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Artist: Various
Album: CINEMATIC: Classic Film Music Remixed
Label: Six Degrees Records
Release Date: 09/11/2007
Finally an album for hardcore cinephiles and downtempo/electronica fans - lucky me, I'm a denizen of both camps. Producer Bob Duskis paired up film classics by Ennio Morricone, Henry Mancini, and Nino Rota with electronica producers like: King Britt, the Bombay Dub Orchestra, Bent, and Gaudi.
OK, let's be careful here, there are hardcore cinephiles who will demand that nobody mess with soundtracks as iconic as: They Call Me Mr. Tibbs; The Taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3; Fellini's Roma; Ben Hur; For A Few Dollars More; Paris Blues; and several others. But these are remixes, not remakes - these tracks are not meant to accompany the films, but to evoke the films in a completely separate musical context.
With a couple of notable exceptions I felt that all of these remixes were lush, interesting and articulate interpretations of the original scores. A couple truly unique takes on the material were Gaudi's ultra-layered "Theme from Carrie" (holy crap WTF?!!) and Tom Middleton's dubbed out "Inherit the Wind Main Title". My favorites were Shrift's "Goodbye Colonel" (from For a Few Dollars More) and Bombay Dub Orchestra's "Love Theme From Ben Hur".
As I said, there were a couple of exceptions. These were the hip hop tracks "Hour of the Gun Main Title" remixed by Mark de Clive Lowe and "They Call Me Mr. Tibbs Main Title", the King Britt vocal reinterpretation (King Britt's instrumental version, at the beginning of the album, is excellent however). The hip hop vocals bring nothing to this music, they were a totally annoying distraction and I found myself forwarding through those on my second listen-through which is what that button is for I guess. Have no fear, that leaves 12 other very good tunes, some of which inspired me to Netflix several movies I haven't seen in ages.
Shawn Lee's Ping Pong OMD Remix of "The Birdman of Alcatraz Theme"
