When I reviewed Cinema-Kan’s Frankenstein's Monsters: Sanda vs. Gaira - Original Soundtrack (CINK-33), I lamented that I had been waiting for its release for a decade as I never picked up the Toshiba CD. Well thanks to Jessica Stan, who sent in a CD-R for us, I now have an opportunity to review the 1997 release… although there isn’t much to make it stand out versus what Cinema-Kan did.
Anyway, first reflecting on the score itself, this is a highly repetitive soundtrack from Akira Ifukube. So much of the score is broken into just two theme motifs which are Gaira’s and the maser march, here referred to as the Operation L March. These are both solid themes, in fact the maser march is one of many career highlights for Ifukube. Their overuse here is a bit egregious, though, with the maser march often playing back-to-back. Still, they are strong enough themes that they are almost able to weather the overuse.
Outside of these two motifs, there is a new theme here for the Giant Octopus. It employs a musical saw and is arguably too creepy for the oversized cephalopoda, but is a nice theme all the same. As for Sanda, his theme is a nice bridge between Frankenstein’s from Frankenstein vs. Baragon (1965) and Gaira’s here, which thematically makes sense. That said, it’s not overly memorable.
As for songs, it feels like one has to bring up “The Word Gets Stuck in My Throat”. This has to be one of the most infamous songs from Toho’s science fiction catalog, or at least the most infamous one sung in English. It’s quite cheesy, which some will appreciate… or reach for the skip button. Outside of this, there are songs for the singing that happens near the lake before Gaira’s attack. “Hometown” is okay, but “10,000 Feet Up in the Alps” is a bit grating.
In terms of this soundtrack versus the 2017 release, it doesn’t have much worth seeking out these days. First, this disc presents the music as it was planned rather than as it appeared in the movie. It’s a small difference, but for example the unused “Wiring Completed” appears here amongst the score rather than as a bonus track while a small edit of the maser march (M12-T2 Edit) is omitted. As for what this release has that the 2017 doesn’t, it’s strictly the audio sampling of the trailer. This is pretty rare for this film, although it does appear on the SPFX Film Collection (SP/CR-71004~5). While the audience for trailers are niche, I personally love them. In terms of what this CD is missing, it doesn’t have yet another outtake for “Operation L March”, three outtakes for “Hometown”, one outtake for “10,000 Feet Up in the Alps” and outtakes for “The Word Gets Stuck in My Throat”. While this is about 15 minutes worth of music, one isn’t missing all that much since there is quite a bit of representation for these themes already… with the exception of the reference song for “The Word Gets Stuck in My Throat”. It’s a very different version, and was a major get from Cinema-Kan.
Overall, one's enjoyment of this soundtrack tends to hinge on how much they like the maser march and Gaira’s themes. While in general it works best as being sampled for a compilation, I still find this score to be a solid entry amongst Ifukube’s work. |
