We've got a vacation schedule coming up over the next couple of weeks. Jeff will be cruising into comfort and taking a well-deserved break from our routine around here. We're tweaking our new release pattern to accommodate him, and spare you of delayed orders while I tackle his workload and mine at the same time! We never let Steve or George have time off so things will still move reasonably well back in the mailroom. (They just cook their meals here, sleep in the stock room and watch TV in their free time anyway.)

So plan on our next pair of new CDs to arrive for sale on Tuesday, February 14. We'll post the titles, artwork and sound samples on Monday eve prior. Then the next new release date will be Tuesday, February 28, by which time Jeff will have returned to manage sales. Watch our site Monday, February 27 to begin placing orders. Our typical two-week release pattern will continue on the very next Tuesday, March 6. If Jeff's still on his cruise at that time, we'll figure out a plan B!

1/22/12

More CDs ready for you to consider! We'll post artwork and sound samples for two new releases tomorrow evening (Monday the 23rd). Hopefully you'll like what you see and hear and toss us your orders. In return, we promise to start shipping those orders back out to you on Tuesday the 24th.

One of the titles certainly qualifies as a mega-success at the box office, the other aims for select audiences with history in mind. The former is unlimited, the latter will be available while quantities and interest remain. Both offer really cool music!

1/18/12

The best they've ever done! William Stromberg. John Morgan. Moscow Symphony. And the music by Herrmann isn't too bad, either!

Two war film scores written roughly a decade apart. BATTLE OF NERETVA finds Yugoslavia invaded by Nazis, THE NAKED AND THE DEAD finds action in the Pacific. Bernard Herrmann battles on both fronts with music scored for massive forces, particularly in pumped up brass. Hit play on your CD, Herrmann hits back harder. Moments of respite in Neretva do appear, notably with strings during "From Italy" and "Pastorale". But it's a brief rest. War isn't pretty, even if heroic. So brass and percussion just keep coming.

THE NAKED AND THE DEAD shares the war concerns but brings in considerable color, particularly in an amazing array of muted effects for brass and shifting figures for woodwinds. At times it plays like music for Harryhausen!

Ok, so with all this muscle and war, some 77 minutes of it, what's my favorite part? I'll tell you. Track 37. "Wilson's Death". We're in the Pacific on this one. Standing out amongst everything surrounding it, Herrmann writes a brief tribute to the fallen with nothing but pure rock solid major chords for low brass. Wow! What power, even at mezzo-forte levels! Just major chords for a wall of trombones and tuba. Beyond that, I can't get enough of the Dead's "Prelude", which also has a stunning array of major chords as well as some piercing stuff for trumpets. And percussion up the wazoo keeps it marching forward... never looking back.

What performing the Moscow players do! What robust conducting Stromberg displays! And Morgan just knows the music inside and outl, how it's written, how to construct it, how to re-construct it, you name it. Just give him Herrmann and get out of the way.

I just have to lavish praise on what this album does right that so many other re-recordings of film music do not-so-right. It lets the music be the thing! No insane added reverb, no numbing pumped up bass that plagues many other such efforts... just crisp, tight, realistic, close-miked, dynamically recorded, well-played music. What a joy to crank that Prelude from Naked up really loud and hear real tympani and brass without mushy sound and over-burdened sub-woofers telling me the engineering was mostly done after the playing was over. Stromberg and Morgan and Moscow capture it all on the stage and you're there with them. Add the visions of producer Anna Bonn to see the recordings cross the finish line and you've get a top drawer album! Here's my choice for "Best Recording by Stromberg, Morgan and Moscow" of all-time. Or, at least until their next one.