The Druffalo Hit Squad boldly went to wild places, persuaded a ridiculously famous high class DJ to contribute, emanated lysergically to the roots of lysergic, came out of the shadows and looked to the light, lived the pop life to a 4/4 beat, had a three hour tempo downer, went holiday reminiscing, went sailing, said yeah forever, kept waiting for it to come in a double feature stylee, were all drama, were humbly militant, made goth balearic, took eclecticism to the sewer, said that vocals matter, kissed the duke goodbye, called for last orders twice, shed a tear for Levi, danced the art school dance forever, cooked up a storm, gentrified the hood, raved Canada, raved UK, proposed a toast, made an urgent call, continued the mission to save hip hop, raved New York, cut some beards, cut some more beards, went down, went up, heard Frankie say “horny”, raved Detroit, raved Continental Europe, hailed BB one time, hailed BB two time, lit the lighter, raved Chicago, went a bridge too far.
Bangles – Eternal Flame Cube – Concert Boy Joe Jackson – Steppin’ Out Robert Palmer – Johnny And Mary Men Without Hats – I Got The Message Devo – That’s Good Toyah – Echo Beach Fehlfarben – Agenten In Raucherkinos Dislocation Dance – With A Reason Martha And The Muffins – Danseparc Shock – Dynamo Beat The Wirtschaftswunder – Junge Leute Lene Lovich – Lucky Number Yello – Pinball Cha Cha It’s Immaterial – Ed’s Funky Diner It’s Immaterial – Ed’s Funky Diner Freur – Doot Doot The Lotus Eaters – The First Picture Of You Matia Bazar – Elettrochoc Ennio Morricone – Metti, Una Sera A Cena Godley & Crème – Under Your Thumb Real Life – Catch Me I’m Falling Kamille – Days Of Pearly Spencer Au Pairs – Headache Electric Chairs – J’attends Les Marines Kim Fowley – Searching For A Human In Tight Blue Jeans Devo – Going Under Heaven 17 – Excerpts From Diary Of A Contender Pat Benatar – Love Is A Battlefield Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft – Als wär’s das letzte Mal The Woodentops – Last Time
This is from an old French movie soundtrack, „Le Casse“. I picked this for the string arrangement, because it puts a lot of emphasis on build-up, thus linking to the way Disco producers arranged strings for climactic dancefloor moments.
To be honest, I muss confess I don’t know Morricone’s works so well. I don’t think I have been a really big fan, partially because I don’t know it so well. My first impression of this track, which I didn’t know, was that it’s a formal composition. In my head I make a distinction between pop music, which has almost very definite rules, and people following it like Abba. It’s not formulaic, but there are very basic chord progressions that are based on Blues and Jazz that you can do in pop music and that have their own logic and their own progression. Many pop songs are actually the same song. “Good Times” by Chic is one kind of groove and twenty other songs sound exactly like it. It could be “Rapture” by Blondie or something. That’s pop music writing. And then you have soundtrack music writing and it has a different logic. It doesn’t have to follow a certain progression like in pop music, which has a reason and an impulse that keeps on pushing the song forward. When I heard this I thought it is a very good example of soundtrack music writing where you don’t really have to explain the logic of the chord progression, it just sets a mood. It makes an ambience. I think this is probably from 1967 to 71.
Good guess, it’s from 1971.
Because from 1972 on you start getting the big multi-track stuff, like Philly Disco and the more sophisticated pop, and this still sounds relatively simple. My first impression was it’s like a slightly cheaper copy of Burt Bacharach’s “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head”, but with more drama. It has some very formal devices, like it’s basically a minor key. But at some points he plays the same theme but he opens it up with a major key.
Lately all this beautifully orchestrated obscure library music back is popping up again and people scan back catalogues for songs groovy enough to suit a Disco context.
Yeah, that’s interesting, and I think there is a good reason for that. There is such a thing as real music, in the sense that there were people who did music for films, like Ennio Morricone, or Giorgio Moroder, with a more naïve use of the rules, or the very sophisticated Henry Mancini, or Alec Constandinos, or Vangelis, or Jean-Michel Jarre. All these people were obviously classically trained and they followed the rules. It doesn’t really matter if it’s a Bossa Nova, 60’s GoGo or a Disco beat, the rules of the music don’t change. I think that is why everybody is going back now to find real music. When people like Masters At Work appeared in the 90’s, people who didn’t know anything about the basic rules of music started making music. That’s why it sounds so awful, haha. A lot of the DJ produced music doesn’t have its own intrinsic logic and sense. And chords, progression and melodies have that intrinsic logic. That’s what’s been missing. So everyone of this generation who wants to find out what is really musical has to go back to the 60’s and 70’s, and there you find it everywhere actually.
> Carter Burwell – Blood Simple
This is from the soundtrack of the Coen Brothers debut film “Blood Simple”.
It’s from the 80’s I suppose.
Yes, it’s from 1987. It’s a mood piece with a synthetic feel to it.
I found the orchestration is simpler, but it’s similar to the previous song. Again, it’s not a pop song with intrinsic deep logic. Like Bach’s “Air On The G-String”, that is also some kind of pop music because it has a very definite logic. This one has a formal piano theme that sounds a bit like Erik Satie. Simple chord, simple melody, a little bit like Mozart’s “Eine kleine Nachtmusik”. It is not original, it is a formal piece, it follows a form that other people have created.
You could maybe alter its logic by just putting a beat under it, and by not adding much you would have a really moody dance track.
Yeah, actually this is the thing. To be honest, and many people are going to hate me for saying this, I’m not a big fan of Portishead. It’s very easy to make a mood piece. Anybody can do it. All you have to do is take a minor key and play some stuff over it, doesn’t really matter what. I think Portishead never even use a major key (laughs).
They don’t have to, really.
Yes. I think anybody writing good music should move between major and minor keys, that’s part of the magic. Since we now accept that some people make mood music, you can have a whole album of just melancholy. Personally, that doesn’t move me at all and I don’t find it very interesting. I think a lot of people in this generation think that this is a valid way to do music, for me it’s not enough. Salsoul records only have two or three keys but they do it so well, there are so many nuances.
I think the problem is that many people think they can only sound deep by using minor keys.
Yes, you’re right. That’s very true. If it’s not melancholy and it’s not moody then it’s not deep. Which is not true. That’s very profound what you just said. Read the rest of this entry »
Um ein paar Stücke erweiterte Neuauflage des Albums von 1995, welches seinerzeit half die Renaissance von Easy Listening und Trash-Soundtracks anzukurbeln, während der man so manchen Musikinteressierten mit Hugo Strasser-Platten unter dem Arm über den Flohmarkt pirschen sah. Natürlich gibt es nach wie vor in diesem Feld zwischen Käseigel-Tanzparty, Dinnerjackett, Library-Musik, B-Movie-Scores und genuinen Autoren der leichten Unterhaltung unzählige Perlen des Genres zu ergattern, aber das Thema hatte sich irgendwann ausgehypt und man beschränkte sich wieder auf übergroße Genies wie Bacharach. Ob das jetzt noch mal funktioniert, ist fraglich. In Verbindung mit den Nackedei-Vampiretten in den Filmen Jess Francos ist das einfach schöner als isoliert von dem ganzen Unsinn. Zwar hat Ennio Morricone einige seiner schönsten Soundtracks für Softpornos geschrieben, aber dies ist wenig mehr als Beschallung für das Unterbewusstsein. Für Anhänger puristischer Funktionalität (und säuischer Covergestaltung).
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