Rick Wakeman — The Burning OST

There are two things that set this 80’s slasher apart from the 100’s of Friday the 13th rip off’s that appeared at the time. Firstly it had effects wizard Tom Savini on board who had worked on many great horror films including the first Friday the 13th. Secondly it had a soundtrack composed  and performed by prog keyboard wizard Rick Wakeman- who had weaved his distinctive classical infulnce electronics through many of Yes’s most famous moments and become a household name in his own right after releasing a string of concept album in the late 70’s.

This is a welcome and long needed reissue of Wakeman's  soundtrack from 1980 and its first time on cd too. It offers up near on 35 minutes of music with sadly no extras or out takes to the original release from the 80’s on vinyl and cassette. The first four tracks take in variation of musically themes that appear through out the film - the remaining six tracks were used in the original soundtrack. Musically the ground covered is fairly traditional keyboard led prog, with wakeman's virtuoso  keyboard playing  showing him  tripping the light fantastic. The main theme is a very memorable, played by a mix of piano, synth’s, guitar and some neat 80’s bass playing, giving it a throbbing groove to counter balance the high synth swoons. There’s also some wondering  towards  noise like elements on the eerie and alien spacecraft synth hover of tracks like The Fire.

If you dig synth/ prog soundtracks by the likes of Goblin, Fabio Frizzi- this is a must. It’s just a pity more effort couldn’t have been made with some extra tracks and a more impressive and informative booklet than the single sheet inlay.