 |
Title |
| Godzilla's Counterattack
(Perfect
Collection 1) |
| International Title |
| Godzilla
Raids Again |
Music
By:
Masaru
Sato
Record Label: Toho Music
| Running
Time: 54:29 |
Discs:
1 |
| Release:
September 2004 |
CD
Number: G-002 (Set) |
|
| Comments |
This soundtrack
for the sequel to Godzilla
(1954) sees a very green Masaru
Sato take the reigns of the scoring process, marking
his first ever score for a Toho production and his seventh
soundtrack ever at this stage in his career. Unfortunately,
Sato's inexperience is not hard to miss, as he delivers
the least memorable score for the long running Godzilla
series. To his credit, his version of "Godzilla's
Theme" for this soundtrack is at least nicely done,
as he crafts a very eerie and gothic sounding cue for
the character. Sadly, this theme is also heavily used
throughout the score, although it still holds up reasonably
well despite this. The main title for this movie is oddly
a much more upbeat track, and seems fairly out of place
in context with the film and it's not surprising that
the cue was removed entirely when they made the US version
of the flick. A lot of the other themes are pretty low
key, tending to sift into the background during the actual
movie while they aren't engaging at all when heard as
a stand alone experience.
As far as new material goes, this release has a generous
amount of bonus content over the older Toshiba disc, which
is also very welcome considering the brisk half hour runtime
of that 1993 CD. Sadly, it also seems like Toho was really
stretching to increase the runtime on this particular
disc in anyway possible. This includes the very questionable
addition of the track which documents some of the sources
used before deciding on Anguirus' Roar (track 37). If
people are wondering what this track sounds like, imagine
someone being given a trumpet for the first time and hearing
them awkwardly blow into it time and time again to generate
fairly grating noises and very off key sounds. Now take
that experience and stretch it across five minutes and
one will have a pretty good idea as to what this track
is like. It really is a test of endurance to simply last
the first 30 seconds, let alone the entire duration. There
really is no pay off to the track either, no moment of
"ah ha, there is the Anguirus roar that we all know
and love!" as it never quite reaches a pitch that
matches the finalized roar. On the bright side, the contents
of this disc has at least been shifted, compared with
the earlier release, so that all of the unused tracks
appear after the score itself. However, they also added
in "The Broadcast of the Destruction" track
too, which really has no place here considering it's an
audio excerpt of that broadcast from the film, yet there
is no music to accompany it. It's a dialogue only track,
making it unclear why they felt the need to mix that in
with Sato's themes. Thankfully, the disc does have a generous
amount of outtakes, some of which have never been available
before although all of them are only minor variations
on what ended up being used in the movie. Another nice
addition is that of the "Couple on the Lakeshore"
track, which is the song and accompanying music heard
during the club scene in the movie. Unfortunately, it
seems there wasn't the best of sources around for this
as a lot of the vocals sound fairly harsh while there
is also some noticeable background "hiss" to
it. Granted though, it's better than it not being included
at all. As for the last two tracks on this disc, they
are very early promotional vocal song, with compositions
done by Tadashi Yoshida. Some might be familiar with these
tracks as they appeared on Victor's 1984 LP "Godzilla
Theme Song Collection Encyclopedia" (JBX-2039) before
the company finally released them to CD in 1991 (VICL-5083);
however, for most this will probably be their first experience
with these fairly rare songs.
|
| Tracks |
- Main Title (M1A-T2)
- The Crisis with Kobayashi's Plane (M2)
- Battle at Iwato Island (M2A-2·58)
- Tranquility (M4)
- Tracking Godzilla (45-1·62)
- The Self Defense Force Scrambles (M5)
- Godzilla in Osaka Bay (PS Composition)
- Godzilla and the Flares (45-1·58)
- The Crimson Invitation (M7)
- Osaka in Flames (M2A-2·62)
- Confrontation at the Osaka Castle (45-1·62)
- The Broadcast of the Destruction (TV Announcement)
- The Chared Remains of Osaka (M8)
- The Northern Land with the Dancing Snow (M9)
- Godzilla Discovered (Godzilla Advances·G-1)
- Aviation Corps Sortie (M12)
- Kobayashi's Plane and Godzilla (M12A)
- The Death of Kobayashi I (M14A)
- The Death of Kobayashi II (M14)
- The Feelings Left Behind (M15)
- The Battle to the Death (M17)
- The Final Attack (M19)
- Ending (M20)
Bonus Tracks
- Main Title (M1A-T2 Another)
- Tracking Godzilla - The Self Defense Force Scrambles
(PS45-1·62 + M5)
- The Death of Kobayashi (PS Composition)
- Main Title (M1A-T1)
- Kobayashi's Plane and Godzilla (M12B)
- Godzilla's Theme (45-1·Test)
- Godzilla's Theme (45-1)
- Godzilla's Theme (M2)
- Godzilla's Theme (M2A-T1)
- Godzilla's Theme (M2A-T2)
- Harp, Gong, Cymbal Raw Material Sounds
- Harp, Gong, Cymbal Processing Sounds
- Couple on the Lakeshore
- Anguirus' Roar (Raw Material)
- Mr. Godzilla
By: Takao Saeki, Composer: Tadashi
Yoshida
- Inner Anguirus
By: Takao Saeki, Composer: Tadashi
Yoshida
|
|
