[Nicolai P. Zwar]

There may be similar threads of what I had in mind, and of course there are threads about individual scores, but that’s not really what I was looking for. I thought of this more along the line of browsing through the files in a record store, where you pull out that one album and start talking about it. A thread that tells a bit about the albums and about the people who post about them. And if more people do it, it might just become a thread with all kinds of albums and short (or long, by all means, no one’s stopping anyone) album introductions.

So not so much a thread about a single score, nor a thread with just lists of scores, but the “pick one album and talk about it” thread. 🙂

Here’s an example what I had in mind (which I of course already wrote while you replied here).

I’m talking about WIZARDS by Andrew Belling.
Released by La-La Land Records in 2012 (LLLCD 1223)

I first stumbled onto the movie WIZARDS decades ago, back when VHS finally meant you could watch strange, culty films at home instead of waiting for some late night TV slot. I had read about the movie in a film book and actively sought it out. The movie mixes fantasy, science fiction, and is a bit of a psychedelic fever dream. The plot is simple: two twin wizards, one good, one evil, leading their nations continually into war, with the good side fending of the bad side, until the “bad” side rediscovers and weaponizes Third Reich propaganda… It was bizarre, bold, and unlike anything else I’d seen. Not necessarily “good”, but most certainly “unique”. And interesting. So I watched the movie several times.
One thing stood out for me: Andrew Belling’s score.
It didn’t sound like regular animation music, and definitely not what regular animation music sounded like in the 1970. No Mickey Mousing, no wall to wall orchestral bombast, no musical songs. (There is a song, a nice one even, but it’s not a “musical song”.) Instead you get this odd fusion of jazz, lounge, a surprisingly charming song, touches of classical writing, and a general 1970s vibe that feels both handmade and completely sincere. It is a quirky, and in my view strangely beautiful score. A perfect match for Bakshi’s off kilter world.
For years I hoped the score might somehow get released, but realistically… who was going to put out the music from a decades old cult film by a composer who wasn’t exactly a household name like Goldsmith or Williams. It felt like a long shot.
And then La La Land actually did it. In 2012. That was wow, they released one of my old forgotten favorites from my youth days.
I doubt it was a big seller, which is a shame, because it’s one of those albums that exists almost in spite of the market. For me, it was a small miracle. A piece of my teenage film discovery years suddenly preserved, cleaned up, and sitting on my shelf.
I even had a bit of contact with Andrew Belling via social media, just brief exchanges, but he came across as genuinely warm, gracious, and delighted that people still cared about his work. He passed away last year at 80, and that makes the album feel even more personal now.
This isn’t a score for everyone. It’s not traditionally “epic,” it’s not orchestral, and it doesn’t try to be. But if you’re in the mood for a funky, jazzy, slightly psychedelic 1970s concept album meets film score, WIZARDS is a wonderfully unusual little journey.