Here we have a CD pulling together three creepy-to-horrifyingly bombastic scores from the early 1970s.  We have two Les Baxter penned works, the score for the TV film An Evening with Allan Poe (introduced by Vincent Price), and the gothic ‘n’ gory period horror film Cry Of The Banshee (also starring Mr Price). And one work penned by John Cacvas- the score for the train-based horror/ sci-fi movie Horror Express- which featured Christopher Lee, and Peter Cushing.

The CD appears on Citadel Records/ BSX Records- and is presented in an old-school jewel case. This comes with a twelve-page inlay booklet, featuring a selection of write-ups about each of soundtracks/films/ composer, film stills, and poster artwork.
 
So, the first four tracks come from Les Baxter’s score for An Evening with Allan Poe- this appeared in the year 1970, and featured Vincent Price reciting four Poe stories: The Tell-Tale Heart, The Sphinx, The Cask of Amontillado, and The Pit and the Pendulum.  In total, the TV film ran fifty-three minutes. Each tale gets its own track, with runtimes between four and seven minutes each- so we open with swirlingly tense to woozily brooding strings and orchestration of “The Pit and the Pendulum”. Moving onto “The Sphinx,” with its mix of doomy bounding keys, malevolent string flourishes and gloomy flute-to-synth simmers. Though to the more macabrely jaunting to creepy music box flow of “The Cask of Amontillado”. Finishing with “The Tell-tale heart” which is all about chillingly dynamic orchestration, and creepy pitter-pattering key darts.
 
Track five runs nineteen-minute and forty-minute, and is a suite of themes from Cry of The Banshee- a 1970 horror film set in England in the 1500s, where Vincent Price plays a brash and uncaring magistrate, who has seemingly been cursed by a witch. The track shifts from dramatic and tense orchestration blended with sinister electronic touches. Onto forlorn and brooding string dwells, through to chilling bounding keys & horn rolls. With Les Baxter offering up a score, which features both moodiness, a great blend of instrumentation, and some effective/ memorable themes.
 
The final nine shorter (between a minute and three minutes) tracks are from the score for 1972’s Horror Express by composer John Cacavas.  The film featured Christopher Lee. Peter Cushing, and Telly Savalas. With the plot finding a group of travellers on trans-Siberian, with a prehistoric ape which is the host for a lifeform that is absorbing the minds of the passengers and crew. The score has a decidedly mixed and shifting sound pallet moving from almost spaghetti western guitar twang and vocalising, onto oriental percussion meets swooning orchestration. Onto wah-wah guitar meets dramatic horn and string work, through to creepily darting horn ‘n’ vibe/ key workouts. It’s certainly a varied score, though at points it does become maybe a little too jarring in some of its switchers.
 
So, in conclusion, this is a nice collection of 1970s horror scores on CD.  Sure, on paper the blend of two different score composers' work on one disc may sound like a decidedly odds 'n' ends collection- but it all flows together well in it's just over an hour of playtime