LOST TREASURES
Roger Joseph Manning, Jr. and Brian Reitzell
Logan’s Sanctuary
By Peter Marston
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There are a lot of fairly narrow genres in pop music, but perhaps none so narrow as soundtracks for movies that were never made, but that’s exactly what Logan’s Sanctuary is—a soundtrack for an imagined sequel to the 1976 sci-fi classic Logan’s Run. (The only other example that I can think of is Garth’s Brooks’ The Life of Chris Gaines, which was offered as pre-soundtrack for the never-released fictional biopic The Lamb, but at least they were planning to make that film.) Composed and produced by Roger Manning and Brian Reitzell, Logan’s Sanctuary is not quite kitschy, but certainly tongue-in-cheek. Keith Phipps from the blog A.V. Club gets it right when he describes it as “straight-faced conceptual comedy.” It also features “Search for Tomorrow,” a terrific vocal number from power-popstar Jason Falkner.
Roger Manning is surely best-known as the keyboardist for Jellyfish, but has an extensive résumé. His first recorded work appeared on the self-titled debut by Beatnik Beatch, a band that also featured Jellyfish’s Andy Sturmer. Following his two albums with Jellyfish, Bellybutton and Spilt Milk, Manning formed Imperial Drag and released one self-titled album. Then it was on to two albums with the Moog Cookbook and yet another self-titled album with TV Eyes (also featuring Falkner). He has since settled into a successful, if lower profile, solo career. On a purely personal note, Manning replaced yours truly as a member of LA mod-revivalists the Corsairs shortly before forming Beatnik Beatch with Sturmer. Logan’s Sanctuary was released in 2000, more or less right in the middle of all this activity.
Brian Reitzell is perhaps not as well-known as Manning, but also has an impressive résumé. PGH readers may be familiar with Reitzell’s work as the drummer on Redd Kross’ Phaseshifter and Show World albums. He has also worked with Air on several projects (including the Virgin Suicides soundtrack) and worked on a second one-off with Manning, 2007’s Robo-Sapiens by Malibu. More relevant to the Logan’s Sanctuary recordings is Reitzell’s extensive work as a film composer, having written scores for several films, including Friday Night Lights, Stranger Than Fiction, 30 Days of Night and The Bling Ring. For Reitzell, Logan’s Sanctuary was sort of a pivot into film scoring, coming after his work with Air on the Virgin Suicides but before his later work as a primary film composer.
The music on Logan’s Sanctuary is mostly electronica and makes no effort to reference or emulate Jerry Goldsmith’s original score for Logan’s Run. There are occasional spoken words, giving the impression that they have might have been lifted from the film, including some sexual moaning in “Pleasure Dome 12” and some computer voice synthesis in “Escape.” Though all the music is an enjoyable listen, the highlight is clearly the single vocal track, “Search for Tomorrow.” Sung by Falkner, the song is a 60s pastiche—not quite a Bond song, but bearing some of the same bombast and scope. The chorus is a great hook and makes this track one of the best of Falkner’s many rarities.
The artwork for the album is also worth noting. It is presented completely straight, with no hints or indication that this is a faux soundtrack. Inside the CD booklet is a brief (and somewhat oblique) synopsis of the film’s narrative, accompanied by “stills” from the film, including photographs of Falkner in costume as the film’s protagonist, Ian. The cover features an illustration of what may be the aforementioned Pleasure Dome 12 and duplicated line drawings of Ian and his romantic interest, Robo-Sex machine operator (!) Lara.
Logan’s Sanctuary was initially released on CD and vinyl on Emperor Norton Records, but has been long out of print. Copies are readily available on second-market sites, but can be pricey. To date, the album has not been made available for digital downloads. All for shame, because Logan’s Sanctuary is a fascinating curio.
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Pop Pioneer and “Lost Treasures” writer, Peter Marston is the leader of long-running power pop band, Shplang, whose most recent album, “My Big Three Wheeler” has been described as “the Beatles meet Zappa in pop-psych Sumo match.” You check it out at this link: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/shplang
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LINKS:
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan%27s_Sanctuary
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Logans-Sanctuary-Roger-Joseph-Manning/dp/B00004TCO4
AllMusic: http://www.allmusic.com/album/logans-sanctuary-mw0000068564
LastFM: http://www.last.fm/music/Brian+Reitzell+&+Roger+J.+Manning+Jr/Logan%27s+Sanctuary
“Search for Tomorrow”
“Islands in the SKy”
“Metropia”
