A short but sweet guest post from Koen...
Early 1985, in Bangkok, as a bunch of grubby
backpackers (incl. yours truly) are heading towards the Goethe Institute
for the free screening in the garden(!) of ‘Paris, Texas’, a new Wim
Wenders movie.
All of us are massively impressed by the combination of the visuals and Ry Cooder’s guitar work, although personally, I found the story less compelling.
When I finally returned home months later one of the first things I did was find the soundtrack album! All tracks were specially composed for this film, but even when old songs are used for soundtracks they can be incredibly effective.
Remember ‘The Big Chill’? A great collection of old Motown and assorted hits really enhanced the movie.
A
personal favorite original soundtrack is Hans Zimmer’s ‘Black Hawk
Down’, an excellent fusion of traditional North African & Middle
Eastern music meeting the late 20th century with elements of techno. For
this film, Zimmer put together a one-off BHD (kind of jam) Band which
included himself on keyboards, guitarists Michael Brook & Heitor
Pereira, and string players Craig Eastman and Martin Tillman, all to
great effect in providing a highly effective background for this failed
Mogadishu mission by UN peacekeeping personnel in 1993.
Please tell us something about your favorite soundtrack and why it made such an impression on you.
As a reward, I have two freshly ripped John Lurie-related soundtracks for you!
For me, it has to be "Performance". It was kicking around in college in my first year and - along with albums like Atom Heart Mother - became one of *the* records to smoke dope to. I didn't see the actual film until many years later and I still don't really know if it's a masterpiece or a pile of crap. However, I still enjoy the album - every single track.
ReplyDeleteperformance is an ost that works with or without the movie. did nitzsche put it together? his osts are fine.
DeleteI do enjoy a good OST. Where there may have been short snippets of songs in the actual movie, oft times the full tracks are included on the soundtracks.
ReplyDeleteSome of my favorites are (in no particular order): Alain Goraguer - La Planète Sauvage (Fantastic Planet); Tangerine Dream - Sorcerer 2014 (1977 Wages of Fear remake); Various – Frank OST (music & songs by Stephen Rennicks); Koji Endo -Sukiyaki Western Django; Chi Ishikawa –Tetsuo OST (taken from several of te Tetsuo flicks); Bobby Womack & J.J. Johnson - Across 110th Street OST; Gene Page - Blacula...well, you get the idea.
I do enjoy a good OST.
(several of the Tetsuo flicks), not te, sorry
DeleteLove Sorcerer!
DeleteHere's a soundtrack I love for a film I've never seen - the Dennis Hopper directed "The Hot Spot". Miles and John Lee Hooker all over it!
ReplyDeletehttps://workupload.com/file/JUU54QeYtad
Same, first bought it as a cassette and later the CD, but never saw the movie...
DeleteThe whole film is on YouTube and in good quality, so that's some of the weekend's film action sorted!
DeleteIt also has two smoking hot babes in Virginia Madsen and Jennifer Connelly, both in different states of undress and topless, so, uh, yeah, I'd recommend. It's a little leisurely at over two hours, but pretty good. Maybe I can get the missus to see that one this weekend...
DeleteA few favorites
ReplyDeleteThe Harder They Come
Superfly
The Graduate
2001: A Space Odyssey
Forrest Gump
Midnight Cowboy
A couple of favorites: Jerry Goldsmith’s Chinatown & Bernard Herman’s Vertigo.
ReplyDeleteGbrand
It's gotta be 2001; modern classical music is hard work for the uninitiated, but coupled with the visuals, I got it, as, i feel, did many other listeners. I now love this stuff. A similar selling of modern challenging music was achieved in the soundtrack to "Shutter island".
ReplyDeleteYes, 2001 would be one of my choices. At the time, I had no idea what most of the music was, and after I got hold of the OST a few years later it didn't make any difference. It got a modern classical music virgin like me listening to Ligeti's music and enjoying it without any preconceptions!
DeleteKubrick revisited Ligeti in Eyes Wide Shut. Gbrand
DeleteOK, a bit of a cliche, but Morricone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly has to be in my top 10 OSTs. There's also a lot more by him that I still listen to.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget his 'Once Upon a Time in the West'!
DeleteVangelis, Blade Runner I never tire of.
ReplyDeleteBut I think King Curtis' playing A Whiter Shade of Pale at the start of Withnail and I is one of the best uses of music in a film (and the Hendrix bits).
Most Quentin Tarantino are pretty great too.
Finally David Holmes has compiled a few wonderful soundtracks, Oceans Eleven and Out of Sight come to mind.
Withnail weaving through traffic to the strains of "Voodoo Child" -- SO good!
Deletehttps://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2sqoxa
Still one of my favourite British films, and full of quotable lines.
DeleteDitto for Blade Runner, best electronic soundtrack ever and one of the greatest mood setters of all time.
DeleteElliott Goldenthal ao 'Heat' is bloody good, as is his score for 'Alien 3' (some cynics deem it better than the film).
ReplyDeleteCan't argue with Blade Runner, 2001 (anyone got the complete Alex North score that Kubrick let the poor sod nearly kill himself over?), Morricone, 'The Hot Spot'.
Also Toto's remarkably good score for 'Dune' (1984), Penderecki et al - 'The Shining', Carmine Coppola ao - 'Apocalypse Now' (the end-titles in particular slay me), Clive Langer ao 'Brothers of the Head' (2005), Cooder 'Long Riders', 'Southern Comfort', Tangerine Dream 'Thief' and 'Shy People'.
Hermann's 'Taxi Driver' and Scorcese's Tarantino-style grab-bags for 'Goodfellas' and 'Casino'.
Also Keith Emerson 'Nighthawks', Howard Shore w Ornette Coleman 'Naked Lunch'
DeleteTangerine Dream's never-released score for The Keep is also pretty great.
DeleteI had a cassette bootleg of the supposed score back in the pre-net days but ought to look at listening to it again.
DeleteVarious versions of The Keep can be found here: https://download-soundtracks.com/?s=The+Keep
DeleteAnd another thing...
ReplyDeleteJim Williams 'Kill List' and 'A Field In England'
Beaver/Krause 'The Final Programme'
Plus...
DeleteJohn Phillips, Stomu Yamashta ao 'The Man Who Fell To Earth'
Third Ear Band 'Macbeth
ONJ/ELO 'Xanadu'
Oh yeah, A Field In England trippy film, trippy music. Now where did I put my magic mushroom stash?
DeleteField's director Ben Wheatley's other films are worth checking out, although his latest one - Meg 2 - is a strange choice. The first Meg film was pretty poor.
DeleteSequel to the Jason-Statham-vs-Prehistoric-MegaShark flick? Now that IS an odd choice of director.
DeleteYup, that's the one. Both of us have a weakness for Statham, who does a great job of playing the geezer who has MMA skills, but Meg could have started anyone. The Stathe was wasted.
DeleteHoward Shore's soundtrack to Cronenberg's "Crash" (the one based on the JG Ballard novel, not the other film of the same name).
ReplyDeleteDissonant electric guitar pieces in the vein of Glenn Branca and Rhys Chatham. Surprisingly tasty!
https://download-soundtracks.com/movie_soundtracks/crash-soundtrack-complete-by-howard-shore/
Thanks Jonder, listening to it now, excellent. Have you seen the movie as well?
DeleteGlad you like it! I enjoyed the movie, and thought the soundtrack suited it well.
DeleteAs promised, here are my goodies!
ReplyDeleteOST - Mystery Train, one half classic SUN recordings + some oldies, the other John Lurie’s bluesy instrumentals for the 1989 Jim Jarnush movie which to be honest I have never seen.
https://mega.nz/file/2U8jDRRb#oBZiEiksvRsBg9cWqTxvB9WZFHxgR1L4TjdO7K9wG58
OST - Get Shorty, 10 John Lurie instrumentals plus 7 funky various artists tracks, incl. Booker T & MGs, Us3, Morphine, Greyboy, Medeski Martin & Wood, for a cool
American gangster comedy 1995 film, based on Elmore Leonard's novel of the same name, which I enjoyed a lot.
https://mega.nz/file/vNEwgArS#tjLLCKhN-DLhi5h1X3h-SWiCyZvSQqOZ3LQMqxEmdlo
Many thanks, Koen! I've never seen Mystery Train, but it's on YouTube so I'll have to watch it. It has Screamin' Jay in it IIRC.
DeleteA couple more...
ReplyDeleteVampires by John Carpenter
Midnight Express - Georgio Moroder
https://workupload.com/file/ZAkTtE7RVBV
Ha, out of all the Carpenter scores...I mean, they all have great moments, but Carpenter's scores probably work better on a compilation, considering how repetitive they can be. If I had to choose a favorite, it'll probably be between "The Fog" and "Prince Of Darkness", though in terms of memorable film music, nothing beats the Halloween theme. The one from Assault on Precinct 13 is also great.
ReplyDeleteThis one might do the trick:
Deletehttps://download-soundtracks.com/movie_soundtracks/john-carpenter-anthology-movie-themes-1974-1998-soundtrack/
Favorite orchestral score of all time: "Dances with Wolves". What a beauty.
ReplyDeleteGreat comments - turned me on to all sorts of good music!
ReplyDeleteHere's another one I love - a lovely assortment of pieces used in Aki Kaurismaki's typically-deadpan 'The Man Without A Past' -
ReplyDeletehttps://workupload.com/file/dPZLtu5auYk
I think that soundtrack to 'Repo Man' from Alex Cox has much to commend it. Also worth checking out: 'Rockers' from Theodoros Bafaloukos & 'Cabaret' from Bob Fosse
ReplyDeleteA recent movie whose soundtrack surprisingly floored me and sent me looking up the music director's other credits: Cruella DeVille. Good movie too regardless of how one feels about Disney movies in general. The Legion TV series also has a great soundtrack.
ReplyDelete