Apes, fight like apes! This great CD pairs the soundtracks for the last two Planet Of The Apes films – Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes and Battle For The Planet Of The Apes both of which were much more low-budget and a bit more unbridled than the original movies. Conquest features 14 tracks written by funky jazzer Tom Scott – done in a mix of orchestral suspense and military themes, often handled with some nice touches of 70s electric instrumentation that's similar to that used by Scott in his TV show work. Battle features 17 tracks written by Leonard Rosenmann, who'd scored the earlier Beneath The Planet Of The Apes film, and who here returns to the moody feel of that score. A great package, with a wonderful booklet and nice images – limited to 3000 copies, with titles that include "Ape Servitude", "1991 Restaurant", "Teacher Teacher", "Caesar Departs", "Ricky's Theme", "Electrocution", "The King Is Dead", and "Subjugation Soul". CD

A great Jerry Goldsmith score from the mid 60s – penned for a western, but with a sensitivity that's much more like some of his best dramatic work of the time! There's some wonderful use of woodwinds and strings in the lineup – often with the sense of mature color and tone that Jerry brought to thoughtful crime scores, or some of his more adult soundtracks – including those for well-penned TV dramas. There's some acoustic guitar to provide the right western flair at times – but overall, the style is a nice change from the usual – although with Goldsmith, things are always a cut above the usual too! Titles include "The Fuse", "The Prisoner", "Smoke Signals", "Cantina 1 & 2", "A Change Of Luck", "Unlucky Lover", "River Crossing", and "Special Delivery" – plus 5 bonus tracks. CD

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A pair of soundtracks for two of the creepiest horror movies of the 70s – back to back on a single CD, and given the top-shelf Film Score Monthly treatment! First up is the score for Soylent Green – a mix of very moody, unusually-toned passages that are mixed with some mellower, jazzier numbers that offset things nicely – composed by Fred Myrow, but also given a bit of help from horror maestro Gerald Fried! The music is definitely above the norm – not just in the higher budget, but also in the way that things come together sonically – at a level that makes for a lot of surprises throughout – on titles that include "Tab's Pad/Furniture Party", "Shirl & Thorn", "Home Lobby Source", "Can I Do Something For You", and "Sol's Music". Demon Seed is a great one from Jerry Fielding – definitely at the darker side of his sonic spectrum, which is pretty darn fitting, given that the film involves a computer having sex with Julie Christie! There's a sense of evil that resonates in the music right from the start – a mode that's partially borrowed from the Italian giallo generation, but which is given a more varied approach here, often at a level that's very low in the sonic spectrum. Tracks include "Birth Scene", "Probed Or Put To Bed", "Last Voyage", and "Closing Crawl". CD features almost 80 minutes of music – and detailed notes on both scores! CD

Totally excellent – and probably the best of the Planet Of The Apes soundtracks! The record features lots of snippets of dialogue from the film – including Cornelius telling the creed of the fate of man, General Ursus addressing Ape City, and the chilling Mass Of The Holy Bomb. The main score has some great work by Leonard Roseman, in kind of an off-kilter style with lots of atonal string passages – but it also features a few tasty funky cuts. The best of these is the "March Of The Apes", a great little funky 70s soundtrack number, and there's also a weird funky passage at the end of the "mass", with voices chanting in a hippy dippy kind of way! Plus, this expanded CD package features a lot more music than the original LP – a 19 track suite of instrumental orchestral titles by Rosenmann, plus 2 bonus tracks "Mind Control SFX" and "Nova Dies", plus the LP program of tracks, which includes the original dialogue bits! 32 tracks in all, very nicely done, and limited to 3000 copies! CD

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Groovy groovy work from Johnny Williams – a second volume of material for one of his best 60s soundtracks – excellent early work from on the great modern film score composers! The film's a goofy sex romp, as you might expect from the title, and Williams' tunes really keep the spirit of the movie up nicely – running through a variety of upbeat styles, from jazzy Hammond, to groovy vocals, and even a few surprisingly nice chorus vocal type tunes! Includes the great song "Big Beautiful Ball", presented in vocal versions as well as a bonus instrumental, the former with lyrics by Johnny Mercer. This great Film Score Monthly Vol 2 features the nearly complete original film tracks, derived from the original scoring masters. Other titles include "My Inamorata", "It'll Take Hours", "Tom's Jealousy", "Two Of Everything", "High Tank", "Cold Feet", "Bowed Heads And Flowers" and many more. Also includes several bonus track instrumental versions. 38 tracks in all. CD

A totally excellent collection of rare western soundtracks from MGM – vintage material that we've never seen on CD before, packaged together in a beautiful limited set! The style here is a bit more dramatic than the western scores you might know from the spaghetti generation – but there's also some great echoes of those modes too – kind of the early inklings of styles that were picked up later by Italian composers, but handled here mostly with fuller American orchestrations. The package really lives up to the usual Film Score standards – great sound and supporting materials, and lots of movie tracks that never would have been on any LP release. 3CDs – with material from Northwest Passage (1940) by Herbert Stothart, Many Rivers To Cross (1955) by Cyril J Mockridge, Thunder Of Drums (1961) by Harry Sukman, and The Godchild (1974) by David Shire. Also features the song "Yellow Stripes" from Escape From Fort Brave (1953). CD

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A treasure trove of lost music from the Man From UNCLE TV show – tracks composed by Jerry Goldsmith, with a feel that's quite different than the Hugo Montenegro recordings that comprised the more famous RCA soundtrack album! Jerry still keeps the tense "spy" mood of the show, but he also brings in some styles that are a lot more brooding, moody, and contemplative – really heightening the suspense of the music with some sharp-edged string passages alongside jazzier and more forthcoming riffing from the horns. The beautifully-done 2CD set features a total of 32 tracks in all, along with a great booklet of photos and notes on the music! Titles include "The Iowa Scuba Affair", "Alexander The Greater Affair", "The Deadly Goddess Affair", "Alternate Fourth Season Main Title", "The Pop Art Affair", "Third Season Main Title", and "One Of Our Spies Is Missing". CD

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Great work from Earl Hagen – one of TV's better composers, as you'll hear from this tight set of tracks! The CD features a set of tracks that's greatly expanded from the original soundtrack LP – adding in lots of bonus material that has never been issued to the public, for a full package of 25 tracks that really gets at the heart of Hagen's genius! The core mode of the music is crime jazz, but Hagen also adds in a lot of dramatic flourishes and contemplative passages – and the show's exotic locales (Mexico, Japan, Burma, Hong Kong) makes for some added musical touches that bring a groovy global aspect to the work. Packaged with great notes on Hagen, the music, and the show – and with 25 titles that include "Babe With Rocks", "Stop That Plane", "The Whistle Blows", "Tokyo", "Don Silvando", and "Taxi Tour". CD

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A strange one for Legrand – a soundtrack written for an obscure action film that starred Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, Jim Brown, and Patrick McGoohan! The music is mostly orchestral and dramatic – but given Legrand's genius, it's touched with warm chromatic elements that occasionally show his roots in other styles. Titles include "The Fight", "Through The Ice", "Mission Completed", "The Crevasse", "The Satellite Falls", and "Tigerfish". CD

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One of the greatest soundtracks ever from Leonard Rosenman – and a key example of his strong talent for mixing acoustic instrumentation with very offbeat and eerie electronics! Rosenman had offered up this blend on other important science soundtracks of the 60s – but probably hit his apex with this gem – penned for mid 60s film about a bunch of scientists who shrink down, and take a trip inside the human body! The electronics are sublime – used in these stark, sharp ways that are very compelling, and downright evil in nature – providing a real contrast to some of the warmer woodwind touches in the orchestrations, even when they try to echo the electric energy. The whole thing's pretty darn great – a lot bleaker musically than the actual film – and titles include "Proteus Moving Through Sac", "Group Leaves", "The Proteus", "The Chart", "Pulmonary Artery", "Get The Laser", and "The Human Brain". CD

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Great stuff from Lalo Schifrin – his under appreciated score for young George Luca's paranoid sci fi thriller! THX 1138 has that sort of Ayn Rand, clean-clothed tyrannical government thing going on, and Lalo's score couldn't be more haunting and perfect! It's full of stark, clean kinda chamber orch sounds to go with the oppressively sterile threat in the film – but it's full of those groovy, moddish touches that make Lalo's work from the era so amazing! Tracks include "Be Happy", "Loneliness Sequence", "You Have Nowhere To Go", "First Escape" and more. CD

Two great 70s thrillers, back to back – both scored by the amazing Michael Small! The first stretch of the set features music from Marathon Man – the chilling mid 70s film directed by John Schlesinger, about a creepy Nazi war criminal living in New York! Small's music is wonderfully tense – as taut and dark as his famous work for Klute, with perhaps less of the warmth and sex of that film – and more of a focus on short, stark numbers that will set your hair on edge, even if you're not watching the movie. Film Score have done their usual amazing job here – and have come up with 37 tracks from the score – much more of Small's music than we might have hoped for – with cuts that include "Chase", "Nightmare Of The Past", "Scylla Stabbed", "Airport", "The Letter", "Szell Arrives", "Soccer Ball", "Tragedy At The Truck", and "Szell Escapes". The CD also features 11 more tracks from The Parallax View, also scored by Small – a dark thriller directed by Alan Pakula, with a really paranoid sort of narrative that Small's music fits wonderfully. The tunes are often quite short – these airy flourishes of sound made out of brooding string bits and tense woodwinds – and titles include "Gunmen Search", "Morgue", "Sheriff's House", "Joe's Final Run", and "Parallax Test". CD

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A haunting score from Jerry Goldsmith – filled with dark and turgid orchestrations, set as the rich backdrop for this 1969 film based on the Ray Bradbury story of the same name! The scoring is often atonal, with lots of off-kilter string passage that have an eerie sound that reminds us of Morricone's more avant-styled work. The CD features 17 tracks from the film, plus notes on the music, and some great images – with titles that include "The Rain", "The Sun Dance", "The House", "The Illustrations", and "Angry Child". CD

A moody western soundtrack – scored by Goldsmith for this 1975 film that starred Jim Brown, Fred Williamson, and Jim Kelly! The music does a really great job of displacing these three from their usual blacksploitation action roles – going for a dreamy sort of approach to the western, one that's clearly inspired by Italian composers of the late 60s spaghetti genre, but which also shares some of the orchestral touches of Goldsmith's other work. Titles include "Work Camp", "The Wagon", "The Big Dive", "The Hunter", "Fancy Footwork", and "A Sad Story". CD

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