Silva Screen Records, out September 13

Patrick Troughton’s classic eight-part 1968 Cyberman story gets a full soundtrack release, complete with bells and whistles.

You’ve go to hand it to Silva Screen for releasing a television soundtrack album with such niche appeal, and – let’s be honest – not an awful lot of pure music. And while Mark Ayres has done another sterling job in compiling as full an album as possible, this certainly doesn’t have the appeal of Silva’s The Five Doctors album; it really is one for the uber-fans.

That’s not to say that Australian composer Don Harper’s soundtrack isn’t an enjoyable listen. It’s pretty clear that it has been influenced by the contemporary cimbalom-heavy The Ipcress File by John Barry, and there’s other new textures for Doctor Who with a musical ensemble that includes cor anglais and Hammond organ. It’s just that once you move past the original score cues it all feels very much like a dull sound effects album, with 10 tracks devoted to 34 minutes of Brian Hodgson’s Radiophonic Workshop atmospheres and bleeps. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that –

some pioneering work was achieved by this electronic marvels – it’s just that it’s not much of a listen and unlikely to feature on repeat play.

Take for example the two International Electromatix Headquarters cues which collectively are 16 minutes of swirling and humming white noise. They’re effectively integrated into the serial but surely never intended for isolated listening. And yet, the joy of a disc like this is that you can choose what tracks to play, excluding the electronic and focusing on the acoustic, or vice versa. How nice to have that option.

Verdict: If you want to expand on the two The Invasion tracks found on Silva’s The 50th Anniversary Collection, here’s your opportunity to get as full a release as possible. And if you also fancy a whole range of electronic Cyberman heartbeats and muzak, it’s your lucky day. 7/10

Nick Joy

Click here to order The Invasion from Amazon.co.uk

Your chance to win a copy of this and The Five Doctors here