Today being the UK premiere of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, the only possible option for the Flexibition was the Autumn ’86 edition of the Star Wars Fan Club zine, Bantha Tracks, that came with a flexi disc inside it. Concentrating on the sound design of the movies by Sprocket Systems and detailing how they got that distinctive light sabre sound among other things, the flexi was the perfect medium for this little behind the scenes chat. The piece is excellent and, being sound designers, they’ve put the whole thing together beautifully. Instead of a dry, technical look at the world of foley we get an entertaining concrete collage with creative panning, tinkering rhythms and an aural bombardment of sounds and voices.
In fact it’s actually a bit over the top, I’ve listened to it a few times and still get distracted from the main narrative as there’s so much sonic detail happening. It’s also one of the cleanest, clearest sounding flexi’s I’ve ever heard, virtually no noise or crackle. Look at that lovely painting under the clear disc too and check the fan mail addresses for the main actors on the back. A copy of this is still not that hard to find for a decent price either.
