The Black Hole

Review by Thomas Glorieux:

While most people seem to know John Barry, there was a time that he came with surprising results to the fore, and those were the days of James Bond, meaning his '70 and '80 and one of these results that listens surprisingly fresh and non Barry like is The Black Hole, a forgotten science fiction film of 79 which tried to recapture the success fresh of Star Wars and Star Trek. Though this film seems to recapture more the style of Star Trek, also some similarities are drawn to Jerry Goldsmith's most spectacular film score of that time. And Barry is perhaps not accustomed to the genre of science fiction, so we can understand why he took the job upon him. In the time Moonraker also traveled the outer vastness of space, there is more striking material present in The Black Hole, not alone to do with the fanfare that opens the short release, 'Overture' has a wonderful brass heroic theme that Barry has done not often enough and here it works to give the travelers a heroic star in space. 'Main Title' by then has a more mysterious use of strings and is indeed mysterious yet fetching for the film. Two things worth noting is first of all the brief use of the beam sound, so obviously known in Star Trek: The Motion Picture also here it gives a slightly outer world feeling to the void and its black hole, more I guess people wanted the same of John Barry, only to capture the success of Goldsmith's score with it. Yet secondly, these 2 tracks make up for the wonderful suite heard in Space and Beyond, the compilation of science fiction themes and here found separately, on that compilation together and that is what attracted me to this score. Barry's 2 themes are extremely fetching for the genre and open the CD with it.

What follows next shows truly Barry's voice, with 'Zero Gravity' being both the mysterious string theme of track 2 as the fanfares ala Living Daylights, yes Bond. Here already the voice is noticeable of that score and how wrong it may sound in this genre, it absolutely is not in this score. 'Durant is Dead' restates almost entirely that mysterious theme in its same guises, some slight drums and fanfares think of it otherwise but together, this is track 2 repeated, which doesn't make it bad at all. 'Start the Countdown' has the string work dramatically which again brings it to Bond but the fanfare at the end is Elmer Bernstein's Ghostbusters all over it, to think Ghostbusters was written later is making this intriguing all the same. Nothing much new in 'Laser', with Bond fanfares, the mystery theme, the beam tones and the return of the overture heroic theme, yet here fastened and higher in performance, which again makes it good. Yet however it is the next track that follows this which makes Barry's score more then good, with 'Into the Hole' bringing some whooshing sound effects leading to an optimistic finale, with climatic string work growing and growing and a fanfare that knocks your boots off, its the basic feeling of hearing new material in a constant returning 2 theme score which makes this finale worth it. The 'End Title' is the mysterious theme a little more fleshed out. This all proves that Barry has got what it takes to be a great original composer, and not the overtly dramatic soul so alike of the '90. That worked for a while but it is this more innovating tone of different genres what makes him more intriguing. Take it from me, the '70 and '80 proved Barry more strikingly then the recent scores of him, and The Black Hole is one of those strikes, coming of a slightly hiss listened LP version, making it a Barry must for a worthy hole.

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Tracks

Single Disc

1. Overture (2.24) Excellent Track

2. Main Title (1.51)

3. The Door Opens (0.11)

4. Zero Gravity (2.58)

5. Six Robots (0.27)

6. Durant Is Dead (5.44)

7. Start The Countdown (2.04)

8. Laser (6.21)

9. Into The Hole (3.40) Excellent Track

10. End Title (1.50)

Total Length: 27.30

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=== Link to Composer Site: John Barry ===