Latest stuff received through the post was -

MMM's THIS ISLAND EARTH (And Other Alien Invasion Films) - I've already dipped into this more than once. I really really appreciate what David Schecter and the bunch are (were) doing out there. THIS ISLAND EARTH is a great score, mostly by Herman Stein. There are other tracks by Hans Salter and Henry Mancini on this - it's really amazing to hear how Mancini's distinctive voice was evident even back then on the few tracks he did. But this is Herman Stein's showpiece, and it's truly great. What a huge, underrated talent. The performances are very fine (though they don't EXACTLY match my cassette copy taped holding a shakey hand up to the TV 500 years ago - but it's so near that I'd say that my TV sonics were off). Ron Goodwin's THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS is good enough, but it's a strange score to re-record. I mean, it's not THAT great. Walter Greene's WAR OF THE SATELLITES is a fun, cheesey opener. Daniel Amfitheatrof's titles for EARTH VERSUS THE FLYING SAUCERS makes no impression at all at under a minute.

Wow, Erik Woods is now playing Johnny Williams' NOT WITH MY WIFE YOU DON'T - Beautiful! Oh God, another one I have to get.

I also got the other day Basil Kirchin's score for THE ABOMINABLE DR PHIBES, on the Perseverence label. It's monothematic to be sure, and it's also a kind of patchwork of Basil, bad-quality source and tracks from the old LP (minus the Paul Frees narration). Don't let that put you off. The theme itself, although it's repeated again and again, is a great one, and it is the only Basil film soundtrack on CD. That guy was so great, such an idiosyncratic voice with his throbbing double-bass and jazz improvisations. Has anyone heard his scores for ASSIGNMENT K, THE SHUTTERED ROOM and I START COUNTING for example? A huge talent, a complete original. I really must get that jazz album he did ("Impressions of the Industrial North" - or something like that). Anyway, THE ABOMINABLE DR PHIBES is great - if you like Basil. But it does kind of put all its (limited) cards on the table at the start. Then it's repetition time.

I also got the Michael J Lewis promo "Orchestral Film Music". This is the single disc, not the double. Plenty of good music on here, but it's re-orchestrated and does tend to go a bit heavy on the string section. Nice themes, but they become exhausting with so many orgasmic cymbal clashes and ever-mounting passion. Overboiled perhaps. And the themes themselves are just edging on the bland, like Francis Lae. Imagine LOVE STORY going on and on with increasingly mounting string cadences. But I shouldn't mock Michael J. Still, it's a bit dramatically light (except for the stupendous UPON THIS ROCK, which bears comparison, stylistically at least, with Jerry Goldsmith's truly TRULY great "The Artist Who Did Not Want To Paint"). Oh, but get it (less than the price of a kilo of beans from Screen Archives).

I see that Naxos has also released Benjamin Frankel's superb score for CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF (Hammer movie, 1961, Ollie Reed as the hairy horror). Carl Davis conducts here, and from the soundclips I've heard, well, it sounds pretty good. Budget price too. The comparison is on a Silva re-recording, snatches only.

And finally Esther (and finally Cyril), a question - I absolutely love the music of Elisabeth Lutyens. There are 20 minutes of her absolutely mind-boggling score for THE SKULL out on a CD (LOVE WITH A STRANGER - a compilation coupled with Britten, etc), but, as it's a re-recording, I'd like to know how it sounds. I ask because, although I'm not immediately averse to re-recordings (MMM does it just great), Lutyens must be notoriously difficult to do right. Is this one worth getting?

Just finished - Erik Woods show. THE SUPERCOPS, by Jerry Fielding. Absolutely brilliant music.

Goodnight.

High Road to China
Zulu
Last Valley
Dances with Wolves

Most of his work after Dances though really bores me. It all seems the same.