Buy it... if you have an enduring taste for synthetic rock scores of the 1980's and revel in their inherently shameless cheesiness.

Avoid it... if you have no love at all for the body of musical work from John Carpenter during this period of time, for this score reflects the best and worst of his dated style.

Big Trouble in Little China: (John Carpenter/Alan Howarth) Combining the experience of a singer/composer/director and a sound effects editor, the team of John Carpenter and Alan Howarth brought a wealth of knowledge to the scoring (and other audio details) of Carpenter's films. Their electronic style of music was especially suited for the snazzy, synthesized style of the 1980s and, consequently, Howarth and Carpenter's scores for such films as Big Trouble in Little China and Escape from New York became instant cult classics with a strong and devoted following. Carpenter's films themselves were a hit and miss affair, and he had suffered several misses by the time his reunion with Kurt Russell for Big Trouble in Little China would punch him back into the mainstream in 1986. The film was a sloppy but nevertheless fun action flick featuring the no-nonsense Russell as a man sucked into the world of Chinese black magic in the process of helping a friend. Carpenter's enthusiastic love of the kung fu genre fueled this rather silly but still attractive foray into the martial arts. Undoubtedly, Big Trouble in Little China is a film saturated with the styles and mores of the 80's, anchoring the production to its original generation. Bordering on the fantasy genre, Carpenter leaves behind his usual, glum synthetic droning in favor of a hip, straight forward rock score that emphasizes the film's nearly incessant action more than anything else. Even though many traditional score fans remember the 1980's as a time when large orchestral scores experienced a rebirth, electronic alternatives like the one for Big Trouble in Little China were just as important. They held their own, despite the failure by most of those orchestral score fans to understand its appeal. To such listeners, Big Trouble in Little China will more closely resemble a series of moody sound effects than a collection thematically driven, connected cues. Rock band elements (with keyboards) perform the vast majority of the score, with various electric guitars and pulsating bass loops usually propelling the action. For the mystical side of the film's story, Carpenter and Howarth employ woodblocks, xylophones, kotos, and other individual accents for a sense of authenticity that may sound like a tongue in cheek insertion for some listeners (especially with the constant use of tacky, faux-oriental progressions). The best parts of the score are those that balance the two elements without losing touch with either influence.

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Carpenter and Howarth may have never had a chance to equal the skill with which Lalo Schifrin merged East Asian and Western rock elements during the same era, but they made a valiant attempt at it. One of the best techniques Carpenter uses is a sliding electronic and choral effect in "Into the Spirit Path," yielding a very spooky, mystical atmosphere. Otherwise, though, Big Trouble in Little China is best defined by its slapping rhythmic ruckus on drums, cymbals, and keyboards. Mainstream listeners will most likely identify the title song, performed by Carpenter's "The Coupe de Villes," a piece extremely dated by its shameless 80's sound and exposing the general lack of vocal abilities by its performers (including Carpenter). On album, 45 minutes of Big Trouble in Little China was offered on LP and CD in 1986 by the Enigma label and fell completely out of print. In 1999, SuperTracks released a limited promotional album with even more music from Big Trouble in Little China, as well as some token inclusions from Alan Howarth's Backstabbed (a 1996 Danish thriller) and Carpenter and Howarth's more famous Escape from New York. In the Big Trouble in Little China portion of the promo, a few minutes were added to "Lo Pan's Domain" and "Escape from Wing Kong," although it was reportedly Howarth's decision to still withhold some material from the album (causing some irritation with die-hard fans). It does include a reprised version of the catchy title song. The three cues from Backstabbed fit seamlessly with the electronic atmosphere of the previous score, but it's largely unremarkable by comparison. The track from an edited scene in Escape from New York is a treat (similar to the action material in the latter half of that score), though its analog sound quality is significantly poorer than that of the rest of the album. On the whole, the promo features above-average sound quality and flows well between the three scores represented. In early 2009, La-La Land Records provided the complete score for Big Trouble in Little China in equal quality and its full 80+ minutes of duration over two CDs. The limited pressing of 3,000 copies is perhaps overkill; the additional material consists of unremarkable extensions of material available on the 1999 promo. The inclusion of five minutes of stinger recordings definitely defines the product as a target of only Carpenter's most devoted collectors. For others, the 2008 album will probably be unnecessary, a daunting proposition given the extremely specific style of 1980's electronic action that has, more than nearly every other segment of film music history, become badly dated.   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Enigma Records Album: **
SuperTracks Album: ***
La-La Land Records Album: ***
Overall: ***