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REVIEW ARCHIVES: 
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

The Hanged Man
Bullet
DC Recordings

Sound library regular Alan Tew provided the hard hitting funk soundtrack for this rare U.K. TV show from 1975. Tew's unit goes by the name Bullet and it's perfectly suited to the tight blaxploitation vibe of tracks like "Contract Man" and "The Heist."

Bullet is a full band, but sounds lean and mean. Instrumentation includes guitar, keys, vibes, flute and horns and that pounding rhythm section. The group really hits its target on tracks such as "Hanged Man," "Killer Hill" and "Funky Bear."

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The Harder They Come
Jimmy Cliff and others
Mango

When The Harder They Come came out in 1973, a lot of people were unfamiliar with reggae. It's still an excellent place to start an exploration of the Jamaican funky pop style.

The principle star of the movie and soundtrack alike is the legendary Jimmy Cliff. His contributions include the spiritual "Many Rivers to Cross," the easy going "You Can Get It If You Really Want," and "The Harder They Come."

The score also features lesser known talents, including Toots and the Maytals ("Sweet and Dandy" and the oft-covered "Pressure Drop"), Scotty ("Stop That Train") and the Slickers ("Johnny Too Bad").

This is an essential reggae album and mellow soulful soundtrack to boot.

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Harlem Shuffle: The Sound of Blaxploitation
Various Artists
Plastic

Not the definitive blaxploitation compilation, but a damn good one nonetheless, Harlem Shuffle dives headlong into the tough funk of black 70s cinema. Kicking off with the "Main Title" from Isaac Hayes' Truck Turner, the disc sets the right example, even if it does fail to include the main themes from Shaft and Superfly (probably due to some licensing issue). Not to say those seminal soundtracks are neglected, since Curtis Mayfield's "Pusherman" and Hayes' "Bumpy's Lament" are included here. The disc also collects tracks by Donald Byrd, Booker T. Jones, Leroy Hutson, The Bar Kays, J.J. Johnson and Melvin Van Peebles. Hell, any disc that includes a track from Sweet Sweetback's Baadass Song is worth owning. Don't let the Man tell you otherwise.

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Head
The Monkees
Rhino

The Monkees are a strange band. Strange because they were the original N'Sync to The Beatles' Backstreet Boys. Maybe that isn't fair to The Beatles in retrospect (or to The Monkees for that matter). The Fab Four may have ended up changing music history, but they entered the collective consciousness as hitmakers who drove girls crazy. In response, good old American marketing know-how created The Monkees -- "a manufactured image with no philosophies" as the band itself gleefully decrees. Somehow the group transcended its crass beginnings with the sort of creative spirit one came to expect from more "authentic" talents in those acid-mad days.

Head -- the movie and the soundtrack -- is one of The Monkees' crowning achievements. The movie is basically a non-linear head trip. Today, it makes for quaint "psychadelic" viewing. The soundtrack, on the other hand, still holds up-- mostly because it captures the loopiness of the movie by inserting random dialogue between tracks (e.g. "Sounds like a lot of supernatural baloney to me," says Davey Jones). Given the sampledelic nature of so much current music -- the score manages to sound fairly contemporary.

When it's all said and done, Head is an essential '60s soundtrack.

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Hell's Belles
Les Baxter
Sidewalk

After Les Baxter made his mark in the late 50s and early 60s with classic exotica albums such as Ritual of the Savage and Tamboo!, he contributed soundtracks for a bunch of B-movies, including some classic horror flicks like Black Sunday and Baron Blood. As a composer of genre flicks circa late 60s, early 70s, it should come as no surprise that Baxter did some biker flicks as well. Hell's Belles, one of the many American International Pictures that features Baxter's cinematic scoring, dates from 1969. With titles like "Wheels", "Chain Fight" and "Hogin' Machine", you can assume this won't sound a thing like "Quiet Village". Instead of lush orchestration and exotic percussion, you get rock guitar, soulful harmonica, funky bass and rock steady drumming. In fact, it really doesn't sound like Baxter at all -- not even Baxter's swanky 101 Strings period (documented on the Scamp disc Que Mango!) I guess it goes to show that Baxter was flexible. On Hell's Belles, he plays it, by turns, funky and rocking. There's nothing ground-breaking about it, but it flows along in an easy groovin' fashion typical of the period. It's not Baxter's best work, but it's not bad.

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Hell Up in Harlem
Edwin Starr
Motown

It's not part of the Soul Cinema collection, but Hell Up in Harlem belongs in that company. Motown man Edwin Starr delivers big time for the Fred Williamson action vehicle that promises "Black Godfather is Back... and there's going to be Hell Up in Harlem."

The title track itself is worth the price of admission, but the fun (and the funk) just doesn't let up. Tracks such as "Easin' In" and "Runnin'" will get your juices flowin'. There's also a bit of gospel ("Don't it Feel Good to be Free"), soul ballads ("Jennifer's Love Theme" -- complete with spoken intro) and chase music ("Airport Chase").

The Motown CD reissue features original movie poster art and photos of Edwin Starr and his crew. Great stuff.

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Here We Go 'Round The Mulberry Bush
Traffic/Spencer Davis Group
Ryko/MGM

Swinging London had more than a few movies before Mike Myers paid tribute to it with his Austin Powers movies. One of these flicks was Here We Go 'Round the Mulberry Bush, about a young bloke trying to lose his virginity. (Mulberry Pie, anyone?) Aside from one song by Andy Ellison, most of the music comes courtesy of the Spencer Davis Group and Traffic (featuring a young Stevie Winwood), which is as "Brit 60s" as you can get (there's even a sitar track). The grooviest tracks are by Spencer Davis Group, including "Looking Back" and "Waltz for Caroline", both of which feature hot Hammond organ. The disc also features short voice overs from the film's main character, played by Barry Evans. And like many Ryko OSTs, this one comes enhanced with a scene from the movie, playable on your computer.

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The Eye-Popping Sounds of...
Herschell Gordon Lewis
Birdman

Blood Feast, the influential gore classic, had a marketing campaign that repeatedly warned theatergoers of the film's stomach-turning, heart attack-inducing horror. Listening to its soundtrack, which features blood curdling screams and creepy nausea-inducing organ music, the aforementioned warning prompts this reviewer to offer a different sort of warning: Prepare for a stylistically schizophrenic lo-fi listening experience.

Collected here are the no budget scores from several of Herschell Gordon Lewis' legendarily exploitive features (including 2000 Maniacs, Color Me Blood Red, The Wizard of Gore, and more). The marketing savvy anti-auteur decided to craft his own soundtracks to keep cost down, and the results are strange, funny and suitably disturbing.

The bulk of the collection is made up of 13 ghastly tracks from Blood Feast and 11 hillbilly band numbers from 2000 Maniacs, some of which display a certain cinematic charm. Both of these soundtracks were released a few years ago by Rhino, but this Birdman release adds mostly vocal tracks from later Lewis exploitation classics. There's an easy groover from Suburban Roulette. A novelty rock number from The Girl, The Body & The Pill. Garage rock from She Devils on Wheels. More rock 'n roll from Blast Off Girls. And more rock and lounge mutations from Just For The Hell of It and Living Venus.

It's hard to imagine this disc getting heavy rotation with groovy soundtrack fans, but it's not without interest. File it under: Incredibly Strange.

Want to know more? Read the Interview with HGL.

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"Allegretto per Signora" (MP3 edit)

High
Ennio Morricone
El/Cherry Red Records

High is a concept compilation of Ennio Morricone's trippier cues. While there is a bit of overlap with other Morricone compilations, it is a compelling set nonetheless.

The problem — if there is one — remains in what constitutes "trippy." Some of these tracks, like "Take Me Now" from Excuse Me, Let's Make Love, are merely groovy. While "Between the Sheets" from the same movie has a druggier feel thanks to an echoplex on the strings and a hypnotic harpsichord line. Maybe "trippy" can mean both.

Taken from just seven films of the psychedelic era, High serves as a fascinating sampler of the composer's most beloved period. By the same token, one can't help but wonder what's been left off the disc. After all, Morricone was incredibly prolific during that period, and frequently experimented with psychedelic sounds from fuzz-tone guitar to Hammond B freakouts. In addition to Excuse Me... the other films featured here are Le Foto Proibite di una Signora per Bene, Veruschka, La Donna Invisible, La Corta Notte Delle Bambole di Vetro and Il Gatto a Nove Code.

High is a worthy addition to Cherry Red's series of Italian soundtrack compilations, but it easily could have been a double.

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Histoire d'O 1 & 2
Pierre Bachelet/Stanley Myers
CAM

If you're up on your history of erotica, than you know that History of O is a literary-cum-cinematic work about a sado-masochistic relationship. This disc pairs the soundtracks to the 1975 original and the 1984 sequel, featuring the work of two different composers. Given the subject matter one would expect "sleazy" listening, complete with wah-wah guitars, funky rhythms and the requisite moaning vocals; however, the music contained on this disc has only a little bit of sleaze. Most of the music is by turns light and airy, elegantly melodramatic and sometimes overwrought. There's even a macho rock number called "She's a Lady", featuring anonymous male vocal hysterics. While Bachelet makes good use of his memorably melodic main theme, Myers' score offers more varied music, albeit with a distinctively '80s flavor.

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"Main Title" from Hold-Up... (MP3 edit)
"Main Title" from Adolescenza... (MP3 edit)

Hold-Up — Istantanea Di Una Rapina /
Adolescenza Perversa
Franco Micalizzi
Fin de Siecle Media

Hot on the heels of its recent CD release of Franco Micalizzi's groovy soundtrack for Superuomini Superdonne Superbotte comes Fin de Sciecle's release of two more restored Micalizzi gems from '74: Hold-Up — Istantanea Di Una Rapina and Adolescenza Perversa.

Micalizzi's score for Hold-Up, a police thriller directed by German Lorente, is a fortunate find for fans of Italian thrillers. Featuring the sensuous vocals by Edda Dell'Orso, this overdue soundtrack features the classic style of the era that mixes warm strings, cool keyboards, moody melodies, scalding guitar stings and a solid backbeat. The main title is certain to remain in your mind long after hearing it — not unlike similar work by Ennio Morricone and Bruno Nicolai. Many of the tracks featured are cue composites, meaning that bits were strung together for a seamless listening experience. Along with memorable melodies one gets the typical slow tension and short sharp action tracks. Hold-Up is a keeper.

So is Adolescenza Perversa, from an erotic drama that Jose Benazeraf made the same year. Of course the lurid title and suggestion of a menage a trois on the cover will be enough to attract fans of erotic Italian soundtracks, and thankfully it isn't merely a tease. Again, we're treated to quasi-erotic vocalisms care of Dell'Orso. This time the musical mood is less concerned with tension and more focused on mellow sometimes melancholic moods and laidback psychedelic grooves. Acoustic guitar and electric keyboards intermingle like lovers, ad occasionally a backbeat propels the pulse. When the mood takes a turn into darker emotional territory it's still drop-dead gorgeous thanks to Dell'Orso's vibrato-laden heavy breathing. If this doesn't turn you into a puddle of quivering jelly nothing will.

There are melodic and orchestral similarities existing between these two scores that could lead some listeners to dismiss Micalizzi as a composer of limited range, but I prefer to hear Hold-Up and Adolescenza Perversa as two sides of the same coin — complementary and equally worthwhile.

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L'Homme Orchestre
Francois de Roubaix
EmArcy/Universal (France)

The soundtrack for a "Nouvelle Vague" comedy musical, L'Homme Orchestre is a revelation of French pop sensibilities given the sort of intricate treatment one expects from such artists as Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention or Stereolab in a Baroque mood. Immediately, the first of the 22 tracks hits its stride with dancing enthusiasm. Sure the occasional vocal is in French, but don't let the language barrier get in the way. Besides there are a number of cool instrumentals to wrap your ears around.

Tracks "Generique," "Repetition," and "Judo" are all rhythmically catchy. "Yacht" features an American blues vocal of astonishing power and resembles some of the blues-inflected tracks by Peter Thomas for German-made thrillers of the same period. Other tracks such as "Claquettes" sound a bit dated in comparison. Nevertheless, the sound is classic 60s French pop.

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"Wild Honey" (MP3 edit)

Honey West
Joseph Mullendore
Harkit

Blonde bombshell Anne Francis starred as the titular private eye in the Burke's Law '65-'66 spin-off, Honey West on ABC. Joseph Mullendore, who was an arranger for composer Herschel Burke Gilbert (Burke's Law), provided the brassy swinging score for the "private eye-ful."

The show gets started with "Wild Honey," which blasts away with unbridled energy.

Other highlights include the sexy feline prowler "The Ocelot," the swingin' "Preludium to Mayhem," the elegant strings-meet-Latin jazz number "Silk 'n' Honey," and finally the derivative but notable "Bolero".

The connection between Mullendore and Gilbert comes to the fore on "Requiem for a Sideman," which is key-change carbon copy of Gilbert's "Blues for a Dead Chick" from Burke's Law.

Honey West is a rarity among soundtrack reissues as it offers a thorough list of the orchestra's personnel.

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