Varèse Sarabande are reissuing a number of bizarre albums which over the years have gained cult status. These include Danny Elfman and The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo's original soundtrack for 1982's The Forbidden Zone; Tangerine Dream's Electronic Meditation (1970) and Leonard Nimoy Presents Mr. Spock's Music From Outer Space (1967)...

The soundtrack to The Forbidden Zone is notable for being the first score Danny Elfman grappled with, as well as being Oingo Boingo's (then known as The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo) first major recording. It looks like Elfman was only responsible for two of the tracks on this album.

In truth this release is an oddity, a curiosity of a bygone era. It uses electronic sounds of the time (and there are a couple of tracks that sound like they could have come from the soundtracks of SEGA Megadrive games) and is only really of interest to those that love the movie and owned the album when it was originally released.

It's a rather silly affair, with the occasional soundbyte from the movie. Of the LP's 20 tracks (38 min, 48 sec), the only segment I found of interest, and would probably listen to again, was the song 'Forbidden Zone'.

The album has long been out of print and commands ridiculously high prices from online sellers. So this could be the best chance you have of finally obtaining a reasonably priced copy.

5

Darren Rea