Christopher Young was originally pigeonholed as a horror composer, but since then has carefully stretched himself so that these days he is at home writing in any genre. One of the most impressive sides of his compositional skill to have emerged in the last few years is jazz - he has written excellent scores for the likes of Rounders, Norma Jean and Marilyn and, recently, The Hurricane. Judas Kiss is very much in this vein.

Three enjoyable, but somewhat low-key, jazz numbers open the album, followed by what is undoubtedly the score's highlight, "Coco-la-Mambo" - stick it onto repeat and listen to it all day, you still won't tire of it. Humorously, the cue entitled "Ameliorate" is clearly modelled on Jerry Goldsmith's "Nightmare at 20,000 feet" music from Twilight Zone: The Movie. Think about it. As ever, Young provides irreverent, delicious track titles - "Lizard Meditations", "Beef Orgasms", "Bee Wax Menthol" - all completely meaningless, of course, but still wonderful.

After the score (which is actually for a 1997 movie, but wasn't released until late 2000) comes a recording of a concert of Young's music given at Butler University in Indianapolis 1997. First comes "The Helicopter Chase" (another wacky cue title) from 1986's Getting Even, a completely obscure film, but one that allowed Young to hone his action music style. The superb end title from Copycat follows, and then comes a suite from the excellent Species. Rounding off the album is a 12-minute suite of highlights from the two Hellraiser scores, the second of which arguably remains Young's greatest achievement.

Performance and recording of the concert could be a little better, but generally things sound good, and as an introduction to the music of Christopher Young you can't go far wrong with this. There is room for a more comprehensive compilation of music by the gifted composer, but for now - coupled with an entertaining, but hardly standout, jazz score - this will do nicely. The package also features entertaining liner notes by Vance Brawley and Nathaniel Thompson and a picture of Natasha Henstridge.

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