Tag Archives: Film soundtracks
1974 COUNTDOWN | AT THE MOVIES
There are four movie soundtrack LPs from 1974 in the Vinyl Connection collection. None are essential but each is interesting in its own way. * HARRY NILSSON — SON OF DRACULA The movie poster’s slug line was “The First Rock-and-Roll Dracula movie” and it teamed Harry Nilsson with mate Ringo Starr as a totally believable […]
DRIVE
The real trick in creating a first class film soundtrack is finding the balance between music to support the on-screen vision and an album that holds up to focussed listening on your turntable. Composer and former Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Cliff Martinez certainly achieved this delicate feat with his soundtrack to Drive, a high-paced […]
ON A MISSION FROM GOD
When they first wrote and performed comedy sketches on the US television show Saturday Night Live, it is unlikely that John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd had any inkling their alter egos—“Juliet” Jake Blues and his brother Elwood—would take on a life of their own. With crumpled thrift-store suits, ever-present sunglasses and a briefcase of harmonicas […]
M*A*S*H UP
The album cover of M*A*S*H Original Soundtrack Recording proudly announces, “One of America’s funniest bloody films—also one of its bloodiest funny films” (Time magazine). Nowadays Robert Altman’s 1970 black comedy is perhaps most famous for being the inspiration for one of television’s finest and most beloved series, yet the film itself was well received at […]
GREEN AND SUBMARINE
The first inkling that scuba diving was perhaps not going to be my new favourite thing came when I experienced an anxiety attack in the training pool. Spending the rest of the lesson sitting in the shallow end staring through a thin layer of chlorinated water above my head and trying to breath slowly and […]
VINYL CHAMPIONSHIP
Well, we’re back home and the vinyl has all been shelved. About a tonne. Sadly, that’s not all required in moving house. There are the CDs too. AND setting up the stereos. Vinyl Connection will continue in due course, but in the meantime, here’s a piece written for Discrepancy Records that I imagine will evoke […]
DUNE, CHAPTER TWO
It is a rule of cinema that any successful novel will eventually be made into a film, no matter how challenging the translation from page to screen might appear. It is a rule of the known universe that any film adaptation of a beloved book will disappoint bibliophiles. It is a rule of pop that […]
THE RINGWRAITHS RIDE IN BLACK
Peter Jackson’s famous films were not the first cinematic journeys into Middle Earth. American animator Ralph Bakshi visited back in 1978 with rather mixed results. Clearly holding the J.R.R. Tolkien books in high esteem, Bakshi adopted such a respectful approach to the epic fantasy that the result is, despite the adventurous content, quite slow-moving and […]
DARK SIDE OF THE VALLEY
When you think about the world-straddling colossus they became in the latter half of the 70s, it is easy to forget that Pink Floyd started life as just one spray of colour in the kaleidoscope of Swinging London. Like many bands of the 60s, Pink Floyd embraced side projects and commissions. After all, it was […]
LIGHT FINGERED
They are one of my favourite groups. The VC collection holds over forty of their albums. Their catalogue holds some two dozen soundtrack albums, recorded between 1977 and 1999. All good reasons for a Film [Soundtrack] Festival piece on Tangerine Dream. Although I might wish to crow about having all the TD OST albums, in fact I have […]
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