Released
under Toshiba's Futureland brand, this CD features the
full soundtrack for Godzilla's 10th outing: All Monsters
Attack. The musical score for this production
marks the first time the series has ever been handled
by a composer other than Akira
Ifukube and Masaru
Sato, as Kunio
Miyauchi is brought in to score the picture.
Miyauchi, best known for his work on the Ultraman series,
certainly gives the picture a distinct soundtrack
that stands out from other movies in the long running
series, although it's easily one of the lesser
scores all the same.
The themes definitely have
a "big band" type
of feel to them for this score, marking a stark departure from the composer's
earlier work on movies like The
Human Vapour (1960). Sadly, the soundtrack
gets bogged down by its extremely repetitious
nature. It also doesn't help that this release is arranged by cue number instead
of chronological order, which places these similar
tracks next to each other and highlights this
aspect even more. Not to be totally unfair, there
are a couple of interesting tracks here, like
the battle
theme that is used repeatedly or the more care
free cues like "Ichiro and the Bully"; unfortunately,
this score is just better experienced in small doses
in compilations as opposed to the entire soundtrack.
This release rounds out its runtime with karaoke versions
of the "Monster
March" song, along with the record version and
another karaoke variant.
Overall, this isn't a very enticing score in the long running Godzilla series. It's distinct from the stylings of Ifukube and Sato, and while at least it's not unmemorable it really just is far too repetitious.
As for how this CD compares to others that feature the score, as previously mentioned it's notable for not placing the cue numbers in strict chronological order. This is not dramatic, as the impact is on M14 and M14A that appear in different points in the movie itself, but worth bringing up as the score in both the Toho SFX Champion Festival set and Godzilla Soundtrack Perfect Collection: Box 2 don't have this same issue. As for sound quality, it's on par with the Champion Festival set but doesn't have the same range of instrument clarity as in the Godzilla Soundtrack Perfect release. As for amount of content, it has two more tracks than the Champion Festival set which are two karaoke versions of the record version of the "Monster March" and "Monster March II". Compared to the Godzilla Soundtrack Perfect release, this one by Toshiba is missing some outtakes and even more versions of the "Monster March". It's also without the "Pun Pun Pun" song found on that release, which is probably the most substantial content difference between the two. All in all, if someone is picking today, the Godzilla Soundtrack Perfect release is the best way to own the score. |
