ISAO TOMITA - OST: The Prophecies of Nostradamus/Catastrophe 1999 (1974)

This nearly-impossible-to-find score from the nearly-impossible-to-find film comes courtesy of IllCon Alumnus The Thing That Should Not Be, who submitted it in response to my pathetic pleas following our last foray into Tomita Territory. Having now heard this buried gem, I am utterly charmed by Mr. Tomita's seamless blend of sleazy wah-wah, Vegas horns, and nasty 70's funk, blended as it is with his omnipresent, reverbed-out synth--sort of like an absurd mix of Deep Throat, Tron, and Dead-On-A-Toilet Elvis. Fucking sweet.

But here's the rub. Now that I've heard the tunes, I REALLY need to see the movie (pulled from the shelves in 1980), which limited research has found described as such: "The film centers around the family of a scientist, Dr. Nishiyama (Tetsuro Tamba)... concentrating on hallucinogenic international imagery in a manner looking forward to such films as Koyaanisqatsi and Baraka. In the film, scientific advances cause an outbreak of giant slugs, oversized bats, children with genetic mutations enhancing their physical or mental abilities, and bizarre changes in weather, such as snow falling on the pyramids. The film gets bleaker and bleaker, until Dr. Nishiyama hypothesizes a scenario that re-edits the climactic war footage from The Last War, augmenting them with a scene of the surviving humans, looking like sufferers of neurofibromatosis, fighting over who gets to eat a snake." Whoa.

Another outstanding outing from an old-school IC favorite. FUCKING. TOMITA. RULING. SO. HARD.
Thanks, Thing.

dl: Epic Japanese Theremin 70's Soft-Rock Win.




Previous documentation of my Tomita obsession:

- May 27, 2011: Electric Samurai - Switched-On Rock (1972)/Snowflakes Are Dancing (1974)/Pictures At An Exhibition (1975)/The Bermuda Triangle (1978)
- June 30, 2009: Firebird Suite (1975)
- July 8, 2010: The Planets (1976)
- February 24, 2010: The Kosmos (1978)

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