In 1997 VAP released an ambitious compilation to celebrate Akira Ifukube's, then, 50 year career doing soundtracks for Toho. This two disc set commemorates the occasion with selections from 41 different Toho movies, focusing on the main titles but also mixing in a few other cues as well. The set features both Ifukube's best known work and also some of his more obscure for the company. For people with an interest in either, the set has enough of both to be a compelling release.
The set starts off with a good choice in the form of
Snow Trail (1947), which was Ifukube's first soundtrack of his career, not just for Toho. It then jumps ahead to the classic Godzilla (1954) and interweaves between the well known and his more rare work. The first disc has the normal suspects like Rodan (1956) and Varan (1958), but one is likely more interested in the lesser known scores so let's dive into how that fares. In terms of the standout, it's the drum heavy piece for the "Main Title" of Whistle in My Heart (1959), before it starts into a more awkward vocal portion. The second cue from the film, "Letter from Taniguchi", is far more soothing with piano work. Skipping ahead, Different Sons (1961) also has a great main title, starting off with something that sounds more upbeat before also turning into a soothing piano melody. The disc ends with a selection from Chushingura (1962). The "Raid" theme from this movie will probably be of particular interest, as it would be eventually adapted to become the extended Godzilla theme for the Heisei film series.
The second disc is, in contrast to the first, dominated by the better known work. It shows how much Ifukube's career had become defined by his working relationship with Ishiro Honda and his science fiction films. This disc is a more enjoyable listen than the first, but loses out on having the rare material that makes the set standout in the first place. In terms of the obscure work that does shine, the disc contains the very excellent and exotic main title for The Adventure of Taklamkan (1966), a score which really deserves a full release some day. It then goes into the upbeat "The Attack of the Black Pirates" cue from that same film, which was used in the trailer for Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973). The disc ends with some selections from Love and Faith (1978), the only film on this set which Toho released but didn't produce. The music for this film is an interesting case as it sounds far more robust, thanks to the fact the material is in stereo for this particular film.
As for the set as a whole, its well packaged and designed. It makes a few mistakes, such as incorrectly stating that Rodan (1956) was made in 1957 and that one of the Different Sons (1961) tracks were in stereo instead of both tracks from King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962). Speaking of, the set heavily touts the "Mono and Stereo" aspect, although in truth the entire set is mono except four tracks which belong to King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) and Love and Faith (1978).
Now I don't generally mention audio quality on a soundtrack unless I have something to complain about or compare it to... in this case, it's the former. While the set as a whole is great, there are two tracks which are less than stellar. This includes the first track from Snow Trail (1947) and also the track from Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972). Both of these tracks are taken from source, which results in a very damaged sounding track for Snow Trail (1947) and a poorly presented track from Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972) that also features sound effects. The former is understandable because of its age, but the latter is puzzling given that it's not like the score, stock or not, was lost as Toshiba already released it.
Overall, it's a far from complete filmography, but does provide the most thorough sampling of the composer's work for Toho. It's a very full set and walks a fine line from being enjoyable and also a study on the composer's long career at Japan's most famous film studio. In 2007, following the composer's passing, Toho Music attempted a similar release (AI-1914-1/2) and while both contain rare music, both also contain contents not found on each other. Hopefully a few more of these "obscure" films from the composer will see full soundtrack releases someday, but all considering this set will likely contain some exclusive content for the foreseeable future.
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