Recently discovered lost and unissued score by Basil Kirchin to wild surreal freak horror movie from 1974. Plus bonus unissued spooky TV score with groovy Eastern vibes.

So, here we are again, with more super sounds from the Basil Kirchin archive. As usual, it’s a shame Basil is not here to share in our love for his music or to fill us in a bit on who was playing what, when and why.

I can tell you for sure that the music for The MutaXons dates from 1974, and was the score to the bizarre Jack Cardiff film starring Donald Pleasence and Tom Baker. It’s a prepy freaky film with Pleasence playing the part of a deranged scienXst geneXcally crossing humans with plants, and ulXmately causing all sorts of unpleasant issues for everyone, including the makeup department.

As for Journey Into The Unknown, this is a tape from the archive with just “Journey Into The Unknown” wripen on it and very liple else. This dates from 1968, and is from a series of spooky BriXsh TV dramas with supernatural twists and the occasional American guest star, like Barbara Bel Geddes, Stefanie Powers and Roddie McDowell. Seems like a forerunner of Tales Of The Unexpected. There were 17 episodes in all over a year and a half, and Basil scored two – Episode 7 The Madison EquaXon and Episode 11, The Indian Spirit Guide. Other composers draled in for scoring duXes throughout the run included David Lindup, Bernard Ebbinghouse and the ubiquitous John Scop. There is no theme here as the series used a whistling one wripen by the Scotsh composer Harry Robinson that was used throughout the series. Robinson had previously worked on TV shows such a Six-Five Special and also went on to write the music for Twins Of Evil for Hammer.

The score we have here from the two episodes comes as a series of vignepes and longer more experimental cues that dip into Kirchin’s music vocabulary (or bopom drawer) and will be oddly familiar at Xmes to anyone with an ear for his brilliant past work. Thrilling to hear it all now, like staying hello to Basil all over again. Brilliant.

TRACKLISTING: Side One: The MutaXons 1 – 10 Side Two: The MutaXons 11 Journey To The Unknown – Unreleased TV score.