CROOKED The Original Score (WordSound) cd 14.98
Recently profiled in The Wire, Skiz "Spectre" Fernando and his WordSound label have released quite a few "illbient" hip hop records that we've been into here at Aquarius. This compilation highlights several of our faves from the WordSound crew: Scotty Hard, Spectre, Prince Charming, and of course rapper Sensational, among others. It's the soundtrack to Skiz's low-budget, 'student' WordSound film Crooked, which was previously available as a double with the DVD of said film. This is the better deal though, as it's 4 bucks cheaper AND you won't end up watching the decidedly tedious movie. Great soundtrack, though. This version, by the way, has 2 extra tracks but is also about eight minutes shorter, for some reason...OH WAIT, I figured it out: this disc is ENTIRELY DIFFERENT! So, forget what we said about this being a better deal, it's in fact a different deal. That was the "soundtrack", this is the "original score". Hmm. It seems that these are the tracks that were made expressly for the film, but weren't included on the soundtrack cd that came with the dvd. Unlike that disc, there's no previously available stuff on here (which was the case with several of the Sensational cuts on that one). So you gotta get both, WordSound hedz. This one's all about incidental mostly instrumental music from a dark, dubby, hiphop perspective, which is what a lot of WordSound stuff sounds like, even when it's not meant for an actual film. Artists, aside from the above mentioned, included Mentol Nomad, the dreaded Bill Laswell, Mr. Dead, and live drum n' bassers UV Ray.
RealAudio clip: SENSATIONAL "How 'Bout Some Credit"
RealAudio clip: SPECTRE "Father & Son"
RealAudio clip: MR. DEAD "Third Degree Burn"

CROOKED JADES Seven Sisters (Crooked) cd 14.98
Seven Sisters is actually a soundtrack for a documentary film of the same name which follows the lives of seven sisters who grew up and moved away from their home in the Kentucky Appalachians during the 30's and 40's. The songs are all covers and traditional numbers that were popular during this time and arranged by the Crooked Jades. Among the tracks here are "Put My Little Shoes Away", Roscoe Holcomb's "I Wish I Was A Single Girl Again", "Cumberland Gap", "Mystery Train" (the very one popularized by E. Presley), "Pretty Polly" and much more.
RealAudio clip: "Put My Little Shoes Away"
RealAudio clip: "Moonshiner"

CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Sony ) cd 16.98
If you saw the movie, you know how great this is. The music in 'Crouching Tiger...' was just the icing on an already 7-layered-5-differentÐkindsÐofÐicing-andÐthoseÐlittle-edible-hard-icing-flowers cake. Even without the visuals, Yo Yo Ma manages to evoke sadness and beauty, emotions and images. So much better than most of the soundtrack/score pap we've been conditioned to accept. And if you haven't seen it, what the hell's wrong with you!?!?!

CUL DE SAC The Strangler's Wife (Original Soundtrack Music) (Strange Attractors Audio House) cd 13.98
It's been a great year for fans of Cul de Sac, the experimental/instrumental rock outfit from Boston who wowed us after a more-or-less three year absence with the brilliant Death Of The Sun back in the winter and who now give us a soundtrack album recording in the midst of the Death Of The Sun sessions. We don't know anything about the film for which this music was made, but if it's half as good as this soundtrack, it'd be worth a viewing, or two.
The music here was all composed and edited for specific scenes, or improvised in the studio as the film was being screened by the band. They got pretty creative in constructing this soundtrack, dabbling in diverse styles as befit the action in the film, from motorik krautrock-y jams to Faheyesque acoustic guitar to abstract drone-scapes to divebombing digital hardcore noise assaults! It's a myriad of moods, all expertly rendered, and despite the eclecticism it hangs together really well. It's obviously not at all a casually-tossed off endeavor -- the project was taken quite seriously by Glenn Jones, Robin Amos & co. and contains some of their finest work. Quite possibly, this will be one of those soundtracks that ends up being more significant and memorable than the film itself, though we won't know 'til we see the thing, which as we said we certainly will want to do based on the strength of its sonic component already. At turns, a haunting, propulsive, and suspenseful blend of folk, electronics, and scenic psychedelic rock.
MPEG Stream: "Tailing The Strangler"
MPEG Stream: "Mirror II (Mae and Elena)"
MPEG Stream: "Fifth Victim (Aerobics)"

DAFT PUNK Tron Legacy OST (Walt Disney Records) cd 15.98
It's kind of hard to review this objectively. As of right now, we're exactly 17 hours away from seeing a movie we've been waiting more than 20 years for, and we can barely write reviews, except for the fact that if we don't get the list done early, we won't get to go see TRON, and we know it's gonna be amazing. Some of us already have plans to see it 3 times, once in 3D, once in a normal theater, and once on the IMAX, the previews look incredible, and the music we'd heard sounded incredible. What a great idea, who better to do the music for the new Tron than a couple of guys who look like they just stepped straight out of the movie anyway. Helmeted and futuristic, makes sense that they play DJs in the movie as well. But we digress.
We'd heard nothing but complaints and gripes about Daft Punk's score for Tron Legacy, most directed at the fact that it sounded more like a soundtrack than a Daft Punk record. Which makes sense, but that's just us.
To be fair, much of the soundtrack, doesn't sound like Daft Punk at all, so for sure, folks after a Daft Punk record, you may just be disappointed. But Tron obsessives, well, shit, you either already bought this, or didn't even get this far cuz you already tossed it in your cart. For everyone else, Daft Punk have crafted a pretty excellent score, instead of Daft Punking all the music, they actually worked with a real orchestra, and tried to create a classic score, a la John Williams, or Hans Zimmer, and to these ears, it sounds pretty great, soaring and epic and lush and evocative, and there's plenty of electronics, sometimes melded to tense strings, othertimes wrapped around orchestral swells, and occasionally left alone to create John Carpenter like synthscapes. It's not until about halfway through that it gets remotely Daft Punky, "End Of Line" is a brooding, moody, bit of propulsive sci-fi synthery, "Derezzed" is THEE jam, the one that you've no doubt heard by now, and the only REAL Daft Punk sounding track, but it's killer. Can hardly wait to see what's going on in the movie during this song, and finally, the end titles, which sound like Daft Punk doing their best eighties straight to video sci-fi VHS video jam and it rules, but beyond that, it's way more soundtracky, than Daft Punky.
We've been listening to this like crazy, and digging it big time, even removed from the movie, it sounds great, but more than anything, it has us DYING a little bit more every minute to finally see the movie!
Comes in super futuristic reflective Tron style packaging!
MPEG Stream: "Derezzed"
MPEG Stream: "Fall"
MPEG Stream: "End Of Line"
MPEG Stream: "Recognizer"
MPEG Stream: "Rinzler"

DAISIES OST (Finders Keepers) cd 23.00
Following the rabidly received reissue of the soundtrack for Jaromil Jires' early '70s treasure Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders, the folks at Finders Keepers keep the Czechoslovakian cinema adoration flowing. Here is the freshly reissued soundtrack to Cup's all-time favorite film -- Vera Chytilova's 1966 Czech New Wave masterpiece Daisies (aka Sedmikrasky)! It's an eye-popping work that incorporates an astoundingly broad variety of art styles Dada, absurdist, pop, cut-ups, collage, psychedelia, and so much more... all while delivering a potent commentary on the dark state of the world (which is as valid today as it ever was!). Genuinely radical and so ahead of its time, 'tis the Czech way that beneath a seemingly light-hearted, dreamy and charming exterior, lies a black wit and a mighty subversive heart.
The Daisies soundtrack commences with the insistent, pinched sound of a high-pitched horn and militant snare drum introduction, then just like the two main characters, the music tumbles and frolics and raises a giddy ruckus in a Technicolor kaleidoscope of fleeting melodic vignettes. Along with traditional instrumentation -- brass, woodwinds, strings, vocals, etc -- keep an ear out for the musique concrete scissor snips and a conversation between a typewriter and reedy woodwinds. They are definitely two particular highlights of both the film and soundtrack. Accompanied by processional/funereal march formalities, jazzy escapades, classical choral geysers, dainty minuets, Stalling-esque cartoony foley themes, and rambunctious surfy shimmy pop, the two female leads kick up their tipsy heels in a supper club effectively disrupting a ragtime flapper dance number, play with their food and toy with stuffily suited elder gentlemen, leave suitors hanging on the telephone, cram themselves gleefully into the tight spaces of a dumbwaiter, and... oh we don't want to give any more away. Must see! Must see! Nevertheless, taken sans the film's visuals, this soundtrack makes for a deliriously delightful, discombobulating listen all on its own! Ultra artful and fun! Feverishly wonderful, and fervently recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Sedmikrasky"
MPEG Stream: "The Juggler"
MPEG Stream: "Man With A Typewriter"

DARJEELING LIMITED, THE OST (Abkco) cd 17.98
Wes Anderson movie soundtracks are always cool. And this one's got the Bollywood angle as well. 'Nuff said.

DAVIS, MILES Lift To The Scaffold (OST) (Doxy) lp 24.00
Deadly cool, existential, and cruelly absurd, Ascenseur Pour L'Echafaud (aka Lift To The Scaffold, or Elevator To The Gallows) is one of those brilliantly black humored French noir films about an ingenious murder plan gone awry due to a random turn of events. Directed by Louis Malle and starring Jeanne Moreau, this 1958 crime thriller also featured a beautifully understated score by Miles Davis. Working with French musicians on bass, piano and tenor saxophone, along with ex-pat American drummer Kenny Clarke, Davis alternates between mostly somber processionals with a slow stalking bass and plaintive trumpet motifs, to occasionally a scurrying and frenetic bop pace depicting the seductively modern lifestyle of these carefree and careless criminals. Davis handles the noirish vibe perfectly, resonating deeply with the doom-laden mood but with a light yet foreboding touch that draws you in and entraps you long before you realize you're a goner. Very Recommended!!!!!!

DAWN OF MCKENNA Unreleased Soundtrack Music from George A. Romero's... (Trunk) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
NOW ON VINYL! Terrify your turntable with this soundtrack... Dawn Of The Dead is pretty much the greatest zombie movie ever made. It definitely set the standard, and EVERY walking dead movie since has basically just been a riff off the original. And of course the Goblin score was amazing, proggy, scary and occasionally silly, but always perfect in some unlikely way. But most of the REALLY scary parts weren't scored by Goblin but instead were one of over 2000 musical cues used in the film. This comp collects some of the longer cues (many were mere seconds long, that in the context of the film were perfect, but wouldn't make for good listening here) and some of the most memorable songs that weren't included in the Goblin score. Most of this stuff is creepy and scary and totally brings back all the spine tingly feelings you had the first time you saw the movie. But there are also some super dorky bits that were as much a part of the film and its subtle (or not so subtle) humor. There's the opening track "The Gonk", a goofy, bouncy ragtime / cartoon music workout, the hippy coutry folk ditty "Cause I'm A Man" played by the Electric Banana (which just happened to feature members of the Pretty Things!!). And who can forget the scene in the mall, and the weird medley of marching band / ragtime / progressive rock organ workout that accompanied it? But outside of those whimsical moments, the rest of this collection is really really intense and spooky. From creepy, slithering orchestral drones, shimmering gongs and tinkling chimes to Bernard Hermann-ish suspenseful minor key soundtrack stuff, all tense strings and foreboding DUH DUH's to scary outerspace synth sounds, reverbed and super affected to good ol' classic Halloween / Friday The Thirteenth style horror movie suspense music. So awesome!
MPEG Stream: P. LEMEL "Cosmogony Pt. 1"
MPEG Stream: E. TOWREN "Sinestre"
MPEG Stream: P. RENO "Cause I'm A Man"

DAWN OF THE DEAD (OST) (Dagored) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

DAWN OF THE DEAD Unreleased Soundtrack Music from George A. Romero's... (Trunk) cd 16.98
Finally this all-time AQ favorite is back in print!
Dawn Of The Dead is pretty much the greatest zombie movie ever made. It definitely set the standard, and EVERY walking dead movie since has basically just been a riff off the original. And of course the Goblin score was amazing, proggy, scary and occasionally silly, but always perfect in some unlikely way. But most of the REALLY scary parts weren't scored by Goblin but instead were one of over 2000 musical cues used in the film. This comp collects some of the longer cues (many were mere seconds long, that in the context of the film were perfect, but wouldn't make for good listening here) and some of the most memorable songs that weren't included in the Goblin score. Most of this stuff is creepy and scary and totally brings back all the spine tingly feelings you had the first time you saw the movie. But there are also some super dorky bits that were as much a part of the film and its subtle (or not so subtle) humor. There's the opening track "The Gonk", a goofy, bouncy ragtime / cartoon music workout, the hippy country folk ditty "Cause I'm A Man" played by the Electric Banana (which just happened to feature members of the Pretty Things!!). And who can forget the scene in the mall, and the weird medley of marching band / ragtime / progressive rock organ workout that accompanied it? But outside of those whimsical moments, the rest of this collection is really really intense and spooky. From creepy, slithering orchestral drones, shimmering gongs and tinkling chimes to Bernard Hermann-ish suspenseful minor key soundtrack stuff, all tense strings and foreboding DUH DUH's to scary outerspace synth sounds, reverbed and super affected to good ol' classic Halloween / Friday The Thirteenth style horror movie suspense music. So awesome!
MPEG Stream: P. LEMEL "Cosmogony Pt. 1"
MPEG Stream: E. TOWREN "Sinestre"
MPEG Stream: P. RENO "Cause I'm A Man"

DE MASI, FRANCESCO India (OST) (Hexacord) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally back in stock! "India" was a documentary produced for Italian TV in 1966, and the music on this disc was the audio interpretation composed to accompany it by composer Francesco De Masi. That's the straight forward, factual explanation of this disc. However, the music itself is not what most of us would probably expect to find accompanying such a documentary. We have to give Francesco De Masi some credit for his creative license though. After all, it was 1966 and Ravi Shankar was yet to become a household name. I imagine that the director gave Francesco a silent print for him to view and score the compositions for the film. Having never been to India and having no concept of what the music there sounded like and additionally being encouraged to come up with something as exotic and mysterious as the images on the screen, he did the best he could. The results: fucking brilliant! De Masi definitely has skills as a scorer of soundtracks. He not only has a gift for writing evocative melodic motifs, but also in arranging and rearranging the motifs with different instrumentation, tempos, and even musical genres -- something essential to all classic soundtracks. His execution in these areas is superb. And yet, when we listen to this soundtrack today and try to imagine it accompanying a documentary about India, we sense that something is not quite right. Listening to this score with no prior information about the film it supports one might more likely guess that it was for a classic Western fused with Cold War intrigue film (though there is one giddy fife & drum reel that must have slipped in from another project on the American Revolution!) I imagine Michael Caine as an English spy in America trying to infiltrate the Navajo nation and falling in love with a beautiful Native American woman along the way. Many of the arrangements here are reminiscent of the gems of paranoid cinema (think The Ipcress File, or The Parallax View, but also Mutual of Omaha's Wild World of Animals) while also sounding like the most cliched Native American war path tune ripped from a John Wayne flick. Seems like Francesco, like Christopher Columbus before him, got his Indians mixed up. This soundtrack has it all: tension, suspense, romantic instrumentals, pensive reflections and jazzy uptempo workouts. It really is an amazing soundtrack that, were it to have been attached to a feature length film, may have been a classic by now. Not only is it fully orchestrated and creatively arranged with vibes, guitars, keyboards, flutes, horns, strings and assorted percussion, but it features sitar playing by Italian guitar and whistle virtuoso (and Ennio Morricone right hand man) Alessandro Alessandroni -- who'd apparantly never played the instrument before. Beautifully recorded and excellently remastered, this is an absolute must for all soundtrack buffs!
MPEG Stream: "In Nome di Maometto"
MPEG Stream: "Budda"
MPEG Stream: "La Carestia"

DEATH LINE (OST) (Spinney) cd 13.98
You know how a lot of soundtrack recordings are padded out with multiple versions of the same theme, reprised or otherwise repeated, when there's really only about 20 minutes of music written for the film? Well they didn't do that with this soundtrack -- it's just two cuts (the main theme, and "incidental pieces"), slightly over 20 minutes in total length.
Death Line was a British horror flick from 1972, about monsters in the London Underground or something, and the soundtrack by Will Malone is apparently a bit of a collectors' item. The main theme is more funky than it is creepy (with some great '70s bassy synth sounds), and I can totally imagine DJs salivating over the rare vinyl version. The rest of the disc is certainly eerier stuff, taking your typical horror movie soundtrack motifs (slowly bowed strings, violin stabs, spooky choral vocals) and combining 'em with some more fat, droney synth electronics. Quirkily atmospheric, likely worth the 14 bucks to soundtrack freaks.
RealAudio clip: "Main Theme"
RealAudio clip: "Incidental Pieces"

DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION PART II OST (Captiol) cd 13.98
Soundtrack to the classic metal documentary!

DEEP THROAT (OST) (Bonk ) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
In the spirit of Aquarius' long standing tradition of being on the forward thrust of aural intercourse, here's an album you should not pass up. Though the sound quality isn't the best at times (some of it really sucks, and sounds as though someone stuck their microphone up the tv set) there are some gems on here that are really hard to pass up. Even if you can't quite swallow more seventies scores, the penetrating dialog from the film more than makes up for any disappointment you may have. It's hard to play this cd in the store without having someone blush (usually it's Allan.) But really, this album not only features some truly weird and wonderful '70s porno-groove-pop (by anonymous musicians of course) but is even funnier than this review. Really.

DEEP THROAT (OST) Anthology, Part 1 & 2 (Light In The Attic) cd 13.98
We had a reissue some years back of this soundtrack but the audio was terrible (sounded like somebody had taken the soundtrack straight off the speaker of their Zenith television set). Now it comes remastered, apparently from the master tapes by the sound of it, and err.. expanded. If you've only seen or heard of one porn film it's most likely going to be Deep Throat. It was for a long time (and may still be) the highest grossing independent film ever. It's even made it into US political history in the form of the informant so named by Woodward and Bernstein during the Watergate brouhaha. Fitting then that, according to the liner notes, Richard Nixon was said to posses his own personal copy at the Whitehouse (Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. apparently also had copies). Deep Throat brought porn kicking and screaming into the mainstream. While much of the music is typical of your standard porn soundtrack: raunchy funk with loads of wah-wah guitar and peppy hammond organ, there are also plenty of atypical numbers including a laid back, let it all hang out cover of Mickey & Sylvia's "Love Is Strange". But the best track, or worst depending how you look at it, has to be the ballad "Deep Throat To You All" with breathy male vocals singing "deep throat, deeper than deep, your throat... don't row the boat, don't get your goat, that's all she wrote". It's truly truly inspired in that special way, like a classic song poem. Like those Deep Note compilations, Light In the Attic has included some of the finer parts of the movie's dialog for your enjoyment. Also included as a bonus is the soundtrack to Deep Throat's incredibly unsuccessful sequel. The music here is a pallid imitation of the original film's score, but you can take it or leave it at this price. Included is a full color booklet with a personal account on the film's impact by one viewer and an interview with Ron Jeremy on the film and its legacy.
MPEG Stream: "Bubbles"
MPEG Stream: "Deep Throat To You All"

DELAUGHTER, TIM / POLYPHONIC SPREE Thumbsucker (OST) (Sony) cd 15.98
OK folks, here it is, the soundtrack to the indie flick all the kids are talkin' 'bout. The film score was written by Tim Delaughter and performed by The Polyphonic Spree (who are sounding more and more like a children's choir with each passing day) which is a treat unto itself, but scattered throughout are three songs by the late Elliott Smith which only make the proceedings that much more heartbreaking (two previously unreleased covers of Big Star's "Thirteen" and Cat Stevens' "Trouble" as well as the track "Let's Get Lost" from Smith's last album From A Basement On A Hill). Somehow none of us have seen the film yet, but we can confirm that the soundtrack on its own swings you from carefree'n'feelgood to to dreamily contemplative to heartaches'n'bummers and back again. It all culminates in a lengthy (30-minute long) pastoral instrumental and finally a joyous reprise of Polyphonic's "Move Away And Shine".
MPEG Stream: SMITH, ELLIOTT "Thirteen"
MPEG Stream: POLYPHONIC SPREE "Move Away And Shine"

DERBYSHIRE, DELIA, BRIAN HODGSON, DON HARPER Electrosonic (Glo-Spot) cd 29.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We had the super limited (and crazy pricey!) vinyl version of this a while back, and they flew out of here. We only have a couple left of the vinyl, but we finally got it on cd, at a slightly cheaper price, and now all you sans turntable can dig on these far out sounds!!
We all went a little gaga for those BBC Radiophonic Workshop cds, amazing collections of freaky and far out music for movies and radio and television, crafted in mad scientist like labs packed to the gills with strange sound making devices, primitive analog synths, tape machines and all manner of random electronic bric a brac. Delia Derbyshire was one of the Workshop elite, having been responsible for the Dr. Who theme as well as the Tomorrow People theme and loads of other legendary BBC songs and sounds.
This cd, is a reissue of a super limited lp, which was itself a repress of a rare and long out of print disc of library mood music released on KPM in 1972. Derbyshire and her sonic cohorts recorded the record as Electrosonic, using pseudonyms as well, to avoid any sort of complications due to their positions at the BBC. The results were of course fantastic. Moody and mysterious, wild and playful, spacey and haunting. From Goblin-esque creepy haunted house synthscapes, to freaky fuzzy funky seventies sci-fi grooves, to far out bloops and bleeps. Analog synths, jazzy upright bass, tons of primitive and not so primitive effects, all whipped into impossibly catchy and fantastical sounds and songs.
MPEG Stream: "Quest"
MPEG Stream: "The Pattern Emerges"
MPEG Stream: "Celestial Cantabile"
MPEG Stream: "The Wizard's Laboratory"

DESPERATE MAN BLUES (OST) (Dust-To-Digital) cd 15.98

DEVIL DOLL Dies Irae (Hurdy Gurdy) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another disc of horrifying progressive creepiness from Italian underground masters of the bizarre and the frightening, Devil Doll. Never was a band more suited to scoring horror films (since Goblin), but Devil Doll don't, they just weave epic and haunting filmless scores, leaving it to your imagination to come up with the ghastly images that must surely accompany music this horrific. Dark and meandering, strings and organs, and this time around a female opera singer accompanies Mr. Doctor's inhuman falsetto howl/growl. This is so good. Imagine a weirder, and occasionally more metal Goblin, with a vocalist who is Diamanda Galas, Dani Filth and Sainko Namtchylak all wrapped up in one hunchbacked pointy-eared hobgoblin. So good.
RealAudio clip: "One"
RealAudio clip: "Two"
RealAudio clip: "Three"

DEVIL DOLL Eliogabalus (Hurdy Gurdy) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Still even more haunting and lush frightscapes from this Italian troupe of musical miscreants. Orchestral and progressive and heavy and occasionally carnivalesque. Super distorted creep-out piano abruptly shifts to a melancholy soundscape underpinning mad Mr. Doctor's maniacal whispers as duelling distorted cellos and halloween violins explode into a haunted carnival complete with shuffling snares, burping tubas and violent squalls spinning from side to side courtesy of some extreme stereo panning. Imagine Godspeed You Black Emperor if they were raised on King Crimson and ELP, were forced to watch Fulci and Argento movies non stop, while listening to Wagner and Eighties Metal, huffing ether and drinking absinthe. Then add the most insane frontman ever, incorporating the best (or worst) parts of Marilyn Manson, Serge Gainsbourg, Rob Halford, the Gyuto monks, Dani Filth (Cradle of Filth), Geddy Lee, Klaus Nomi and Diamanda Galas. Ridiculous, amazing, and so completely recommended.
RealAudio clip: "Mr. Doctor"

DEVIL DOLL Sacrilege Of Fatal Arms (Hurdy Gurdy) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another Devil Doll record that we finally managed to get our hands on. This is apparently a fan club only re-release and the sleeve warns that "this music can alter your mental health". It sure is strange enough that it might make you wonder what the hell you're listening to. An orchestra tunes up, some polite applause and then a Sousa-style march that is interrupted by what sounds like an Italian politician whipping an angry mob into a frenzy. Then it gets serious. Strings and organ accompany sinister chants in a liturgy of the damned that turns into a Goblin-esque prog workout. It's a crime that some horror film director didn't grab these guys cause they make some of the most tense, evocative faux soundtrack music we've heard (although this is supposedly an actual soundtrack). About 6 minutes into it, the Devil Doll we all know and love starts to materialise, with the unmistakable strains of Mr. Doctor's hissed/whispered/growled vocals taking over and leading the listener through a surreal maze of terror and insanity. Fans of Goblin will love this. One eighty minute track.
RealAudio clip: "The Sacrilege of Fatal Arms"

DEVIL DOLL Sacrilegium (Hurdy Gurdy) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
More Devil Doll insanity. It seems unfair to always compare Devil Doll to Goblin, but it's sort of unavoidable as they both traffic in the same creepy proggy nightmarescapes and they are both so good. To be fair though, Devil Doll have more room to play since they aren't composing for actual films, which ends up making them a lot stranger. 'Sacrilegium' begins with a bang, soaring organs and seventies prog slowly overtaken by a demonic choir chanting some sacred rites. Then, Mr. Doctor, the high priest of Devil Doll, begins his serpentine recitation, of mysteries and tales of horror with his warbling raspy falsetto. Truly haunting and fucking far out. Again it's the vocals that keep this band so cult, but if you ask me, it's exactly what makes this band so amazing.

DEVIL'S REJECTS, THE (OST) (Universal) dualdisc cd / DVD 17.98
Plenty of folks hated the movie House Of 1000 Corpses. We weren't among 'em. Sure it was a bit of a mess, a little confused, and borrowed HEAVILY from the classics (Last House On The Left, The Hills Have Eyes, and especially The Texas Chainsaw Massacre). But so what?!?! It was a GREAT looking movie. It was fun and gory and gross and pretty wild. One of the problems was putting it up against all the blockbusters, marketing it like a big movie, instead of letting it build momentum and exist as an art house flick, where it belonged. And part of that had to do with the celebrity status of first time director Rob Zombie, of the band White Zombie. The famous rock band, MTV, and all that, the studio probably smelled big bucks. But let's be honest, part of it had to do with the fact that it was not the greatest movie. But that said, imagine you were a total horror movie obsessive, seventies freak, wrestling fan and metal musician, and you were given $7 million dollars to make a horror movie. Doubt we could come up with anything nearly as cool and creepy and evocative as House Of 1000 Corpses. So yeah, we were predisposed to dig the sort-of-sequel The Devil's Rejects. But we had no idea just how much we'd love it. Fuck! This movie totally kicked our ass. Not only was it way more grim and violent and brutal than HO1000C, but the soundtrack was absolutely killer!! First a bit about the movie. Way darker and SO VIOLENT. So violent in fact it's a bit hard to believe they got away with just an R rating. A bit less over the top and outrageous than HO1000C, but definitely more confident, none of those debut feature mis-steps, and a much tighter story arc, and lots of cool cult movie legends (Pee Wee Herman's girlfriend Dottie as a hooker! The Hills Have Eyes' Michael Berryman as the pimp's sidekick / janitor! Sid Haig again as the creepy Captain Spaulding) as well as an amazing bit when the sheriff calls in a very fey Gene Shalit like movie expert to discuss Marx Brothers films! So funny! The crazy part is how blurry the line is between good and evil. The titular Devil's Rejects are definitely evil and reprehensible, but they're also sort of cool. And bad ass. Albeit in a morally repugnant way. And when the tables are turned, you actually feel sort of bad for them, and hope they'll be able to turn the tables again. And the Sheriff who hunts them down, well he's maybe just as bad. Only difference is he has a badge. Anyway, the movie is bleak and brutal, dusty and sun baked, unlike most 'horror' movies, most of the action takes place under a hot summer sun, and the film stock, the look and feel is all very seventies. So evocative of our youth, which is part of why the soundtrack is so great. Unlike the first movie, where due to budgetary restraints, Zombie was forced to write and record much of the music himself, these tracks were obviously lovingly and carefully chosen, and in the context of the film they are so so perfect. You don't really expect to hear these songs as the musical accompaniment to such utter brutality. The opening credits, a series of stills set to the Allman Brothers' "Midnight Rider", hits so hard, the lyrical refrain of "Not gonna let 'em catch me, no" and the weird moody vibe of the song, as well as the almost jaunty guitar solo, is so weirdly perfect as we watch the Rejects make their getaway. The rest of the soundtrack is packed full of seventies classics, that while being perfect in the film, also play so well as some fucked up seventies eight-track mix tape. Three Dog Night, Elvin Bishop (whose track gets discussed in the movie!), The James Gang, Joe Walsh, David Essex as well as some classic oldies from Otis Rush, Kitty Wells, Buck Owens and the mysterious (and totally kick ass) Banjo And Sullivan, a lower tier 'fictional' honky Tonk band who meet their untimely demise in the movie. The biggest surprise had to be the tracks from Terry Reid. So haunting and achingly beautiful. We knew that he was once the first choice to sing for Led Zeppelin, but the more country tracks here are fucking fantastic. So gut wrenchingly beautiful. The Reid track "Seed Of Memory" plays over the final credits and had us totally choked up. Wow. And you might wince at the inclusion of "Freebird", and you might skip it when you're listening to this disc, but in the context of the movie, and the time the stuff in the movie suppossedly took place, it's perfect! Anyway, it must mean something that with the hundreds of records we have to listen to every day, we keep throwing this one back on. And we're pretty sure we're gonna go see The Devil's Rejects AGAIN and AGAIN!! Various soundbites from the film are interspersed between the tracks as well as a couple Banjo And Sullivan radio spots, and this is one of those dual discs, with a cd on one side and a DVD on the other. The DVD features a 30 minute making of The Devil's Rejects short, a bunch of trailers, and you can listen to a Dolby DVD-audio version of the soundtrack accompanied by a slide show of stills from the movies as well as behind the scenes photos.
MPEG Stream: THE ALLMAN BROTHERS "Midnight Rider"
MPEG Stream: THREE DOG NIGHT "Shambala"
MPEG Stream: TERRY REID "Seed Of Memory"

DIAMONDS (OST) (Cinephile) cd 15.98
Sountrack to the 1976 film Diamonds, composed by Roy Budd.

DIRTY BEACHES Water Park OST (A Recordings Ltd.) cd 9.98
Also on cd (10" version listed last time)...
The latest from Dirty Beaches is not at all like past releases, which trafficked in a sort of grimy lo-fi RnB, since here there are no vocals, so that haunting Elvis-y croon is absent, and really, the whole dark twang slomo-soul thing has been replaced with a dreamy, ethereal, swirling liquid shimmer, which makes sense once you realize this is not in fact a new album, but is instead a soundtrack, for a film about an indoor waterpark in a mall in Canada, and Dirty Beaches does manage to conjure up the vibe of glimmering reflective sun dappled water, the music almost sounding as if it was recorded beneath the surface, a sort of blurred Oval like dreaminess, the instrumentation just oscillators, mellotrons, chamberlins, strings and processed electric guitar, all smeared into lovely swaths of hushed minimal drift.
The opener is almost New Agey, sounding a bit kosmische, but sunshiney and softly swirly, one can almost imagine floating on the open water, ears underwater, gazing at the blue sky above. The second track, titled appropriately "Floating Underwater Watching Waves", gets a little bit noisier, the sound gritty and low fidelity, with noisy swells swirling over murky melodies, and a sonar like high end pulse, haunting and hypnotic.
The rest of this brief soundtrack is separated into shorter sonic vignettes, lush orchestral drones, twang flecked, hazy slowcore dirges, swirling solo guitar thrum, echo drenched tangles of deep pools of reverb, chiming, cinematic melancholia, replete with faux woodwinds, and finally, a reprise of the opening track, that seems to let the listener, gradually disappear into the (not so) deep blue mystery of this tranquil pool in a strange Canadian waterpark. Lovely!
MPEG Stream: "Water Park Theme (Take 2)"
MPEG Stream: "Floating Underwater Watching Waves"
MPEG Stream: "Phases"

DIRTY BEACHES Water Park OST (A Recordings Ltd.) 10" 16.98
The latest from Dirty Beaches is not at all like past releases, which trafficked in a sort of grimy lo-fi RnB, since here there are no vocals, so that haunting Elvis-y croon is absent, and really, the whole dark twang slomo-soul thing has been replaced with a dreamy, ethereal, swirling liquid shimmer, which makes sense once you realize this is not in fact a new album, but is instead a soundtrack, for a film about an indoor waterpark in a mall in Canada, and Dirty Beaches does manage to conjure up the vibe of glimmering reflective sun dappled water, the music almost sounding as if it was recorded beneath the surface, a sort of blurred Oval like dreaminess, the instrumentation just oscillators, mellotrons, chamberlins, strings and processed electric guitar, all smeared into lovely swaths of hushed minimal drift.
The opener is almost New Agey, sounding a bit kosmische, but sunshiney and softly swirly, one can almost imagine floating on the open water, ears underwater, gazing at the blue sky above. The second track, titled appropriately "Floating Underwater Watching Waves", gets a little bit noisier, the sound gritty and low fidelity, with noisy swells swirling over murky melodies, and a sonar like high end pulse, haunting and hypnotic.
The rest of this brief soundtrack is separated into shorter sonic vignettes, lush orchestral drones, twang flecked, hazy slowcore dirges, swirling solo guitar thrum, echo drenched tangles of deep pools of reverb, chiming, cinematic melancholia, replete with faux woodwinds, and finally, a reprise of the opening track, that seems to let the listener, gradually disappear into the (not so) deep blue mystery of this tranquil pool in a strange Canadian waterpark. Lovely!
MPEG Stream: "Water Park Theme (Take 2)"
MPEG Stream: "Floating Underwater Watching Waves"
MPEG Stream: "Phases"

DIVA (OST) (Koch) cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The special 20th anniversary edition of the soundtrack for this Jean-Jacques Beineix film. If you're unfamiliar with "Diva", it is an ultra stylish, darkly witty French thriller of theft, opera and murder (not to oversimplify things, mind you). Highly recommended, as is this beautiful soundtrack. Includes 8 previously unreleased tracks.

DOCTOR WHO AT THE BBC RADIOPHONIC WORKSHOP Volume 1: The Early Years, 1963-1969 (Mute) cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We've featured some BBC Radiophonic Workshop collections in the past, but these two discs are especially exciting as it's all music and sound effects from the cult British television show Doctor Who! Before we get into it, Doctor Who fanatics, please go easy on us. We're new to this whole Doctor Who thing (not me! says Doctor Who fan Allan). For one we only recently learned that the Doctor was not indeed named Doctor Who, but simply 'The Doctor' which then prompts the response "Doctor Who?". We know, we know... Anyway, our pal Jay Lesser introduced us to the wonderful world of Doctor Who, by lending us a massive load of Doctor Who DVD's and now we're hooked. So hooked that we had our friend Lynda record the NEW series for us and send them over as they aired. And while we know everyone has a favorite Doctor, and for us it was Tom Baker (maybe just because he was our first!) we have been pretty smitten with the NEW Doctor, Christopher Eccleston (Shallow Grave, 28 Days Later, 24 Hour Party People). Unfortunately he only signed up for one season, and we've only gotten a brief glimpse of the new Doctor (that would be Doctor number 10!). Anyway, point is we've been all fired up about the new season, which features the same music, the same sound effects, but in a much more modern package. Still properly cheesy, but way more advanced. The important thing is all the classic sounds are there. It's part of what made the show so great. And makes the new version great too. When you hear the sound of the TARDIS landing, you get that familiar little chill. Part thrill part deja vu. And all those sounds are here on these two discs: the materialization of the TARDIS, creepy music for the Daleks, as well as loads of random sound effects and bits of incidental music, even multiple versions of the classic theme song (composed by BBC Radiophonic Workshop legend Delia Derbyshire)! So cool! Just listening to these has gotten us all excited to watch more Doctor Who. Volume One covers the early years, 1963-1969, while Volume Two is subtitled New Beginnings and covers the years 1970-1980. Doctor Who fanatics will no doubt probably already own these (or if not will buy them immediately without even reading the review), but anyone who loves weird sound effects and digs crazy sounds will love these. And even though they seem to be a bit of a hodgepodge of random sounds and snippets of music, they are a surprisingly cohesive and totally enjoyable listen! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!
MPEG Stream: "Doctor Who (Original Theme)"
MPEG Stream: "Tardis Takeoff ("An Unearthly Child")"
MPEG Stream: ""The Edge Of Destruction""

DOCTOR WHO AT THE BBC RADIOPHONIC WORKSHOP Volume 2: New Beginnings, 1970-1980 (Mute) cd 21.00
We've featured some BBC Radiophonic Workshop collections in the past, but these two discs are especially exciting as it's all music and sound effects from the cult British television show Doctor Who! Before we get into it, Doctor Who fanatics, please go easy on us. We're new to this whole Doctor Who thing (not me! says Doctor Who fan Allan). For one we only recently learned that the Doctor was not indeed named Doctor Who, but simply 'The Doctor' which then prompts the response "Doctor Who?". We know, we know... Anyway, our pal Jay Lesser introduced us to the wonderful world of Doctor Who, by lending us a massive load of Doctor Who DVD's and now we're hooked. So hooked that we had our friend Lynda record the NEW series for us and send them over as they aired. And while we know everyone has a favorite Doctor, and for us it was Tom Baker (maybe just because he was our first!) we have been pretty smitten with the NEW Doctor, Christopher Eccleston (Shallow Grave, 28 Days Later, 24 Hour Party People). Unfortunately he only signed up for one season, and we've only gotten a brief glimpse of the new Doctor (that would be Doctor number 10!). Anyway, point is we've been all fired up about the new season, which features the same music, the same sound effects, but in a much more modern package. Still properly cheesy, but way more advanced. The important thing is all the classic sounds are there. It's part of what made the show so great. And makes the new version great too. When you hear the sound of the TARDIS landing, you get that familiar little chill. Part thrill part deja vu. And all those sounds are here on these two discs: the materialization of the TARDIS, creepy music for the Daleks, as well as loads of random sound effects and bits of incidental music, even multiple versions of the classic theme song (composed by BBC Radiophonic Workshop legend Delia Derbyshire)! So cool! Just listening to these has gotten us all excited to watch more Doctor Who. Volume One covers the early years, 1963-1969, while Volume Two is subtitled New Beginnings and covers the years 1970-1980. Doctor Who fanatics will no doubt probably already own these (or if not will buy them immediately without even reading the review), but anyone who loves weird sound effects and digs crazy sounds will love these. And even though they seem to be a bit of a hodgepodge of random sounds and snippets of music, they are a surprisingly cohesive and totally enjoyable listen! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!
MPEG Stream: "TARDIS Control On And Warp Transfer ("Inferno")"
MPEG Stream: "Blue Veils And Golden Sands ("Inferno")"
MPEG Stream: "The Master's Theme ("The Mind Of Evil")"

DONNIE DARKO (ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK) (Elgonix) cd 17.98
Easily one of, if not THE, best movies of 2001. Dark and beautiful and sad and haunting and creepy as fuck. Saw it right after Lynch's 'Mulholland Drive' and it was so much better. Next to 'Donnie Darko', 'Mulholland Drive' was like a hard up college kid's crappy student film. I can't believe that sort of faux-surrealism and those hokey special effects still have people freaking out about David Lynch. Anyway, 'Donnie Darko' is a gorgeously surreal, sort-of-horror film, sort-of-coming-of-age-film, with tender awkward teen romance, family tragedy, alienated youth, and with some time travel and a giant demon-faced bunny thrown in for good measure. So beautiful and tender, but genuinely frightening at the same time. And much of the mood is owed to the amazing score. A dark mix of rumbling drones and melancholy piano, wispy minor key song fragments, atonal musique concrete, and a totally soul stirring, heartbreaking, and eerie version of Tears For Fears' eighties classic 'Mad World' (you know the one: '...the dreams in which I'm dying are the best I ever had...'). In fact most of the soundtrack (outside the score) is made up of songs by Tears For Fears, Joy Division and Echo And The Bunnymen, none of which, sadly, are included here. But the score and the reworked 'Mad World' are enough to make this a must own. Also includes an alternate mix of 'Mad World' with skittery lo-fi drum machine that actually works pretty well, giving it a sort of Portishead vibe. Like the movie, WAY recommended.
RealAudio clip: "Mad World "
RealAudio clip: "Gretchen Ross"
RealAudio clip: "Ensurance Trap"
RealAudio clip: "The Artifact and Living"

DRAGUNS, GEORGE Huffing Gas (self-released) cd-r 9.98
On this pro-duped, full color printed cd-r release Huffing Gas, one-man-home-studio-band George Draguns (a skilled skateboarder, noted wit, professional historic preservationist, and one of the many former fillers of the bass-playing position in Pennsylvania math rockers Don Caballero) has crafted a collection of instrumental tracks that are kinda post rock, even almost psych or krautrocky in spots... definitely all very moody and low-key and quite pleasurable. Not surprisingly, these were originally composed as soundtrack music for a friend's independent film project. But these need no visuals, this music is fine all by itself, although the cover art -- a strange painting entitled "Pumaseance" -- seems appropriate, somehow. The track titles, too, are jokey nonsequiturs ("Fake Drug Problem", "A New Hat", "Free Ironic Mustache Rides", "Addiction Overdose") that bear no evident relation to the sound of each piece. Some tracks have a droney groove that reminds us a bit of Circle's jazzier cousin Ektroverde, others are darker and mellower. It's hard to describe this, really. "31st Century Maximal Minimalism" is offered up by the science-fiction inspired liner notes, but that's no help is it? Whatever it is, we like it. George now has a band project happening (Thee New Zeeland, a stoner rock outfit) but we hope he continues with his solo home-recorded experiments as well.
MPEG Stream: "Sharpened Sticks On Fire"
MPEG Stream: "Ballad Of Dale Nixon"

DUMBO OST (Disney) cd 15.98
Remastered and on cd for the first time. One of the best soundtracks in Disney history. Playful, silly, beautiful and sad, from the heartbreaking "Baby Mine" to the wacky and rambunctious "When I See An Elephant Fly." Highly recommended.

EL TOPO (OST) (Real Gone) lp 30.00
The great Chilean experimental filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky directed, starred in and composed the music for one of THEE flat out strangest cinematic experiences ever made. El Topo from 1970 was Jodorowsky's bloody surreal take on the Western genre and was the film that began the phenomenon of the Midnight Movie. Funded by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, this film is like a Sergio Leone film on a serious dose of brown acid. Visually stunning and brutally violent, El Topo shares the avant garde qualities of all of Jodorowsky's early films: the soul-baring psyche of experimental theater, the role-playing excess of costumes, props and pageantry, the ritualistic entanglements of violence and beauty as catalysts of transformation, and most importantly the notion of existence as a journey through all kinds of personal and mystical revelations both sacred and profane. The soundtrack is comprised of 18 tracks composed by Jodorowsky and John Barham inspired by both the soundtrack work of Ennio Morricone and Nino Rota. Full of flutes and droning horns, accordions and organs and twisted Mariachi styles. The music is as visceral as buzzing flies around the rotting corpse of an evil marauder. Highly Recommended!
180 grams, gatefold, remastered from original tapes, with 4 page booklet including stills from the movie.
MPEG Stream: "La Catedral De Los Puercos (The Pigs Monastery)"
MPEG Stream: "Vals Fantasma"
MPEG Stream: "Las Flores Nacen En El Barro (Flowers Born In the Mud)"

ENOCKSSON, ERIK Farval Falkenberg (Kning Disk) cd 15.98
Another disc we knew nothing about and just luckily stumbled across (with our interest whetted due to its label affiliation, Kning usually being quite interest-ing). We were initially struck by the gorgeous cover, an embroidered landscape, all oranges and blacks, the texture of the background fabric adding grit to the already dark and mysterious shapes and hues in the foreground. The words Farval Falkenberg printed in huge gold metallic letters, strangely poetic song titles.
We later discovered that this is in fact the soundtrack to a Swedish film, a coming of age story, sad and bittersweet, and the music couldn't be more perfect. The opening track had us completely smitten within seconds. A gorgeously melancholy acoustic guitar, spinning a soft sad melody, mournful and moody, the main melody is whistled, giving the track a certain childlike vibe, a bit of a Morricone / Bjorn Olsson feel too, it seriously gives us shivers just writing about it. Then the 'chorus' kicks in, and adds soft focus piano plinking in the background, another guitar higher up in the mix, simple tambourine percussion. It's so evocative, you can't help but let your mind start making up different scenes from this movie you've never seen. Lonely walks, sitting by the window, rain pouring down, wandering along railroad tracks, laying in bed staring at the cracks in the ceiling. Wow.
And the rest of the record is just as compelling. Every song a mini super emotional epic. Organs wheeze ominously, acoustic guitars flutter and flit, chimes drift and shimmer, the piano returns in dense swells, bits of static and glitchy hiss intrude like someone changing stations on the radio, there are creaks and groans, distant rumbles, bits of electronic skitter, subtle drones, chimes, bells, even the occasional vocals, but it's always about the guitar, it's delicate dreamlike melodies, and how it's so perfectly intertwined with the piano and the organ. So moving and intense. Think Rachel's, Dirty Three, Pinetop Seven, Japancakes, Godspeed, but somehow much less arty, and more genuine, subtly experimental, but practically perfect, dark, emotional, so incredibly moving. Makes us want to see the film so bad, but in the meantime, it's the ideal music for whatever film you have running through your head. And of course the absolutely perfect soundtrack for lonely walks, staring at the ceiling, staring out the windows in the rain, wandering along railroad tracks, etc...
MPEG Stream: "The Joy Of D.H. Lawrence"
MPEG Stream: "Dusk Settles In"
MPEG Stream: "The Breaking Of Waves"

ERASERHEAD OST (Subversive Cinema / Absurda) cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Here's the soundtrack to David Lynch's infamous, career defining early cult film Eraserhead. It's a work that lead actor Jack Nance was so dedicated to that he kept the same extreme cumulonimbus hairdo for the five year duration of its filming! It's a work so claustrophobic, nightmarish, perverse, anxiety ridden, bleak and black humor heavy that it continues to this day to be unsurpassed in many strange and wonderful ways.
Many movie soundtrack cds these days are just glorified rock compilations. Not this one! It's a genuine soundtrack, and a strange and beautiful one at that. Filled with intrusive industrial scrapes and discomfiting silences, the soundtrack unquestionably plays an integral role in brewing up the unsettling atmospheres that Lynch navigates with an unchartered dream logic. Unfriendly cold sweat drones, prickly electrical charges, choked guttural gurgles, distant echoes of carnival organ melodies and dialogue snippits lurch in and out of focus, but out of all this grey dankness emerges the Lady in the radiator's "In Heaven (Everything Is Fine)". So good.
MPEG Stream: "excerpt 1 (regular chickens)"
MPEG Stream: "excerpt 2 (in heaven) "

FARM The Innermost Limits Of Pure Fun (EM Records) cd 22.00
Ah, yes it's summertime! Warm sunshine and trips to the beach! And what's more summery than surf music? Lo and behold, our favorite label for obscure and amazing reissues, Japan's EM Records, has a special new series of five, count 'em, five reissues devoted to lost "surf" music treasures. The first two, by Farm and Peter Martin & Finch, are out now, with the others to follow in short order. We're pretty sure all of 'em are awesome.
And if you're familiar with the eccentricity of this label, you'll know that this "EM Under Water" series isn't going to be about, y'know, "regular" surf music of the Jan & Dean or Ventures variety, nope. These first two releases are both soundtracks to rad '70s surfing movies, and are fully psychedelic, with tripped out grooves, synth experiments, and heavy rock jamming all part of the mix.
This one's really fantastic. The music for the legendary 1970 Australian surf documentary The Innermost Limits Of Pure Fun was done by a hippy band called Farm from Santa Barbara who themselves were part of the SoCal surf scene. Their lead guitarist, Denny Aaberg, even wrote a novel about his surfing days called Big Wednesday that was eventually made into movie starring Jan-Michael Vincent and Gary Busey! Other members later on played with such bands as the Surf Punks in the '80s and the Beach Boys in the '90s... and weirder still, The Captain from Captain and Tennille is on here somewhere too. But this is like none of that, needless to say. Farm's sound was more of a special surf/soundtrack/psych hybrid...
There's plenty of glorious mellow jazzy groovers on here, with organ that reminds us a bit of Bo Hansson's stuff, as well tracks like the heavy electric blues of "Zan Ho Zay" and the gorgeous folky acoustic guitar intricacy of "Innerspace". Mostly instrumental, but for two charming vocal cuts, "Crumple Car" and "The Eater", this is surf-psych at its peak for sure. A lot of the record was constructed around live jams, including the soundtrack's finale, the 13 minute improv "Coming Of The Dawn", a track Farm recorded in real-time response to a projection of the film's most awe-inspiring "inside the pipe" sequence. The filmmaker had rigged up a waterproof camera contraption that he was able to strap to his back and use to shoot while riding his board, one of the innovative techniques that made it a groundbreaking surf movie. This soundtrack had to help too!
This reish, done in the usual thorough EM style, is packaged in a nice gatefold sleeve with a thick, fully illustrated booklet in English and Japanese and other bits of ephemera tipped in, and includes a QuickTime video clip on the cd of an interview with the band. As well, both this and also the soundtrack to Drouyn include liner notes by Aussie surf music expert Stephen J. McPharland (author of Waltzing The Plank: The Illustrated Encyclopedia Of Australian Surf Music 1963-2003).
MPEG Stream: "Crystal Shingles"
MPEG Stream: "Animal"
MPEG Stream: "Snake Charmer"

FASTWAY Trick Or Treat OST (Columbia) cd 5.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**

FENNESZ, CHRISTIAN Aun: The Beginning And The End Of All Things (Soundtrack) (Ash International) cd 15.98
While not a proper new Fennesz 'album' per se, Aun is in fact a soundtrack to a new film by Austrian director Edgar Honetschlager, incorporating a few collaborative pieces previously released on the album Cendre, which found Christian Fennesz teamed up with pianist Ryuchi Sakamoto. Surprisingly, those tracks, already pretty cinematic, fit perfectly amidst Fennesz' original music for Honetschlager's film. And while we've yet to see the film, the music on its own is lovely, and hauntingly contemplative, especially the tracks with Sakamoto, the pointillist piano lending the music a certain gravitas, moody and melancholy. While the rest of the tracks find Fennesz weaving lush tapestries of deep glowing drones and warm whirring ambience, opening track "Kae" is dense and thick, a lush gauzy melodic stasis rife with buried melodies, the sort of sound that evokes those time lapse nature films, plants breaking through the soil, blossoming, then withering and dying. Poignant and moving, quite a feat for a track that barely cracks two minutes. Later on the soundtrack, Fennesz returns to the guitar, letting gentle strums and delicately picked notes become gently obliterated by clouds of digital errata, transforming the sound into a glitchy dreamfolk drift, those bits of glitchguitar ambience surrounded by thick slabs of deep dense digital dronemusic, tracks like "Euclides" imbuing what would otherwise be an ethereal shimmer, with an almost black hole density, while other tracks display a knack for melding airy ambience with gristled laptop buzz, the results sometimes spare and ghostly, other times bleak and blackened, but always haunting and lovely. In some ways, the sounds are almost too perfect as a soundtrack, the sort of abstract minimal ambience that seems to underpin most movies these days, but close listening reveals that this is more than rote ambience, instead, each track here is a dense multilayered mini-symphony, that even sans visuals, offers much to discover on repeated listens, and seems to blossom before the listener's ears, the sound rich with the promise of endless sonic discovery.
MPEG Stream: "Kae"
MPEG Stream: "Aware"
MPEG Stream: "Haru"
MPEG Stream: "Sekai"
MPEG Stream: "Euclides"

FERRIO, GIANNI Big Guns (Easy Tempo) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Soundtrack to the italian film directed by Tony Arzenta is super-spy-alious and breaks down to sexy-ville. For fans of other easy tempo releases and the Vampyros Lesbos.

FINAL SOLUTION, THE Brotherman (OST) (Numero Group) cd 15.98
Leave it to the Numero Group to dig up a soundtrack so lost that the film it accompanies was never even made. Cut back to 1975, when the blaxploitation film era was at its peak before its downhill slide from socially uplifting noirs to clowning ninja-pimp buffoonery, and you have the seeds of a film in the making. A former gangster turned preacher who robs the robbers and gives to the poor. Brotherman! But first, before casting, before even finishing the script, what's needed is a Grade A soundtrack. Cue guitarist, songwriter and arranger Carl Wolfolk and his fledgling Chicago-based vocal group, The Final Solution. Dipping into the SuperFly well, but with enough uniquely inventive guitar work that allows it to stand apart firmly on its own, Wolfolk created an amazing score of songs and instrumentals that still sounds remarkably fresh and non-cliched. Using flamenco style funk guitar flourishes that stab around the four part harmonies, Wolfolk interjected socially smart song-writing with sweet Northern soul nuances. Unfortunately, the plug was pulled on the film before even a still was shot, leaving Wolfolk to carry around his masterwork for more than 30 years, hoping someday the music would be released. Well, Brotherman, your time has come!
MPEG Stream: "Brotherman"
MPEG Stream: "I'm Ready For Love"
MPEG Stream: "No Place To Run"

FINAL SOLUTION, THE Brotherman (OST) (Numero Group) lp 17.98
NOW ON VINYL!!!!!
Leave it to the Numero Group to dig up a soundtrack so lost that the film it accompanies was never even made. Cut back to 1975, when the blaxploitation film era was at its peak before its downhill slide from socially uplifting noirs to clowning ninja-pimp buffoonery, and you have the seeds of a film in the making. A former gangster turned preacher who robs the robbers and gives to the poor. Brotherman! But first, before casting, before even finishing the script, what's needed is a Grade A soundtrack. Cue guitarist, songwriter and arranger Carl Wolfolk and his fledgling Chicago-based vocal group, The Final Solution. Dipping into the SuperFly well, but with enough uniquely inventive guitar work that allows it to stand apart firmly on its own, Wolfolk created an amazing score of songs and instrumentals that still sounds remarkably fresh and non-cliched. Using flamenco style funk guitar flourishes that stab around the four part harmonies, Wolfolk interjected socially smart song-writing with sweet Northern soul nuances. Unfortunately, the plug was pulled on the film before even a still was shot, leaving Wolfolk to carry around his masterwork for more than 30 years, hoping someday the music would be released. Well, Brotherman, your time has come!
MPEG Stream: "Brotherman"
MPEG Stream: "I'm Ready For Love"
MPEG Stream: "No Place To Run"

FINGERBOBS (OST) (Trunk) cd 16.98
Trunk Records strikes again, with another fantastic aural oddity, one that to folks who grew up in the UK in the seventies and eighties, might be familiar, but even then, this soundtrack to a children's program about a little mouse made from cardboard and felt, was still pretty obscure, with only 13 episodes ever produced. Each one focusing on a specific very simple theme, like wood, shapes, shadows, with every episode offering up different characters, new songs, and crafts kids could do at home. The characters were very simple puppets made out of gloves and household art supplies, worn by a balding bearded hippy wearing a scarf and a sweater, with a soothing voice, the music is fantastic, a softly psychedelic folk music, acoustic guitars and flutes, simple percussion, sweetly crooned vox, playful childlike lyrics, just check out the "Fingerbobs Theme", which musically sounds like it could be some lost seventies acid folk record, even with the lyrics actually, and removed from the show, it definitely sounds more druggy and psychedelic, but the simple percussive thumps, and main flute refrain, once you hear it, you'll have it stuck in your head for ages. Which is true of lots of the tracks here. "Fingermouse Theme" is another one, a little more playful and lullaby like, but even then, it seems to have a strange psychedelic undercurrent and some seriously weird lyrics ("my famous body swerve").
Each character has their own theme song, there's some dialogue from the show, various instrumentals, little snippets, there's even a story from the program, it's all very sweet and naive, but the music is surprisingly lovely, and in places quite psychedelic. Such a fantastic soundtrack, and from what we've seen of the show, it too is quite psychedelic. Have a look: http://youtu.be/mU32lw4WXZw
Includes lots of photos and liner notes!
MPEG Stream: "Fingerbobs Theme"
MPEG Stream: "Fingermouse Theme"
MPEG Stream: "Enoch Makes The Wheel"
MPEG Stream: "Drawing On Stones"
MPEG Stream: "Shapes"

FINGERBOBS (OST) (Trunk) lp 17.98
Trunk Records strikes again, with another fantastic aural oddity, one that to folks who grew up in the UK in the seventies and eighties, might be familiar, but even then, this soundtrack to a children's program about a little mouse made from cardboard and felt, was still pretty obscure, with only 13 episodes ever produced. Each one focusing on a specific very simple theme, like wood, shapes, shadows, with every episode offering up different characters, new songs, and crafts kids could do at home. The characters were very simple puppets made out of gloves and household art supplies, worn by a balding bearded hippy wearing a scarf and a sweater, with a soothing voice, the music is fantastic, a softly psychedelic folk music, acoustic guitars and flutes, simple percussion, sweetly crooned vox, playful childlike lyrics, just check out the "Fingerbobs Theme", which musically sounds like it could be some lost seventies acid folk record, even with the lyrics actually, and removed from the show, it definitely sounds more druggy and psychedelic, but the simple percussive thumps, and main flute refrain, once you hear it, you'll have it stuck in your head for ages. Which is true of lots of the tracks here. "Fingermouse Theme" is another one, a little more playful and lullaby like, but even then, it seems to have a strange psychedelic undercurrent and some seriously weird lyrics ("my famous body swerve").
Each character has their own theme song, there's some dialogue from the show, various instrumentals, little snippets, there's even a story from the program, it's all very sweet and naive, but the music is surprisingly lovely, and in places quite psychedelic. Such a fantastic soundtrack, and from what we've seen of the show, it too is quite psychedelic. Have a look: http://youtu.be/mU32lw4WXZw
Includes lots of photos and liner notes!
MPEG Stream: "Fingerbobs Theme"
MPEG Stream: "Fingermouse Theme"
MPEG Stream: "Enoch Makes The Wheel"
MPEG Stream: "Drawing On Stones"
MPEG Stream: "Shapes"

FIST OF FURY (OST) (Tam) lp 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Soundtrack to one of my favorite Bruce Lee movies reissued on vinyl! Starts off with moody strings and shuffling snares, that are soon joined by soaring baritone vocals, sounding a whole lot like an old Morricone western. The entire rest of the soundtrack is mostly dialogue and the sounds of fighting from the movie, with a tiny bit of incidental music. Almost as if they had just recorded the movie off the TV. DJs will go apeshit over this.

FLAMING LIPS, THE Christmas On Mars (Warner Bros.) cd+dvd 25.00
We had been holding off on reviewing this until someone here had actually watched the Flaming Lips movie, but it's been so busy around here we haven't had time. And since most Flaming Lips fans are gonna want this no matter what, and folks who have yet to discover the joys of the Lips, would most likely be better off starting a little further back in their catalog, we figured what the heck, let's review the record, the score to the movie, and give a brief synopsis of the movie, just so folks can actually buy it and check it out for themselves.
So the record, is not a NEW Flaming Lips record, in fact it's not even a proper Flaming Lips record, as mentioned above it's the score to the film of the same name, the one the band has been working on for close to a decade. So there's no big drums, none of Wayne Coyne's wavery vocalizing, no lush popscapes or BIG hooks, but the thing is, with all of those critical Lips elements removed, the band manage to still make Christmas On Mars sound like a Flaming Lips record, albeit a stripped down sort of ambient one.
But heck, remember Zaireeka? The 4 disc set that had the various tracks broken down and spread out over the various discs so to hear the complete songs you had to have 4 stereos and play them all simultaneously? Well, in some ways this almost sounds like ONE disc from Zaireeka, like the backgrounds for proper Lips pop songs. haunting disembodied voices, lush harps and zithers, faux strings, creepy orchestrations, strange sound effects, choirs, shimmering drones, but all shot through with a little bit of Christmas, be it a melody here, or an instrument there. Even removed from the visuals, this plays like some super avant, outsider Christmas record, which, it sort of is. So yeah, recommended for open minded fans of the band, and for folks into space-y (holiday) weirdness, or wonderfully creepy film scores like that Bernard Hermann Brave New World disc we listed awhile back.
But that's not all. Both the cd and the lp version (which has a different name for some reason) contain a dvd containing the film Christmas On Mars, a sort of updated but still WAY low budget Plan 9 From Outerspace, starring the bands and lots of their friends. What little we've seen looks really fun, and pretty silly, and definitely demented, again, movie buffs might not love it (movie buffs into kitsch and so-bad-they're-good movies might though) but fans will go nuts for it. The trailer is amazing, super stylized and very very strange, definitely has us wanting to see it bad. One of these days. But for now, check it out. Lips fans, this is essential obviously, the rest of you, depends on how you feel about the band and their music, or how you feel about a green alien with antennae who saves Christmas.
The lp, titled Once Beyond Hopelessness, not only contains the same music as the cd, and the movie on dvd, it also includes a BONUS 7" with exclusive music NOT on the cd!
MPEG Stream: "Once Beyond Hopelessness"
MPEG Stream: "In Excelsior Vagianlistic"
MPEG Stream: "Space Bible With Volume Lumps"

FLAMING LIPS, THE Once Beyond Hopelessness (Christmas On Mars OST) (Warner Bros.) lp + dvd + 7" 32.00
We had been holding off on reviewing this until someone here had actually watched the Flaming Lips movie, but it's been so busy around here we haven't had time. And since most Flaming Lips fans are gonna want this no matter what, and folks who have yet to discover the joys of the Lips, would most likely be better off starting a little further back in their catalog, we figured what the heck, let's review the record, the score to the movie, and give a brief synopsis of the movie, just so folks can actually buy it and check it out for themselves.
So the record, is not a NEW Flaming Lips record, in fact it's not even a proper Flaming Lips record, as mentioned above it's the score to the film of the same name, the one the band has been working on for close to a decade. So there's no big drums, none of Wayne Coyne's wavery vocalizing, no lush popscapes or BIG hooks, but the thing is, with all of those critical Lips elements removed, the band manage to still make Christmas On Mars sound like a Flaming Lips record, albeit a stripped down sort of ambient one.
But heck, remember Zaireeka? The 4 disc set that had the various tracks broken down and spread out over the various discs so to hear the complete songs you had to have 4 stereos and play them all simultaneously? Well, in some ways this almost sounds like ONE disc from Zaireeka, like the backgrounds for proper Lips pop songs. haunting disembodied voices, lush harps and zithers, faux strings, creepy orchestrations, strange sound effects, choirs, shimmering drones, but all shot through with a little bit of Christmas, be it a melody here, or an instrument there. Even removed from the visuals, this plays like some super avant, outsider Christmas record, which, it sort of is. So yeah, recommended for open minded fans of the band, and for folks into space-y (holiday) weirdness, or wonderfully creepy film scores like that Bernard Hermann Brave New World disc we listed awhile back.
But that's not all. Both the cd and the lp version (which has a different name for some reason) contain a dvd containing the film Christmas On Mars, a sort of updated but still WAY low budget Plan 9 From Outerspace, starring the bands and lots of their friends. What little we've seen looks really fun, and pretty silly, and definitely demented, again, movie buffs might not love it (movie buffs into kitsch and so-bad-they're-good movies might though) but fans will go nuts for it. The trailer is amazing, super stylized and very very strange, definitely has us wanting to see it bad. One of these days. But for now, check it out. Lips fans, this is essential obviously, the rest of you, depends on how you feel about the band and their music, or how you feel about a green alien with antennae who saves Christmas.
The lp, titled Once Beyond Hopelessness, not only contains the same music as the cd, and the movie on dvd, it also includes a BONUS 7" with exclusive music NOT on the cd!
MPEG Stream: "Once Beyond Hopelessness"
MPEG Stream: "In Excelsior Vagianlistic"
MPEG Stream: "Space Bible With Volume Lumps"

FLOSSIE AND THE UNICORNS LMNOP (Skin Graft) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
"Free guitar lessons for animals! Free guitar lessons for animals! Hello, little tiger! Do you want to learn to play the guitar? Just scratch the strings. This is a chord. Now start a band!" If only it were that simple!
Miss Pussycat (of Mr. Quintron fame) is renowned for her giddy puppetshows. This recording features of a number of the musicals she's written for her puppets. Imagine the Teletubbies on a lot more acid than they already are!

FORBIDDEN PLANET (OST) (Small Planet / GNP Crescendo) cd 16.98
Released in 1956, Forbidden Planet was MGM's attempt to bring the science fiction genre into the main stream by pouring tons of cash into its production. Nominated for an academy award for special effects and featuring a robot cast member, Forbidden Planet was about as futuristic as one could get in the mid fifties. So it only followed that the score for such a lavish, futuristic science fiction film should be on par with Robby The Robot and the rest of the show. Louis and Bebe Barron were just a couple of upstarts in the burgeoning field of electronic music. As it happens, the score for Forbidden Planet is often touted as the very first to use no orchestral instruments. Indeed nothing but electronically synthesized sounds and tape manipulation are used, period. Knowing that the original working title for the film was actually "Fatal Planet" makes sense when one listens to the soundtrack sans film. The series of dark bellows, squeals, bleeps and farts that are the textural aural landscape of Forbidden Planet are as creepy at times as any horror film soundtrack or any release by Barron-contemporary Vladimir Ussachevsky. It was most certainly unlike anything any Hollywood film had ever used for a soundtrack and listening to it today, it remains a truly strange and wonderful anomaly in film music history. Highly recommended.
RealAudio clip: "Main Titles - Overture"
RealAudio clip: "Ancient Krell Music"
RealAudio clip: "Battle With Invisible Monster"

FORBIDDEN PLANET (OST) (Moving Image Entertainment) lp 23.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally available again on a GORGEOUSLY printed, gate fold LP edition. Released in 1956, Forbidden Planet was MGM's attempt to bring the science fiction genre into the main stream by pouring tons of cash into its production. Nominated for an academy award for special effects and featuring a robot cast member, Forbidden Planet was about as futuristic as one could get in the mid fifties. So it only followed that the score for such a lavish, futuristic science fiction film should be on par with Robby The Robot and the rest of the show. Louis and Bebe Barron were just a couple of upstarts in the burgeoning field of electronic music. As it happens, the score for Forbidden Planet is often touted as the very first to use no orchestral instruments. Indeed nothing but electronically synthesized sounds and tape manipulation are used, period. Knowing that the original working title for the film was actually "Fatal Planet" makes sense when one listens to the soundtrack sans film. The series of dark bellows, squeals, bleeps and farts that are the textural aural landscape of Forbidden Planet are as creepy at times as any horror film soundtrack or any contemporary release by Vladimir Ussachevsky. It was most certainly unlike anything any Hollywood film had ever used for a soundtrack and listening to it today, it remains a truly strange and wonderful anomaly in film music history. Highly recommended.