Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors- Retro Soundtrack Release

"Go, Jayce, conqueror from afar, look for your father ..."

And with these words Jayce and the lightning league battled the Monster Minds and Saw Boss for 65 episodes. Produced by the hilariously named (at least I thought at the time) DIC studios and overseen by Jean Chalopin (of Mysterious Cities of Gold, Ulysses 31, Inspector Gadget and tonnes of other formative cartoons from the 80s) the show was grand and cheesy operatic drama and a big part of this was due to the epic music, created by Shuki Levy.

The soundtrack for the series has never been released… until now. Tele 80 has crowdfunded the OST for a September release on CD and Vinyl. In their words, translated by Google translate from the original French:

The collection would allow us to finance the different stages while having control of the design. For this, we pay special attention to:

  • Different covers, such as vinyl which will be highlighted thanks to its selective varnish which will bring out the characters and the title.

  • The model

  • Mastering and mixing, which will be managed by Erwin, an enthusiast, but also a remarkable sound engineer.

  • A 16-page booklet provided on the CD. It will contain, among other things, an exclusive interview with singer Nick Carr!

  • A box which would bring together the CD, the vinyl and a poster (the "Box Collector" option will only be active if we have 100 orders )

  • Mixing until pressing of vinyl and CD.

  • 24 tracks.

I’ve ordered the vinyl and CD combo pack for about 42 GBP (incl. postage and packaging) and look forward to receiving it. Until then, let’s belt out some hair rock!

The Mysterious Cities of Gold Soundtrack on Vinyl

I am a huge fan of the animated series Mysterious Cities of Gold, it is my favourite programme of ALL time and was a formative part of my childhood; single handedly igniting my interest in anime, manga, South and Central American cultures and synthesizer music (It's why I love Jarre, Vangelis and Oldfield).

In my mancave I have a MCOG medallion, an original cel, a French book discussing the making of (even though I haven't studied French since my GCSE's 20 years ago) and a model of the golden condor. However no mention of The Mysterious Cities of Gold would be complete without a mention of the mesmerising soundtrack. There have been some amazing soundtracks for TV shows over the years but the synthesizers and futuristic sounds used in the soundtrack gave this series a unique, mesmerising atmosphere all its own.

Wagram have re-released the original French soundtrack, which contains all the key themes and tunes from the series. The track list is:

Track 1 Cités D'or

Track 2 Thème De Zia

Track 3 Thème De Tao

Track 4 Thèmes D'Esteban

Track 5 L'aventure De Tao

Track 6 Le Vol Du Condor

Track 7 Heureux Esteban

Track 8 L'aventure D'Esteban

Track 9 Tristes Cités D'or

Track 10 En Naviguant

Track 11 Les Incas

Track 12 Esteban Dans La Ville

Track 13 La Tempête

Track 14 Les Dieux Des Incas

Track 15 Les Aventures Electroniques

Track 16 Les Cités D'or (Instrumental Version)

The vinyl was re-released on 15th December 2017 but I only got around to getting it recently. I've reviewed the soundtrack before but only on CD. This vinyl has a lot of great tracks but is by no means complete. The most glaring omissions is St. Elmo's Fire (also known on other versions of the soundtrack as La Passage Secret), known to many fans as the Song of Mysterious Awesomeness. The sense of awe and wonder this music piece brought in me at the time was palpable, I would shake with excitement as this track was reserved for only the most special moments of the series. It is used when a new discovery is made or when the characters experienced a grand phenomena. The juddering driving synths mixed with the whoozy flow of the main tune lend the piece an otherworldly air which perfectly suited the air of mystery. I have extremely powerful memories of this track as this music was used on the maiden flight of the golden condor. The point when the machine comes online for the first time and flies is etched in my memory. I've seen this episode more than any other (I watch the series annually) but I still get goosebumps when the music kick in. The link to this moment is below and I would recommend you watch it (it kicks in at 56 seconds).

The Golden Condor's Maiden Voyage... Into My Heart

The Mysterious Cities of Gold was a French- Japanese co-produced animation series by the company with the hilarious name, well at least when you were a kid, DIC Entertainment and Studio Pierrot, a less funny name which is strange considering it is named after a clown! Anyway, the series premiered in Japan on NHK on 29 June 1982 and ran weekly for 39 episodes.

I first caught the series on BBC 1 in the early 80s and was beguiled by the mythical adventure story of a young Spanish boy named Esteban who joins a voyage to the New World in search of the lost Cities of Gold and his father.

The impressive looking background art, sharply drawn characters, and the beautiful soundtrack kept me entranced throughout the whole series, becoming my favourite programme of all time. Against the poorly animated dross on most of 80s children's animation this series really stood out and as a result It informed my formative years and introduced me to the wonders of the ancient world including the Incas, Aztecs, Atlantis and El Dorado. Even at the age of 35 I still regularly revisit the programme every year and I can attest to the fact that it still holds up as an impressive piece of work, even with those rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia taken off.

Whilst browsing through the internet I came across an advertisement promoting the sale of the Golden Condor from the MCOG. Now for those who know the series the Goldon Condor was a magical machine created by the people of Hiva which the children find in episode 18 that uses solar power to fly. It is this magical machine that most people remember the series for mostly, it was features prominently in the opening credits and looked beautiful in the show when animated. The condor flying with the track St. Elmo’s Fire by Haim Saban and Shuki Levy is ingrained in my mind and still gives me goosebumps whenever I watch the series. A chance to own a metal 1:25 scale model of the golden condor was too good an opportunity to pass up as memorabilia to do with the show is extremely rare and expensive. I already own a replica MCOG medallion and an original animation cel and douga but the condor was what I desired so I bought it for just under £100 pound, a high price for someone on a lowly teachers wage but was it worth it? Well, I'll be doing an unboxing soon so watch out.

He-Man Remastered Track was used in Mysterious Cities of Gold

If you've ever watched an old TV series from the 80's you've probably noticed that some of the sound FX and music is the same.  That's because a lot of the animation and dubbing was done by the same studios or using Movieola editors, not on digital audio workstation like many sound effects today. The studios used key stock effects as that's what they had.

Anyways, my favourite TV show of all time The Mysterious Cities of Gold not only shared sound effects with He-Man: Masters of the Universe but also music! Originally titled Subterranean Secret or The Burning Shield, the MCOG track was used occasionally in dramatic and atmospheric scenes in He-Man. Here, for the first time is a completely clean version of the music created by Dusan M, using the original cues from the score by Shuki Levy. No more horrible audio cues distorting the majesty of this wondrous track. Enjoy!

Mysterious Cities of Gold Nostalgia

I've been watching the new Mysterious Cities of Gold Series, and whilst it is okay it had me yearning for the charm and style of the older series. The thing I liked about the old series was the mood created by the amazing soundtrack, and there is one piece of music which is burned into my soul... St. Elmo's Fire. This piece of music created by Shuki Levy and Haim Saban (of Power Rangers fame *sigh*) was used only 12 times in the whole 39 episodes, and only at key points of the series such as the discovery of a mysterious place or the observation of grand phenomena.

Well a Youtuber has kindly put these key moments into a complete video so you can relive those amazing moments from the series in one 15 minute video... sit back and enjoy my favourite cartoon!