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Georges Garvarentz: Panic Button
€20.90
Georges Garvarentz
Panic Button
LP (Vinyl)
reissue of 1964 soundtrack album: The mastermind behind this album can be seen as a luminary in the field of movie soundtracks especially for the 60s and 70s while his career lasted until the early 90s up to his untimely death. "Panic Button" is the third album of its kind from his hands composed for an Italian low budget comedy film released in 1964 and originals in good condition may fetch up to 200,00 Euros today. The most interesting fact about the movie is the participation of cult actress Jayne Mansfield who also was part of the inner circle of Mr. Anton Lavey in the 60s. The music on the other side is a colorful trip through different styles from Italian traditional music to lush orchestral baroque music with most of the tunes being laid down by a well – rehearsed big band. The background of this album is obviously big band swing. From here Garvarentz explores the more light footed corners of this genre and the result is a breathtaking joy. The melodies bring images of crowded market places and nifty street restaurants in Italian cities to your mind. The performances have the right amount of steam and passion to drag you from your seat, dance and sing along these sunny harmonies. And the pieces themselves are perfectly placed with high energetic moments and gentle parts following each other to sustain the attention of the listener and underline the different scenes of the movie in an ideal way. If you love the old movie scores from the early 60s with this abundant big band orchestration and a hip shaking groove to the tunes with the exception of a few parts that set you into a hushed mood you will really enjoy this beautiful piece of music. It is all about fun and felicity and a deeper feeling to accompanies the compositions. A masterpiece!
Mort Garson: Electronic Hair Pieces
€20.90
Mort Garson
Electronic Hair Pieces
LP (Vinyl)
reissue of 1969 Space-Age Electronic album: He was the master of the moog and a pioneer in electronic music from the late 60s and 70s where he participated in some unforgotten projects such as LUCIFER, THE ZODIAC, ATARAXIA and PLANTASIA. The following review centers on his album “Electronic Hair pieces” from 1969 on which he tickles your senses with instrumental adaptions of the songs from the musical “Hair”. He performs all the tunes on a contemporary moog synthesizer system even with electronic percussion. Since you might recognize the one or another melody even if you have never experienced the original musical but all in all these adaptions may feel slightly bizarre to you. There are these simple but beautiful pop melodies upfront, a ticking rhythm and then it gets weird with a few layers of chirring moog lines and some hissing and threateningly droning sounds far in the back. But all these little components are there. Most wicked tune on side A is the melancholic “Three – Five – Zero – Zero”, a mixture of proto industrialistic metallic noises, reverberant electronic percussions and rather gentle melodic parts where the moog carols away. It leaves you in a disturbed mood. And even though the well known musical songs are mostly lightweight in nature, the creaking and pulsating main melodies, pinging accompaniments and static rhythms take you far away to the belly of an intelligent machine. You may find yourself onboard of a giant spaceship or drifting through a colorful synthetic dream world. Somehow the music still bears a warmth that became unusual later when synthesizer music developed further by the late 70s and early 80s. Mort Garson knows to perform his adaptions with passion and a depth that is an exciting joy to explore. It works with his own compositions you can find on “Black mass” by LUCIFER for example and it works here with a bunch of pop melodies rearranged for a battery of synthesizers. Still this is definitely a bizarre trip and may feel scary to “Hair” aficionados but venturous lovers of the more experimental late 1960s music territories will dig it due to the great backing compositions and the outstanding performance.