Golden Age Noir: Miklos Rózsa Score to “Strange Love” Premieres On CD

Had Miklós Rózsa only composed the Academy Award-winning score to 1959’s epic Ben-Hur, his place in the cinema pantheon would likely have been assured.  But Ben-Hur was just one of three Rózsa scores to win Oscars in a career that spanned from 1937’s Knight Without Armour through 1982’s Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid.  Rózsa, who also maintained a career as a composer of concert works, often employed a rich, sweeping orchestral style, and though he famously crafted “big” scores, he was also an important film noir composer, with films such as Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity under his belt.  One such noir picture scored by Rózsa was 1946’s The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, from producer Hal Wallis and director Lewis Milestone.  Its original soundtrack is now making its debut from Kritzerland.

Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, Lizabeth Scott and Kirk Douglas in his film debut, Martha Ivers was based on John Patrick’s short story Love Lies Bleeding.  Stanwyck starred as the titular character, caught in a web of murder, blackmail and torrid romance.   Bruce Kimmel, producer of the CD soundtrack, describes its score as “almost a second cousin to Double Indemnity and The Lost Weekend.”  The new issue comes directly from acetates lovingly preserved in Paramount Pictures’ vaults, with close to fifty minutes of previously-unreleased Rózsa.

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers is limited to 1,000 copies, and is scheduled to ship from Kritzerland in the third week of September.  However, pre-orders made at the label’s website usually arrive one to five weeks earlier.  The price is $19.98 plus shipping and handling.  Hit the jump for the full press release plus the track listing and pre-order link!

These Are the Voyages: Complete Box Set of “Star Trek” Television Music Planned

Until about a year before The Second Disc started, it seemed likelier to invent a warp drive than to get a decent reissue series of music from the Star Trek universe. All that changed in 2009, when Film Score Monthly released an remastered and expanded edition of James Horner’s iconic soundtrack to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982).

Over the next three years, the floodgates opened. All six of Paramount’s films featuring the original television cast (for those keeping track, that’s Jerry Goldsmith’s The Motion Picture (1979), Horner’s The Wrath of Khan and The Search for Spock (1984), Leonard Rosenman’s The Voyage Home (1986), Goldsmith’s The Final Frontier (1989) (expanded by La-La Land and given an unlimited reissue by Intrada) and Cliff Eidelman’s The Undiscovered Country (1991)) have gotten the expanded score treatment; in addition, Film Score Monthly and La-La Land released box sets of music from the acclaimed Star Trek: The Next Generation television program, classic Trek gatekeepers GNP Crescendo issued a complete version of Goldsmith’s score to TNG-era film First Contact and Varese Sarabande expanded their own album presentation of Michael Giacchino’s music to the 2009 Trek reboot. La-La Land also announced earlier this year plans for a volume of music from the mid-’90s television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

While there are still strange new worlds to seek out, the universe has just gotten a little brighter with another groundbreaking announcement from La-La Land: this year, they are releasing a 15-disc box set featuring every musical cue from Gene Roddenberry’s original NBC television series, which ran from 1966 to 1969.

Once again, we boldly go where no one has gone before after the jump.

Smoke on the Water, Redux : Deep Purple’s “Machine Head” Goes Super Deluxe in October for 40th Anniversary

So…the super deluxe box sets just keep on coming!

The latest addition to the growing array of titles is a 40^th anniversary of Deep Purple’s 1972 Machine Head album.  EMI promises to explore every nook and cranny of this stone-cold hard rock classic, considered by many as a benchmark in the development of the metal genre.  It remains the British band’s most successful album, having topped the charts in the U.K. and reached a Top 10 placing in the U.S., and introduced the hit single “Smoke on the Water.”  Due on October 8 in the U.K., Its five discs (four CDs and one DVD) will be laid out as follows:

• CD 1: Original Album Remaster (2012)
• CD 2: 25th Anniversary Remix by Roger Glover (1997)
• CD 3: Original Album Quad SQ Stereo Remaster (2012)
• CD 4: In Concert ‘72 (Recorded live at Paris Theatre, London on March 9, 1972) (2012 Mix)
• DVD: 2012 High-resolution Remaster and Surround Mix (2012)

The story of Machine Head begins at Switzerland’s Montreux Casino, where the band planned to record its upcoming album using the Rolling Stones’ mobile truck.  The venue was set to close for refurbishment over the winter months following a concert by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention on December 4, 1971.  During that period of closure, Deep Purple would have usage for recording purposes.  While Zappa and the Mothers were performing the composer’s grand “King Kong,” an audience member fired a flare into the building’s ceiling.  The roof caught fire, which quickly spread.  The building burnt down as chronicled in “Smoke on the Water,” the song which would open Side Two of the album later christened Machine Head: “We all came out to Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline / To make records with a mobile, we didn’t have much time / Frank Zappa and the Mothers were at the best place around / But some stupid with a flare gun burned the place to the ground / Smoke on the water, fire in the sky…”

Following the devastating fire, Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Jon Lord and Ian Paice regrouped, and the album was recorded instead at Montreux’s Grand Hotel between December 6 and 21.  It was released in March 1972 on EMI’s Purple label, and hit the top spot on the British charts within one week of its release.  Machine Head remained there for two weeks before returning in May for a further week.  It did almost as well in the U.S., where it was released on Warner Bros. Records and reached No. 7.  It remained on the charts for two years.

Hit the jump for a run-down on the box set’s contents and how the upcoming edition compares to past reissues!

Who’s Got The Beat? WE HAVE A WINNER!

CONGRATULATIONS TO R. TODD RICHARDS, WINNER OF A COMPLETE SET OF EDSEL’S BEAT REISSUES!

Details Revealed for Gabriel’s Big Time “So” Box (UPDATED WITH TRACK LIST)

The 1986 release of Peter Gabriel’s So was, arguably, the apex of an iconic frontman’s idiosyncratic career. Here was an artist taking everything he had offered the audience to date – introspective slice-of-life balladeering, cutting-edge dance-rock, polyrhythmic world music influences – and spinning it into a slickly produced tour de force that caught on with MTV-addled youths as well as an older, more mature generation familiar with his work, either solo or as the original frontman for Genesis, for over a decade.

With a flurry of charting singles and iconic videos from So, it’s no surprise that the album is a big favorite here at Second Disc HQ. From the grandiose opening of “Red Rain” to the hanging uncertainty of “We Do What We’re Told (Milgram’s 37)” – or, depending on which pressings you’re enjoying, the quirky “This is the Picture (Excellent Birds)” (a duet with Laurie Anderson) or the romantic “In Your Eyes” – every track is a keeper; like so many other great discs of the era, it’s perfect pop with an ear toward the outside world.

A deluxe So has been the target of much speculation since The Second Disc opened its virtual doors in 2010. The revelation that Gabriel was researching material for a proposed 25th anniversary deluxe package has led us to this fall, when Gabriel and the original band behind the album will embark on the Back to Front tour, playing the album in its entirety along with other surprises. And on October 23, Gabriel’s Real World label will finally release the definitive look at this classic disc.

After much speculation on extra material, Amazon’s product listings have hit pay dirt on what to expect, and a full report is after the jump.