5 out of 5

Label: Waxwork Records

Produced by: Jay Yuenger (vinyl master)

Haunting, bizarre, and thematic, the Phase IV score by Brian Gascoigne is the type of soundtrack that allows you to “see” the film just by, y’know, listening to it. Spread across four tracks – phases – Gascoigne’s music ebbs and flows between moods: of casualness – an observer of events – to abject fear, the style employed similarly shifting between more “organic” pastoral moments and sudden bursts of noise, or growing growls of feedback and a plodding beat. The way this achieved is interesting, coming across – by dint of, at points, its clinical coldness – but then peeling back to suggest that this is all being played with typical instruments. It’s a very precise and chilling effect, massaged back into those moments where the score trills pleasantly once more.

The Waxwork Records presentation is appropriately sparse, with a flat yellow pressing – the one I own, at least – and the jacket depicting the movie poster, but it matches the stripped back sensibility of the music; more important is that the sound is forefront, crisp when it needs to be and brusque when it needs to be as well.

Just as Phase IV would end up being the only film directed by noted designer Saul Bass, it also seems to be the only score solely scored by Brian Gascoigne. Given how strongly he synced with the movie, and how strongly the music stands on its own, that’s truly a shame. But perhaps the standalone “mystery” of the composition adds to its effectiveness…