Remi Kabaka's music for Black Goddess is the 478th
Soundtrack of the Week.
It's a small ensemble, just four people. Three of them play percussion and
between the four are keyboards, tenor and soprano saxes, bass guitar and electric
guitar.
"The Quest" sounds a bit like Fela but without his monstrous band and urgent
saxophone sound. Still, I'm guessing that he was an inspiration for this track.
Things slow down and get heavy with "Slave March", which has a hypnotic quality
to it, mostly one phrase repeated over and over..
Which leaves the solo keyboard track "The Quest", a meditative and spacious tune that
stretches out for almost seven minutes. It's not the longest piece on the record
but it is just solo keyboard. Fela's influence might be here again, and perhaps
also Sun Ra's. It's a shame that despite the strengths of the compositions, the sound of the band
isn't as good as it could be. The drums all sound great but the electric instruments
just don't sound like they're very good quality. A re-recording or re-interpretation
of this music could be really great.
But this is the original and it is quite good!
2017 August 09 • Wednesday
A new addition to the Gutbrain Records Casual Collection of Mostly Mid-Century
Ephemera is a few issues of Hot Rod magazine from the 1950s.
Here's the first one.
This issue is notable because it has an article about a woman in the
very male hot rod scene.
The hot rod scene itself is something I don't know much about. It appears
to be made up of people building their own cars or modding cars that are ten,
twenty or thirty years old.
Hot rods and hot rodders come up often enough in music, movies and books
from the period, but it's taken for granted that the audience knows what it needs
to know about it. I'd
like to know more.
2017 August 07 • Monday
The 477th
Soundtrack of the Week is this brilliant
re-recording of several Jerry Goldsmith compositions for
the television series Thriller.
While a complete and chronological collection of every piece of music,
ideally from the original recording sessions, would still be very
desirable, this CD of three tracks each for six different episodes
(each including a suite of cues) is exhilarating, brilliantly produced and a
very listenable album.
"Hay-Fork and Bill Hook" allow for some pastoral themes and lovely melodies
that are alternated or layered with stings and other suggestions of menace and
suspense. Fiddle traditions as well as traditional European music seem to have
been inspirations and the flute does a lot of work as a primary voice.
After that we go into the "Well of Doom". It opens with dark, low and loud
instruments surging out of the speakers toward the listener. There's also
some lovely ethereal harp and vibes playing but the looming and bellowing
voices of the lower register brass instruments are never far away.
The harpsichord gets a workout in "The Poisoner" as does the string section.
Sometimes it sounds like the strings are blended with an electronic instrument
as well. This is one of the most relentless dramatic of the scores here,
very strong and solid. The last episode featured is "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper", which has a
Weill-like theme in 3/4 and some spacious and extended playing from
effective combinations of just a few instruments at a time. Percussion is
used especially well here.
Finally there's a medley of all six of the "End Titles" from these episodes.
This is really a fantastic recording! We can only hope there are more like
this to come!
