In less than one day it’ll be September, which means we’ll be less than a week away from a return to a full work load season (well, I’m already there, since vacations happen few and far between).

The day after TIFF ends, the temperature will go down to 12 degrees Celsius, and T-shirts and shorts will be obsolete until May of 2012. Apples will be plenty, fresh Ontario berries will not. Posicles will be less desirable than a warm bowl of soup. Sweaters will be more than optional, and vitamin D will be mandatory.

The consumption of coffee, sugar and salty/crunchy carbs will augment as our primordial DNA drives us to REST! SLEEP! DREAM! each night before the morning alarm tells us to GET THE HELL UP! GET OUT OF THE HOUSE IN 35 MINUTES! MAKE THAT BUS!

We’ll gain an extra hour as we ‘fall back’ for Daylight Savings, and when we ‘spring forward’ (get it? get it?) and move clocks an hour ahead in 2012, we’ll feel like crap in the morning.

However, fall brings a full roster of all the releases labels have been developing over the summer, boxed sets for the Xmas buyng season, and electronic gear going on sale because December, as we know, is Upgrade Month, and I need a new computer monitor and TV set.

There’s also my Amazon wish lists which I’ll just have to fulfill because the evil company will have TV series reduced by 98%, foreign films by 82%, and all Blu-rays with the letter A in the first word selling for under 82 cents.

But I’m jumping the gun a bit, although here’s one bit of surprising news from an insider at Indigo. It seems the chain is slowly getting out of selling CDs and home video titles, and will be focusing on books and toys – both of whch have shown growth, and have been less affected by theft. Indigo was never a major home video retailer, but it’s just another sign that physical home video formats are no longer the kind of product major chains can keep well-stocked in every store, even if it’s just Top 100 stuff.

Certainly in Toronto – and I suspect in the U.S. – what may exist in the near future are just Walmarts and Costcos carrying discounted A-titles, boxed sets, and budget back catalogue titles, and indie rental / sales shops fulfilling the needs of film connoisseurs and general movie fans wanting more than the Top 100, and of what came out in the last 6 months.

Amazon will become the major source for everything else, or at least those comfortable using their credit cards online, as those wary of the online buying process will rely on their Rogers and Bell accounts to view, download, stream, and archive material, if not draw from Netflix.

It’s easy to scream ‘It’s the death of DVD and CDs!’ but if vinyl can survive the arrivals of tapes, CDs, and downloads to the point where companies continue to manufacture turntables (straight ones and USB plugables), it’s kind of dumb to assume we’ll fully abandone the physical product.

Digital files save space, streaming is great for one-time viewing, but people like to own favourites, and some with the Collector Gene like to own something that’s unique and hand-crafted, which is what cult titles and classics by some major and many indie labels are.

And if you really, really love something, you want it close by, be it Das Yolkvolksverdammteerde, a 1925 silent film from Prussia about radioactive egg yolks that can transform humans into a master goo-brain bent on turning the Earth into a giant planetary noggin; or Gastronomie rouge, a 2011 no-budget Quebecois shocker about a vampire named Robspierre who decides to set up an after-hours culinary school to teach bloodsucking newbies how to enhance their bloodmeal diet with French fusion cuisine, making homemade Bavarian blood sausages, and schnapps made from pears and white blood cells.

You want those gems to exist on disc, with commentaries, assorted extras, and discs bearing the actual finger smudges and chocolate bar stains of the director as he / she placed it on the hub before cousin Blamir shrik-wrapped your order and posted it the next day with care.

Below is the latest tally of new & upcoming soundtrack releases, but prior to the list, do check out my recent blogs at Mondomark.com for the latest set of soundtrack reviews (which includes Richard Wells’ Being Human, Piero Piccioni’s Appassionata), Sylvester Stallone on Blu-ray, Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet, Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams in 3D, and the recent Norman Jewison retrospective at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.

An audio except from Jewison’s intro to In the Heat of the Night is also available via the blog sites, or at YouTube, via my channel Big Head Amusements (because big heads are always amusing, especially when you slap them). Coming soon will be a short video jesting Tinto Brass, because anyone who loves bum-bums that much is ripe for parody.

Also coming soon to KQEK.com is an interview with director Radley Metzger, in which he discusses his early work, and composers Georges Auric (Therese and Isabelle), Piero Piccioni (Camille 2000), and Stelvio Cipriani (The Lickerish Quartet) – music that will appear on a bonus CD included with Cult Epics’ new Metzger Blu-ray box.

I’ve also set up a Facebook page for KQEK.com, which offers another venue to catch links and info streams, because, like, there just aren’t enough ways to promote oneself, one’s ego, and one’s personal causes (like ridding the world of Velcro, and the odor of improperly cooked cabbage).

New and imminent soundtrack releases:

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REGULAR RELEASES:

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BSX Records (USA)

Battle Beyond the Stars (James Horner) – 1000 copies

Yor, the Hunter from the Future (Guido & Maurizio De Angelis, John Scott) – 1500 copies, early Sept.

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DigitMovies (Italy)

I corpi presentano tracci di violenza carnale (Guido and Maurizio De Angelis)

Il castello dei morti vivi / Castle of the Living Dead (Angelo Francesco Lavagnino) – mid-Sept.

Ming, ragazzi / Mr. Hercules Against Karate (Carlo Savina) – mid-Sept.

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Disney (USA)

Captain America: The First Avenger (Alan Silvestri)

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Film Score Monthly (FSM) (USA)

Pretty Maids All in a Row (Lalo Schifrin) – ltd.

Testament (James Horner) – ltd.

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GDM (Italy)

Bluebeard (Ennio Morricone) – expanded, 500 copes

Curse, The (aka The Farm) + Black Demons (Franco Micalizzi) – 500 copies

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Howe Records (USA)

Lord of the Rings Symphony, The Howard Shore) – 2CDs, Sept. 13

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Intrada (USA)

Battlestar: Galactica, Vol. 2 (Stu Phillips) – 2CDs, 1500 copies

Black Hole, The (John Barry) – expanded

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Kritzerland Records (USA)

Black Sunday (Les Baxter) – 1000 copies)

Marco Polo (Les Baxter) – 1000 copies

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Lakeshore Records (USA)

Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (Marco Beltrami, Buck Sanders)

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La-La Land Records (USA)

Breakdown (Basil Poledouris) – 3CDs, 3000 copies — review at KQEL.com main + mobile

Sender, The (Trevor Jones) – 1500 copies

Spellbinder (Bail Poledouris) – 1200 copies, Sept.

Star Trek: The Next Generation, Vol. 1 (Dennis McCarthy, Don Davis, Fred Steiner, Jay Chattaway,John Debney)) – 3CDs, 3000 copies

X The Man with X-Ray Eyes + Tales of Terror: Morella (Les Baxter) – 1200 copies

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MovieScore Media (Sweden)

Man Who Collected Food (Daniel Alcheh)

Shrine (Ryan Shore)

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Quartet Records (Spain)

La piel que habito / The Skin I Live In (Alberto Iglesias)

Windows (Ennio Morricone) – 1000 copies

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Silva Screen (USA / UK)

Hammer Legacy: The Frankenstein Collection (various) – digital only

Hammer Legacy: The Science-Fiction Collection (various) – digital only

Hammer Legacy: The Vampire Collection (various) – digital only

Music from the Transformers Trilogy (various) – Oct. 3

Skin I Live In, The (Alberto Iglesias) – digital only

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Varese Sarabande (USA)

Cowboys & Aliens (Harry Gregson-Williams)

Dream House (John Debney) – Sept. 27

Final Destination 5 (Brian Tyler)

Fright Night (Ramin Djawadi)

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Patrick Doyle)

Super 8 (Michael Giacchino)

Ward, The (Mark Killian)

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This handy-dandy list was compiled from various sources, including catalogue announcements at Screen Archives Entertainment, Soundtrackcollector.com, Chris’ Soundtrack Corner, and Intrada.

Full multi-genre tally available at Mondomark.com and Mondomark.blogspot.com.

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Mark R. Hasan