EuroSpy Music

By: Randall D. Larson
Date: Thursday, February 10, 2005

THIS WEEK'S RECOMMENDATIONS

Opening with a wonderfully raucous vocal by the unmistakable Italian singer Christy (TEPEPA, RUN MAN RUN), the score for Albert De Martino's 1967 spy spoof, OK CONNERY (aka OPERATION KID BROTHER in the USA and Japan) is a terrifically retro example of 60's Italian spy movie music. Jointly composed by Ennio Morricone and Bruno Nicolai, back when the two formed a powerful film music alliance, the score is a cool mix of lounge-pop and James Bondian spy adventure. The movie starred Sean Connery's younger brother Neil, playing the kid brother of a "famous British Secret Service spy," and a fistful of supporting players from the Bond movies. The score is pristine Morricone/Nicolai flavorful and melodic, and not a little tongue-in-cheek. Only three tracks have been previously released, which makes Digitmovies new fully restored soundtrack (CDDM025) especially welcome. The label has been performing the same favor that England's Harkit Records has been doing by rescuing these forgotten but wonderful 1960's film scores and issuing them in beautiful new packages. With 28 tracks and nearly an hour of previously unavailable music, this soundtrack is thoroughly captivating. Aside from Christy's intoxicating title song (which also appears with an Italian lyric "Se chiami amore" and in an instrumental for electric guitar), the music is quite varied. "Primo Amore" is a lush love theme for lush strings and romantic solo electric guitar. "Fiori Gialli" is another lush mixture of violins punctuated by a squirrelly, high end guitar twang. "A Passo D'uomo" is a smart jazz riff for chirping brass over a relentless footpattern of double bass. "Gli Enigmi" is another of Morricone's oft-used free-form jazz suspense motifs, random plucks and raps and blares and strums that convey unease and trepidation. "Varco Nel Muro" is a harsh arrangement of blaring horns over rumbling percussion and guitar. "Can Can Delle Amazzoni" is brash 3-Ring Circus music. "Gatto Palante" is an amusing scherzo for a meowing female voice over comic woodwinds that erupts into Dixieland jazz. "Connery" is an outright heroic theme that remains characterized more by a jazzy dissonance blaring horns, frantic drumming, rock-styled guitar riffing than by any typical orchestral heroic melodies. In fact, apart from the score's cooler aspects, much of its sensibility is relayed through blaring trumpets and wild drumming giving the music, and the film, a relentless energy and wild enthusiasm that fit well with the campiness of its storyline. The music is among the best late 60's EuropSpy soundtracks and is nicely preserved in this release. www.digitmovies.com


Digitmovies has also released Bruno Nicolai's compelling solo score to Sergio Martino's 1971 giallo thriller, LA CODA DELLO SCORPIONE, (CDDM028), a persuasive mixture of pop melodies and rhythmic jazz riffs and tonalities. Also known as CASE OF THE SCORPION'S TAIL (or simply TAIL OF THE SCORPION), the movie starred George Hilton and Anita Strindberg fleeing a serial killer. Supplementing a main theme featuring obsessive electric guitars and effects, Nicolai adopts Morricone's occasional trademark of dissonant, free-form trumpet-based jazz, mingling muted blares with random percussion taps over a mysterioso flavor of underlying violins ("La Coda Dello Scorpione Seq .3" and "Seq. 5"). The atonal and jazz material is nicely balanced by lots of exceedingly melodic, romantic material (several versions of the "Foglie Rosse," a sad pop melody, and "Vento D'Autunno," a lovely melody for strings and mandolin over electric bass that is quite nice) and the score is a superior effort. Often times Italy's giallo movies can get hung up on morosely dissonant or avant-garde music
A pair of source cues (a greek dance number and an elegant romantic song, "Shadows") round out this mix of the complete score. www.digitmovies.com

Digitmovies latest release is a double-CD including Guido & Maurizio De Angelis' score for Steno's 1978 comic crime-drama, PIEDONE L'AFRICANO coupled with Bruno Nicolai's score for Jess Franco's fourth Soledad Miranda vehicle, EUGENIE DE SADE (1970).


FILM MUSIC NEWS

Take a visit to the musicfromthemovies.com web site to see a fascinating interview with composer Joseph LoDuca, who discusses his score for the new horror thriller BOOGEYMAN and his long-standing collaboration with director Sam Raimi. "The special challenge of BOOGEYMAN came from Stephen Kay, our director," LoDuca says. "He asked me for a gritty, non-melodic score that morphed electronic and acoustic elements into something fresh and organic. As far as musical textures go, you need to find new ways to scare the audience." Read the whole thing at www.musicfromthemovies.com

Silva Screen has prepared a rare treasure trove in parts of 2001: Music From The Films of Stanley Kubrick (SILCD 1176), an updated version of the label's 1999 compilation that will be released on March 14th. The collection is notable for the inclusion, for the first time, of a suite of previously unavailable music from Kubrick's early films, composed by Gerald Fried (RETURN OF DRACULA, MYSTIC WARRIOR, ROOTS). Faithfully interpreted by The City of Prague Philharmonic, conducted by Paul Bateman, these tracks (averaging 5 mins apiece) from the films THE KILLING, KILLER'S KISS, FEAR AND DESIRE, PATHS OF GLORY and DAY OF THE FLIGHT are not only valuable for reflecting music from Kubrick's early days before he became enamored with compiling his own scores from classical records but are equally important for proffering, for the first time, these rare compositions of Gerald Fried. Also included, of course, are the classical tracks from 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, BARRY LYNDON, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, and EYES WIDE SHUT, and cues from THE SHINING, FULL METAL JACKET, SPARTACUS, LOLITA, and DR. STRANGELOVE.

King Records in Japan has released FREE AS THE WIND: TRIBUTE TO JERRY GOLDSMITH, featuring re-recordings of Goldsmith film cues performed by the Japan Philharmony Orchestra, conducted by Yasuzo Takemoto and Shigeo Genda. The collection includes themes from CAPRICORN ONE, CHINATOWN, POLTERGEIST, TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE, THE MUMMY, TOTAL RECALL, ALIEN, NEMESIS, and others. Available from www.arksquare.com

Windham Hill, noted for its easy-listening/new age-ish recordings, will release on March 22nd its first collection of film themes. Cinema: A Windham Hill Collection features new interpretations of film themes by Windham Hill artists (guitarist Steve Erquiaga's rendition of Morricone's CINEMA PARADISO; Alex de Grassi's adaptation of Mark Knopfler's THE PRINCESS BRIDE; Liz Story performing Yann Tiersen's theme from AMELIE; a very nice sultry, jazzy version by Philippe Saisse of Michel Legrand's sultry, jazzy theme from SUMMER OF '42, violinist Tracy Silverman's unique version of John William's Harry Potter Theme; Stephen Grappelli's take on "As Time Goes By" from CASABLANCA [incorrectly attributed to Max Steiner in the advance sampler CD label; Steiner composed the film's score but its signature song, performed by Dooley Wilson in the film, was composed by Herman Hupfeld in 1931], the theme from THOUSAND PIECES OF GOLD [also incorrectly attributed to performers Wei-Shan Lui and pianist George Winston. Lui performed on the original sound track but Gary Remal Malkin composed the score. The promotional album documentation has both of these attributions correct so the final release should also have them right on the label], and so on. The music is in the characteristic vogue of Windham Hill pleasant and nice resonances of beautiful music that is both wonderfully inspiring and intimately reflective. It's an unusual but not unlikable interpretation of these film themes. The more you listen the more you may like these gentle themes. www.windhamhill.com

Just in time for the recent DVD release of the movie, Perseverance Records has released a restored, expanded version of Michael Perilstein's score to the 1983 cult horror classic, THE DEADLY SPAWN. A terrific little low-budget film with lots of integrity, the synth score is a great piece of writing from the same composer of HOLLYWOOD CHAINSAW HOOKERS. The label's next release will be the score for THE PUNISHER not last year's comic book anti-hero film, but Dennis Dreith's score to the Dolph Lundgren movie. Perseverance located the 2" masters and is currently in the process of re-mixing them for better sound quality. Also on the CD will be an interview with Dennis Dreith and Mark Goldblatt, the director. www.perseverancerecords.com

La-La Land Records will release the soundtrack of Iain Ballamy's score for MIRRORMASK, the new fantasy/adventure from the Jim Henson Company and bestselling author Neil Gaiman. www.lalalandrecords.com

Kenji Kawai's (GHOST IN THE SHELL) new live-action score for MAKOTO, will see a soundtrack release in Japan on February 16th.

Percepto Record's release of THE GHOST AND MR. CHICKEN, which made by Best of 2004 soudntrack list (see Soundtrax Jan 13, 2005 for review) has been nominated for Best Cd in the Third Annual Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards, recognizing the best work in classic horror research, creativity, and film preservation from 2004.
www.rondoward.com www.percepto.com

In March, Intrada will release the premiere recording of Bruce Broughton's first feature film score, THE PRODIGAL. One of several evangelical films issues in the 1980s by the Billy Graham associated World Wide Pictures (which had arguably reached its pinnacle back in 1975 with its lavish historical production of THE HIDING PLACE), the film is a clear message film encapsulated in an intimate family relationship drama. Broughtons' score is described as emphasizing warm melodies in a rich orchestra of strings, woodwinds, piano, guitar and percussion with judicious use of French horn. In addition to the orchestral score, Broughton wrote all of his own source cues including two songs, one of which is sung by B. J. Thomas. Intrada's CD is presented in stereo from the original master elements, and is limited to 1000 copies. www.intrada.com

An area of music not often discussed is what is called "production music" - music composed by commission for no particular film but for libraries from which individual cues can be licensed for a fee. Most Hollywood composers during the Golden Age composed library tracks and many films were scored with nothing but recycled tracks from a studio's or contractor's music library (NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, for example; almost any Universal B-movie from the '50s). Bernard Herrmann was especially notable in this, and several of his library compositions have found their way into CD release. The practice continues to this day with dozens of independent music houses providing anonymous or credited production music for films, television, and other venues. German composer Frederic Talgorn (ROBOJOX, HEAVY METAL 2000) had recorded at least seven CD commissions from the British production music company De Wolfe Music, most of which can be found on eBay. Ron Burbella recently cataloged them in a posting on Filmus-L, the Internet email listserver for film music discussion, which is worth repeating here, as they form an unusual element of soundtrack music that may be worth seeking out. Just find somebody else to figure out what cues went with what films:
0222 Fantastic Voyage (1997)
(Frederic Talgorn - Philharmonia Orchestra)
(An Epic Journey Into The World Of Adventure.)
0246 Final Encounter (Doomsday Dawns) (1998)
(Frederic Talgorn - Munich Symphony Orch)
0256 Century Of War (1999)
(Frederic Talgorn - Philharmonia Orchestra)
0272 Epic Movie Adventures (1999)
(Frederic Talgorn - Philharmonia Orchestra)
0300 Epic Movie Adventures 2 (2001)
(Frederic Talgorn - BBC Concert Orchestra)
0318 At The Movies (Music for the Big Screen) (2001)
(Frederic Talgorn, Simon Park, Tim Souster) (2001)
(BBC Concert Orch/Royal Philharmonic Orch/ Munich SO)
0328 Power & Glory (2002)
(Frederic Talgorn - Philharmonia Orchestra)
(A Collection of Dramatic and Stirring Orchestral Themes)
0358 American Dreams (2003)
(Frederic Talgorn - Royal Philharmonic Orchestra)

Recommended Soundtrack sources:
www.buysoundtrax.com
www.intrada.com
www.screenarchives.com
www.footlight.com
www.arksquare.com/index_main.html


For questions or comments, contact the author at
Soundtrax@cinescape.com