Soundtrack: Vigilante! Cult Film Soundtracks
Composer(s): Roy Budd
Released: 1971-1977
Genre(s): Funky, Score, Jazz




DOWNLOAD -- Vigilante! Cult Film Soundtracks

Feeling funky this month. I think things are going to stay in the 1970's. Roy Budd is the man. Scoring nearly 50 films, he is best known for his Jazz-Influenced Funk which he sprinkles amongst large anthems that you could rob a bank or get in a car chase to.

Check out Roy Budd playing his classic theme for the superb 1971 Mike Hodges/Michael Caine film, 'Get Carter'... so cool!

Soundtrack: Extraits Des Bandes Originales Des Films De Jacques Tati
Composer(s): Jean Yatove, Alain Romans, Franck Barcellini, Francis Lemarque, James Campbell
Released: 1989
Genre(s): french, jazz, score



DOWNLOAD -- Tati OST Compilation

I watched Play Time for the 40th time this weekend and absolutely love the score. This compilation is comprised of Tati's finest films. If you're looking for an upbeat summer drive or trip to the beach, just put this wonderful compilation on.

Soundtrack: Valerie and Her Week of Wonders
Composer/Artist(s): Lubos Fiser
Year: 1970 (original film release), 2007 (soundtrack release)
Genre(s): Psychedelic Folk

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DOWNLOAD -- Valerie & Her Week Of Wonders

After two weeks of posting 80's Films, I thought I would change things up a bit and post a hallucinogenic surrealistic Czech folk piece...

Lubos Fiser creates an alternate universe for character exploration in this bizarre and magical world of wonders. The score samples a variety of acoustic instruments and integrates them into songs of mystery, paranoia and romance. Much like the film, the score leaves a vivd tone of intrigue.

Apparently it was Finder's Keepers that much of the credit goes to for this soundtrack finally seeing the light of day. According to this press release it wasn't until last year that a virgin release of this gem on black vinyl and CD was made available. It took 12 years of Eastern European phone calls & digging through record crates that made it possible for the release. I heard the title track on WFMU's record blog last year while photoshopping dog clothing for this website (worst freelance job ever!) and was immediately drawn into the intrigue and beauty of the score. Soon, I added it to my queue and had no idea what to expect. The film is amazing. It's basically a Czech new-wave surrealistic film about a teenage beauty confronted by her sexual awakening in her sleep. These subconscious and surrealistic moments are haunted by varying degrees of Lewis Carrol inspired (?) hallucinations.

VALERIE SHORT SCENE


Some cool quotes I found...
"Lubos Fiser provides what is perhaps the greatest musical score of all the maligned Czech New Wave feature-films with a gossamer-fragile blend of pastoral-orchestral folk songs and clockwork harpsichords. From the very first delicate chord to the final crescendo this joyous sound is as addictive as the bizarre imagery seen in this seldom celebrated cinematic gem." -Finder's Keeper's



"It was like a door had been opened in my subconscious and fragments of memories and dreams rejoiced right there in my living room. I became very possessive over my copied version, a VHS to cassette copy which hissed like it had been captured from another world. I would surprise friends with snippets of the theme, it never failed to get a curious "Who's this?" I was continually asked to make a copies but I had no intentions of making copies for anyone. The ritual chanting, the sections of catholic mass, the czech hymns were mine, the cogs sequence, the acoustic love song, the room of cogs all mine." -Trish Keenan



If you are desperately interested and don't have Netflix or a decent video store, search 'Valerie and her week of Wonders' on You Tube... the whole thing is up (in ten parts!) but its censored. Nudity and Violence taken out. I would recommend watching it on DVD or VHS over YouTube.

Soundtrack: "2" I, A Woman
Composer/Artist(s): Sven Gyldmark
Year: 1969
Genre(s): Classical, Experimental, Jazzy



DOWNLOAD -- "2" I A WOMAN by Sven Gyldmark

(special thanks to iluvmyturntable)
download note: use one of mirrors like MegaUpload, that one seemed the quickest.

After reading Mr. Mudd's 2007 roundup on favorite records heard last year, I got inspired to beginning posting what I would like to be a recurring post for me... Attack of the Soundtracks! I've got a few in mind already after scoring deep in Midwestern Record Stores over my holiday break. What better way to start then with this amazingly different and experimental take on classical & jazz.

This soundtrack features the compositions of Sven Gyldmark, a prolific danish composer who died only a few years before most of us 'ledgers were born. This guy composed 189 soundtracks between the 1920's & mid 1970's! Unfortunately I have found little to no biographical information on his pieces. Most of his films are Scandinavian and extremely hard to find. This soundtrack seems to be the only distributed record of his that was in small run and was released on MGM's Music Division in 1969. I heard the record spinning in a record store in New York a few years back in 2004. While browsing for some Dylan bootlegs, this wild rhythm-enhanced flute and horn melody was colliding like a train wreck and them seemingly into this phantasm of eastern-classical strings. It was amazing. It is so sexually charged. It seemed like a Scandinavian reaction on American Jazz of the late 60's. Easily pushing boundaries and reacting to a counter-culture of American pop, obviously Jazz was going into realms never-before-heard. I ran to the clerk and shelled out $25 for the record. This seems worth it I thought. The record is on musicstack for around $200, so I felt lucky for stumbling across this one.



As for the film, it's been on hold in my Netflix account for over two years. I guess the DVD was released on some weird B-Movie Distributor as part of a sexploitation collection. As much as I am dying to see this film and how the music is incorporated, there is NO way it is going to live up to the dream-like imagery I imagine in my head. I just recently found this trailer, and it does look like it might be worth seeing...