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FILM MUSIC RECORDINGS REVIEWS |
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FILM MUSIC RECORDINGS REVIEWS |
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Nicholas
PIKE Star Kid
 OST
SONIC IMAGES SID-8800 [70:22] |
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Get past the rather dire pop-based introductory two tracks; the first complete with screaming guitars and a grisly vocal, the second not much better and you arrive at the generous orchestral score which forms the majority of this album. Pike’s score is very well performed by the Munich Symphony Orchestra. Although most of the ingredients are familiar, the recipe and the cooking are of a somewhat higher standard of invention than the norm for this genre. Like John Williams before him in Superman, Pike shows that he can produce the requisite sci-fi score without having to resort to using synthesisers. Pike’s score has something of the past and the future for the music sometimes has a feeling of the old children’s Saturday matinée serials music heard in the 1940s and 50s (especially the opening "Battle on Trelkas") which had me reaching back into my memory banks for strains of Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon and one or two Western serials. The influences of Gustav Holst and Richard Strauss are apparent too and, in a score which has more variety than most, there is room for pathos ("On the Bridge") and humour ("Turbo takes a Spin") as well as excitement and intimations of terror ("Broadwarrior arrives"). Nicholas Pike is another unfamiliar name to me - again he is not listed in Gramophone’s Film Music Good CD Guide although his score for Critters 2 - The Main Course, is listed in the Gramophone classical catalogue and the booklet notes tell us that he has also worked on Tales from the Crypt. On the evidence of Star Kid perhaps he is a composer to watch.
Ian Lace
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