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Blade Runner: The Complete Music Collection (work-in-progress) — Page 2

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Music on the wrong speed, sound FXs and dialog as well as a poor offical release are presicely why I started this project in the first place.

It's worth pointing out that there are a few elements of sound that are used as sound effects in the film but are in fact part of Vagelis's score. These are things like chimes, bells and synth created beeping. Like a lot electronic musicians of his time, Vangelis creates music like a sound designer, he builds layers. Some elements are used, some aren't. An example of this for this collection is 2 different versions of the Main Titles track which I'm releasing.

The so-called "Esper Edition" is actually the worst example in terms of material, construction and a coherent listening experience (which it isn't). It's a kind of fan edit. It uses tracks from already released bootlegs, and combines it with the one disc official release, clips from the film recorded from VHS, and a sound effects track. The sound effects track was recorded for the 1992 "director's cut". It was created for international distributers for language dubbing (it contains all the audio except the dialog track). All these elements are laid on top of each other. But not of it is anything that hasn't been released before.

There's a lot of bootlegs out there with between 1 to 4 disc releases. All have different variations of the other releases, others even have sound effects from the video game included. But almost none of the music is playing on the correct speed and or course none of it is complete.

As well as obviously the new official releases my sources include copies of analog tape. These are great because even although quality has degraded over the years they include a few sound elements that I haven't heard before. It's also simply better for this kind of editing.

Blade Runner: The Complete Collection

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I've had a slight delay. Some of the tracks that I had finished were erased since my back-up hard drive decided to die on me, and so I've been forced to start over. But of course not start over completely. Things have been coming along quickly and I'm really feeling at home working with Audition for Restoration and Mastering. Disc 1 should be completed shortly.

Blade Runner: The Complete Collection

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Just finished watching my BR briefcase set and lo and behold...!

Taffy's bar sounds amazing!


I can myspleen this when it's out.


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Sorry to hear you've had an unlucky setback recently 'focuspuller', but glad you are continuing on, as this sounds a terrific project. I was SOOOO disappointed in the latest 3-disc soundtrack from Vangelis as I really thought it was going to be a comprehensive version this time... Anyway, I look forward to hearing your efforts in future.

And any help with this would be much appreciated - Do you or anyone else here, happen to know what that 'new' snippet of 'drumbeat-like techno' music is that is briefly added to the 'Final Cut' of the movie? Is it by Vangelis or someone else? On the 'Final Cut' it starts at 46 mins. 55 secs. when the 'hockey-mask' female dancers are seen, and ends at 47 mins. 06 secs. when Harrison enters 'Taffy's Club'. However, on the 5th DVD Disc, the 'Workprint' edit, there there is a far longer version of this track, which again starts with the female dancers, this time at 44 mins. 41 secs. into the movie, and lasts THROUGHOUT the Harrison exchange with 'Taffy' in the club, ending at 46 mins. 57 secs. when Rachael turns off the 'Vidphone'. I love this track and would love to source it somewhere if anyone knows what it is, or where it's available. This whole site is a terrific find. Thanks, and good luck.
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The track is not from Vangelis but in fact from Brian Eno & David Byrne. It's titled Qu'ran and actually, it has an interesting history.

The track was originally part of their 1981 album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. It is considered to be one of the inspirations behind modern music sampling. The album was recorded on analogue equipment and features samples of "found objects", Arabic singers, radio DJs, and an exorcism. The album was released in February 1981 and rereleased as a 25th anniversary expended edition in 2006 (March in the UK, April in the US). With the new release seven new tracks were included. What it does not include however is the track Qu'ran. What made the track so controversial is that fact that it features Algerian Muslims chanting sections of the Qur'an. David Byrne had this to say in an interview about not including the track in the release:

"Way back when the record first came out, in 1981, it might have been '82, we got a request from an Islamic organization in London, and they said, 'We consider this blasphemy that you put grooves to the chanting of the Holy Book.' And we thought, 'Okay, in deference to somebody's religion, we'll take it off.' You could probably argue for and against monkeying with something like that. But I think we were certainly feeling very cautious about this whole thing. We made a big effort to try and clear all the voices, and make sure everybody was okay with everything. Because we thought, 'We're going to get accused of all kinds of things, and so we want to cover our asses as best we can.' So I think in that sense we reacted maybe with more caution than we had to. But that's the way it was."

Qu'ran is featured as part of the temp score in early mixes of the film (the song choice is credited to Ridley Scott), however with the new release of Blade Runner: The Final Cut, The "dancing girls with hockey masks" scene was reinstated back into the film and with it the temp music thus making it part of the "official" soundtrack.

Qu'ran will be included in this collection.


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Thanks very much for your prompt reply 'focuspuller'. I was very keen to know just what this was... I am so glad that you will be including this music in your upcoming 'collection', and thanks for the interesting info. on it's history. You've made my day!
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focuspuller,

Are you aware of a piano-only version of Memories of Green (without the beeps and synth)? I recently heard this playing with some other "muzak" at a Chinese restaurant. It was a very surreal experience.

You know of the rebellion against the Empire?

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Erikstormtrooper said:

focuspuller,

Are you aware of a piano-only version of Memories of Green (without the beeps and synth)? I recently heard this playing with some other "muzak" at a Chinese restaurant. It was a very surreal experience.


Sorry for not answering sooner. No I was not aware. I think it's very safe to assume that what you heard was not from Vangelis, probably a cover from someone. In anycase interesting exerience. :)

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Most of the final mixing is completed. The collection is starting to take shape so at this point I am assembling the "discs". I've started the track list so you can have an idea of what's going on the "discs" as progress continues.

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Color this dude excited.
I am fluent in over six million forms of procrastination.
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One quick thing to point out. You may notice that on Disc 3 I have the tracks "Blush Response" and "Wait For Me" listed. These are of course two tracks among a few others that are Blade Runner inspired rather then part of the source material. They were released as part of the official 1993 album. The major difference from the orignals is that I have removed the dialog clips from the music.

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Still putting tracks together. So far I'm happy with the content of the collection and how it's shaping up. One track I don't have that I really wish I did is a clean version of the music playing when Deckard enters the Bradbury Building before he kills Pris. Unfortunately the only version of it I have is the one copied from film audio so it's not practical to include it. I'm not aware of a clean version of this track bieng available at all but I would ask that if by some miracle someone has this please let me know so I can include it.

But otherwise it's coming along nicely. I just finished cleaning two tracks that were sourced originally from record. All the lite hiss and crackle has been completely removed without removing detail, as well as remastered. While that's happening I'm working on the art work.

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Already love the moody look of your existing cover art. Are you keeping that as it is?
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focuspuller said:

Erikstormtrooper said:

focuspuller,

Are you aware of a piano-only version of Memories of Green (without the beeps and synth)? I recently heard this playing with some other "muzak" at a Chinese restaurant. It was a very surreal experience.


Sorry for not answering sooner. No I was not aware. I think it's very safe to assume that what you heard was not from Vangelis, probably a cover from someone. In anycase interesting exerience. :)


Hi,

This piano version without the electronic background/clicks you probably heard was the Memories of Green taken from the infamous soundtrack, "Blade Runner: Orchestral Adaptation Of Music Composed For The Motion Picture By Vangelis ", performed by The New American Orchestra. Also, this version of Memories of Green was also used in the movie, "Someone To Watch Over Me".

Vangelis' original track, Memories Of Green, originated in Vangelis' 1980 album, "See You Later". Ridley Scott heard this track from the album and later, with Vangelis' permission, included the same track for Blade Runner.

For more information about Vangelis and his music, I recommend perusing these most excellent sites:

http://elsew.com

http://vangeliscollector.com/

Enjoy! And best of wishes on this project.

P.S. Beware. Once you've completed this, there will be bootleggers that will take your work and attempt to sell this for their own profit. Vangelis fanatics and diehards have been known to pay high dollar for rarities where bootleggers take full advantage of; this fanedit of the Blade Runner soundtrack would certainly fall under this category.
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but will have eternal life." The Holy Bible - John 3:16
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you should record a vocal disclaimer at the start of your compilation that addresses this ... tell them if they've bought it, they've been duped. Of course, that can be edited out, but some bootleggers don't even put that much effort into their "custom packages" before selling them.
I am fluent in over six million forms of procrastination.
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You could have another disclaimer as the last track. Use a computer speech program to generate the message if you want.
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Kaiju Eiga said:

focuspuller said:

Erikstormtrooper said:

focuspuller,

Are you aware of a piano-only version of Memories of Green (without the beeps and synth)? I recently heard this playing with some other "muzak" at a Chinese restaurant. It was a very surreal experience.


Sorry for not answering sooner. No I was not aware. I think it's very safe to assume that what you heard was not from Vangelis, probably a cover from someone. In anycase interesting exerience. :)


Hi,

This piano version without the electronic background/clicks you probably heard was the Memories of Green taken from the infamous soundtrack, "Blade Runner: Orchestral Adaptation Of Music Composed For The Motion Picture By Vangelis ", performed by The New American Orchestra. Also, this version of Memories of Green was also used in the movie, "Someone To Watch Over Me".

Vangelis' original track, Memories Of Green, originated in Vangelis' 1980 album, "See You Later". Ridley Scott heard this track from the album and later, with Vangelis' permission, included the same track for Blade Runner.

For more information about Vangelis and his music, I recommend perusing these most excellent sites:

http://elsew.com

http://vangeliscollector.com/

Enjoy! And best of wishes on this project.

P.S. Beware. Once you've completed this, there will be bootleggers that will take your work and attempt to sell this for their own profit. Vangelis fanatics and diehards have been known to pay high dollar for rarities where bootleggers take full advantage of; this fanedit of the Blade Runner soundtrack would certainly fall under this category.



That's stating the obvious but I'm not concerned. The reason for the many bootlegs of anyone's work is the attempt to keep this kind of thing in the "smokey back rooms" of conventions, traders, and internet auctions. Those days (for the most part) are gone, thanks to sites like this. This music is for the fans, everyone who loves the film and it's music, not simply a few die-hards.

Also, I don't consider this a fan edit, but rather a restoration. While I have mixed and mastered tracks together, I have not taken liberties. I have tried very hard to simply present the music as Vangelis recorded it as best I could with available sources, using the film and official release and a few other things as reference. Meanwhile, most of the bootlegs out there contain tracks thrown together like a mix tape, containing sound effects or clips from the film added over the music. Tracks in no real order or incomplete. Not to mention countless other things like music playing on the wrong speed, etc. This is the most complete collection of the film's music released to date. The only one who can upstage that is Vangelis himself, which I would be very happy to see.

No doubt there will be some comments. "you could have done a better job". "The speed shouldn't be this it should be that." "you didn't include some track that was on some bootleg." Same thing happened to Adywan's edit of Star Wars, which I am a big fan of and hold this collection within the same vain.

Going back to bootlegging, perhaps I will record an introduction/disclaimer. In any case, my goal is to get this out to as many fans of the film that want it. One that happens bootlegging will be pointless.

On the record: I don't support bootlegging of any kind. This collection should only be owned by people that own the official Vangelis music already. He's got some great work and you should get as much of it as you can. This collection is for research purposes only and NOT FOR SALE.

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Had to take a brake but I'm back on track now. Still working on the artwork and figure out the overall theme. Still mixing and tweeking tracks. The track "The Business" has been expanded from 2:19 to 4:17.

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I really cannot wait to hear this set. Another "Holy Grail" on the list. :-)


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I've been extremely busy, but in between I have still been working on this soundtrack collection. I will admit however that I was a bit burnt out for a time. In any case I'm back at it again. To hold you over while I continue the work, I have uploaded some of the fruits of my labor.

The track "The Business" has been problematic for a few reasons, one of them being finding clean complete sections of audio. As we may all know by now, a lot of the music for Blade Runner is floating around here and there in various forms. The track titled here as "The Business" is one of the more incomplete pieces of music for the soundtrack. It has been reduced to short cues within the film, and never officially released in any form. But it has now been restored (only Vangelis himself could release a more "complete" version). Some small sections (a few seconds here and there) were of damaged or poor quality, or missing. These sections have been replaced and remastered using the new DVDs as source. Luckily, I have been able to remove effects and dialog. There is a slight sound effect of lightning present, but that is from one of the other music sources, not the DVDs.

The music then continues into the track "Desolation Path". A portion of it has been officially released but what is presented to you here is the complete version (again, only Vangelis himself can say otherwise).

When I started this project things moved at a fast pace. I was excited about the idea of releasing a complete Blade Runner soundtrack and including new material from sources old and new. I was convinced that editing and remastering would finish quickly and smoothly. With some of the music this has been true. At this stage however the editing has been slow and at times a very anal process. Hours equaling seconds of sound that needs to be cleaned up, edited, etc. The work (and excuses) continue on and on. But so far I'm very proud of the way this collection is shaping up.

Enjoy the samples. Artwork coming shortly.

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Hi focuspuller, I'm so excited about this release and very grateful for the amount of work you're putting in. Love the new samples by the way.

Like others I was very disappointed in the recent 3 disc release. I'd had high hopes that it would be done right, but to just release the 1994 soundtrack (with the dialogue) as disc one was a disgrace.
Forever a Christopher Reeve Superman Movie Fan.
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Focuspuller - Those of us who are keeping an eye on your project are willing to wait as long as it takes for you to be satisfied with it. If it's worth doing, then it's worth doing well. Thanks for this, as I'm sure it will be great. :)