Book Excerpt of the Day

Ennio Morricone’s Gli Occhi Freddi Della Paura (Cold Eyes of Fear, ’71) features Gruppo Di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, an improvisation ensemble founded in ’64 and made up entirely of composers. It also explores dissonant sounds but displays a more aggressive avant-garde jazz style. On “Seguita,” busy drums and walking bass provide an anchor for wah guitar and electronically enhanced trumpet interplay worthy of Bitches’ Brew-era Miles Davis. Morricone may be the trumpeter. Elsewhere, one can hear such bizarre sounds as ashtrays in pianos, bowed cymbals, scraping metal alongside the more typical but still jarring jittery horns and string drones. Although Cold Eyes’ cacophonous and abstract sounds discourage casual listening, its strong jazz and psychedelic aspects will engage listeners who are more attuned to experimental, exploratory music genres. No self-respecting avant-garde music or Morricone fan should be without a copy.

– from Chapter 6: A Fearful Earful of Kristopher Spencer’s Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979

Book Excerpt of the Day

Jerry Goldsmith’s outstanding score for 100 Rifles (’69) is very experimental and dynamic, and doesn’t seem to have much in common with Hollywood’s Golden Age westerns or Ennio Morricone’s re-imaging of the sagebrush sound. As is his wonderful habit, Goldsmith pits cacophonous brass against clamorous percussion on the riveting “Escape and Pursuit”. And who else but Goldsmith would use detuned guitar and bass along with prepared piano in a western? The effect is strangely sinister and mysterious (“The Church”), and highly suggestive of mounting danger (“Ready for Ambush”). It’s an awesome display of the composer’s ability to re-imagine the western sound in Morricone’s wake. If one must limit their western soundtrack collection to a single Goldsmith score 100 Rifles should be the one.

– from Chapter 4: Staccato Six-Guns of Kristopher Spencer’s Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979

Book Excerpt of the Day

"Odd sonorities always have been innate to Morricone’s magic. Listen to the distorted keyboard notes at the beginning of “Scherzi a Parte.” Alone they would become tiresome after a few bars, but used sparingly against more traditional instrumentation the squonking cartoonish noise is a marvelous example of how well electronic sounds can mesh with acoustic sounds. The most amazing track on Duck You Sucker (aka A Fistful of Dynamite or originally Giu La Testa) is the nine-minute “Invenzione per John” (or “Inventions of John”), which deserves to be dubbed “Reinventions of Ennio.” Morricone reprises his theme but extends it through free form abstraction by overlapping melodic ideas where every element seems out of sink with the other. Morricone deconstructs his musical thoughts and along the way discovers countless variations on his theme. It’s the most hypnotic nine minutes you’re likely to find on an Italian western score. It’s nothing short of brilliant."

– from Chapter 4: Staccato Six-Guns of Kristopher Spencer’s Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979

Book Excerpt of the Day

"Suspense enters the picture [The Bird with the Crystal Plumage] when a malevolently groaning male voice pursues the frightened panting of a female voice over avant-garde jazz, with angular keyboard lines being taunted by frantic drums and spastic, sickly brass. While abrasive atonality is a perfect accompaniment for onscreen murder and mayhem, most record collectors will agree that it makes for a difficult and sometimes disconcerting listening experience. Fans of Morricone’s relentlessly experimental spirit, however, will appreciate the extremes on display."

– from Chapter 6: A Fearful Earful of Kristopher Spencer’s Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979

Book Excerpt of the Day

“Spasmo’s centerpiece is ‘Stress Infinito,’ a masterful slab of experimental suspense music. Dissonance and discord lead to disorientation in this diabolically designed labyrinth of despair. If that sentence seems overwrought you can blame it on the music, which is impressively single-minded in its mission to undermine sanity wherever it may be sequestered. At the onset Morricone summons jarring electronic sound effects that pierce the writhing orchestral discord before setting down a simple beat offset by angular brass and keyboard lines. Eventually the volume and tempo verge on hard rock, but in the least conventional sense possible. Easy listening it is not…”

– from Chapter 6: A Fearful Earful of Kristopher Spencer’s Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979

Book Excerpt of the Day

“Perhaps the first Hollywood production to ‘respond’ to the spaghetti westerns was Hang ‘em High, featuring a score by [Dominic] Frontiere that shamelessly imitates the [Ennio] Morricone sound. Bells toll ominously and harmonica moans moodily as electric and acoustic guitars square off for a duel. Then brass bursts forth, kicking up dust with a galloping rhythm.”

– from Chapter 4: Staccato Six-Guns of Kristopher Spencer’s Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979