motors: Futurama (1:04)
4. Portofino 2 (2:14)
5. The Wild Piece (a.k.a. String Piece) (4:07)
6. Take Me to Your Violin Teacher (1:40)
7. Ripples (Original Soundtrack) (0:59)
8. Cyclic Bit (1:04)
9. Ripples (Montage) (4:06)
10. The Wing Thing (1:00)
11. County Fair (Instrumental) (1:00)
12. Cindy Electronium (1:59)
13. Don’t Beat Your Wife Every Night! (Instrumental) (1:45)
14. Hostess: Twinkies (0:32)
15. Hostess: Twinkies (Instrumental) (0:32)
16. Ohio Bell: Thermo Fax (0:24)
17. Pygmy Taxi Corporation (7:11)
18. Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. (Announce Copy, Take 1) (0:29)
19. Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. (0:44)
20. Lightworks (Slow) (1:40)
21. The Paperwork Explosion (Instrumental) (3:30)
22. Auto-Lite: Ford Family (1:03)
23. Auto-Lite: Ford Family (Instrumental) (0:54)
24. Raymond Scott Quote / Auto-Lite: Wheels (1:50)
25. Bufferin: Memories (Demo) (0:44)
26. Space Mystery (Montage) (5:11)
27. The Toy Trumpet (2:15)
28. Backwards Beeps (1:05)
29. Raymond Scott Quote / Auto-Lite: Sta-Ful (1:36)
30. Lightworks (Instrumental) (1:29)
31. When Will It End? (3:14)
32. Bendix 2: The Tomorrow People (1963)
33. Electronic Audio Logos, Inc. (5:23)

Released by: Basta
Release date: 2000
Disc one total running time: 58:48
Disc two total running time: 63:11

Black Sunday is an oddity in Williams’ repertoire – aside from diehard Williams fans, not a lot of people know it’s even there. The movie was released early in 1977 by Paramount, and as is well known by now, another movie hit theaters in May 1977 which all but erased Black Sunday from the public film-going consciousness, a movie that also had a John Williams score. As such, Black Sunday has the odd distinction of being the only post-Jaws Williams soundtrack that has never been released – not even on vinyl or any other medium – until now.

And it was definitely worth the wait: there’s little in the Black Sunday soundtrack that sounds dated; only one distinctively ’70s-style source cue and the end credit suite, played over a gentle, mid-tempo ’70s-style soft rock beat, give the game away (and in any case, the typically extensive Film Score Monthly liner notes reveal that this version wasn’t used in the final edit of the film; another mix, minus the pop elements, is presented here but also went unused). The vast majority of the music sits nicely between Jaws and Star Wars, with menacing, brooding themes for the building suspense, and Williams’ signature style of action music, though it takes on a more worried tone than his often celebratory style.

The Black Sunday soundtrack is a lost gem from the Williams repertoire, and fans of his music from this era won’t be let down – even if the music comes from a movie that isn’t usually mentioned in the same breath as Williams’ more, ahem, super efforts.

1. Beirut (0:37)
2. Commandos Arrive (1:14)
3. Commandos Raid (5:30)
4. It Was Good / Dahlia Arrives / The Unloading (3:12)
5. Speed Boat Chase (1:51)
6. The Telephone Man / The Captain Returns (2:13)
7. Nurse Dahlia / Kabakov’s Card / The Hypodermic (3:30)
8. Moshevsky’s Dead (1:56)
9. The Test (1:56)
10. Building The Bomb (1:53)
11. Miami / Dahlia’s Call (2:26)
12. The Last Night (1:28)
13. Preparations (2:43)
14. Passed (0:31)
15. The Flight Check (1:50)
16. Airborne / Bomb Passes Stadium (1:45)
17. Farley’s Dead (1:33)
18. The Blimp and the Bomb (3:12)
19. The Take Off (1:43)
20. Underway (0:39)
21. Air Chase, Part 1 (1:12)
22. Air Chase, Parts 2 & 3 – The Blimp Hits (7:19)
23. The Explosion (2:36)
24. The End (2:19)
25. Hotel Lobby (source) (1:47)
26. Fight Song #1 (0:50)
27. Fight Song #2 (1:48)
28. The End (Alternate) (2:17)
29. The Explosion (Revised Ending) (2:11)

Released by: Film Score Monthly
Release date: 2010
Total running time: 64:01

This volume concentrates almost exclusively on his output from the Radiophonic Workshop, much of it consisting of work for the BBC’s regional radio stations. The station IDs (or, as they’re called here, “idents”) were different for Radio London than for Radio Sheffield, for example – all giving Baker an opportunity to make music out of things like the sound of water pouring from a bottle, a ruler tapping the edge of a table and so on.

Of all the Radiophonic Workshop’s mad acoustic scientists, Baker seemed to have a distinctly jazzy sensibility; some of his tracks here turn his unusual sounds into a whole new sub-genre of “crime jazz” soundtrack music, with a dark, sinister feel to them. Unlike some of his peers, Baker was unafraid to mix “real” instruments in with his radiophonic sounds, and it’s in these darkly jazzy tracks the sound of a sax or a real bass guitar can make all the difference in mood. Many of his radio idents are bubbly and cheerful, and there are a few cues, intended as underscores for radio dramas and other programs, that have their own distinctive feel.

One of the most interesting tracks is a recording of Baker himself, appearing on one of the radio programs for which he’d created some very distinctive music, responding to listeners’ queries about how the music was made. He dissects the piece of music down to individual elements (which may or may not have been on a true multitrack tape – often in the 1950s and early 1960s, the Workshop had to “multitrack” by manually starting different tape playback machines and hoping that they’d sync up – and having to start over if they didn’t).

I’ve eagerly snapped up the various BBC Radiophonic Workshop reissues and retrospectives issued in recent years, and I’m happy to report very little material repeated from those collections; even if you’ve got a fairly exhaustive Radiophonic Workshop collection, much of this material will still be new to you, so volume 1 of The John Baker Tapes isn’t a waste of money. It’s an invaluable archive offering an educational insight into early advances in electronic music, as explored by one of its unsung innovators.

1. Newstime BBC (0:23)
2. Tros Y Gareg (Main Theme) (2:50)
3. Tros Y Gareg (Idents) (0:21)
4. 20th Century Focus (2:24)
5. Vendetta: The Ice Cream Man (1:19)
6. Woman’s Hour (Reading Your Letters) (1:47)
7. Many A Slip (0:58)
8. Look And Read (0:36)
9. Building The Bomb (6:26)
10. Au Printemps (2:28)
11. Big Ben News Theme (0:33)
12. Codename (1:03)
13. Decimal Currency (0:20)
14. Barnacle Bill (0:21)
15. Dial M For Murder (2:25)
16. Farm Management (0:31)
17. Radio Sheffield (News Idents) (0:45)
18. French Science And Technology (0:40)
19. Good Morning Wales (Idents) (0:37)
20. Heavy Plant Crossing (0:59)
21. COI Technology Pavilion (9:31)
22. John Baker Interview (Radio Nottingham) (2:34)
23. Radio Nottingham Idents (0:34)
24. Look North: Newstime (0:50)
25. Man Alive: UFO (1:15)
26. PM – Computers In Business (0:40)
27. Submarines (1:59)
28. Oranges And Lemons (Radio London) (2:37)
29. Orbit (0:47)
30. Places For People (0:47)
31. Sling Your Hook (2:28)
32. Suivez La Piste (0:49)
33. Scene (Never Never) (1:40)
34. Diary Of A Madman (3:54)
35. The Two O’Clock Spot (0:58)
36. Radio London: News Idents (0:25)
37. The Caves Of Steel (3:12)
38. The Locusts (0:47)
39. Square Two (0:30)
40. The Tape Recorder (1:11)
41. Tom Tom (Theme) (0:43)
42. Tom Tom (Idents) (0:15)
43. Trial (Opening Theme) (0:35)
44. Trial (Closing Theme) (1:22)
45. Vendetta The Sugar Man (2:01)
46. Spin Off (0:21)
47. Radiophonic FX C (0:10)
48. Radiophonic FX A (0:54)
49. Radiophonic FX B (0:34)

Released by: Trunk Records
Release date: 2008
Total running time: 72:09

Where it was easy to figure out the object of L.E.O.’s musical affections, Rubber Universe is almost like a tribute – or, better yet, a whole new entry – to prog rock in general. The band states up front that their chief inspiration was Parsons, but in a couple of places (namely on the tracks “Paint My World” and “Nine Minutes ‘Till Midnight”) they also remind one forcefully of the Moody Blues at the height of their early ’70s experimentation (i.e. when their every release was mind-blowing and not just in service of a paint-by-numbers tour), and occasionally – especially in those songs with a healthy dose of female vocals – Clannad comes to mind.

Not that Rubber Universe is slavishly imitating anyone. The admission to having sprung from a tribute/cover band may be a way to automatically grab the attention of a certain fanbase, but Parliament Of Fooles is a fresh new entry in the prog rock pantheon on its own; the whole “former cover band” line in the publicity material may end up being counterproductive. The project (no pun intended) may have started as a cover band that wanted to do something original, but while Parsons fans will appreciate it, it’s nothing that screams “Hey, they’re trying to sound like the Alan Parsons Project.”

Though in a few places, they kinda do, with a little help from their friends: Project guitar god Ian Bairnson contributes to one track, while Godfrey Townsend, Parsons’ current touring guitarist, plays on another. The real coup, however – if those two weren’t enough to lend it the seal of Parsons Project authenticity – is a spoken-word intro for “Let Me Rule Your Heart” by the Project’s most famous vocalist and co-founder, the late Eric Woolfson.

If there’s one trap that Parliament Of Fooles falls victim to, it’s a tendency for most of the songs to hover in the same mid-tempo territory. The good news is that, when a song that breaks that mold comes along (i.e. “Romance Of The Illusion”), it instantly stands out, but much of the album sticks around the same tempo; any second effort from Rubber Universe would do well to vary things a bit more.

But for a freshman outing by a new band, especially one that has one hell of a musical and production pedigree to live up to, built into its mission statement, Rubber Universe is an outfit that bears close watching – and repeat listening. Though fans of the Alan Parsons Project, they’ve proven that they’re more than ready to carve their own path, and with Parsons’ own output having dropped to less-than-prodigious levels in the past 20 years, I’d welcome a new entity making music with the same expansive feel.

1. Negative Spaces (4:23)
2. Dream Catcher (6:53)
3. Romance Of The Illusion (2:16)
4. Madness In Slumberland (4:18)
5. Garden Of Earthly Delights (3:54)
6. Let Me Rule Your Heart featuring Eric Woolfson (5:36)
7. Paint My World (3:35)
8. We Insist (Place De Greve Mix) (5:05)
9. Goodbye My Love (2:02)
10. Trying To Go On (4:40)
11. Nine Minutes ‘Till Midnight featuring Godfrey Townsend (4:04)
12. Parliament Of Fooles featuring Ian Bairnson (5:47)

Released by: Rubber Universe
Release date: 2008
Total running time: 52:33

With that in mind, you have to forgive North, South, East, West…’s inherent schizophrenia. The one common thread linking all of this very disparate material is Finn’s extremely versaitle voice. Whether it’s the very orchestrated sound of Split Enz or the relatively stripped-down guitar wash of Crowded House or the Finn Brothers, Finn’s voice cuts through the whole mix every time. His solo work has darted back and forth between more ornamented, Enz-like songs and more acoustic fare, so even if you set aside his non-solo projects, there’s no one sound dominating the entire 2-CD set.

The obligatory new material includes songs we haven’t heard before, and new recordings of songs that we have. Finn covers Split Enz’s “Stuff And Nonsense” as a duet with Missy Higgins, and gives Crowded House’s “It’s Only Natural” a similar treatment with Bic Runga riding shotgun. He also covers the Crowded House hit-in-some-parts-of-the-world “Weather With You” with Neil and Liam Finn. Also included are very stripped-down new versions of “So Deep” (from his very-produced, dance-rhythm-heavy second solo album Big Canoe) and Crowded House’s “How Will You Go”, and an instrumental piano cover of a portion of Split Enz’s “Poor Boy”. I felt that a partial cover was a little bit of a cheat (especially when it’s done so well), and “So Deep” already wasn’t my favorite song from Big Canoe, and it doesn’t really benefit from the toned-down rethink. I’m much more partial to “How Will You Go” in its original form, so this new recording, relieved of most of its beautiful vocal harmonies, certainly doesn’t supplant the original. It’s interesting to note that none of the Crowded House songs on this collection are the original recordings – all of them are re-interpretations.

Fortunately, the genuinely new tracks are a treat: “Into The Water” and especially the jumpy “Light Years Away” are up there with the best of Finn’s output over the past decade, and “Nothing Unusual” winds up being a kind of theme song for the whole compilation: it borrows the main riff from “Many’s The Time” and namechecks Enz chestnuts like “Maybe” and “Malmsbury Villa”, and the lyrics talk about the inspiration for songs in general – it’s a song about when one writes and performs songs, a bit of a meta-song, and a pleasant one at that.

Listening back to the songs chosen from Finn’s large body of solo work, I have to say that generally, the songs are very well-chosen; it seems like Big Canoe and Finn’s self-titled 1989 album were buried for some reason (and I still count the latter among his very best solo work), and his work from the musical stage production Steel City isn’t represented at all, but as many labels as Finn has been on over the years there may be issues there (which may also explain the Crowded House oddity noted above). Once the compilation moves on to music from 1993’s Before & After, things tend to line up, more or less, with the Tim Finn best-of mixes that I’ve been creating for myself for years. Considering how hard it’s become to find some of Tim Finn’s material, this compilation is probably a good idea for those curious about his work.

Disc One
1. I See Red performed by Split Enz (3:17)
2. My Mistake performed by Split Enz (3:02)
3. Poor Boy performed by Split Enz (3:23)
4. Six Months In A Leaky Boat performed by Split Enz (4:23)
5. I Hope I Never performed by Split Enz (4:36)
6. Dirty Creature performed by Split Enz (4:01)
7. Maybe performed by Split Enz (2:53)
8. Stuff And Nonsense performed by Tim Finn & Missy Higgins (3:27)
9. Fraction Too Much Friction (4:10)
10. Made My Day (3:20)
11. So Deep (4:15)
12. How’m I Gonna Sleep (3:52)
13. Not Even Close (4:18)
14. Many’s The Time (4:20)
15. Persuasion (3:52)
16. Into The Water (3:14)
17. Nothing Unusual (4:02)

Disc Two
1. Weather With You performed by Tim, Neil & Liam Finn (3:43)
2. How Will You Go (2:59)
3. It’s Only Natural performed by Tim Finn & Bic Runga (3:44)
4. Underwater Mountain (3:55)
5. Dead Man (4:04)
6. What You’ve Done (3:43)
7. Subway Dreaming (4:16)
8. Angels’ Heap performed by the Finn Brothers (2:50)
9. Disembodied Voices performed by the Finn Brothers (3:37)
10. Luckiest Man Alive performed by the Finn Brothers (3:59)
11. Winter Light (4:11)
12. Couldn’t Be Done (2:53)
13. Astounding Moon (3:36)
14. Straw To Gold (3:58)
15. Out Of This World (3:01)
16. The Saw And The Tree (4:05)
17. Light Years Away (3:09)
18. Poor Boy (instrumental) (1:31)

Released by: Capitol / EMI
Release date: 2009
Disc one total running time: 64:25
Disc two total running time: 63:14

Soundtrack specialty label Intrada felt it was a big deal too – big enough to merit a 2-CD deluxe release, and big enough to take the very unusual step of not limiting Back To The Future’s print run to 3,000 copies, the typical allocation for a soundtrack release, especially a “vintage” release like this. Very much like this year’s expanded re-release of the soundtrack from Star Trek II, Intrada was aware of – and is banking on – wider interest in this soundtrack than an older score would normally see.

Already having more than a passing familiarity with Back To The Future and its sequels, I was amazed with how many surprises awaited me in this package. I learned quite a few things from the booklet that I didn’t know before, and the music itself was a real revelation in places. How the theme from Back To The Future has managed to escape being enshrined among the movie themes that the general public considers “hummable” is beyond me – it’s very memorable, and Silvestri proves – as he does in much of his other work – that it’s infinitely adaptable: fast, slow, major keys, minor keys, it’s carefully crafted to fit any of those needs.

But there’s much more here that’s memorable: Silvestri’s playful three-note mysterioso “stingers” practically put you right back in the movie, and with action setpieces like “Skateboard Chase” and especially the amazing feat of wall-to-wall action music that is “Clocktower”, this isn’t music that’ll put you to sleep. I was reminded of how dramatic some of the scoring is for a movie that most viewers remember as a comedy. Silvestri does a lot of the legwork in selling some of the movie’s most serious, high-jeopardy moments.

The entire score from Back To The Future fits on the first disc, so what’s on the second disc? It’s an early version of key moments of the movie score. The early version is still recorded with a full orchestra; it’s not an early enough draft to be rough synth sketches or anything less evolved. But there are changes in timing (sometimes sections of the music were replaced to accomodate editing changes) and changes in emphasis: the “‘55 Town Square” cue is presented in two early versions, one with trumpets and French horns at full blast, and one with muted brass, and the difference in feel is remarkable. Some of the rescored sections are actually significantly different; Silvestri “lightened” the music in some places for the final version, with the original cues sometimes being a little too dramatic and dark. For the most part, it’s the same music, with changes in the emotional tone – a treat for listeners who are students in how films are scored.

The pop music used in Back To The Future has been more than adequately released, so this presentation of the orchestral score is long overdue – and with the early drafts and extensive liner notes, Intrada has made the wait worthwhile. We can’t really go back in time to give this soundtrack its just recognition down through the years, but this is more than good enough.

Disc One

1. Logo (0:23)
2. DeLorean Reveal (0:49)
3. Einstein Disintegrated (1:25)
4. ‘85 Twin Pines Mall (4:45)
5. Peabody Barn / Marty Ditches DeLorean (3:13)
6. ‘55 Town Square (1:20)
7. Lorraine’s Bedroom (0:49)
8. Retrieve DeLorean (1:17)
9. 1.21 Jigowatts (1.39)
10. The Picture (1:08)
11. Picture Fades (0:20)
12. Skateboard Chase (1:41)
13. Marty’s Letter (1:21)
14. George To The Rescue, Part 1 (0:53)
15. Marvin Be-Bop (source cue) (2:27)
16. George To The Rescue, Part 2 (2:37)
17. Tension / The Kiss (1:35)
18. Goodnight Marty (source cue) (1:33)
19. It’s Been Educational / Clocktower (10:33)
20. Helicopter (0:21)
21. ‘85 Lone Pine Mall (3:49)
22. 4 x 4 (0:43)
23. Doc Returns (1:16)
24. Back to the Future (End Credits) (3:18)

Disc Two

1. DeLorean Reveal (0:43)
2. Einstein Disintegrated (1:26)
3. Peabody Barn (2:08)
4. Marty Ditches DeLorean (1:58)
5. ‘55 Town Square #1 (Trumpet Open) (1:37)
6. ‘55 Town Square #2 (Trumpet Mute) (1:38)
7. Retrieve DeLorean (1:17)
8. 1.21 Jigowatts (1:38)
9. The Picture (1:09)
10. Skateboard Chase (1:42)
11. George To The Rescue (4:16)
12. Tension / The Kiss (1:43)
13. Clocktower (10:57)
14. ‘85 Lone Pine Mall (3:49)
15. Doc Returns (1:22)
16. Ling Ting Ring (unused source cue) (2:01)

Released by: Intrada
Release date: 2009
Disc one total running time: 49:15
Disc two total running time: 39:24