Godzilla vs. Biollante (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Year Movie Released in Japan: 1989 Year Movie Released in U.S.: 1992 This long overdue (took one full year to complete) fourth boxed set might very well be the best one released to date - TOHO MUSIC has done a fantastic job expanding, remastering and packaging these first scores from the Heisei series. If you consider that Toho has included a CD featuring ALL the unreleased vocal songs recorded for GODZILLA 1984 and a few other vocal rarities, expanded BIOLLANTE into a two-disc set, rounded out the score for GODZILLA VS KING GHIDORAH with 24 minutes of outtakes, added a few interesting tracks for GODZILLA VS MOTHRA and included two bonus discs (one of which is a two-disc set), you will understand why this was all worth the wait! Surprisingly, the remastering on Box 4 has improved and brought out an ambiance in these scores not heard before - these soundtracks have never sounded better and actually put a little more distance between themselves and the earlier Futureland releases in terms of overall sound quality, more-so than the CDs in the first three boxed sets do. One of the highlights from Box 4 is this ultimate, two-disc edition of Koichi Sugiyamas soundtrack for BIOLLANTE. While the 93 disc has 21 tracks and a running time of 65:03, disc one here has 19 tracks, but a total running time of 77:19. Unlike the 93 Futureland CD TYCY-5361 and earlier promo CD TYCY-5122, this new one includes all three full-length OSTINATO tracks (the 93 version only has two, and one of them is edited), and a few outtakes. One of the biggest treats here is an unreleased version of "Bio Wars" without the lead guitar - this is very enjoyable and you might even notice a few things this time while the orchestra is playing that you didnt hear before when the lead guitar was featured prominently. The music here exudes a richness and ambiance not heard before on either of the previous BIOLLANTE CDs, and this new release has instantly become my favorite. Disc two features the music as heard in the film and is presented in mono. One can only speculate why Toho chose not to release this disc in stereo, but fear not - even though the music is now coming out of the speakers in mono, it still sounds very much like stereo and is thoroughly enjoyable. I found this disc to be an interesting listen, but since most of the tracks are very short and edited, it is not the best way to experience the music. The last track features the isolated music from the films 1989 trailer and not the complete version as heard in the theaters with the added dialogue. For people who want to find that original trailer on CD, it was released (along with all of Tohos sci-fi & kaiju promotional trailers) on the now OOP SPFX FILM COLLECTION (SP/CR-71004~5), a special 2-CD set reviewed elsewhere on this site. The packaging for this entire boxed set is spectacular - both sides of the booklet, the pictures on each CD, and the back inserts are now in color, and this really helps to distinguish them from the first three sets. Once again, the booklets offer a wealth of information (in Japanese) for the film, the music and their composer. As impressive as the sound quality is on this CD, I am sure the information in the booklet is equally impressive and I have the feeling we are all missing out on some great information, interviews, and a biography on the composer. That aside, this boxed set and this soundtrack in particular is not to be missed by anyone who loves this score. For people who cant find Akira Ifukubes OSTINATO release, this CD offers three of the tracks at least - all of which have never sounded better. This is without question the definitive version for BIOLLANTE available on compact disc, boasting powerful rich sound and expanded like never before! NOTE from site owner Larry Tuczynski - December 16, 2006 Disc 2 also features some dialogue and sound effects in the background of some tracks.