3 out of 5

Label: Waxwork

Produced by: Richard Band

It’s certainly not a coincidence that a fair amount of 80s soundtracks started to incorporate synthesizers as a way of sounding different.  I mean, that’s what was happening in music, so it’s going to filter into film as well.  And while there are those soundtracks that are just straight up (what we would now call) retro, there were those who attempted to blend the trend with their established styles.  I’m sure this worked on occasion, but I’ve now heard two examples where established composers went off-map with their bleep-bloops and didn’t quite land the other-worldly style they were likely hoping for; instead, things just end up feeling disjointed, with a lack of experience with layering the newfound sounds they way one would a symphonic arrangement.  The other example to which I’m referring Dreamscape; Richard Band’s ‘From Beyond’ score – one of several scores he made for the movie’s director, Stuart Gordon, and one of several several he did for horror flicks – has a leg way up on Jarre’s soundtrack thanks to not completely abandoning the non-electric stuff, and the album’s A-Side is almost pretty amazing due to this concession.  When the Main Title gets in full swing or We Saw Creatures romps through your speakers, the pomp of wonderfully booming drums and thick strings is delightful.  Further down the road, Pretorious’ Madness is downright frightening, with its tones leading around blind corners, swerving in another direction but leaving the crescendo just off; wonderfully tense stuff.  And the short, string-centric She’s So Pretty starts as a generic theme before taking an effectively morose turn.  These strengths initially trickle over to the B-side: the second part of The Lampre From Beyond matches the blend toe-tapping but dread-laden sense of the main theme, and followup Mutations somewhat bridges the digital divide with some keys, but stays focused for its slow build-up.  Unfortunately, here the album falls off.  A lot of what follows feels like snippets, the digital elements starting and stopping and, sure, sounding “weird” but lacking the flushness of the symphonic stuff to back that weird up.  These elements do appear on the A-Side – The Resonator wanders along like this forever before being taken over by the title theme, and Lampre From Beyond’s first half suffers by pulling the same type of electronics-to-orchestra divide with its second part but then requiring one to physically flip the wax in order to get to that much better part.  An unfortunate place for the split.  But at least the A-Side has frequent reminders of Band’s strengths; as the B-side just tips the scales toward unmotivating futzing about after a certain point, it becomes really immemorable.

The Waxworks remaster is okay.  I have no idea how the originals sounded, so maybe this was greatly cleaned up, but it doesn’t sound super crisp, and I’m apparently not the only owner whose vinyl audibly pops in several locations.  Nice packaging and pretty pressing colors, though.  The interior notes from Band and Gordon don’t add much to the picture; an extra insert or something would’ve been cool.

If you’re an 80s horror fan, you’re probably familiar with Band’s stuff.  He’s written some great themes in his time, and approximately half of From Beyond shows off his skills.  However, just like the movie ends up being the Gordon film you’ve watched after you’ve rewatched Re-Animator 100 times, the score won’t be the first set of tunes that comes to mind, but it’s not bad while its on.