Wednesday 10 December 2008

A Fantasy Film Soundtrack


A Fantasy film soundtrack by blessedlovestudio
Track Listing :

Azymouth ; Butterfly
Cinematic Orchestra & Roots Manuva – All things to all men Kidulthood
David Axlerod – Holy Thursday
Labi Shciffrin – Road Too San Mateo Bullit
Jaydee (J Dilla) – Dreamy Dayz
Jaydee (J Dilla)- Think Twice
The Pharcyde – Runnin’ (Phillipines remix instrumental) 8 Mile Soundtrack
Ray Barretto – O Elephante (re-edit)
Pete Rodriguez Band – I Like It Like That (re-edit)
The Mexican (Ultimate Breaks & Beats instrumental version) For a few Dollars More
Truth & Soul Orchestra – Money Is King
David Axlerod – The Edge
Roy Budd – Carter Gets a Train (Main theme)Get Carter!
J.Murphy – In the House 28 Days Later

Originally broadcast on the ‘Offworld’ I.C.R.F.M 107.5FM 4th December 2008

Okay, not a lot of these tracks were from actual films (except where listed – or if you can tell me different) Its more inspired by my ideas for my own ‘fantasy’ soundtrack that is purely in my head.

Sorry about the talking on the mix (I never knew I said ‘You Know’ so much)
I will try and post a ‘clean version’ without my witerrings on it. If I was a little more, you know, articulate, and could, you know urm, educate the listener urm, with like urm, interesting facts about the tunes urm, you know, I might have said this…

Azymuth


The mix starts off with a tune played by Tommy ‘Smoothgrove’ . It’s the mighty Brazillian funk masters, Azymuth and the song 'Butterfly'. The guys have been playing sine the early 70’s (not constantly of course) They played the Jazz Café in London recently and are wowing the new breed of broken beat and Brazillian/Afro DJ’s and producers they have inspired. If you like this check out their new studio album 'Butterfly'



Kidulthood film poster

Next is the Cinematic Orchestra who I think have already been cursed by being used as backing music in ‘Changing Rooms’ type makeover shows. I don’t know how much money Kinobe and Nightmares On Wax and ultimate offenders Groove Armarda have made out of TV interior design’s love of blunted hip hop instrumentals to illustrate their fantastic rag rolling techniques on Surbiton Semi’s; but probably enough to afford to get someone else to do their decorating!
At least they don’t seem to have polluted this anthem ‘All Things To All Men’ which was used in the Kidulthood film. It features the Big Dadda of UK Hip Hop ‘Roots Manuva’ . I am a huge fan of Mr Manuva who hails from my beloved Streatham (Or Streat-Narm or Balham Border’s as some of its residents depending on their perspective on property prices) The track is used in the film ‘Kidulthood’ and resonates with me from my work with young people with similar lives to the characters in that film. Its still not the definative UK Hip Hop/Grime culture film. Obviously I have an excellent film script in my head of a film that would be ‘Bad Boyz’ meets ‘Rita, Sue & Bob Too’ and would be a ‘Grime Opera’ where all the characters including Policeman and Teachers ‘spit bars’ instead of conventional dialogue and stars grime scene saviour (17 years old) Chipmunk with North London hip hop vetran Skinnyman as his dad and top female comic Gina Yashere as his mum! Its going to be directed by the excellent Shane Meadows and has zombies and an amazing set piece of a 500 moped’s in a chase that passes every major gritty London film location (Trellic Towers, Aylesbury estate and West way) in a five minute sequance in the cinematic tradition of defiance of basic London geography. I reckon I need two million to produce it, so get in touch if you are interested in financing it.



Songs of Innocence LP

Back to the music now and next up in the mix is David Axlerod with ‘Holy Thursday’ Axlerod is an American composer, arranger and producer, across a wide range of musical genres. Best known perhaps for his work with Lou Rawls and Cannonball Alderly and other sixties jazz legends.
Dr. Dre used 'The Edge' for "The Next Episode" from 1999's 2001. Masta Ace also used a cut from 'The Edge' in his song, "No Regrets" from the 2001 album, Disposable Arts. Both the edge and Holy Thursday were not used in actual films but were included in the soundtrack to the blockbuster video game Grand Theft Auto IV.
"Holy Thursday" was looped by rap producer
Swizz Beatz for the track "Dr. Carter" which is on Lil Wayne's album Tha Carter III. Holy Thursday is from Axlerods album 1968 album ‘Songs of Innocence’ which was inspired by the poetry of William Blake.


Next is Soundtrack Supremo Lalo Schifrin Argentine pianist and composer. He has produced many film soundtracks…perhaps best known for Dirty Harry and Mission Impossible. Road to San Mateo is on the soundtrack to the film ‘Bullitt’ starring Steve McQueen. My favourite cut on the album which when I play it on my Volvo’s CD player I can imagine im driving a Corvette and the streets of Ipswich or Peckham become more like San Fransisco!


J.Dilla

Next on the playlist is J.Dilla or Jay Dee. An American
record producer who emerged from the mid-1990s underground hip hop scene in Detroit, Michigan. He began his career as a member of the group Slum Village, and was also a driving force in the production trio The Ummah.
Not on any soundtracks that I know of, he is well known for his ‘Neo Soul’ sound that inspired a new generation of ‘intelligent’ RnB artists from the late nineties onwards such as Gill Scott and D’Angelo. J Dilla died on
February 10, 2006, three days after his 32nd birthday at his home in Los Angeles, California. According to his mother, Maureen Yancey, the cause was cardiac arrest



Next up is the The Pharcyde with the track 'Runnin' . The Pharcyde are an
Alternative hip hop group from the West coast of the United States. The group was formed in South Central Los Angeles. The group is best known for the hit singles "Drop", "Passin' Me By" and "Runnin'", as well as their first album, Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde. They were also produced by the afore mentioned J.Dilla. I love this instrumental remix of ‘Runnin’ by The Phillipines. The original track is on the soundtrack to Eminem’s biopic movie ‘8 Mile’.




Ray Barretto

Next we go into Latin territory with a new remix of Ray Barretto’s ‘O Elephante’. Ray Barretto a.k.a. King of the Hard Hands (
April 29, 1929February 17, 2006), was a Grammy Award-winning Puerto Rican jazz musician, widely credited as the godfather of Latin jazz. He was also the first Hispanic to record a Latin song which became a "hit" in the American Billboard Charts. I could not recommend more highly his 1968 albums ‘Acid’ and ‘Hard Hands’ which are reguarly hammered by my DJ partner in crime Simon Landin AKA DJ Crash n Burn. Check out http://www.djcrashandburn.com/ for downloads of his epic funk,soul and boogaloo mixes.





The Peter Rodriguez Bands version of ‘I like it like That’ is a Boogaloo anthem, a sound pioneered by Joe Cuba, Richie Ray, Johnny Colón, Hector Rivera and Joe Bataan from the streets of the South Bronx. They rose to overnight stardom and then fell into general oblivion during the boogaloo years—1966 and 1967. What’s more, their signature song and biggest hit, I Like It Like That (A Mi Me Gusta Así is the quintessential boogaloo tune of all time, the heart and soul of that exciting, and somehow prophetic, crossover outburst. Boogaloo has been called the "first Nuyorican music." You might know I Like It Like That from one of the many cover versions, most notably the chart-topping 1998 hit by Tito Nieves the 1994 movie by that title or the Burger King commercial (Aaaargh! The horror) . But for sheer energy and that contagious hook line, there’s nothing like the original by the Pete Rodriguez band. It is this song—composed, arranged and sung by trumpeter Tony Pabón— that hit the national Billboard charts by becoming a standard of salsa clásica, allowed the group to tour extensively to excited audiences in Latin America and Puerto Rico and put the conjunto on the map of Latin oldies for all time. It’s an oldie, but goodie. And if you listen to the words and the music, the song is actually about boogaloo itself and that’s what makes it such special party music: that blend of English-language rhythm and blues.




Few Dollars More film poster and Ultimate Breaks & Beats Album cover


Next in the mix is an instrumental track from the 'Ultimate Breaks & Beats' series of albums.aThe Mexican" is a piece of heavy rock music on the album First Base by the 1970s British band Babe Ruth.
The song is based on the whistling from the music soundtrack by
Ennio Morricone for the film For a Few Dollars More. It has been compiled, covered and mixed many times. "Planet Rock" by Afrika Bambaataa features an interpolation of a portion of the song. The song was covered in 1984 by Jellybean Benitez (Madona's first producer and former partner) with vocals by the original singer, Janita Haan. "The Mexican" was mixed into the third track of The Dirtchamber Sessions Volume One by Liam Howlett of The Prodigy in 1999.The version on the mix is on the latest 'Ultimate Break & Beats' album that includes instrumental versions of classic tracks in the series performed by a new generation of bands that are re-interpurating classic funk soul and hip hop tracks in an instrumental style such as the Truth & Soul Orchestra who perform the next track 'Money Is King. It sounds like it might be produced in 1968 by Axlerod but is actually a new track. Truth and Soul hail from Brooklyn and are bringing funk into the future, remixing revisionists like Amy Winehouse and backing up Wu-Tang Clan for a live-set version of the hip-hop collective's greatest hits. But its true love is the abandoned work of old-school greats like Lee Fields or undiscovered talents like Tyrone Ashley. Michels and Silverman are archivists first, moguls second, and have no problem mixing future tech with past art, as long as the performance doesn't suffer.




Next in the mix its Mr Axlerod again with 'The Edge' followed by 'Carter gets a Train' which is by Roy Budd and from the film 'Get Carter'. I highly recommend both the film and soundtrack to 'Get Carter'. Its proper 'Grimey' but lush and beutiful at the same time and all by Roy Budd. Michael Cains best film i reckon. the
Finally we have a modern soundtrack piece from the British zombie classic 28 days later. Its by J.Murphy and is called 'In the House' and should put a shiver down your spine

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