Album Notes

Rockin' singles, a film score and a screenplay on one CD! Listen to the tunes in your stereo, put the disk in your computer to read the story.

The Plot: Sparkle Island, a community of billionaire supermodels who use "cosmetic genetics" to eliminate flaws in their appearance, celebrate Tickle Festivals to relish the euphoria of hysterical laughter and thrill their pets by taking them bungee jumping. The unattractive in this world fight for the leftover crumbs of opportunity, as beauty rules over talent. Paradise is thrown into a blender when fanged beasts of plush mysteriously invade to chow down on the gorgeous elite, leaving the less-attractive labor force untouched. Police cruise town in their limousines for clues while an ambitious military (led by a Commander armed with lethal PEZ dispensers) moves in to wrestle control of the island's valuable real estate. But it's the town princess and homely accordion virtuoso who must learn the origin of Sparkle Island's hungry guests before they destroy their peaceful existence.

The Teddy Bear Murders screenplay was a semi-finalist in the 2001 Chesterfield/Writer's Film Project (a program based at Paramount Pictures that originated at Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment) and advanced to the second round of The Austin Film Festival's Screenplay Competition, making the initial 10% cut of over 3400 writers.

The music on this soundtrack was largely composed on a ZTAR, a guitar-shaped synth with buttons on each fret instead of strings. Check out Keith's website for photos.

Reviews:

Andrew Keech, Music From The Movies: "Keith Moore has written not only the score for The Fluorescent Shaded Teddy Bear Murders, but also the screenplay. However, what is bizarre is that the script has yet to be used and comes with the full entertaining screen play on the enhanced CD so that the listener can read it (or possibly act it) at their leisure. The story is also out of the ordinary, telling of Sparkle Island, an isolated community where the locals use "cosmetic genetics" to eliminate flaws in their appearance, but suddenly have to contend with an invasion of stuffed fanged plush toys which eat the prettier inhabitants.

The score is a highly eclectic collection of inventive and fun music in many different styles. For example, the first vocal cue has a seventies psychedelic flavour and the second cue is a sort of jazz Beach Boys. With 'Surprise Visitor', the synthesiser takes on a sinister air but, with 'Welcome To Sparkle Island', the fun begins to show through with a magical combination of a simplistic, but great theme with a contrasting burst of jazz. The creative use of the synthesiser gives many of the cues a wonderfully fresh feel, which belies the complexity of the intermixed themes and sounds. 'Commander Frost's Arrival' is a particularly fun example with pseudo-military sounds mixing with a child-like march. Even the more satanic cues, like 'Killer Plush Rampage' have their own charm.

This is certainly a score with a difference for a film not yet produced, but still great fun and interestingly different approach to scoring."