Pop Quiz, Hot Shot! La-La Land Celebrates 200th Release in Latest Batch

While there’s a month to go before La-La Land releases the expanded soundtrack to Hook, they’ve got three great releases available to buy today – including their 200th title!

First up is a reissue of Jerry Fielding’s score to the cult classic The Mechanic, with Charles Bronson as the efficient hitman who takes the son of a recent contracted kill under his wing. Save a few audio tweaks, title changes and changes in sequence, this disc features the same material from Intrada’s long out-of-print 2007 release of the score, and the 1,200-unit pressing is intended to connect more fans who missed out the first time with the soundtrack.

Next, it’s Jennifer 8, a 1992 thriller starring Andy Garcia as an L.A. cop investigating a string of brutal murders in a small California town. Christopher Young, who wrote scores for the Nightmare on Elm Street, Hellraiser and Spider-Man series, expands his score – one that put him in the upper tier of film composers – for this set, but the real treat is a bonus disc featuring an unreleased original score from composer Maurice Jarre, who composed a good portion of music for the film before being replaced by Young. The double-disc set is limited to 2,000 units.

The 200th release is hurdling your way after the jump!

To Japan and Back: New David Sylvian Compilation Available in the U.K.

If all you know of David Sylvian is his excellent work in the New Wave band Japan, some would say you have a lot to learn. Fortunately, a new compilation from EMI U.K. is here to help.

A Victim of Stars 1982-2012 collates the best works of the erstwhile Japan frontman, from their biggest hit single “Ghosts” to the present day, with a new single, “Where’s Your Gravity?” Along the way, there are a host of intriguing collaborations with some of the best avant-garde rockers in the business, from keyboardist Ryuchi Sakamoto to guitarist Robert Fripp.

While Sylvian’s last major compilation, 2000’s Everything and Nothing, featured a bevy of outtakes from his then-most recent album, Dead Bees on a Cake (1999), the few rarities here come from non-LP singles and other ephemera throughout the early portion of Sylvian’s solo career. However, in addition to his material recorded for Virgin, EMI has licensed several tracks from Sylvian’s recent albums on his independent labe, Samadhisound.

The double-disc set, released this Monday, is available to buy now and can be previewed after the jump.

Pantera’s Second Album Gets More “Vulgar” in May

As previously reported, Pantera’s blistering Vulgar Display of Power is getting the deluxe treatment from Rhino for its 20th anniversary.

From the iconic album cover image of a face in mid-punch, it was clear that Pantera’s second album for ATCO Records was going to be something different. With tracks like “Mouth for War,” “Walk” and “F—ing Hostile,” the last of which was famously used as theme and background music on MTV’s Headbangers Ball, Vulgar Display is rightfully known as a classic of heavy metal – an cathartic juggernaut of power and volume unlike few others before or since.

Slated for reissue May 15, the remastered and expanded album includes one bonus track, a long-lost outtake called “Piss” that was recently discovered by drummer Vinnie Paul. In addition, the set comes with a DVD that includes the band’s performance at the 1992 Monsters of Rock Festival in Italy and three music videos.

Hit the jump for the full scoop and keep your eyes peeled here for a pre-order link.

Pantera, Vulgar Display of Power: Deluxe Edition (Rhino, 2012)

Disc 1: Original LP plus bonus track (originally released as ATCO 7 91758-2, 1992)

1. Mouth for War
2. A New Level
3. Walk
4. Fucking Hostile
5. This Love
6. Rise
7. No Good (Attack the Radical)
8. Live in a Hole
9. Regular People (Conceit)
10. By Demons Be Driven
11. Hollow
12. Piss *

Disc 2: DVD – Live at the Monsters of Rock Festival, Reggio Emilia, Italy – 9/12/1992 and bonus material

1. Mouth for War
2. Domination/Hollow
3. Rise
4. This Love
5. Cowboys from Hell
6. Mouth for War (promo video)
7. This Love (promo video)
8. Walk (promo video)

Review: Pink Floyd, “The Wall: Immersion Box Set”

By the way, which one’s Pink?

A record executive poses that wry musical question of Pink Floyd in “Have a Cigar,” a brief, humorous respite on the band’s elegiac 1975 album Wish You Were Here.  The ever-ambitious group would actually answer that wry question with The Wall, 1979’s sprawling double album.  The psychedelic Dark Side of the Moon and reflective Wish You Were Here both invited listeners to create their own stories in service of the albums’ impressionistic concepts, largely dealing with isolation and absence.  The Wall found primary songwriter Roger Waters making his concepts more explicit than ever before in telling the tale of Pink, who endures a traumatic childhood (including a deceased father, an overpowering mother and torment at the hands of his classmates) and builds bricks in his own personal wall with each painful event. Pink overcomes this to become a rock star, but finds life no easier as an adult, and continues building his wall as each relationship crumbles. Only after an unsettling, violent onstage performance does Pink look inward.  He places himself at the center of a hellish trial and finds the inner strength to tear down his wall.

We may never know to what degree Waters was working out his own demons in song, but The Wall has remained potent onstage, on film and on record in the ensuing years.  It now receives its most grandiose treatment yet via the latest of Pink Floyd’s Immersion box sets.  The 6-CD/1-DVD The Wall: Immersion (EMI/Capitol 5099902943923) follows the format of the DSOTM and WYWH sets, meaning that it’s equal parts revelatory and head-scratching.

At the box set’s centerpiece (and also available as a stand-alone 2-CD set and part of a 3-CD Experience Edition) is James Guthrie’s remastering of the original album on two compact discs.  Guthrie’s remastering is again exceptional, bringing out the details in the band’s intricate playing as well as the production of Bob Ezrin, Roger Waters and David Gilmour.  What the Immersion box lacks as compared to the two previous sets is any kind of high-resolution mix on DVD or Blu-Ray, and that is the box’s most significant loss.  The surround mixes included on DSOTM and WYWH offered the chance to hear these albums in a completely new light, indeed more “immersive” than ever before.  Although a surround mix is reportedly in the works for The Wall (and any audio DVD or Blu-Ray release would likely include a high-resolution PCM Stereo track, as well), the lack of one here makes the Immersion Box Set less than definitive.

Of course, the music of The Wall is as haunting, narcissistic, exploratory and bold as you remember.  Although the libretto by Waters is more concrete (no pun intended) than in the past, the album’s style is a clear continuation of the sound explored on previous albums.  There’s the familiar Floyd brew of sound effects (chirping birds, crying babies, crowd noises, etc.), brief dialogue snippets, fragmentary songs and big stadium-ready rock anthems.  It’s always been among The Wall’s most striking attributes that the concept of building the wall onstage is inherent to the album itself.  The very first notes of “In the Flesh” serve as a theatrical Overture and the foundation of the concert framework itself, with Pink inviting (or taunting?) the audience to hear his tale.  From the outset, The Wall invites comparison, too, with another famous rock opera, Pete Townshend and The Who’s Tommy.  Both Pink and Tommy are confronted with the difficult reality of life in post-WWII London, and both have to confront the consequences of their parents’ own failings.  Waters has said that he wrote The Wall about the loss of his own father, but over time, the album has resonated as a meditation on war and loss in general.  A dark worldview permeates The Wall as Waters uses each tool in his songwriter’s artillery to bring these characters to life.  “The Happiest Days of Our Lives” is ironically titled, as Pink recalls “there were certain teachers who would hurt the children in any way they could…even as it was well known [that] when they got home at night, their fat and psychopathic wives would thrash them within inches of their lives.” Yet Waters’ vocal doesn’t betray a hint of sentimentality or even sympathy for those he describes.

Don’t get too comfortably numb…just hit the jump to continue reading!

Intrada Spotlights “Undiscovered” Scores

Intrada’s two newest archival soundtrack releases take listeners from the deepest reaches of Arthurian legend to space (the final frontier).

First up, it’s an unlimited, expanded pressing of Cliff Eidelman’s score to Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. The sixth Trek film has several notable “lasts” to its credit: the last to feature the original series’ cast its entirety (1995’s Generations and the 2009 series reboot featured several of the major players), the second and last film in the series by Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan director Nicholas Meyer and the last Trek project series creator Gene Roddenberry saw to completion (he died days after viewing a pre-release assembly of the film).

The film presents an unthinkable event: the Klingon Empire, affected by a major ecological disaster, brokers an uneasy truce with the Federation. Kirk, Spock and the crew of the Enterprise discover a plot to unravel the secret peace talks, and race against time to stop the traitors. Eidelman’s dark, dramatic score marks one of the most interesting departures for the series, and this double-disc set presents both the complete original film score, with two alternate cues and two cues composed for the film’s theatrical trailers (Trek VI is the only film in the series to have music written exclusively for a trailer), as well as a remaster of the original soundtrack album.

But there’s more – an Arthurian adaptation with an interesting score history is also after the jump!

Release Round-Up: Week of February 28

Pink Floyd, The Wall: Experience and Immersion Editions (Capitol/EMI)

The latest Pink Floyd box, featuring live tracks and demos from the vault will make you lose your marbles! (Editor’s note: I am so sorry for typing that.)

The Ventures, The Ventures Play Telstar and The Lonely Bull / “Surfing” / (The) Ventures in Space / The Fabulous Ventures / Walk, Don’t Run Vol. 2 (Sundazed)

Five classic Ventures albums, remastered in stereo on CD and vinyl.

Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings, Live at the US Festival 1983 (Shout! Factory)

The first two CD sets in Shout! Factory’s new series of live sets from the infamous California festival.

Shelby Lynne, Just a Little Lovin’ (Analogue)

Country singer Lynne’s 2008 tribute album to Dusty Springfield gets an SACD and audiophile vinyl reissue.