X-Files mythology, TenThirteen Interviews Database, and more

La La Land Records : The X-Files Volume 2

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After Volume 1 was released on May 10, 2011 and came to fill a gap for audio(X)philes everywhere, who were waiting for this since 1996’s The Truth and the Light, we were waiting for a second volume that was then promised for 2012.

Meanwhile, Volume 1‘s 3000 copies went out of print, in August 2012. An in-depth music selection process and a busy schedule for La La Land pushed the release to 2013, first to Q1 2013, then May, then August/September. Dan Goldwasser revealed it would be a 4 CD set at the Festival Internacional De Musica De Cine (International Film Music Festival) in Cordoba, Spain, in June 2013. And eventually, the date for the release of Volume 2 was set for September 10th 2013, to coincide with the show’s 20th anniversary (thanks to a message to LLL from yours truly) — this marked the only official (i.e. not fan-initiated) XF-related event on that anniversary date.

Leading up to the release, LLL teased us with a list of the episodes that were selected for Volume 2 on Facebook and the FilmScoreMonthly message boards on September 3. LLL also promised that a Volume 3 is “most likely unless sales of Volume 2 are terrible“. For 2014? LLL also did not close the possibility of a release of a complete score for Fight the Future.

The press release for Volume 2:

THE X FILES: VOLUME TWO: LIMITED EDITION (4-CD BOX SET) LLLCD 1270
Music by Mark Snow
Limited Edition of 3000 Units

STARTS SHIPPING Sept 10th
RETAIL PRICE: $49.98

ORDER “THE X FILES: VOLUME TWO: LIMITED EDITION (4-CD BOX SET)” starting Sept 10th at 12pm PST at www.lalalandrecords.com and get your CD tray card (clamshell front cover) autographed by composer Mark Snow at no additional charge. Autographs are available while supplies last and are NOT guaranteed.

La-La Land Records and Twentieth Century Fox mark the 20th anniversary of the beloved television series THE X FILES with this second, 4-CD volume of Mark Snow’s original score to the award-winning landmark program. More than 5hrs of incredible X-Files music, complied from many episode favorites, have been assembled in this strikingly attractive collection, produced by Mark Snow, Nick Redman and Mike Joffe and mastered by James Nelson. The 40-Page CD booklet contains exclusive, in-depth liner notes from film music writer Randall Larson and features comments from show creator Chris Carter and writer/producers Frank Spotnitz, Glen Morgan and James Wong. Limited to 3000 units, the set’s CD Booklet and 4-CD Clamshell case are housed in a hard cover slipcase, in the same fashion as our acclaimed, sold-out first volume. The truth is in here – this is truly some of the most daring and enthralling music ever created for television.

The 400 autographed copies were sold within 10-15 minutes of the release!

Compared to Volume 1, the tone of the selected cues is consistently darker, where Volume 1 had a mix of dramatic/horror music with interspersed lighter/comedic cues. This makes Volume 2 a more coherent and enjoyable listening experience — but it’s not music that you might listen to hours on end! Nevertheless, there are some of my most awaited pieces here, making Vol 2 an instant favourite! Many cues are also often longer and more immersive than on Volume 1, very atmospheric and nearly more sound design than music — especially from the first two seasons.

Again, some statistics, to be compared with Volume 1 (considering all these early episodes apart from E.B.E. as stand-alones, and F. Emasculata as mythology):

Episodes Tracks Length
Season 1 5/24 13 40:26
Season 2 6/25 13 50:38
Season 3 5/24 9 24:37
Season 4 6/24 11 75:56
Season 5 4/20 7 40:31
Season 6 2/22 3 10:55
Season 7 2/22 3 16:23
Season 8 2/21 5 26:34
Season 9 1/20 1 09:00
Miscellaneous 7 04:00
Total 33/202 72 299:00
Mythology 20/72 39 208:10
Stand-Alones 13/130 26 86:50

For a grand running total of:

Episodes Tracks Length
Season 1 10/24 26 69:28
Season 2 10/25 27 93:11
Season 3 9/24 16 52:19
Season 4 10/24 20 114:23
Season 5 8/20 12 71:19
Season 6 8/22 18 57:50
Season 7 8/22 13 45:30
Season 8 5/21 9 36:32
Season 9 5/20 9 45:05
Miscellaneous 16 14:41
Total 40/202 166 600:18
Mythology 22/72 80 355:39
Stand-Alones 18/130 70 229:58

That’s about one CD per season, which is what most TV shows get nowadays. Season 4 is particularly well-treated!

In 2010, LLL had released a preliminary list of episodes they had opted for release. Sure enough, many of them are in here: Young at Heart, E.B.E., Blood, Soft Light, The Blessing Way, Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose, Talitha Cumi, Home, Redux II, The Red and the Black, All Souls, S.R. 819, Biogenesis, Theef, Requiem, DeadAlive, Existence, 4D.

Volume 2 is much more focused on the first, “classic”, seasons of the show, whereas the first volume was much more evenly spread: 7 episodes from the Los Angeles era in Vol 2 against 19 in Vol 1. This is also reflected in the number of photos in the booklet. Clearly, what fans have requested and what the show is associated with resides much more in these early seasons. Actually, all of the opted music from seasons 8 & 9 from the 2010 list has been included here — which makes me wonder whether future sets will focus exclusively on earlier seasons!

Vol 2 is also much more focused on the mythology: two thirds in Vol 2 against half in Vol 1. In essence, all mythology two-parters have been covered, apart from Duane Barry/Ascension and certain parts of two-parters (Apocrypha, Patient X).

Over seasons 6-8, particularly for the mythology episodes, Mark Snow mixed his music with recordings he made for Fight the Future, and whereas running time could be saved on those they are featured in both volumes (One Son, Essence). If there are more volumes down the road and we come closer to a complete music collection, we can’t complain!

Finally, apart from the episodes not yet covered, there is still some very interesting music that was not selected in the episodes already covered — it’s difficult to satisfy rabid fans! For example: Paper Clip, Grotesque, Talitha Cumi, Redux II, The Red and the Black, Requiem… more on that on a separate post.

Full tracklist follows (reordered for some tracks in seasons 8 and 9, which were out of order for reasons of listening experience):

Episode # Track Name Time
1.1 THE X FILES Main Title (Season 1) 0:47

Season 1

1X11: Eve 1.2 Swinging Dead Daddy 1:26
1.3 Meet Your Clone 1:19
1.4 Attached 0:53
1X16: Young at Heart 1.5 The Eyes Don’t Lie 1:46
1.6 Ain’t Dead Yet 4:03
1.7 Youth 3:37
1.8 Shot in the Crowd 2:29
1X17: E.B.E. 1.9 Swimming With Sharks 5:14
1.10 Here We Go 2:42
1X21: Tooms 1.11 Druid Hill 2:42
1.12 Rats & Babes 1:59
1.13 Toilet Tooms 5:49
1X22: Born Again 1.14 Psycho-Electric Attack 6:27

Season 2

2X03: Blood 1.15 Drive for Blood 3:26
2X14: Die Hand die Verletzt 1.16 Prayer 0:45
1.17 Suicide Exam 2:34
1.18 Snake Hold 1:22
2X16: Colony 1.19 Hypothermia 2:43
1.20 Alta 2:35
2X17: End Game 1.21 Scully’s Discovery/Mulder’s E-Mail Message/Skinner Helps Scully 8:19
1.22 Showdown/Saving Mulder/Faith to Keep Looking 1:18
Disc One Total Time: 74:49
2.1 THE X FILES Main Title (2nd Season) 0:49
2X23: Soft Light 2.2 Eaten by Light 2:44
2.3 Spontaneous Combustion 4:39
2.4 Shadow on the Wall 2:21
2X22: F. Emasculata 2.5 Flesh on Bone 4:31
2.6 Pustule Package 3:21

Season 3

3X01: The Blessing Way 2.7 Blown Up and Beaten 2:50
3X02: Paper Clip 2.8 Smoky Gets in Your Eyes 2:52
2.9 Outmined 2:23
2.10 Sacrifice/Skinner Gets Skinned 4:04
3X04: Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose 2.11 Yappi 2:18
2.12 Dumpster 3:00
3X14: Grotesque 2.13 Disarmed 1:28
3X24: Talitha Cumi 2.14 Fries and Faith 2:38
2.15 Discreet Distance 3:04

Season 4

4X01: Herrenvolk 2.16 Needle Neck 6:54
4X02: Home 2.17 Newborn 2:11
4X09: Tunguska 2.18 Worm Rock 2:48
2.19 Chicken Wire Wrap 7:57
2.20 THE X FILES End Credits (Extended #1) 0:35
Disc Two Total Time: 74:23
3.1 THE X FILES Main Title (7th Season) 0:35
4X10: Terma 3.2 Black Vermiform 6:03
3.3 Fire of Terma 8:47
4X17: Tempus Fugit 3.4 Pieces 6:28
3.5 Nine Minutes 3:24
4X24: Gethsemane 3.6 Trails 5:37
3.7 Thawed 1:30
3.8 Deep Dupe 4:17

Season 5

5X01: Redux 3.9 Little Vials of Proof 8:23
5X02: Redux II 3.10 Remission 5:42
5X14: The Red And The Black 3.11 Red Letter 2:46
3.12 Resist or Serve 3:45
3.13 Lil’ Cabin in Quebec 8:42
Disc Three Total Time: 76:35
4.1 THE X FILES Main Title (9th Season) 0:36
5X17: All Souls 4.2 Baptism 3:45
4.3 Four Faces 7:28

Season 6

6X09: S.R. 819 4.4 Orgell 2:26
4.5 Bill of Health 4:29
6X22: Biogenesis 4.6 Map of the Genome 4:00

Season 7

7X14: Theef 4.7 Voodoo Doll 7:19
7X22: Requiem 4.8 Déjà vu 3:55
4.9 Ray 5:09

Season 8

8X15: DeadAlive 4.14 Deep Six 2:53
4.15 AliveAlive 1:03
8X21: Existence 4.11 Something Feels Off 3:03
4.12 Replicant Revolution 6:21
4.13 Under Investigation 3:14

Season 9

9X04: 4-D 4.10 Pulling the Plug 9:00
4.16 THE X FILES End Credits (1st Season) 0:30
4.17 I Made This/20th Century Fox Fanfare* 0:08
Disc Four Total Time: 76:04
Total Set Running Time: 298:27

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