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Joe
90 is generally regarded as a second string Gerry Anderson
production - the poor cousin of Thunderbirds and Captain
Scarlet. This is a shame as the show benefits from some
solid characterisation, a sense of humour and some great plots
- three things that are missing, in large part, from Captain
Scarlet.
Moreover,
Joe 90 benefits from some truly great music - every bit
as good as anything Barry Gray wrote for many of the other
Supermarionation productions, and often better. While it's
true that the score for the show doesn't boast the great matches
and suspense music that graced Thunderbirds, it is
still a body of work that contains some truly impressive pieces,
many of which were reused for Space 1999.
The
orchestration is richer than that used for Captain Scarlet,
it has a really memorable theme tune, and there are one or
two arrangements that wouldn't have sounded out of place in
a major motion picture. Also, its age doesn't show - it could
all have been recorded yesterday. It's fresh, fun, exciting
and highly evocative.
The
interesting things about much of the music is how it blends
the main theme effortlessly into wildly differing settings
- from romantic to action-packed - a trick that Barry Gray
would feature regularly in his work for both UFO and
Space 1999.
Sadly,
not all the original tapes have survived the passage of time
and there are rare moments when traces of distortion couldn't
be digitally removed. Happily, this doesn't detract from a
splendid CD which overall has a sound quality that we have
come to expect from Silva Screen.
This is another great CD from a company that continually releases
great CDs - discs that put other soundtrack labels to shame.
So well done to everyone concerned with this release and can
we have Stingray next?
 
Anthony
Clark
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