The great thread of electronic/synthesizer soundtracks

[Micke]

The legendary filmcomposer Jerry Goldsmith did at least three all-synth scores back in the '80s. The first one of these (Runaway, 1984) has already been discussed in this thread but
not the other two - which include his rejected score to "Alien Nation" (1988) and "Criminal Law" (1989):







I like Jerry's synth stuff and I think Alien Nation is a good, solid and fun score. Btw, the main theme was recycled for another score: The Russia House.
As for Curt Sobel's replacement score, it's not all that bad.

Here's a rundown of the synth gear Goldsmith had in his studio at the time:
Emulator II
Prophet VS
Yamaha DX7
Yamaha DX7 II FD
Yamaha GS1 (main keyboard controller)
Yamaha RX5 drum machine
Yamaha TX16W sampler
Yamaha TX81Z FM synth
Yamaha TX816
Yamaha KX-88 MIDI keyboard
Oberheim DPX-1 sample player
Roland S-550 sampler
Roland D-50
Roland Super Jupiter JX-10
Roland MKS-20 Digital Piano
Roland MKS-80 Super Jupiter

[Cybercardinal]

Fantastic

[Micke]

Just received the synth-score to the B-horror movie "C.H.U.D" (1984) on vinyl - never before released in any format!
I'm listening to the score right now and I must say it's a pretty cool one. My favorite track is the dark but beautifully
melodious main theme:





Music composed and performed by Martin Cooper & David Hughes (formerly of
the English synthpop group OMD)

[Micke]

I also just recently got hold of these two synth-scores on CD:



Night of the Demons (1988) - Dennis Michael Tenney



Halloween 6: the curse of Michael Myers (1995) - Alan Howarth

As for Halloween 6, I much prefer the score for the producers cut which, musically, is in the traditional
Halloween style. The reworked version for the theatrical cut has too much rock guitars, drums and
weird sound effects for my liking.

[Micke]

Thought it was time to post some good ol' Italian soundtracks again.

Before Fabio Frizzi began his collaboration with famous Italian horror-film director Lucio Fulci, for whom he scored "Zombi" in 1979,
he did several soundtracks together with Franco Bixio and Vince Tempera as Bixio-Frizzi-Tempera.

Here are some of my favorite Bixio-Frizzi-Tempera tracks from the period 1975-1977, all of which feature synths:

Vai Gorilla aka The Hired Gun (1975):


Godzilla (Luigi Cozzi's re-cut and colorized version, 1977):

This one sounds like a proto-version of Frizzi's later Zombi 2 theme!

Escape (taken from the 1977 film "Days of Violence")


A longer/slightly different version of the same track (taken from the compilation album "Beretta 70"):


A truly awesome track!

Sette Note in Nero aka Seven Notes in Black (1977):

Another great cue by this Italian trio!

Frizzi also worked with Goblin and played Mellotron and keyboards on the score to "Perché si Uccidono aka Percy Is Killed" back in 1975-76.
Some of the music was composed by Frizzi and the band Goblin (under the guise Il Reale Impero Britannico) while the rest of the music
for the soundtrack was written by Willy Brezza.

Here are a few tracks from "Perché Si Uccidono":

[Micke]

I think Giorgio Moroder's synthesizer score to "Over the Top" (1987) is worth a mention here.
Unfortunately like several other film scores by Moroder, Faltermeyer and Sylvester Levay, this soundtrack
did not get a proper release. Only two score-tracks have been released to this day, the rest of the soundtrack
album is made up of pop/rock songs (as is the case with Scarface, Metropolis, Top Gun, Beverly Hills cop I & II,
Cobra, Fletch etc.).

Here are a couple of synth cues plus one Moroder song from this Sylvester Stallone movie:





Anthony Marinelli played synths on the instrumental score as well as some of the songs and his
setup included a Synclavier system (main synth), a Roland MKS-80 Super Jupiter, an Oberheim
Xpander, a Prophet-5 with MIDI, a DX7 and four ARP 2600s driven by MIDI-to-control-
voltage converters, and more.

[tim gueguen]

A long while back I posted the opening and closing themes to the first season of the syndicated War of the Worlds TV series from 1988. I just found that someone has posted episodes from the second season of the series, which replaced the original opening and closing themes by Billy Thorpe with new ones by Fred Mollin, with quite good audio.


The second season is probably most notable for featuring Adrian Paul, who went on to play Duncan MacLeod in Highlander: The Series, in an ongoing support role as mercenary John Kincaid.

[Micke]

I wasn't aware of that Fred Mollin wrote a new theme for season 2 of "War of the Worlds". Are you really sure he did both the opening and closing themes?
In any case, I think only the closing music ("Survival theme") has been released on CD.

I have a CD with some of his music from "Friday the 13th: the TV-series" which ran from 1987 to 1990 and I like his scores. He was heavily into the Kurzweil K250 music system for many years and used it exclusively for this series. During that time period he also composed the soundtracks for Friday the 13th Part 7 & 8 but I have to admit I'm not too familiar with those.

[piRoN]

I see Artemyev's had a couple of nods in this thread, but no mention yet of Siberiade?



Yeah, that'll be stuck in your head all day now.

[Micke]

Edward Artemiev's soundtrack to "Siberiade" (original title: Sibiriada) is very nice indeed.

He used the EMS synthi 100 on numerous film scores in the '70's and early '80s, including this one.

I recommend you to check out his (predominantly) electronic album "Moods", an excellent compilation album containing music from several different soundtracks by Artemiev dating from 1977 to 1983, including 4 tracks from Siberiade..

[SeventhStar]

ANGUS SCRIMM (a.k.a. The Tall Man) passed away, on Saturday, January 9th, 2016.

Phantasm director Don Coscarelli beautifully wrote, “Angus Scrimm passed away peacefully tonight surrounded by his friends and loved ones. He was 89 years old. His performance as the Tall Man is a towering achievement in horror film history. He was the last in a long line of classic horror movie stars. Angus was a terrific actor and an even better friend. He will be missed.”

In memory of him, and the soundtrack for the original Phantasm film, I am making this post. I have always been a fan of this film and its soundtrack. Below is the Phantasm OST on vinyl, scored by Fred Myrow and Malcolm Seagrave.

Fred Myrow recalls, "I called up versatile and talented Malcolm Seagrave, an old friend from my avant-garde music days - a Yamaha YX-30 & 45, an ARP Odyssey, Mini Moog, some tone generators, and a piano which was often played inside the sound box by plucking or scraping the strings, hitting harmonics, and doing other things which sound great with the close mike."

[Micke]

I'm also a big fan of this film and soundtrack, a true classic. I have the rare 24K gold CD edition and the sound quality is very good.

Also used on the score were a Mellotron (choir and flute), Clavinet, Rhodes electric piano and an old upright piano.

[SeventhStar]

I have never heard the 24K Gold CD.. I have the Silva Screen Film CD 071 Soundtrack, which includes 5 tracks from Phantasm II, in addition to 18 tracks from Phantasm. I think I bought my CD in 1996. It sounds good to me..

A few Angus pics:





Angus once said, "The people in my neighborhood, don't know that the nice old man who walks his dogs up and down the street, is the Tall Man.. I'd like to keep it that way.."



The 'Cuda:



The Sphere:



Just a cool classic film and soundtrack!

[forcedopinion]

I wasn't aware of that Fred Mollin wrote a new theme for season 2 of "War of the Worlds". Are you really sure he did both the opening and closing themes?
In any case, I think only the closing music ("Survival theme") has been released on CD.

I have a CD with some of his music from "Friday the 13th: the TV-series" which ran from 1987 to 1990 and I like his scores. He was heavily into the Kurzweil K250 music system for many years and used it exclusively for this series. During that time period he also composed the soundtracks for Friday the 13th Part 7 & 8 but I have to admit I'm not too familiar with those.

F13 Pt. 7 is a solid score. I have 7+8 on CD.

[forcedopinion]

Micke -

Any idea for Mark Isham''s Hitcher score? Prophet 2000 and...? Maybe an Emulator?