Tales From The Score Keeper: Pumpkin Spice Martial Arts

4 min read

If there are two non-political things uniting Americans right now, it’s Halloween season and the fact that half the country seems to have only just now discovered Cobra Kai. A new slate of classic soundtracks is here to provide musical accompaniment for both spooky shenanigans and sweeping the leg.

La-La Land Records has rolled out a newly remastered, expanded edition of Bill Conti’s score from The Karate Kid Part II, which has been out of print for quite some time. A brand new transfer from the original studio tapes fills a single CD to the brim not only with what was previously released, but some material that has not been released before, including alternate versions of what made it into the movie – the musical equivalent of deleted scenes. There’s also a new liner notes booklet to go with the new release; 3000 copies are available.

But hey, you came here for spooky stuff too, right? I mean, Halloween is just a few weeks away, and La-La Land has you covered there too with a single CD release of Anthony Marinelli and Brian Banks’ score from Stephen King’s Graveyard Shift. Again, there are new liner notes and bonus tracks, including the trailer music composed by John Beal, the reigning king of ’80s/’90s movie trailer music. Only 1,000 copies are being pressed, so this title may go scarily fast.

If you missed the big, every-score-from-every-movie-in-the-franchise Friday The 13th box set a few years ago, La-La Land is making sure you’re covered there as well, with the score from Friday The 13th Part VII: The New Blood, composed by Harry Manfredini, Jason’s composer of choice since the first movie, and Fred Mollin, who had joined the Friday franchise by way of Friday The 13th: The Series. 2,000 copies of this soundtrack are available.

Also at La-La Land, a number of soundtracks that had previously been backordered are back in stock, including Day Of The Dead, Krull, Die Hard, Minority Report, Ladyhawke, Planet Of The Apes: The Series, and the original Friday The 13th. They’re also having a sale on spooky soundtracks, including The Bride Of Frankenstein, Child’s Play 2, Creepshow, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and The Haunting Of Hill House, among quite a few others. Clearly La-La Land is trying to scare up some business here, so give them a shout – or, dare I say it, a scream? – and fill some gaps in your collection.

Intrada also has some musical chills on tap with its latest release, with a definitive 2-CD release of John Williams’ score from the 2005 Steven Spielberg/Tom Cruise remake of The War Of The Worlds. The complete score, plus alternate unused music, is included, as well as the original 2005 album in freshly remastered form, meaning you can hear the soundtrack with Morgan Freeman’s opening narration (on disc two as part of the original album release), or without (on disc one).

Varese Sarabande is also delivering a couple of much-anticipated expanded releases. John Powell’s amazing score from How To Train Your Dragon is being expanded to two discs, with a significant amount of new material that hasn’t previously been available, making this one deluxe edition release that definitely isn’t toothless. 3,000 copies will be available.

The other Varese release is the complete score, over two discs, from John Carpenter’s Village Of The Damned, with music by Carpenter himself the Dave Davies of the Kinks. The deluxe edition of the score from this movie is limited to only 2,000 copies.

Needless to say, if you need some spooky mood music, you’re spoiled for choice this month. Spoiled…rotten.

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