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"Main Title"

Bedazzled
Dudley Moore
Harkit

Yes, you've heard right. Harkit Records has reissued Dudley Moore's classic soundtrack Bedazzled a second time. Let's face it, the original CD release wasn't mastered as well as it should have been. For one thing, the volume was too low.

This time they got it right. Dudley's piano rings out brilliantly over crisp drumming, clear deep bass, bright brass and warm strings.

Simply put, Bedazzled is an essential '60s soundtrack. Groovy, jazzy, sophisticated and whimsical, it offers a rich variety of melodies and moods. Highlights include (and there are many) the dynamic "Main Title," spacious "Moon Time," beatlicious "Strip Club," Carnaby-esque "GPO Tower," Dudley's excited vocal showcase "Love Me!", Peter Cook's too-cool-for-you "Bedazzled", ultra-sleek "The Millionaire," super swanky "Sweet Mouth," elegant "Cornfield", soulful groover "Goodbye, George," and sultry "Lillian Lust." Frankly, that's most of the soundtrack, and the tracks I left off of the list ("Italy" and "The Leaping Nuns' Chorus") are uniquely appealing in their own right.

But wait, there's more (ha-ha), Harkit includes the hilariously daft radio spot promo. Moreover, the booklet includes some insightful essays and promotional stills. All in all, a very worthy effort, and the most important reissue of the year.

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"Dies Irae Psichedelico"

Escalation
Ennio Morricone
Digitmovies

Escalation ('68) found Ennio Morricone working with first-time director Roberto Faenza, who had no preconceived notions about what the score should sound like, according to the liner notes. This situation afforded Morricone the luxury of free experimentation, and the results are characteristically and stunningly original.

Frankly, Morricone having free reign on a project probably isn't that unusual, especially back in the heady days of the late '60s. So, it comes as no surprise to hear a track like "Dies Irae Psichedelico," which combines the famous 13th century Latin hymn ("Day of Wrath") sung by I Cantori Moderni di Alessandroni with a bitchin' rock beat, sinister fuzz guitar and a cascading harmonically rich horn arrangement. While that track has turned up on plenty of compilations, the rest of this score deserves to be discovered as well.

The main theme is an elegant bossa nova featuring harpsichord, oboe, celesta, harp and guitar, as well as typically '60s wa-wa vocalisms. Morricone also explores various musical periods from baroque classical to Jazz Age swing, along with madrigals and lullabies. Naturally, this being a late '60s film, there is a fair amount of sitar noodling and experimental sound effects as well.

In other words, Escalation is yet another brilliantly varied score from Il Maestro, conducted by Bruno Nicolai, and reissued with excellent production values typical of all Digitmovies' releases.

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"Voval Improvisation"

Last Impressions: Remixes
Janko Nilovic
Vadim Music

Several months ago Vadim Music released an outstanding collection of Janko Nilovic who recorded more than 30 albums for library labels such as Montparnasse 2000, Neuilly, Telemusic and Crea Sound during the '60s and '70s, demonstrating a flair for jazz, pop, funk, psychedelic, soul and exotica.

Now, we've got the requisite remixes (available packaged with the disc of originals), featuring the club-friendly sounds of Minimatic, Le Grand David, Kid Loco and a host of other European electronic DJs.

One listen confirms that the remix artists enlisted for this tribute weren't interested in dismantling Nilovic's work. His tunes remain recognizable, but the beats and grooves have been injected with a bit of modern mischief and hyperactive energy. Just try to sit still and you'll find yourself dancing in your seat. It's a kicky cocktail of a collection. Nilovic would be proud.

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"Hatchet Shake"

Il Rosso Segno Della Follia
Sante Maria Romitelli
Digitmovies

From waltzing strings to sinister electric guitar stabs, Sante Maria Romitelli's score for the cult horror flick Hatchet for the Honeymoon ('69) provides fitting accompaniment for Mario Bava's entertainingly twisted tale of matrimonial bliss that takes a perverse turn toward murderous mayhem. It also marks the seventh installment in Digitmovies' wonderful Bava soundtrack series.

The score opens with a lushly orchestrated Straussian waltz that is elegant and well-mannered. Comparatively, much of what follows is avant garde and sparely arranged, blending drums, harpsichord, organ, guitar, bass and woodwinds. Sometimes in a single track, romance meets moody mystery to suggest ill-fated love.

Like any good Italian cult film from the late '60s this one contains a groovy track of Hammond organ-driven beat music, called "Hatchet Shake."

This CD reissue presents both the stereo mix tracks and the mono mix tracks, and features liner notes by Bava expert Tim Lucas.

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"Boom!"

Boom!
John Barry
Harkit Records

TAYLOR
BURTON
BOOM!

Harkit's CD cover art for one of John Barry's most underrated scores sums up the sure-fire combination that Universal clearly banked on with its production of Boom! ('68). As legend has it, the studio figured that pairing Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in an adaptation of a Tennessee Williams play would result in booming box office (indeed, both stars had appeared in successful T.W. adaptations already). But they miscalculated. This arty, allegorical film alienated audiences and bombed with critics as well.

Perhaps because of the film's poor rep Barry's score has been unjustly neglected by soundtrack reissuers... until now.

Scored between the 007 epic You Only Live Twice and the crime drama Deadfall, Boom! stands as one of Barry's most experimental and hypnotic scores.

The main theme pairs waltzing barrel-organ with ringing auto-harp (doubled with piano, I think) over a smoothly surging bed of strings. The theme is reprised on a few occasions, but it's enchanting every time. Similar instrumentation is employed on the tense "Urgentissimo — Like Everything this Summer."

Naturally, there are tracks that wouldn't sound out of place in Barry's Bond scores. For example, the brooding ostinato heard on "Pain Gone Till Tomorrow" would be begging for a trip-hop remix — if this were 1999. And "The Mobile Called 'Boom'" is in the composer's distinctive tension-builder mode heard on so many 007 soundtracks.

"Have I Changed Very Much Since You Last Saw Me?" has the air of antiquity thanks to shimmering percussion, repetitious harpsichord melody and melancholic woodwinds.

"Through Caverns Measureless to Man" flirts with dissonant abstraction but still casts a compelling spell with ascending strings and glistening percussion accents.

"Capito" explores Eastern European folk instruments with striking results. And "Which Way is the Sun?" builds an unnerving mood that wouldn't sound out of place in a Bernard Herrmann score.

The only weak track is "Hideaway," a wistful slice of '60s pop sung by Georgie Fame. It simply seems out of place, but is wisely presented last so as to not break the score's exquisite mood.

Though, Boom! is likely to remain one of Barry's more obscure efforts it truly is a classic example of a score outshining the film for which it was written and recorded.

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"La Liceale - Seq. 2"

"...Ripetenti - Seq. 24"

La Liceale / La Liceale Nella Classe Dei Ripetenti
Vittorio Pezzolla / Gianni Ferrio
Digitmovies

Eroticism in Italian cinema of the '70s generally comes in two flavors: perversely violent (as in bloody giallo thrillers) and sweetly silly (as in sexy comedies about luscious maidens or schoolgirls and the boys and men who lust after them). Here's a double dose of the latter: Two sensual soundtracks for frothy features starring the gorgeous Gloria Guida.

First up is Vittorio Pezzolla's score for La Liceale (aka The Teasers, '76). Spare arrangements featuring jazzy electric piano, throbbing bass and Nora Orlandi's moaning vocalisms color much of it in pleasing shades of rose and violet. Although there are tracks of perky cheerfulness, much of the score has a dreamy mellow vibe.

For the first sequel, La Liceale Nella Classe Dei Repetenti ('78), Gianni Ferrio opens with an upbeat samba number featuring Bachrachian horns and Moog. The comical-sounding synthesizer makes additional appearances in rollickingly ragtime tracks that suggest scenes of wacky insinuating mischief. And because the film takes place during the wild days of disco, there also must be a high energy dance number featuring a siren synth and fierce electric groove. In addition, there are a sparely arranged tension-building tracks that suggest a giallo.

All told, there is a refreshing range of musical material here and pictures of a leggy blonde, too. So, what's not to love?

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"Prague Rock"

Miles of Styles
Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra
Ubiquity

Shawn Lee's always entertaining Ping Pong Orchestra albums typically owe a stylistic debt to classic soundtracks and library records of the late '60s and early '70s. The latest, Miles of Styles, takes that m.o. a few steps further by exploring a plethora of music styles from around the globe by using traditional folk instruments in tandem with modern instruments.

That's not to say that Lee attempts to create pastiches of indigenous musics. No, he simply takes inspiration from those styles to make impeccably crafted instrumentals with strong rhythms and infectious hooks. For my money, no one on the music scene does this kind of thing better than Lee. He's a master of musical disguise.

As on other Ping Pong Orchestra albums, the titles go a long way toward describing the sounds: "Punjabi Lullaby," "Brazilian Bubble," "Lagos Calling," "Bathtub Dub," "Heist in Helsinki," "Chinese Chillin" and "Greekout" are just a few of the 20 globetrotting tracks.

Basically, the seventh Ping Pong Orchestra album is another rewarding stop on the amazing musical journey of maestro and virtual one-man band Shawn Lee. Bravo.

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"Apparizione"

I Giganti Della Tessaglia
Carlo Rustichelli
Digitmovies

Carlo Rustichelli's dramatic score for Ricardo Freda's sword-and-sandal epic The Giants of Thessaly ('60) is the eighth release in Digitmovies' admirable series of Italian Peplum soundtracks. If that term is unfamiliar to you, think Hercules meets Spartacus in the land of the Argonauts, and you'll get the picture.

Back in the late '50s and early '60s, Italy churned out these epics, and most of them feature bombastic scores of bold themes played on blaring brass, swirling strings and pounding percussion, not to mention manly choral arrangements that practically scream "Victory is Ours!"

Typically, there are three different moods in these scores: romantic, militaristic and exotic, and Thessaly is no exception.

Honestly, if you played all of the Peplum scores back to back you'd be hard pressed to tell them apart. However, it is that consistency that makes them appealing.

Peplum epics and their soundtracks are unapologetically of their time — a relatively innocent age when ancient history and fantasy blended in Technicolor, when bodacious busty heroines melted in melodramatic embraces with muscle-bound heroes on sets so lavish the gods glowered in envy.

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"Main Title"

Sudden Impact
Lalo Schifrin
Aleph

Dirty Harry was dead and buried as far as Clint Eastwood was concerned. He'd made three films during the '70s, the last being The Enforcer ('76), and had no intentions of making another, or so the story goes.

But Warner Bros. needed a sure-fire hit in '83, and Clint came to their rescue with Sudden Impact. Riding shotgun for the third time was Lalo Schifrin who'd scored Dirty Harry and Magnum Force.

Since it was a new decade — a new era of pumped-up action movies — Schifrin updated his sound with synths that mimic turntablist scratches as well as strings and brass -- notably on the uptempo "Main Title." There also are drum machines and funky slap bass. It's Schifrin gone hip-hop! It's '80s crime funk for a new generation.

"Murder By the Sea" starts innocently enough with smooth jazz-funk, as a chiming keyboard solo tinkles away over a "urban" groove. Halfway through, the groove fades, leaving a spacy sinister mood for violins, woodwinds and piano.

The dichotomy of contemporary style and old school scoring chops continue throughout the score.

On "Frisco Night," pulsing synths and throbbing bass trade passages with dissonant strings and undulating horn tones and echoing percussion to create tension and disorientation.

On "Cocktails of Fire," Schifrin gets into one of his sure-fire action-funk grooves where the rhythm section plays without embellishment for several bars at a time. And when the embellishment comes it's always minimal and tremendously effective.

For all of the tension, there are a number of quiet, somber, soothing and even romantic moods where the, keys, strings and brass come across in reassuringly familiar tones, such as on "The Road to San Paolo" and "You've Come Along Way." Occasionally, as on "Ginley's Bar," the mood gives way to a distinctly '80s brand of instrumental rock.

The oddest bits are carousel organ music for scenes of freaky terror ("Unicorn's Head").

What's striking about Sudden Impact is Schifrin ability to update the "Dirty Harry" sound for the decade of big shoulder pads and bigger hair without getting cheesy about it.

This excellent addition to the Schifrin catalogue contains more music than was actually heard in the movie, including an alternate version of the Main Title.

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"Houseboat Jump"

Houseboat
George Duning
Harkit

In his day, Cary Grant was the ultimate leading man (a George Clooney for an innocent age). And Sophia Loren was the proto Penelope Cruz, I suppose — a gorgeous woman bronzed by the Mediterrean sun. They starred together just once in the romantic comedy, Houseboat ('58).

According to IMDB, Grant's wife, Betsy Drake, wrote the original screenplay, and she intended to play the female role. However, Grant's extra-marital affair with Loren threw Houseboat into a tailspin. Subsequently, the script was re-jiggered to accommodate Loren.

Composer George Duning, who worked in TV and film from '39 to '71, provided the score, which mixes big band jazz and lush romantic brass and strings. Not surprisingly, there are Sophia Loren vocal numbers as well, including the goofy "Bing! Bang! Bong!" and the romantic "Almost in Your Arms".

Duning's style is very much of the late '50s — sentimental, open-hearted and richly melodic. That's not to say it's vacuous. In fact, it's subtlely sophisticated stuff, with passages suggesting an appreciation of Gershwin and Copland.

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"Double Trouble (Samba)"

Non C E Due Senza Quattro
Franco Micalizzi
Beat Records

Terence Hill and Bud Spencer made a heap of action comedies during the '70s and '80s that made a mound of money. In Non C E Due Senza Quattro (aka Double Trouble, '84), they even play rich guys, Brazilian cousins, who hire stunt doubles when they believe their lives are in danger. Naturally, Hill and Spencer played the doubles as well.

I mention the plot, because of the South American location, which has a rich musical heritage. Italian composer Franco Micalizzi, who previously scored the Hill-Spencer vehicle Nati Con La Camicia, is back in action. This time he explores Brazilian sounds as well as the jazz-funk and jaunty comedy jazz.

Naturally, stand-out tracks include the bossa nova and samba versions of the "Double Trouble Theme," which offers an irresistable saxophone line over lively layers of percussion and whistles.

All in all, it's frothy stuff that fizzles pleasantly in your ear canal, and soon evaporates.

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