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 |
Title |
| Great Monster War (Perfect
Collection 2) |
| International Title |
| Invasion
of Astro-Monster |
| Music By: Akira
Ifukube |
| Record Label:
Toho Music |
| |
|
| Running Time: 45:40 |
Discs: 1 |
| Release: December 2004 |
CD Number: G-006 (Set) |
|
| Comments |
 |
Anthony
Romero |
 |
|
|
Akira
Ifukube's
fifth score in the Godzilla franchise sees the maestro
construct one of his most memorable themes, the "War
of the Monsters March" which is a modified
version of the "Japanese Army March" from Godzilla (1954),
while simultaneously dabbling in creating the foreboding
music to accompany the Xiliens. One has to hand it to
Ifukube, as despite having a similar cast of monsters
the composer opts instead to take the soundtrack in a
different direction from Ghidorah,
the Three-Headed Monster (1964). Yes, some of
the better cues from the previous film return,
including Rodan's and King Ghidorah's themes, but eerie
tracks like "The P1 and Jupiter" and "Electromagnetic
Waves" give the disc as a whole a totally different
vibe from its predecessor. It's a good score, but sadly
falls into the pit trap of being a bit repetitious, as
Ifukube tends to reuse some of the same general themes
a bit too much here. Thankfully, the music is great enough
that it never outstays its welcome, but a more diverse
score would certainly have been appreciated all the same.
Now in terms of what the "Perfect" edition
of this score brings to the table, sadly, not much.
There is about six minutes of new music, but it feels
lacking on account of the runtime still only being
45 minutes. The new content is one outtake, for "Leaving
Planet X", and some additional cues for the music
heard in the background at the cafe (tracks 27, 28,
32 and 33), which is not too enticing. So what about
the audio quality on this release? Sadly, this disc
gets off to a mixed start with the "Main Title".
I'm not sure what it is, but the track sounds a little
subdued. In general, Invasion of
Astro-Monster doesn't have a very rousing score,
opting for more subtle and sometimes eerie pieces,
but the "Great Monster War March" is one
of the great exceptions and for whatever reason sounds
a little on the flat side here. To
make sure I wasn't hearing things, I tried to find
other uses of the theme on CD to compare and contrast.
In doing so, I can say that the cue sounds the clearest
on the Perfect set, with others having a more rough
sound at times, but it also lacks the impact once
the drums and other instruments kick in. To me it
sounds like Toho ran the theme through some sort
of program to clean it up, and in turn kind of equalized
the volume range. This is also apparent, although not
to the same degree, on the other more instrument rich
tracks, but the majority of the score sounds fantastic.
To be honest, I feel like I'm making a mountain out
of a mole hill by saying this, as it's really
not that apparent at all. Still, it's
worth mentioning, and Toho has done some questionable
things with these sets before, such as the mono Biollante
tracks with film dialogue faintly heard in the background
on Box 4,
so it's not out of the realm of reason that they might
have attempted some things on the Invasion of Astro-Monster score
that didn't work out as well as planned.
Overall, despite some minor qualms, this is a pretty
nice release of one of Ifukube's more memorable endeavors.
Many of these themes would live on in later pictures,
some redone in movies like Godzilla
vs. Biollante (1989)
and some as stock for Godzilla
vs. Gigan (1972), but the plethora of music
related to Planet X still gives this score a unique
sense regardless of how heavily used some
of the other cues became in later years.
Rating:  |
|
| Tracks |
- Main Title (M1)
- The P1 and Jupiter (M4)
- The P1 Descends (M5)
- The Mystery of Planet X (M6)
- Underground Passage (M7)
- Monster Zero (M8)
- The P1 Returns (M9)
- Washigasawa and Lake Myojin (M10)
- Godzilla at the Bottom of the Lake (M11)
- The Flying Saucer Appears (M12)
- Electromagnetic Waves (M13)
- Returning to Planet X (M14)
- Arriving at Planet X (M15)
- The Three Great Monsters on Planet X (M16)
- Namikawa on Planet X (M17)
- Leaving Planet X (M18-T2)
- Giant Mayhem on Earth (M19)
- Monster Control I (M20)
- Monster Control II (M21)
- The Fury of the Three Giant Monsters (M22)
- Great Monster War March (M23)
- Great Monster War (M24)
- Ending (M25)
Bonus Tracks
- Leaving Planet X (M18-T1)
- The Star Flower Club I (M2)
By: Pablo de Sarasate
- The Star Flower Club II (M3)
By: Jean-Philippe Rameau
- Cafe BGM 1 (Cembalo A)
- Cafe BGM 2 (Cembalo B)
- Cafe BGM 3 (Cembalo C)
- Cafe BGM 4 (Cembalo D)
- Cafe BGM 5 (Cembalo E)
- Cafe BGM 6 (Cembalo F)
- Cafe BGM 7 (Cembalo G)
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