Released
in 2001 under the Futureland label to coincide with
the DVD debut of the films by Toho, this
disc contains the full soundtracks to both Godzilla (1954) and Rodan (1956). The CD is packed, but does manage to squeeze
every last cue from both films onto the CD, although
lacks any outtakes for either feature.
In regards to the music, this is classic Akira
Ifukube. The release contains both of his earliest
scores in the "kaiju genre" and certainly
some of his better known work. The score for Godzilla,
naturally, introduces many classic themes to audience
which would later become synonymous with the character
and franchise. Chief among them being the "Main
Title" and the "Frigate March", which
would later become the Godzilla theme and the "Great
Monster War March" respectively. The score also
has the very somber, yet touching, theme for "Godzilla
at the Ocean Floor", while simultaneously featuring
the more gothic like cues for the monster's rampage
such as "Godzilla Comes Ashore". Regretfully,
this is the same presentation found on Toshiba's earlier
CD release for the soundtrack (TYCY-5345). This means
that the "Prayer for Peace" track has the
awkwardly placed dialogue sequence from the film before
going into the actual prayer, an aspect that was corrected
for the La-La Land Records release (LLLCD-1022)
but still found in the first Godzilla Box (G-001).
Like all other appearances of this song, it sounds
very harsh in places. As a side note, the child screaming
is included in the "Tragic Sight of the Imperial
Capital", which is as the track was recorded.
The score for Rodan, while not nearly as legendary
as the one for Godzilla, is still a decent
body of work from Ifukube. This soundtrack is a little
more dark in tone than its counterpart on this CD,
with the "Main Title" being a particularly
well done and ominous theme. Regretfully, it's really
dragged into the ground for this score, appearing
again and again in different versions. Some of these,
such as "Shockwave Fury", are quite lackluster
as well. Still, despite a few weak cues here, the
score still has enough good ones to merit a positive
recommendation. The appropriately sorrowful "Amnesia"
and "Ending" themes are two great examples,
and each stands out from the other music on this soundtrack
quite well. "Get Rodan" is probably the
star attraction here, though, which provides the score
with a much needed rousing march from Ifukube. Despite
being removed from the US cut, the theme is probably
the best remembered one from the film, and was later
reused for Godzilla
vs. King Ghidorah (1991) in a similar scene.
As previously mentioned, this CD only contains the
soundtrack for the 1956 movie. The bonus tracks, found
on TYCY-5498, are absent.
Now, the interesting aspect about this release in
particular is that it's actually a stereo release.
Toshiba has gone through the effort of rechanneling
the audio, accredited to KSR Remastering, for this
release to give it a bit of depth. It's hardly night
and day, though, and to many this will probably go
largely unnoticed. Still, it does provide a needed
kick to a few tracks, such as "Desperate Broadcast"
for Godzilla and "Get Rodan" from Rodan. It's a minimal improvement over the
original mono offerings, but an improvement all the
same.
Overall, this is a pretty nice release. It brings a little bit of everything
to the table, being both a budget release by including two scores and something
for collectors due to the rechanneling. Both scores are available in better form
elsewhere, LLLCD-1022 and TYCY-5498 respectively,
but more price conscious soundtrack fans should love this release for what it
offers.
As a side note, this disc was also given a "promotional
run" by Toshiba, with "sample" copies
distributed to help advertise the release. These sample
CDs can be separated from retail copies by text that
is printed
on the center of disc, as seen in the image which
were provided by the copy in Robert Storch's collection.
These sample CDs also have small stickers placed
on the back cover, but otherwise are identical
to their retail counterparts. |
