���Back in stock. We've got another fantastic slab of cult classic 1980's synth-kill reissued by the creeped-out curators at Waxwork, following their other major new editions for Friday The 13th (also restocked on this week's list), Creepshow, Day Of The Dead, and Rosemary's Baby; between these guys and UK imprint Death Waltz and One Way Static, there's seriously never been a better time to be a fan of vintage horror movie soundtracks, especially if you're into more obscure offerings like Chuck Cirino's score for Chopping Mall. Never before available on vinyl, the Chopping Mall soundtrack has been remixed and re-mastered from the original masters for this release, and in typical Waxwork fashion, produced as a gorgeous 180 gram LP and packaged in a garishly designed case-wrapped jacket, with a 12" by 12" art print and liner notes from composer Cirino and Chopping Mall screenwriter Steve Mitchell. I gotta say, while this is probably the least known of all of the soundtracks that have gotten the reissue treatment this year, I was overjoyed when I saw that this was coming out. The movie itself is one of my all-time favorite murder-bot epics, part low-budget cyber-slasher, part satirical send-up of shopping mall culture and 80's security technology. Directed by b-movie king Jim Wynorski, Chopping Mall is a goofy, blood-splattered romp that stars budding 80s scream queen Barbara Crampton of Re-animator/From Beyond fame and the terminally perky Kelli Maroney (Night Of The Comet), along with brief cameo appearances from Eating Raoul co-stars Mary Woronov and Paul Bartel, Corman mainstay Dick Miller, Gerrit Graham (Phantom of The Paradise/Terrorvision), and a blink-and-you'll-miss-it scene with Phantasm's Angus Scrimm. The thin plot concerns a gang of hormonal teens holed up overnight in a distinctly 80's-era shopping center, who are increasingly under siege by the mall's malfunctioning security robots, a trio of titanium terrorizers who in one show-stopping scene zap one of the characters square in the kisser with their high-powered lasers, detonating her head like an overripe cantaloupe in bravura fashion.

��� Wynorski enlisted his pal Chuck Cirino to assemble the score for this ridiculousness, one of the very first that Cirino would do before embarking on a long career with Roger Corman's high-energy schlock factory New Horizon Pictures. Using a battery of samplers, synthesizers and drum machines, Cirino created a cool, neon-hued soundtrack that teems with frenetic arpeggiated synth melodies and abstract electronic soundscapes, which often mimic the bleeping and blooping of the film's kill-crazy robots. The score is a blast, with some surprisingly infectious passages that include the pulsating electro of the main title theme and menacing, almost Carpenterian synths on tracks like "Showdown", to ominous electronic ambience, strange skittering breabeat-like rhythms and swells of orchestral power, blasts of experimental dissonance and almost New Wavey hooks, vintage synth-bass licks and wailing guitar leads, lots of pounding drum programming and stuttering choral melodies, sequences of stuttering choral melodies, pounding techno laced with creepy descending piano motifs, lots of spooky Simonetti-esque keyboard creep, and softer, prettier cues scattered among the spluttery synthpop of tracks like "Fergie's Dead" and "Scary", with a couple of key dialogue scenes from the film interspersed through the record. Like so much of this stuff, Cirino's score can be unexpectedly avant-garde in spots, but for the most part this is pure 80's delirium, a pulsating piece of video trash insanity that has been long overdue for the collector-quality soundtrack treatment.