Most of the pieces on it were previously released on earlier Silva Scrooge CDs and the only item of interest was a 6 minute suite of music from Brian Easdale's score to Peeping Tom.

But loving Easdale as I do, I broke down and gave those bastards at Silva Screech my $20.

The Peeping Tom suite, played on the piano by Paul Bateman turned out to be pretty good. I was right, it is hard to screw up a re-record of just piano music. Still, the original is a bit sharper and has more of a silent movie music feel than this re-record, but what the heck.

The Silva Scrimp compilation contained a short suite of themes from Godzilla films by Ifukube which tried for the spirit if not the letter of those scores.

The rest was mixed but an overall letdown. They did a good version of Carl Davis' Frankenstein Unbound, or at least a version good enough to interest me in hearing the original, but their attempt to do Donaggio's museum cue from Dressed to Kill was an atrocity.

I really don't understand Silva Scoundrel's penchant for mis-noting. I've heard these cues, I know it's supposed to be a B-flat there and not an A-minor, I can't believe the original score page has a different note or these guys can't catch that this is off. Guys like Ford Thaxton and others over at Silva Scrap are soundtrack people, they've got to know this doesn't sound like it does on the record that is already out, how come they don't catch this? What is the problem guys?

On a brighter note, I got a CDR of Bond Back in Action 2. I hated Bond 1 so much but I have to have everything possible by John Barry regardless. Still, I didn't want to support Silva Scum after they took me on the first one. So I was proud to get the CD without giving the SS my cash.

Bond 2 has a much better performance than Bond 1, but it has only a few short minutes of cues that were never previously released, much less unreleased material by ratio than Bond 1 had. So performance or not, it mostly contains cues that you can get as originals elsewhere.

quote:

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Originally posted by Lou Goldberg:
Well, I said in a previous post somehere that I refused to buy Silva Screw's 2CD compilation, A History of Horror.

Most of the pieces on it were previously released on earlier Silva Scrooge CDs and the only item of interest was a 6 minute suite of music from Brian Easdale's score to Peeping Tom.

But loving Easdale as I do, I broke down and gave those bastards at Silva Screech my $20.

The Peeping Tom suite, played on the piano by Paul Bateman turned out to be pretty good. I was right, it is hard to screw up a re-record of just piano music. Still, the original is a bit sharper and has more of a silent movie music feel than this re-record, but what the heck.

The Silva Scrimp compilation contained a short suite of themes from Godzilla films by Ifukube which tried for the spirit if not the letter of those scores.

The rest was mixed but an overall letdown. They did a good version of Carl Davis' Frankenstein Unbound, or at least a version good enough to interest me in hearing the original, but their attempt to do Donaggio's museum cue from Dressed to Kill was an atrocity.

I really don't understand Silva Scoundrel's penchant for mis-noting. I've heard these cues, I know it's supposed to be a B-flat there and not an A-minor, I can't believe the original score page has a different note or these guys can't catch that this is off. Guys like Ford Thaxton and others over at Silva Scrap are soundtrack people, they've got to know this doesn't sound like it does on the record that is already out, how come they don't catch this? What is the problem guys?

On a brighter note, I got a CDR of Bond Back in Action 2. I hated Bond 1 so much but I have to have everything possible by John Barry regardless. Still, I didn't want to support Silva Scum after they took me on the first one. So I was proud to get the CD without giving the SS my cash.

Bond 2 has a much better performance than Bond 1, but it has only a few short minutes of cues that were never previously released, much less unreleased material by ratio than Bond 1 had. So performance or not, it mostly contains cues that you can get as originals elsewhere.

Although I was happy to have Peeping Tom, in general, buying (or acquiring) Silva Scourge CDs is just a losing proposition.

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Lou,

If the message is very nearby, I usually do what I did here: type the posters name from the post I'm replying to. If it's further away or I'm replying to a specific line of two, I usually qote just the part I am replying to in order to avoid confusion. It's worked so far.

NP: Sunhsine, Jarre *****

They really were blowing hard and trying to be rousing and to convey the power inherent in the score even if the piece didn't succeed at other levels. I recognize that and have to give them some credit.

You know, I slam Silva Screen a lot (Hey I actually wrote their name correctly, how did that happen?), but instead of seeing them as out and out villains, perhaps they're just broken down glue horses who try to make good but sadly don't have what it takes to make the grade.

They've put out a lot of neglected scores that I'm glad somebody is touching and recording: Peeping Tom, When Worlds Collide, Sink the Bismarck!, Valley of the Gwangi, You Only Live Twice, etc. If they'd only go the extra mile on quality control, I'd be waving my banner for them on a daily basis.

When they use Kenneth Alwyn and a British orchestra, the results are fairly good, but put guys like Nic Raine and Paul Bateman together with a Czech orchestra and you simply do not get value for your money.

After waiting a lifetime to hear some of these scores and to be confronted with what they provide is sometimes more discouraging than not having the music to begin with.

Will this published arrangement be the only one we have for the future? Will other companies refuse to record possibly better versions because the music has already been issued before?