- July/August New Release
Welcome to 1M1 Records' August newsletter.
1M1 Records' newest release, the double film score release of "Careful He Might Hear You" and "Caddie", is still our current release this month, carrying over into August, due to the work involved in producing our special October release (see below).
The 74-minute CD of "Careful He Might Hear You" (Ray Cook) and "Caddie" (Patrick Flynn) has music from two of Australia's most important films of the 70s and 80s. The music may be by little known film composers, but the delicate tunes, energetic 20s music, and the lush, romantic melodies and orchestrations are as attractive as some of the best music to come out of Australia.
Next month, however, we have another double film score release: Bruce Smeaton and Brian May scores for "The Great MacArthy" and "The True Story of Eskimo Nell". These two early scores by Australia's most influential film composers of the 70s, 80s and 90s are wildy different. Both scores pay homage to their genres and to other film music styles. Also in common is the fact that they are exuberant, tuneful, and madly humourous at times. "The Great MacArthy" draws on different musical styles ranging from orchestral and jazz to affectionate nods to the Italian film music greats, Nino Rota and Ennio Morricone. It is the most unexpected accompaniment at times for a comedy about the kidnapping of a football player by a city team.
"The True Story of Eskimo Nell" is one of Richard Franklin's earlier films and one of Brian May's first film scores. They went on to forge a strong partnership together for a decade, making 4 films together, the others being "Patrick", "Roadgames", and "Cloak and Dagger". After studying film in America under his mentor, Alfred Hitchcock, Franklin came home and made the low-budget wildly satirical western "The True Story of Eskimo Nell". This was the beginning of Brian May and Richard Franklin's collaboration. Despite the meagre shooting-budget, when it came to scoring the film, however, Franklin made sure the money was there for a decent orchestra to bring to life the hijinks of this ribald look at the gold rush in colonial Australia. Dead Eye Dick and Mexico Pete team up to track down Dick's fantasy girl, the legendary beauty, Eskimo Nell, who is on one of the gold digging sites in Australia. Their bawdy adventures are followed by Brian May's hectic and humourous orchestral accompaniment.
1M1 Records' October release is Bill Conti's score for "The Coolangatta Gold", which was released in 1984. The 100-piece orchestra performs a similar role in the film as Conti's underrated action score in the Sylvester Stallone film about POWs and football, "Victory" (aka. "Escape to Victory"), the triumphant orchestral music of "The Karate Kid" and "The Right Stuff", and the fanfares of the "Rocky" series.
As Bill Conti won the Oscar for "The Right Stuff", Australia's biggest budget film ever was in production. Conti went to the top of the list of possible composers. His aggressive, dashing, and triumphant orchestral style was exactly what the filmmakers wanted for this prestigious film, featuring many race and action scenes. His approach to competition, as heard in the previously mentioned films, and the climactic ballet scene in "Slow Dancing in the Big City", got the producers thinking that Conti was the composer they wanted for their new film about people pushing themselves beyond their limits. Then when his stirring music for "The Right Stuff" was heard, this absolutely convinced them. In September 1984, he recorded the main orchestral sequences in Australia at the Sydney Town Hall and the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall. Having interviewed the composer five days before for a radio broadcast, it was my great pleasure to then be invited to the scoring session at the Town Hall on September 10, 1984. The score has been almost totally forgotten over the years, with only a few tracks by Conti released amongst numerous pop songs on an LP at the time. Even some of these tracks by Bill Conti were dominated by rock elements. Having heard the original majesty of his music for this film, it has seemed a shame that this music was buried away and forgotten for so many years. Nearly two decades later, the original recordings have been located, the neglected flaking tapes have been restored with the aid of the latest technology and hours in the studio, and the music is ready for issue on CD.
Conti's music captures the feverish excitement of the early "ironman" races, athletes training and the long triatholon race, which is the climax of the film. Full of brass fanfares, swirling woodwinds and rhapsodic strings, there is also an expanded percussion section including pounding timpani and crashing cymbals. There are also tracks underscoring the emotional relationships between the characters in the film, and the tensions involved. One of Conti's most beautiful love themes is incorporated into the score, and the triumphant music for the climax is extraordinary. This special 1M1 Records release also contains music not in the finished film, some of which is the most exciting Conti wrote for the film, which was replaced in some sections by roaring rock songs. This release, however, contains just the Bill Conti score.
As a bonus, also on this CD featuring the score for "The Coolangatta Gold", which runs for over 60 minutes, we are including alternate versions of some of the action cues which were written for the film, as well as Conti's rearrangements of some of the musical themes and cues.
Next month, two Australian scores from last decade are being added to the More Soundtracks section: "Tracks of Glory" and "Lightning Jack" (Bruce Rowland). A score by an Australian composer for an American film ("Roxanne" by Bruce Smeaton) is also being added, as well as a score for an Australian co-production by Georges Delerue ("Black Robe").
We look forward to seeing you back here for September's newsletter. Your feedback is always welcome. info@1m1.com.au
July/August New Release
Next month we will be adding "Lightning Jack" and "Tracks of Glory" (Bruce Rowland), "Black Robe" (Georges Delerue) and Bruce Smeaton's score for "Roxanne" to the list of soundtracks available.
We still have copies of Mario Millo's score for the prisoner-of-war drama, "Changi", available. This score can be found at the More Soundtracks page. "The Potato Factory" score by Carl Vine, Paul Kelly's score for "Lantana" and Alan John's score for "The Bank" are also available again, amongst several others.
More Soundtracks; previously released titles which are still available, including titles previously released by 1M1 Records which are no longer being manufactured, and brand new CDs of other soundtracks which 1M1 has in its stocks. There are still copies available of Mario Millo's scores for "Changi" and "The Lighthorsemen", Alan John's "The Bank", and a range of Brian May scores. Several scores by Jerry Goldsmith, Ennio Morricone, Georges Delerue and Bruce Broughton are also available here.
Secondhand Titles; soundtrack releases from anywhere in the world which 1M1 currently has in stock, containing quite a few bargain-priced excellent condition soundtrack CDs for sale, including several Australian film soundtracks.
"The True Story of Eskimo Nell" (Brian May) and "The Great MacArthy" (Bruce Smeaton) will be released in September as a double.
"The Coolangatta Gold" (Bill Conti) will be 1M1 Records' October release. (For more information about these two releases, refer to the "Welcome" section at the beginning of the newsletter.)
Nerida Tyson-Chew is currently scoring and recording Richard Franklin's most recent feature film, "Visitors".
Paul Grabowsky has scored Fred Schepisi's most recent feature film "Last Orders" with a small instrumental ensemble.