[ aquarius records — Soundtracks ]

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The crazy success of UK horror movie soundtrack vinyl reissue label Death Waltz seems to have inspired someone else to start a similar concern, so similar in fact, that we were initially convinced that this new imprint Waxwork, MUST be some sort of Death Waltz sub label. Besides being a horror movie soundtrack vinyl reissue label, Waxwork also gets modern artists to design new artwork for the cover, they include a printed inner sleeve with notes from the composer and the director, they also include a poster of the new artwork, the cover is even adorned with a sticker that looks EXACTLY like a Death Waltz sticker, right down to the font and the layout. So yeah, no points for originality, but who can argue with a vinyl reissue of the score to Stuart Gordon's infamous/legendary/genius 1985 horror comedy classic Re-Animator, which if you haven't seen it, you should. Right now. It's gross, and ridiculous, and totally over the top, and scary and really funny, probably actor Jeffrey Combs' finest moment, and there is of course the infamous head-giving-head scene (so infamous it also gets referenced in the liner notes). It's definitely a fine choice for a first release, and not just because the movie is great, the score too, by Richard Band is really excellent. Heavily beholden to Bernard Hermann, and supposedly composed as an homage to the classic Hitchcock thrillers AND Citizen Cane, the liner notes even explain that the original credits in the film were meant to include the line "with apologies to Bernard Hermann", which for whatever reason got left out, and thus ended up with Band often accused of simply ripping off Hermann. So much so that apparently he once got a letter from the Hermann estate claiming that if Hermann were still alive, Band would most definitely have been sued. And it's a fair cop, the Re-Animator score is a total classic score, lots of strings, lots of dramatic Psycho like moments, but Band definitely makes it his own, especially on the instantly recognizable main theme, which most weirdo movie buffs will recognize instantly. Tense and intense, dramatic and moody, it's essentially like a Hermann score with disco drums, which sounds crazy, but it totally works and sounds amazing. If like us you've seen Re-Animator a million times, that track will instantly bring back a flood of images, crazy, eye popping, gut busting blood soaked images, which is what the best scores SHOULD do. Nothing else on the score is as cool and crazy as the disco drummed theme, but it's all pretty great, and even removed from the film, still makes for a fantastic listen. And as if we even need to describe it, this new version comes in a heavy sleeve, with cool creepy very GREEN cover art by artist Gary Pullin, inside there's a printed inner sleeve with rare photos and liner notes from both director Stuart Gordon and composer Richard Band, there's also a huge poster of Pullin's new art, and the record itself is pressed on heavy 180 gram green and glow in the dark swirled vinyl! And up next on Waxwork: Rosemary's Baby!!!!

MPEG stream: Theme

The music from the new movie by Darren Aronofsky, director of Pi (the soundtrack to which is sadly, and strangely, unavailable)...this one features the Kronos Quartet playing music by composer Clint Mansell.

Island records reissues the soundtrack to this classic Jamaican comedy / musical. Features tracks by Inner Circle, Junior Murvin (Police & Thieves of course), The Heptones, Peter Tosh, Junior Byles, Bunny Wailer, Gregory Isaacs, The Upsetters, Burning Spear, Justin Hinds & The Dominoes, and more. Originally released in 1979.

RealAudio clip: Book of Rules
RealAudio clip: Rockers

We first discovered amazing German duo Rockford Kabine via their debut full length, Italian Music: 31 Invalid Movie Themes, which on the surface played like a series of micro snippets of actual Italian soundtrack music, interspersed with snippets of dialogue, brief excerpts from what we can only assume are in fact real films, the music the perfect compliment, wah wah guitars, Morricone-ish twang, smoky synths, spooky rhythmic dronescapes. It was an incredible collection of music that very well could have been soundtrack music, but was in fact an original creation, imagined music for imaginary Italian films. And we were blown away. Not soon after, the band contacted us to let us know that they were already working on a follow up, this one an ACTUAL soundtrack, to some sort of arty XXX adult film, yep, a porno, which in some weird way made sense, what with RK's ability to conjure up super sultry and sexy sounds, that draw from all sorts of different sources, their music already cinematic on its own, seemingly perfect to be wedded to visuals, and heck, when the visuals turn out to consist of sexy women, some wielding daggers, wearing World War 2 style gasmasks and leather bodysuits and well, it's tough to argue with that. But since the soundtrack was to be available ONLY as a bonus disc with the movie itself, it required some wrangling, and contacting an actual adult film distributor down in SoCal to get our hands on copies. But we're so glad we did. Even removed from the visuals, like all great soundtrack music, Rockford Kabine's score for XERO is incredible, haunting, mysterious, groovy, funky, abstract, cinematic for sure, but also lush and experimental and moody and mysterious. The strange thing too is that the film seems quite European, almost like some Inglorious Basterds style Tarantino war pic (or maybe that's just the aforementioned gas mask get up getting to us), but the music is very Eastern, in fact all the titles seem to be in Japanese, which only adds to the mystique of Rockford Kabine's fantastic soundworld. So we'll discuss the film in a bit, but as aQ is a record store, and this is in fact our Record Of The Week, it's probably best to discuss the soundtrack/score all on its own first. Like Italian Music before it, XERO is a series of shortish tracks, between 1 and 2 minutes, each super distinctive, with the duo conjuring up incredible mysterious moods in a manner of seconds, leaving the listener in most cases wanting more more more. And like their Italian Music, this does play out like some sort of DJ Shadow style sonic collage, still drawing from Morricone, and the Italian giallo tradition, but also from classic '70s porno music, with some funk and groove, but instead of the oft ridiculed wah wah guitar style porn kitsch, this is much more evocative, and dark, guitars are slithery, basslines low slung, undulating, bells chimes, notes drift through fields of reverb, riffs chug and churn only to dissipate in a field of chimes, spaced out drones collide with almost Tangerine Dream like synths, flutes flit and flutter, the rhythms are minimal and motorik, some tracks playing out like some krautrock groove (reminding us that Can made softcore soundtracks too, way back when), others like some lost cosmic disco. It's actually quite hard to describe XERO, there are so many different sounds and styles, and it's hard to imagine them working as a soundtrack, especially to an super stylized XXX art film, but removed from the film, the music, as varied and constantly shifting as it is, somehow plays out cohesively, like an album proper, guitar twang is laced over a minimal footstep like rhythm, organs wheeze, everything sounds softly woozy and lysergic, exotic percussion collides with gamelan like melodies, minimal hip hop beats are wrapped around stuttering loops, occasionally coalescing into some seriously fuzzy hairy funk, other times drifting into Goblin style almost new wave sounding synthscapes, acoustic guitars unfurl some Western strum, but woven in are some haunting synth melodies, even some mysterious voices, soaring strings and sorrowful piano, tense droned out ambience, skittery almost Portishead style downtempo beats, bells and chimes, all sorts of strange production, the sound sometimes crystal clear and lush and lovely, other times hazy and druggy and gorgeously washed out, a kaleidoscopic sonic journey through some imaginary world of naked women, gasmasks and daggers, weird Asian masks, furry shag rugs, a world that would have stayed imaginary had these sounds not been used to edit the film of the same name. The film is indeed pornographic, and XXX. It's all female-on-female, there's very little actual hardcore sex though. And while it IS a porno, with no plot to speak of, it's almost more like it's about the music. Indeed, the movie was edited to the music, much like Sergio Leone used to blast Morricone's scores on the set and have the actors move to the music, so the film here is a series of impressionistic tableaus, the colors acid drenched and super saturated, long slow stripteases, even the actual sex is strangely arty and not traditionally sexy, but the strange constantly shifting images, the cool, always changing music, work together, creating something much more than a porno, in fact, the film seemed more like something the band would project behind them when they performed live, strange masks, the aforementioned rubberclad gasmasked mystery woman, another woman who looks a bit like a sexier female version of Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name, long duster, big hat, face obscured by hair, and as the back cover proclaims, "See the shocking ending the censors didn't want you to witness", and we can definitely attest to the fact that the ending is really weird, depressing and violent, and not at all sexy, but in some way, that makes this whole project more interesting, and bizarre, and pretty much perfect for Rockford Kabine's incredible soundtrack. Though of course you don't HAVE to watch it, the prudish can enjoy the soundtrack fully without reference to the visuals. Needless to say, this is TOTALLY RECOMMENDED, but, since the soundtrack cd does in fact come with an XXX rated adult dvd, thus is required some unaccustomed legalese on our part, as follows... This is only to be purchased by adults, and by purchasing this, and/or adding it to your online shopping cart, you are hereby agreeing to these stipulations: that you are an in fact an adult, being of legal age, 18 or 21, in your legal jurisdiction to view adult oriented material that may be sexual or graphical in nature. (Local laws vary throughout the United States, so if you are not 100 percent sure of the laws applicable to you, you are advised to check before purchasing.) Further, you agree that you will not redistribute this material to anyone for which it is illegal for them to view or possess such material, nor will you permit any minor, or any person who would find this personally offensive, to view this material, and finally that you will hold harmless aQuarius recOrds, its officers, ISP, and employees, from and against any claims, liability, losses, costs, damages, or expenses (including attorney's fees) arising from you use of the images contained on the dvd. Furthermore, you will defend aQuarius recOrds against all claims of impropriety regarding your purchase of this item. Phew. We'd have put all that in small print if we could.

MPEG stream: Dangai
MPEG stream: Hana Gin
MPEG stream: Pantsu Etchi Na
MPEG stream: Saigo No Kisu Wa
MPEG stream: Hotto Ni Naru
MPEG stream: Rorikon
MPEG stream: Xero Vs.The Black Angel

Everyone's favorite midnight movie soundtrack, beautifully packaged and re-released.

As archival collections of "lost tapes" by hitherto unknown musical geniuses go, Strut's release last year of Rodion G.A.'s The Lost Tapes was the creme de la creme. The bomb. Top of the pops. We made it a Record Of The Week and it's still steady sellin'. Fuzzed out, Eastern Bloc electro-prog funk madness from the late '70s / early '80s that's super catchy, melodic and motorik; a lo-fi, synth-laden outsider kraut-groove delight all around. Then, this year, for Record Store Day, Strut was like, check it out, there's MORE! They released a limited edition 12" consisting of Rodion's previously unreleased (and apparently, unused) soundtrack music intended for an animated science fiction series on Romanian television, circa 1983, called Misuinea Spatiala Delta (Delta Space Mission). Wow. It was limited to just 1000 copies, we got as many as we could for Record Store Day (a whole bunch) and they sold out immediately. Never got to list it. BUT, yay, somehow some more copies were just made available to us by one of our suppliers. Don't know if it's a repress or what, pretty sure we can't get more in any case. So we brought in a bunch for all of you who missed it on RSD, grab 'em while you can. As with The Lost Tapes, this 12", which plays at 45rpm, is highly recommended! Featuring lots of swirling, spacey synth (of course!), all pew-pew-pew zip-zip-zap, this also of course includes some funky electro grooves with tick-tock electronic beats and nicely melodic synth-swoosh. Come to think of it, it's not unlike the music of T.R.A.S.E., another recent Record Of The Week. And of course if you liked The Lost Tapes, you'll like this. Let's hope they keep digging in Rodion's vaults, a Lost Tapes Vol.2 would be cool! LIMITED! Record Store Day leftovers (???) while they last!! (By the way, you can find some of the Delta Space Mission animation on YouTube, supposedly with the Rodion music. Looks pretty cool!!)

MPEG stream: Bau-Bau

NOW ALSO ON CD! UK horror soundtrack vinyl label Death Waltz, deviates again from their ongoing reissue campaign to offer up another modern soundtrack, but fear not, Room 237 stacks up pretty well against all the classics the label has been resurrecting recently, it would be really easy to mistake this for some classic slab of grimy cinematic sonic creep from back in the day. Jonathan Snipes and William Hudson channel the greats, John Carpenter, Goblin, equal parts sinister synth drones, twisted electronics, blackened ambience, seventies kosmische, haunting melodies, Italo-disco, groovy synth wave, the craziest part of all is that it's the soundtrack to a DOCUMENTARY! But then it's not any documentary, it's a 2012 film about Stanley Kubrick's classic, The Shining, or more specifically, all the crackpot theories folks have about the Shining, with interviews with various people, each presenting their take on the hidden meanings behind The Shining, and some of them are doozies, from the genocide of the American Indians, to the Apollo 11 moon landing, and yeah, even the Holocaust. The movie is twisted, and fascinating, hilarious and disturbing, some of the theories totally far fetched, others not so much, with plenty of visual evidence given for each. Watching the movie, we were actually struck by the score, which at times reminded us of the music from Phantasm (Death Waltz, reissue that one!!!), or Halloween, which seem like they wouldn't be suited to a documentary, but somehow, they add a sort of cinematic gravitas, even more so when this new score is coupled with original footage from The Shining. But hell, even removed from the film, Snipes and Hutson's score is fantastic, big bombastic percussion, darkly swirling synths, choir like vocals, haunting melodies, pulsing almost disco-y synthscapes, plenty of futuristic electronics, cascading keyboard arpeggiations, and shimmery chordal swells, fluttery psychedelic flutes, some of the music super tense and ominous, reminding us also of the incredible score for the recent Beyond The Black Rainbow (Death Waltz! Do that one too!!), sort of cosmic prog, infused with a heaping dose of the sonic heebie jeebies. So goddamn good. And again, fans of classic old school horror scores, will likely flip their lids! As will anyone into the retro futuristic faux-soundtracks of Zombi, Majeure, Umberto and all the rest. Like all Death Waltz releases, the packaging is super swank, the cd comes in an eye popping full color six panel gatefold digisleeve, complete with the cool pop up cd holder featured in other DW cds, the vinyl is 180 gram, red and yellow, cut at 45rpm, and housed in a heavy casebound tip-on sleeve. The vinyl version also includes a cd of the complete score as well!!

MPEG stream: Recourse To Eagles
MPEG stream: To Keep From Falling Off
MPEG stream: Escape Pod
MPEG stream: Minotaur

The horror movie vinyl soundtrack reissue war continues! Death Waltz might have the market cornered, with an undeniably kick ass aesthetic, a bunch of killer obscurities, not to mention the bulk of the classic John Carpenter soundtracks, but Waxwork is definitely looking to give them a run for their money, especially now, with this reissue of Krzysztof (here Christopher) Komeda's seminal score for Roman Polanski's 1968 horror hit Rosemary's Baby. The soundtrack itself a stone cold classic, the main title theme immediately giving us chills with Mia Farrow singing a haunting nursery rhyme over ominous piano, buzzing organs, instantly recognizable and totally terrifying, and the rest of the soundtrack is pretty stellar too, some tracks swirling and symphonic, others droney and atonal, very 20th century sounding, the ritualistic chanting is present too of course, there are super dramatic choral arrangements, tense and intense, plenty of Bernard Hermann like atonality and intensity, moments of sweetly melodic jazziness, but just as many moments of bleak, sinister horror. A few moments of swirly psychedelia, the whole thing pretty darn fantastic all the way through, and has us wanting to rewatch the movie now, it's been way too long. And Waxwork has pulled out all the stops too with the packaging, the lp pressed on 180 gram clear vinyl, the score remastered from the original master tapes, with killer all new artwork, and a 12" x 12" art print, all housed in a thick full color gatefold sleeve, extensive liner notes and rare photos on the inside, with super striking spot varnish printing on the outside, and yeah, probably CRAZY limited too...

La Dolce Vita, The Godfather, Romeo & Juliet, Death On The Nile, La Strada, Casanova, Roma, many more...

Born in Italy in the early part of the 1900's Rota was a child prodigy writing his first opera before he turned fifteen. But it was his long standing love affair of film scoring that would make his place in musical history. In 1952 he teamed up with Federico Felini for what would turn out to be a thirty year long standing collaborative relationship. This cd collects Rota's music for four of Felini's films, including "Toby Dammit" and "Roma" which showcased both Felini and Rota at their macabre best. The last four tracks come from "Love & Anarchy" and "Shoot Loud, Louder...I Don't Understand" and once again Rota came up with the perfect sounds to paint these surreal pictures of Italy.

MPEG stream: Ecclesiastical Fashion Show
MPEG stream: Passeggiata

The new movie from the guy(s) who brought us Rushmore, a BIG AQ favorite. As was the amazing soundtrack, a great mix of obscure (and not so obscure) sixties psych-pop that somehow managed to be an incredible mix-tape-style compilation as well as being absolutely perfect for the film. So we haven't had a chance to see the film yet, but we were pretty excited about the soundtrack too. So here it is, and sadly, it doesn't hit nearly as hard as the Rushmore soundtrack. I imagine in the movie these songs are probably perfect, and maybe once we've seen the movie, we'll HAVE to own the soundtrack, but on their own, these songs just aren't that exciting: Nico, Bob Dylan, The Clash, The Ramones, Nick Drake, Elliott Smith, The Velvet Underground, and a few more with incidental music by Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo. All great stuff, but does anybody need another compilation with songs by artists you already like and whose records you probably already have? Maybe if you loved the movie enough. We'll see.

At long last the soundtrack to the indie film of the moment (Blair Witch excepted of course). Includes two songs by the lead actress Franka Potente and a bunch of remixes.

Featuring songs by Creation, Unit 4+3, The Who, Cat Stevens, Yves Montand, John Lennon, The Faces, The Kinks, and Chad and Jeremy. Plus incidental soundtrack music by Mark Mothersbaugh. The whole soundtrack is so well done that you don't even have to have seen this film in order to love the music contained here. And for what it's worth, Andee and Allan loved this movie but Windy and Matt-from-CoolBeans!, who thought it was good, also felt it was fatally flawed (weak character writing) and cannot recommend it, although the music ALMOST saves it.

MPEG stream: Afro Theme
MPEG stream: Afro Instro
MPEG stream: Certified Samurai
MPEG stream: Afro Samurai Theme (First Movement)

So we know a bunch of you bought the Ghost Dog soundtrack, threw it on, and realised you were listening to a completely mediocre rap compilation that had very little to do with the movie, and thought 'What the fuck?' Well, there is an explantion. If you were

"Sacred Flesh" is an erotic lesbian nun film made by Nigel Wingrove who commissioned Band Of Pain's Steve Pittis to score the soundtrack. Using a similar dialogue-recycling technique that John Duncan used for his "John See Soundtracks," Pittis incorporates echoed voices (some of religious incantations, some of sexual ecstacy) directly into the soundtrack dominated by deep washes of dark ambience. Or as the guy who writes the Relapse catalog blurb says "I've got to see this movie!!" You'll understand after you see the booklet photos. In any event, another fine Band of Pain release.

Screeeeeeeech! That's the sound of this hot rod peelin' out of the lot. What a perfect match -- Torontonian psychobilly hepcats The Sadies doin' the soundtrack for the film documentary about Ed "Big Daddy" Roth (perhaps better known as the man behind the bloodshot'n'buggy eyed rebel comic character Rat Fink)! Unlike their usual studio albums which careen across a vast and varied musical landscape, The Sadies for the most part takes a direct route to the surf, veerin' and huggin' a few curves in the process. Like lil' critters that dart out into headlights, their instrumental rabble-rousin' is flashed with a few dialogue snippits from the film. Super cool! What's that smell?! Burnt rubber, baby! They're smokin'!

MPEG stream: The Pyramid
MPEG stream: The Double Wide

Collection of recordings from legendary Hollywood soundtrack composer Hans Salter, from the television series Maya (recorded in 1966) and a 24 minute suite of music from the films "Son of Frankenstein", "The Mummy's Hand", "Black Friday" and "Man Made Monster" (recorded in 1941.)

Oooooh, yes! Remastered and reissued on cd! Blinded by the pearly white teeth, blown away by the skin-tight polyester disco boogie... that's what many of us were after seeing Saturday Night Fever way back in 1977. Seems like a whole 'nother lifetime. These days John Travolta's moving in a different kind of polyester crowd, and the seventies fashions we thought were gone for good have more than made a comeback. Oh, the more things change.... Such is also the case with the central musical force on this soundtrack. When you think of the Bee Gees, isn't this what springs to mind? Such a different musical beast from the band who just a few years earlier made the immensely Beatles influence drenched albums 1st, Idea and Horizontal (fyi: all three were recently reissued as deluxe 2cd editions, one of which was our Record Of The Week back in January!). Overflowing with delectable falsetto harmonies as only the Brothers Gibb could dish out, we love this album! Yes, there are ample top 40 moments and many dripping with cheese ("A Fifth Of Beethoven" anyone?), but don't be mistaken! This isn't just a "so bad it's good" trip. Nostalgia, yes. Irony, no. And lest we forget film score dynamo David Shire's presence. His disco-fication of the classical composition "Night On Bald Mountain" (retitled "Night On Disco Mountain") is mighty wonder unto itself! Yeah, you know how to do it!

MPEG stream: Night On Disco Mountain
MPEG stream: Night Fever

Usually here at AQ, when we have a record that's pertains to witches and/or witchcraft in some way, it's from a metal band... like, obviously, Acid Witch, or Witchcraft, or Witch... then there's the "hauntological" likes of Broadcast & The Focus Group, and Demdike Stare, and let's not forget witch house... And, ok, the '70s Afro-fuzz of the other, original Witch from Zambia. But THIS witchy record isn't like any of those, at all. It's a B-Music release and has a lot more in common with another B-Music fave, the soundtrack to Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders! This is a soundtrack too, and also from a cult New Wave Of Czech cinema flick from the early '70s. Unlike Valerie, we've never seen this movie, but we'd like to, based on this quirky, cool soundtrack. The music for Valerie was dreamy and delirious, suitable for a phantasmagorical, dark fairytale, and some of this is too. But since Saxana is about the more lighthearted adventures of a very modern teenage witch (we're thinking Daisies meets Harry Potter??), it gets a more suitably groovy, modish, jazzy score, with "psychedelic effects". There's lots of spooky and/or sprightly instrumental interludes, with titles like "Rats And Rodents", "Haxipola's Trip", and "Algebraic Airbrush", along with a couple songs sung by Czech chanteuse Petra Cernocka, including a version of the film's infectious theme song. Of the 27 tracks here (including one bonus cut from a 45rpm single), five of 'em, interspersed throughout, aren't actually songs or music, but "spells" - Latin sounding arcane incantations presumably uttered by teen witch of the title, each one heralded by those psychedelic effects, ominous echoings conveying magickal mysteries. Quite (literally) charming, as is this whole previously unreleased soundtrack, and nicely presented here with a thick booklet of text and graphics, by Finders Keepers/B-Music (of course). Oh, and there's an import vinyl version on the way, we'll have it soon too.

MPEG stream: Divka Na Kosteti
MPEG stream: Telescopicas Humerus
MPEG stream: Algebraic Airbrush
MPEG stream: Dexem Po Krumplex

Lalo Schrifin's second most famous soundtrack after Mission Impossible (he also scored Dirty Harry, Cincinnati Kid and Cool Hand Luke among others) is this monster score for Enter The Dragon. The hit film is a perennial cult favorite that not only launched the Kung Fu Martial Arts Film craze in America but made its star Bruce Lee a legend due to his untimely death six months before the movie was released. But for avid readers of Wax Poetics, this score resonates amongst hip hop aficionados and sample heads alike for its thrilling combinations of jazz tension, funk breaks, wah guitars and far eastern musical motifs, not to mention Bruce Lee's battle cries peppered throughout. Hip hop and martial arts have often kept close quarters from Dolemite to the Wu Tang Klan, and this score just may be ground zero for the marriage of both those worlds. Haiy-AHHHHHHHH!!!!!

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. Limited edition hard-to-get cd release of the fantastic Lalo S. soundtrack to the classic Bruce Lee kung fu movie. Newly restored and remastered. Sorry it's so expensive, but it is damn great.

MPEG stream: Theme From Enter The Dragon
MPEG stream: The Human Fly
MPEG stream: Broken Mirrors

Wow, it's definitely Christmas around here and how can we tell? Well, for one thing we got this amazing new soundtrack reissue that we never realized until now we have been looking for most of our adult life. It's on Crippled Dick Hot Wax, one of our fave reissue labels that we haven't heard from in years and had feared they disappeared for good. And it's another lost gem from the proto-Can universe of The Inner Space, the same early group incarnation that gave us the soundtrack to the unreleased surreal-politico film, Agilok and Blubbo! One of our favorite Krautrock obscurities compilations from years and years ago was called Kraut Demons Kraut and two of the tracks were credited to The Can, but didn't sound like Can at all. These were pastoral and pretty with flutes and guitar, one featured very folky female vocals by Margareta Juvan called, "I'm Hiding My Nightingale", the other track was called "Kama Sutra" (billed here as "Indisches Panorama I"). We had always wondered where those recordings had come from, and how they related to Can. It wasn't until someone put this on in the store after we just got it in that it all came rushing back. Those songs were from a rare 1968 German erotic film by Kobi Jaegar called Kamasutra: Consumation Of Love and were arranged and performed by Irmin Schmidt & The Inner Space, whose then lineup of Jaki Leibeziet, Malcolm Mooney and Michael Karoli was essentially the same line-up of Can's debut full length, Monster Movie. But much of this is different from the Can we know (though the Malcolm Mooney-sung "There Was A Man" points at what Can was to become, and Michael Karoli's simmering electric guitar lines are as signature as ever), it even sounds very different from the other Inner Space release, Agilok and Blubbo. That soundtrack was more exploratory, improvisational and experimental, while Kamasutra is much more focused and musically gorgeous. Lots of sitars, flutes, acoustic and electric guitars playing slow-burning compositions with loping repetitive rhythms. Occasionally rocking out a groove, but more often wandering through many pastoral raga-tinged extrapolations. This is the most psychedelically kosmiche recording we've ever heard from this outfit, which of course gives it our highest recommendation!

MPEG stream: Indisches Panorama I
MPEG stream: I'm Hiding My Nightingale
MPEG stream: Im Tempel
MPEG stream: In Orient II

Last time, we reviewed The Omni Corporation's reissue of a wonderful rare "library music" album entitled Omega 2000 by German composer Peter Thomas and his "Orchestra". Those diligent diggers at Omni Corp. have another one along those lines for us this week, again a '70s library music collection, from the much less well known name of Patrice Sciortino. Can't believe this is the first we've heard of the man and his music, considering that this stuff sounds something like the more outre of Morricone efforts, pretty darn cool. And apparently, there's plenty more where this came from. Wow, thanks Omni!! Sciortino is classically trained French musician, born in 1922, who eventually established a career in the '60s/'70s as a prolific and somewhat peculiar composer, with, eventually, many obscure recordings to his credit. He's also a poet and playwright. With an interest in both non-Western musics and the most avant-garde of electronics (he studied at GRM), his musical vision, as displayed here, is unusual and otherworldly. Where that Orchestra Peter Thomas disc was groovy and funky, all about the big bombastic beats, this Sciortino stuff is much more atmospheric and academic sounding... it's like 20th century classical gone soundtrack wacky. Imagine Bernard Herrmann (of Psycho fame) meets Carl Stalling (of Warner Bros. cartoons fame). Or Luigi Nono writing music for TV shows. His music is sometimes ominous, sometimes uplifting, offering plenty of percussive exotica, chimings and tinklings, with shuddering, sawing cello and eerie wordless female vocals. And occasional echo effects intensifying the rhythms. This disc comprises Sciortino's entire, intriguing 1970 album Chronoradial, plus extensive selections from three different 10" records of his belonging to a library music series out by the Musique Pour L'Image label circa 1967-1968. There's 36 tracks here in all, many of them jittery and unsettling, suspenseful and nervous - but others lively, joyous and beautiful. Nicely done, in typical Omni fashion, the cd booklet full of informative liner notes, and awesome freaky black and white artwork from the original lps - love that raccoon-like creature with the clocks for eyes!! Quite recommended.

MPEG stream: Kuklos I
MPEG stream: Horizons Roses
MPEG stream: Tumulte
MPEG stream: Forage

We can't remember a movie we've wanted to see this bad in ages. Sure we're a little sick of Michael Cera, and his one dimensional / one character bag of tricks, but somehow he seemed MADE to be in this movie. More importantly, it's directed by Edgar Wright, the man responsible for not only the amazing RomZomCom Shaun Of The Dead, but the equally awesome buddy cop parody Hot Fuzz, not to mention the fake grind house trailer for Don't (and hey, if they can make a real movie out of one of the OTHER fake Grindhouse trailers, Machete, then come on, why not an actual movie of Don't?). Plus if you've seen the trailer, it's total eye candy, like a tween rock band version of Fight Club, with all sorts of random CGI filligree, not to mention some awesome over the top battles, and the whole concept of this indie rock nebbish having to battle a league of super evil exboyfriends (AND girlfriends) to win the punk rock love of his life, c'mon! We haven't seen it, but we KNOW it's gonna rule. And the soundtrack is pretty bad ass too. People are psyched about it for new music from Beck, but what some might not realize is that while he wrote the music for the 'fake' band in the movie Sex Bob-Omb, he doesn't actually perform those tracks, instead, the band, including Cera, actually tackle Beck's songs, which are fuzzy and garage-y and snotty and GREAT. Broken Social Scene show up too, as the fictional band Crash And The Boys, whose sound is fast and furious and hardcore, one of the tracks, "I'm So Sad, So Very Very Sad" clocking in at about all of 5 seconds! But fear not, there's a new Beck song proper, a new Broken Social Scene song, new music from Metric, as well as some classic jams from Frank Black, T-Rex, The Rolling Stones, and some others. The soundtrack finishes off with a rad 8-bit jam, that's all Nintendo-y and groovy and pretty much sounds like it should be the theme for the movie. Killer soundtrack, and we're betting killer movie too (we'll know for sure this weekend!!!)...

MPEG stream: We Are Sex Bob-Omb
MPEG stream: Garbage Truck
MPEG stream: Summertime

The soundtrack to Jon Moritsugu's latest award-winning independent film - this one about the tangled struggles of indie filmmakers and indie bands - is just as packed with friends of AQ as the film itself. Dustin from I Am Spoonbender plays the bad-ass Church, our very own Cup and J-Church's Lance Hahn make cameo appearances as eager film students, and Windy's bitchin' Trans Am even has a guest spot! The soundtrack features ample doses of Casiotone For The Painfully Alone and J-Church, as well as Moritsugu and Amy Davis' own band Toni Ann. Good, raw, lo-fi fun!

Either you want this or you don't! Not much we're gonna be able to do to persuade you either way, once we explain the premise: yes, it's a Steven Seagal and Jean-Claude Van Damme split! This record collects together the audio from a whole bunch of movie trailers by those two iconic '80s action stars. On the Seagal side, you get the exciting advertisements for Above The Law, Fire Down Below, Glimmer Man, Hard To Kill, Marked For Death, On Deadly Ground, Out For Justice, Under Siege, and Under Siege 2. On Side Van Damme, enjoy the trailers for Bloodsport, Cyborg, Death Warrant, Double Impact, Double Team, Hard Target, Kickboxer, Lionheart, Nowhere To Run, The Quest, Sudden Death, and Universal Soldier. It's a limited edition of 150 copies, and we only were able to get, like, 4 of 'em, so act fast if you want one (why wouldn't you??). Great DJing fodder we're sure, or just to spin at home prior to a trip to the video rental store.

Series 7 is a recent art house hit about a game show where the goal is to kill the rest of the contestants. The ultimate reality show. If only Survivor was like that, I would have watched every week. The soundtrack (at least some of it), comes courtesy of everyone's favorite sexy-new-wave-indie-doom-rock band Girls Against Boys. Their first new music in a while.

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. All-instrumental Sabbathy stoner metal from Philly, pretending to be a soundtrack to a '70s biker flick. Didn't fool us but it's still pretty good riffy instrumental Sabbathy stoner metal all the same.

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SORRY. Another amazing artifact unearthed by Dagored, this time a lost classic from Shades of Joy, which on first glance appears to be the soundtrack to Alexander Jodorowsky's brilliant film El Topo, but is in fact music inspired by the film, and is meant to not only compliment the film but also Jodorowsky's larger artistic vision. Shades Of Joy is a massive 15 piece group who specialise in exactly what you would expect from a huge seventies psychedelic rock group: organ driven acid rock, with Santana like wah guitars and epic drug addled jams. As this is a sort-of-soundtrack, the sound shifts quite a bit, from the aforementioned acid rock, to schmaltzy easy listening to full on freaked out free-jazz fusion work outs to dark and dangerous funk, to the opener, a Morricone inspired mini-epic, all spanish guitars, flutes and trumpets. Really cool.

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. Short (and cheap) single with two versions of a piece composed for the documentary Dark Days (about subway dwellers in NYC). Shadow wisely keeps turntablist showboating out of it, as this is, after all, soundtrack music. Downbeat and mellow with lazy blues guitar. Quietly impressive scratching, and on the second track are some vocal snippets presumably from one of the homeless subjects of the film. Nice, if brief!

RealAudio clip: Dark Days

Without a doubt one of the most psychedelic and experimental sounding records in the amazing recorded legacy of Ravi Shankar. Composed as a score for the British art film Viola, this finds Shankar experimenting and traveling with sounds that one might not always associate with him. Of course it's still his playing and several tracks have his unmistakable and totally influential sitar sounds, exactly the way you're familiar hearing them, but what's so nice about -this- record is that there are also moments where if you were listening without knowing it was Shankar you might guess it was any of a handful of psychedelic experimental bands from the last quarter century. Apparently the film is about a possessed man's belief that his dead wife has returned to life in the form of a cat that pursues him. Wow trippy stuff...and Ravi knew just the sounds to convey those otherworldly feelings. Really nice!

MPEG stream: Anxiety
MPEG stream: Death

Finally back in stock. One of the best soundtracks to one of the greatest movies EVER!! Really. The last time we listed this was almost 5 years ago and we just now managed to get another batch in. Here's what we had to say about this amazing disc: This is simply one of the greatest films ever made. You can call AQ and argue with us if you disagree. This film is so personal and intense. So completely thrilling and perfect. And it features what has to be Gene Hackman's best performance ever (except maybe for The French Connection). Also features Harrison Ford and Cindy Williams in one of the best scenes of all time (the scene in the park, filmed in San Francisco's Union Square). And the soundtrack is equally impressive. David Shire, who also did the score for the oh so amazing Taking Of Pelham 123, was presented with a new challenge in the scoring of the Conversation. First, Coppola insisted that the score be simple and stripped down, unlike the bombastic full orchestras Shire was so adept with. Second, the score was composed before the film was finished (like Morricone with Leone), which allowed the score to guide the filming and really help focus the performances. So the score ended up being mostly just solo piano (with Shire believing the whole time that they would orchestrate it later). Dark and minor key. Simple, but so goddamn creepy. It's absolutely chilling and almost too perfectly captures the paranoid unhappiness of Hackman's Harry Caul. It's way scarier and dismal sounding than anything more modern doomsters like Piano Magic or Tindersticks have been trying to pull off. Another interesting aspect of the score is the 'jazz records' that Hackman's character plays sax along to in the film. Those 'records' were actually composed by Shire specifically for the film and Hackman actually played the sax. He had never touched a saxophone before, so on the set he had someone teaching him to play, and he would spend his time practicing scales instead of going over his lines. Those tracks are on this disc, complete with Hackman's sax accompaniment. Another bonus on the disc is a full band version of the Theme From the Conversation, where Shire finally gets to flex his arranging muscles. This soundtrack has never been released in any form, so it's pretty exciting that the folks at Intrada managed to pull it all together and get this out (they actually had to do quite a bit of legwork, remixing, re-EQing, and re-editing to put this all together!). Not really available at stores, we're managed to get a few copies 'cause we're such slobbering The Conversation fans. And for those of you who haven't seen The Conversation...WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU? WALK AWAY FROM YOUR COMPUTER RIGHT NOW. WALK TO YOUR NEAREST VIDEO STORE. RENT THE VIDEO. UNPLUG THE PHONE. AND WATCH. YOU WILL NOT BE SORRY. An absolutely beautiful film with some of the best performances, directing, and music you will ever see or hear.

RealAudio clip: Theme From The Conversation
RealAudio clip: No More Questions / Phoning The Director
RealAudio clip: To The Office / The Elevator

Even if David Shire had only ever done the scores for The Taking Of Pelham 123 and The Conversation, those two alone would seal the deal, ensuring Shire a top spot as one of our favorite film composers EVER. Those two soundtracks are so amazing, so intense and emotional, incredibly dramatic and really really strange. The recurring melodic motif of the Conversation is one of those rare musical moments, a tiny chunk of music that once it enters your head, it sticks there forever. It helps that it's repeated over and over and over in the movie and on the cd... But Shire did so much more, amazing films, ridiculous movies, tons of TV, silly and fantastic, dark and depressing, some were fairly surprising, cuz who would have ever assumed that the guy who did Pelham 123 and The Conversation was the same man responsible for some of the music for Saturday Night Fever and Norma Rae... From the same folks who brought us the long overdue cd release of the Conversation comes the soundtrack to The Hindenburg from 1975. One of the final entries in the spate of disaster movies, Airport, The Poseidon Adventure, The Hindenburg is the story of the legendary 1937 crash of The Hindenburg, a German Zeppelin, which remains still one of the worst disasters of the 20th century and one of the first to become a media event due to live radio broadcasts and newsreel footage. The movie transformed the disaster into a mystery, a secret plot to destroy the Hindenburg. A pretty killer cast, George C. Scott, Anne Bancroft, Charles Durning, Burgess Meredith... The music, while not as idiosyncratic as either Pelham or The Conversation, is still moving and dramatic, much more classic sounding old school soundtrack music, with haunting strings, playful little melodies, sweeping expanses of orchestral swoon, occasional bursts of atonal Bernard Hermann style high end tension, fluttering woodwinds, deep ominous low end, some more classical sounding string sections, it's all pretty great, even removed from the visuals, our favorite moments of course are the darker, dronier more tense and ominous bits, which thankfully make up much of the score. Also included is a strange vocal track, called "There's A Lot To Be Said For The Fuehrer", a croony tin pan alley style ballad, and the whole record is bookended by newsreel broadcasts, the opening is a brief history of ballooning and the development of the zeppelin, all jaunty and playful, the closing is really intense, a rough scratchy live recording set to music of an eyewitness to the disaster, describing the crash as it unfolds, visibly shaken, his voice cracking as he struggles to keep from weeping. Heavy. Certainly not the weirdest score, but soundtrack fans will definitely dig, and Shire fans should check this out for sure (as well as the recent Zodiac score that we also have in stock). And as with all the Intrada reissues, tons of photos and super extensive liner notes.

MPEG stream: Suspect Montage
MPEG stream: Fin Repair Sequence
MPEG stream: Boerth Sets The Bomb / Preparing To Land
MPEG stream: Prelude To The Holocaust

The nice guys over at (Film Score Monthly [http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/]), a glossy magazine devoted to soundtracks, have issued this never-before-available soundtrack to fantastic 1974 suspense film featuring Walter Matthau as salty New York Transit Authority cop. The 12-tone jazz/funk masterpiece of a score was composed by David Shire, who is responsible for the all-piano score to The Conversation, among many others. So now Windy doesn't have to start a label to reissue this soundtrack, but maybe she will anyway -- Barbarella and Yojimbo still beckon...