"Star Trek The Motion Picture" Soundtrack Is Sonic Blockbuster!

Jerry Goldsmith's remarkable 84 minute, 54 second score for Star Trek The Motion Picture here in its entirety on vinyl for the first time is a musical and sonic spectacular that's far more exciting than was the movie itself. This is one film score you can definitely enjoy without having seen the movie.

Bruce Botnick, who produced the original 1979 truncated soundtrack album, here mixed from a 192/24 bit flat transfer of the original 2 inch analog tape and then mastered the final high resolution two-track file. Orchestral sessions were recorded at 20th Century Fox because Paramount's scoring stage could not accommodate the required 98 piece orchestra, plus Fox had a Wurlitzer pipe organ and the studio's head of music Lionel Newman could conduct when Goldsmith wanted to supervise from the control booth the mix of electronic and orchestral instruments. The scoring engineer was John Neal.

Synthesizer performer Craig Huxley had built a "blaster beam" (first heard in Mel Brooks' "High Anxiety") using 24 strings stretched along a long aluminum beam. Hitting it with an "artillery shell" (if the annotation is to be taken literally) produced the stupendous, ominous noise of the "V'Ger", which will scare the living crap out of you the first time you hear it, especially if your system goes all the way down, because the records certainly do!

La La Land Records gets high marks for production and for annotation completeness. Every musician who played in the orchestra gets credited on the inner gatefold. The other side of the inner gatefold gives you all of the original 1979 release's credits as well as a complete rundown of the reissue's credits, right down to crediting MasterCraft in Elizabeth, NJ for metal plating and stamper creation. Now that's complete!

Eric Boulanger at The Bakery cut the lacquers using Stan Ricker's lathe, which he'd purchased and situated on the Sony Studios lot (something you'd know if you watched the L.A. studio tour video posted on analogPlanet and YouTube a few months ago). RTI pressed the records on marbled translucent blue vinyl that was perfectly quiet while looking appropriately "spacey".

The package also includes a nicely produced full-sized full color glossy paper booklet with great production photos and informative annotation by Jeff Bond and La La Land Records' Mike Matessino that includes a truly useful cue by cue description of the action, though you can easily enjoy this sonic and musical spectacular without knowing what's happening on screen. The worst I can say about the package is that the thin jacket is not up to the highest "Tip On" standards. Then again, the limited to 1500 copies set costs a super-reasonable $34.98.

I hope you can find a copy if you're interested because the sound is absolutely spectacular. The stage sets up well behind the speakers and the lateral spread is CinemaScopic. Dynamics are scary and bass extension is subterranean. Yes, this was originally released on CD a few years ago, but there's no way the CD version sounded like this!

Here's the good news: La-La Records is about to press up the final 1/3 of the 1500 record run so it's not too late to order a copy. The record is available only direct from La-La Records.

COMMENTS
MrGneiss's picture

Just finished ordering it!! :-D

Dorian Workman's picture

Where did you order from please?

Dorian Workman's picture

Can see it at the usual online outlets.

Dorian Workman's picture

Should have read the last paragraph. Order placed!

grey17's picture

TEMPORARILY OUT OF STOCK

arthur63's picture

Thank you Michael for alerting me to this release.
Purchased a copy yesterday from an ebay seller based in Burbank, California for $34.95 plus shipping. They had 8 copies left, now none.

sharris55's picture

Ordered mine yesterday right after reading the post. A true impulse (not warp?) buy! Got confirmation emails from La La so assuming I will receive a copy. Thanks again. Now to go warm up the subs!

DanaMck's picture

It is spectacular sounding. It completely surprised me by how good it was. And I do have the 3 CD set as well. My copy had a small scratch at the beginning of side 1 that produced a tic for the first 2 minutes. La-La-Land Records replied to my email within minutes and had a replacement copy on the way THAT DAY! That is service. They didn't even want the bad LP back, so it is proudly hanging on my wall (the vinyl looks spectacular!)

pazmusik's picture

Wholeheartedly agreed, Michael. To a hardcore enthusiast, what I'm about to say may sound kind of pathetic: but with exception a McCoy Tyner pressing and the Bernie Grundman cut Zep III, this La-La Records release is probably the best sounding wax in my collection currently.

RCZero's picture

... they said it will be back in stock late may / early June. I hope I can get one. Geesh it sells out too soon...

mobileholmes's picture

I thought I saw it in the used bins. Anyway, I always assumed it was "DDD". My CD just says "Sony Digital". But, it sounds very analog, even from the '80s era CD with the green paint around the edge. "Vejur Flyover" and "Spock Walk" are top notch. It is "serious music", with outlandish scoring. The movie kinda sucks, unfortunately. Too bad Goldsmith didn't write the music for Khan.

mobileholmes's picture

Didn't know there was unreleased music.

orangeaudio's picture

Mine had on the complete A-side loud crackling on the right side.
Sorry, but for this money i want to have better vinyls.
Friend of me had the same with his version.
I sold it...

allvinyl's picture

Even though LaLa emailed it wouldn't be available until 7/5/17, I just finished ordering it from their site.

warrendg's picture

Has anybody actually ordered and received anything from La La Land Records? I ordered this a week ago and the confirmation stated it would ship in 2-3 days. The order status still states the same more than a week later. So far an email to them has gone unanswered.

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