Silva Screen レコード& CD

Review: British crime television series Sherlock has proved hugely popular in recent years. The latest adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's writings have also been hugely enhanced by the soundtrack. That score has been composed by David Arnold and Michael Price, and has won the pair numerous awards including a 2014 EMMY as well as two further nominations for an EMMY and a BAFTA nomination. Their contribution to Sherlock is immeasurable as exemplified by this soundtrack which is thrilling and sinister, playful and suspenseful in equal measure. The music from all three of the first series is captured here on this limited blue vinyl.

Review: Two facts about Fireball XL5, the British sci-fi puppet show created by legendary husband and wife team Gerry and Sylvia 'Thunderbirds/Captain Scarlet' Anderson. Firstly, this was their third time using 'supermarionation', a word that has nothing to do with Nintendo and everything to do with plastic models moving their mouths in sync with real dialogue. Secondly, the programme only lasted one series, albeit it did comprise 39 episodes.

Background set, this reissue of the original soundtrack plays true to the Anderson OST rulebook, to the point where once you know the series it's impossible not to start picturing potential scenes on strings to suit the music. Nevertheless, it's all accomplished stuff, from dramatic overtures to espionage-worthy arrangements and weirdly complex, danceable stuff that pulls you in like an episode of The Monkees.

Review: Gerry Anderson's Stingray is one of those superbly nostalgic and cult TV shows that, when thinking about them now, transports you right back to your childhood - unless you're lucky enough to be too young to have seen it first time around that is. The series followed the World Aquanaut Security Patrol (WASPs) on several underwater adventures with a superb soundtrack from Barry Gray adding style and drama to the aquatic odyssey. From minimalist electronic pieces to lush strings, jazzier motifs and driving military marches, this gatefold silver vinyl version of the completed soundtrack is a real doozy.

Review:  As part of Trunk Records' Soundtracks reissues series, comes the vinyl debut of James Bernard's OST for 'The Devil Rides Out', a rather corny yet no less enjoyable gothic horror classic film from the late 60s. Directed by Terence Fisher, the film centres on the macabre antics of an underground group of Satanists. Fittingly, the soundtrack is immediate, full of tribal drumming and stern, expressionistic string zaps; its pieces have titles like 'Orgy Of Evil' and 'Hidden Sacrifice'. You were warned.

Review: The life and times of Delia Derbyshire continue to be a fascination for anyone with even a passing interest in electronic music. And rightly so, for she was at the vanguard of music technology working in the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Silva Screen are committed to presenting her pioneering works with the due reverence and ceremony they deserve, and so it goes for the two pieces of incidental music she composed in the 1960s, pressed onto this beautifully packaged gatefold 7". A-side piece 'The Delian Mode' has become something of a byword for Derbyshire's work, and listening to this record, there's nothing else in musical history quite like it.

Review: Talk about a cultural Tardis, Doctor Who ranks among the most longstanding love affairs British TV viewers have ever had with a work of science fiction, ranking up there with global phenomena such as Star Trek in terms of legions of faithful fans and decade-spanning sagas. After a small blip of obscurity in the mid-late-1990s and immediate post-millennium years, the show rebooted and reconfigured for the 21st Century in 2005, and hasn't left the common conscience since.

The score is certainly something to do with that resonance. As far as theme tunes go, Doctor Who's may not still be the most forward thinking (as it was back in 1963), but it's easily up there in the premier league of iconic. On this live rendition of music from the latter-day Series 1 & 2 that theme remains as impactful, while a talented entourage of players and conductors also help us remember just how consistent the music is overall.

Review: This is one of the more unusual Record Store Day releases for 2021. It has come about after film classic Citizen Kane has been brought to a new audience because of the success of Mank which is currently streaming on Netflix. The Citizen Kane overture is presented here on the a-side with all its dramatic orchestral drums, high energy flutes and cinematic qualities. It was composed by Bernard Herrmann and performed by The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, while flip it over and you will find an etching of 'Rosebud'.

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Review: Tom Ford's second feature film was another classy affair. A refined and sophisticated piece that's based on the1993 novel, Tony & Susan, which was written by Austin Wright. If you're not seen it, we'll not spoil it, but to quickly summarise it involves a gallery owner reading a new novel by her first husband. In its pages, she sees plenty that mirrors how their relationship played out. Reflective, tense and thoughtful moods abound. Who better to provide the soundtrack, then, than Abel Korzeniowski. An accomplished composter, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter responsible for a plethora of excellent scores, here he provides exactly the tonic. Subtle, but incredibly powerful slices if contemporary classical that seem to speak to the mind and heart in equal measure. Those who like this should also check A Single Man, the directorial debut of Ford which Korzeniowski also scored.

Review: The Leftovers is Max Richter's score for the HBO series of the same name. The story is about the Garvey family in the fictional town of Mapleton, New York and explores what happens when 2% of the world's population disappears all of a sudden. It was first aired in 2014 and was a real critical hit and that's in no small part thanks to the score. It is haunting and eerie at times, laden with doom at other and run through with a subtle sense of hope when needed. And would you expect anything less from one of the most influential composers of his generation?

Review: David Shire has one hell of a back catalogue. Active within music since the 1960s, and specifically theatre and film soundtracks in the 1970s, while many of the biggest names behind movie scores have a tendency to explore the same avenues, and therefore wind up creating tunes for relatively similar flicks, in this case that's not really true. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (the original, of course), All The President's Men, and parts of Saturday Night Fever give some idea as to the breadth of his mastery.
The Conversation slips right in there in terms of period and genre, but is, of course, a very different classic to a movie about a New York subway train getting hijacked or social tensions in Brooklyn at the height of the disco era. While largely focused on piano solos, we also get late night dance floor jazz, tense drone, and moody avant-garde, just in case the on-screen action wasn't brooding enough already.

Review: Once the leader of iconic and legendary Japanese New Wave rockers EX, Shigeru Umebayashi's Music For A Film compilation showcases the better-known work (in today's terms at least) of this multifaceted and multi-talented composer. 21 tracks of absolute beauty, all of which are taken from his 30-strong-plus oeuvre of movie scores, built over time since he first began writing tracks for screens in 1985, after said band called time.
Opening with what may be his most famous work of all time, 'Yumeji's Theme' (title piece from Siejun Suzuki's critically acclaimed 1991 movie, Yumeji) the playlist here really showcases the vision and musicality Umebayashi is renowned for, and removed from the context of movies the work is elevated to new heights. Classical, choral, quiet epics, and romantic mini-overtures rarely sound so good.

Review: Camden Town's Silva Screen Records serves up another fine soundtrack here, this time all the way from Mumbai. Gully Boy is inspired by the lives of local rappers Naezy and Divine, who express real dissent at the political system and triumph as a result. Bollywood superstar Ranveer Singh is the titular Gulyl Boy character and he raps alongside a heavyweight selection of writers such as Divine, Naezy, Spitfire, Rishi Rich, Raghu Dixit and many more. No matter that the words might no mean anything to you, they still convey plenty in their delivery and tone alone.