Godzilla [Japanese Original 60th Anniversary] by Akira Ifukube (Vinyl, 2014)

Death Waltz Recording Co.

5053760008422

24050180954

Akira Ifukube

Vinyl

2014

Japanese

Stereo

Godzilla [Japanese Original 60th Anniversary]

LP

International

While it launched a long cycle of colorful monster movies that became a locomotive for the Japanese film industry, Inoshiro Honda's original 1954 Godzilla (aka Gojira) is a very different film than the many sequels that arrived in the years that followed; a dark, somber allegory for the tragic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Honda's original never plays its story or its giant monster for laughs, and has retained a forbidding power decades after it was released. Akira Ifukube's deep, resonant musical accompaniment adds a great deal to the film's emotional impact, and this reissue preserves the original soundtrack recording of his score. Ifukube cleverly uses horns to add a martial tone to the action sequences, while moments of dread are scored with sustained string passages and pianos, as the bass keys generate an ominous flavor. While the audio unwittingly points to the improvements in fidelity that have been achieved in film scoring after six decades, the music and these performances are as effective as they've ever been, and this music is still a touchstone in the history of Japanese film music. ~ Mark Deming

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