#filmsoundtrack

Jonell, Method Man  ⎯  Round & Round (Remix)

If you missed the live broadcast, catch up here:

Ennio Morricone - My Dear Killer Soundtrack

Take Me There  ⏤  Blackstreet, Mya, Mase, Blinky Blink

Listen to 4 tracks by Riz Ortolani from the original soundtrack album “La Ragazza dal Pigiama Giallo” (Cinevox Records, MDF 33.119, Italy, 1978)

Yes, it’s Giallo soundtrack time. Giallo, that particularly lurid and trashy seam of crime/ thriller/ horror cinema that blossomed (or maybe bred, like bacteria, would be a more apt verb) in Italy between the late 1960s and 1970s. Who is the girl in the yellow pyjamas? Well, in true Giallo style she’s the dead woman burnt beyond recognition on a beach before the film even starts, and therein lies the problematic nature of the genre; with intersecting tropes such as the objectification, menacing, torturing and murdering of women, or female characters who, if not killed off, are invariably psychotic, duplicitous, nymphomaniacs or addicted to drugs, these films make for difficult viewing in 2020. Yes, some film fans love these movies for their stylish interiors, enviable retro clothes, glamorous European locations and gorgeous acting leads, but for me, it’s the music, which suits me just fine; I can stick on a record for 35 minutes instead of watching two hours of casually gratuitous misogyny, often badly dubbed into Italian.

Apart from some lush, light funk orchestral cues found on the LP, check out the 15 minute sound clip to hear downtempo Euro slow-jam sleaze, tense electronics, a brazen Giorgio Moroder rip-off and the fabulously deadpan voice of Amanda Lear.  Who? you ask. No, I’d never heard of her either, but we will all know her as the woman taking her black panther for a stroll on the front cover of the second Roxy Music album, ‘For Your Pleasure’. She was a model from the mid 1960s, became a European disco sensation in the late 70s and then settled into a career as a popular host on 1980s Italian television. She even managed to squeeze in a book about her long and close friendship with Salvador Dali.

Listen to 4 tracks from the original soundtrack album ‘Take A Girl Like You’ (Pye Records, NSPL 18353, Stereo, UK, 1970)

This is not a record to get too excited about. Having said that, and in the knowledge that countless 1960s soundtrack albums promise more than they deliver, this one has enough to keep one interested if a bit of male scat, light Latin moods, flutes and a jazz waltz get you going. It also contains a smattering of poppy vocal  beat numbers written and sung by one Ram John Holder, singer-cum-actor, who is now best remembered for playing the character Augustus "Porkpie" Grant in Channel 4′s early 1990s barbershop sitcom ‘Desmond’s’, set in Peckham, South East London. Much of the music is composed by Stanley Myers, writer of groovy 60s film scores ‘Kaleidoscope’ and the oddball ‘Otley’, as well the more well known guitar piece ‘Cavatina’, which began life in the 1970 movie ‘Walking Stick’ before being cemented in the collective consciousness by its re-purposing as the main theme for ‘The Deer Hunter’ in 1978. He is also credited with being an influence on, and mentor to, Hans Zimmer, so now you know who to blame.