John Corigliano: Altered States OST (Waxworks)
Purchased at Jerry's Records
It was about ten years or so ago I started to notice fairly high-priced soundtrack albums in a local store. What was the place, 720 Records and Books? It was in Lawrenceville. When I say high-price, I don't mean in the $100 range, but they were often more than $20. At the time, these records were on the Death Waltz Recording Co. label, which a few years later merged with Mondo Tees for a single outlet of largely movie-related collectables. Mondo is best known of newly commissioned screen printed posters for various movies, often of a horror or sci fi nature. There's a documentary on the topic, 24X36, about the dimensions Mondo and other similar companies print these posters.
Other similar record labels have popped up, most notably Waxworks. The first DeathWaltz records were rather plainly packaged: black border around a circle, and inside that a new image based on the film. The packaging has become more distinctive and elaborate since then; Waxworks albums most often come in a gatefold cover, Death Waltz sometimes too. Often they're in multicolored vinyl, sometimes multiple variants.
It's pretty rare to see any of them pop up used in the wild, so it was surprising to find about a dozen of them at Jerry's today. Even then they didn't come cheap, and I limited myself to only two: this, and Michael Einhorn's The Prowler. I chose this one in part because I'm familiar with the movie, though I haven't seen it in decades. I did recall though that the soundtrack plays a significant part in the experience of the film, so here's where I put my money.
In general John Corigliano isn't a composer who particularly interests me. I'll acknowledge that I possibly am not being fair in that assessment. I was reading just now about the significance of his Symphony No.1, composed during the height of the AIDS crisis. The music I've heard seemed to me to be full of technique but little interest. Someone with tremendous and enviable skills, but not someone who distinguished himself musically. I'd say the same thing, maybe more so, about Richard Danielpour. Wonderful technique, and a bore to my ears.
But then, take Bernard Herrmann, my favorite film composer, with only Ennio Morricone even coming close. Herrmann's scores are often amazing, inventive, and stand alone as listening statements apart from the visuals. But I've heard some of his non-film concert music, and none of it (so far) has been nearly as good as his film work. Perhaps the visuals help inspire his creativity?
It's also in that spirit that I decided to buy this. How does Corigliano stack up when he's composing for film? Altered States is a preposterous Ken Russell film, ridiculous even by his standards. Corigliano proves himself up to the task; the composing is lively, colorful, hyperactive at times. There are bits of classicism, smaller moments of microtonality, lots of raucous percussion at times. There's some sort of musical quote at the beginning I think, tossed around in a trippy way, befitting the film. There are some electronics mixed into the closing sections (probably during the heaviest tripping concluding scenes), a technique far more commonly used today.
It sounds very good. Okay, I admit I like the smeary purple vinyl. I try not to be a sucker for things like that now, it's not enough reason to buy something. I still like it. For crying out loud, the Matango vinyl issue on Death Waltz looks great but, $35 for a single LP? https://mondoshop.com/products/matango-original-motion-picture-soundtrack-lp-numbered-edition
$30 for Space Amoeba? https://mondoshop.com/products/space-amoeba-original-motion-picture-score-lp
That's playing up the fetishization of vinyl and collectables, and I have my limits. And those did not turn up used at Jerry's, otherwise it's what I'd be writing about right now.
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