TVTHEMES by µ-Ziq

Hauntology for Halloween

The Shadow of Aethereus by Soulless Central Radio on Mixcloud

Recommended further listening: The Soulless Party - Tales From The Black Meadow



"If you were born between the late 60's and mid 70's then this is for you...don't blame me if you have nightmares...you have been warned!! - markmorb

The War Of The Worlds

I'm quite blown away by how well this mix works as an unofficial alternative soundtrack to Richard Burton's captivating narration. Do not miss.

"When I was 8 or 9 years old I heard Jeff Wayne's musical version of H.G.Wells' 'War Of the Worlds' for the first time. It scared the pants off me. For years afterwards I listened to the record over and over. It is certainly one of the things from my childhood that cemented my interest in film scores. Though not a film score per se. Its marriage of rock music with orchestral arrangements to tell a story, had me transfixed. The combination of funky rock with sinister string parts would heavily influence and partially shape the sounds that, years later Jake Wherry and I would be making in The Herbaliser. 

A few years back I was given, as a Christmas gift, the 'Collectors Edition box set of Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds'. As well as tons of interesting facts about the creation of the original recordings it had several CD's of alternate takes, remixes etc. On one CD, I excitedly discovered that they had included all of Richard Burton's dialogue parts, without music. Having already created and performed an alternate live DJ score to silent film 'The Lost World' from 1927, this seemed like a great opportunity to do a similar project with one of my favourite childhood stories.

Using records from my own collection of movie soundtracks and other suitable material, I created the original version. This was given to some close friends as a christmas present in 2010. The version you are now hearing is a somewhat revised and extended version, created specifically for the 25 years of Solid Steel. Also, it is the 75th anniversary of Orson Welles' infamous radio play, that when broadcast on Halloween 1938, had many Americans convinced that they were listening to a genuine attack from outer space. This is by no means intended as an improvement to Mr Wayne's recording but a tribute to H.G Wells, Jeff Wayne, Richard Burton, Orson Welles and of course Solid Steel.

DJ Ollie Teeba of The Herbaliser and Soundsci'

...in search of the perfect mixtape

I think this one comes pretty darn close:

ps. This blog ain't dead yet and I intend to get back to ripping more yarns when I'm back off me hols!

The Aragorn Ballroom Orcestra

Boogie... Beyond Your Imagination! A bonkers disco version of Leonard Rosenman's Main Theme & Helm's Deep cues from the score of Ralph Bakshi's animated version of The Lord Of The Rings. Well, it was 1978 after all...

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Electric Hell!

I can't think of a better way to celebrate tonight's festivities than by spending an hour listening to Gibbet Of The Damned; a mixtape courtesy of the never not brilliant Cottage Of Electric Hell. The mix was originally created for Six Ton Armor and if psych is your thing you should head over there right away. Check out their Soundcloud too, it's chock full o' nuggets.

Goodnight... if you can!

Ready When You Are, J.B.

"John Barry: The Lost Tapes (2012). One of Britain's premier film composers, John Barry was renowned for his scores for the early James Bond films as well as Midnight Cowboy, Out of Africa and Dances With Wolves. The winner of five Oscars, Barry who passed away last year was a private man - but 'John Barry - The Lost Tapes offers a revealing insight into his working life

Author and broadcaster Eddi Fiegel, during the course of many extensive interviews with John for her biography, also recorded a conversation for BBC radio, which was never broadcast and considered lost - until now.

Barry is a vivid raconteur and recounted the first decade of his career, from fledgling pop musician and producer to Oscar winning-composer. He also gave me some rare insights into his song writing craft.

He talked fondly about his early days with his instrumental group The John Barry Seven, his recordings with Adam Faith, the first venture into film and his remarkable recordings on the James Bond movies. With the success of Goldfinger in 1964, barely a week seemed to go by without John receiving a new film commission. It was a prolific time for him and, over the next two years, his scores included Thunderball, Richard Lester's The Knack and The Ipcress File starring a young Michael Caine. The pair became firm friends.

John's Oscar winning score for Born Free made him an international figure and the royal screening of the film saw a leading British actor 'throw a fit' when upstaged in front of the Royal family.

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Monkey Magic

Monkey Magic: Music From BBC TV Series Monkey by Godiego. Auntie Beeb released two singles of the Monkey theme with different tracks on the B-side. I decided to stick them both together along with a rip of the broadcast version with that ever quotable voice over. If I can ever get my sweaty mitts on the full soundtrack lp you can be sure I'll be posting that too. For more on this classic show go here and here. Then go watch some Monkey, it's fab, not to mention wicked, skill and indeed ace.

dl: HQ mp3 or FLAC

Back To School

Back to School by Soulless Central Radio on Mixcloud

DROKK!!

"Jimp - Judge impersonator, Crime where the perp dresses and acts like a judge who for their own benefit or enjoyment" 

Geoff Barrow has been on BBC 6 Music promoting Drokk and other projects this weekend. 

Stuart Maconie's Freakier Zone: Geoff Barrow discusses Drokk, Beak> and plays some tracks that have influenced him.

Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone: Geoff and Adrian Utley out of Portishead discuss the band's album Third.

An abridged podcast version is also available here.

The shows will be up for 7 days after broadcast and are well worth a listen.

DROKK!

Portishead's Geoff Barrow and soundtrack composer Ben Salisbury bring you a musical tribute to Judge Joseph Dredd's home town, Mega-City One. If the Dredd movie was made back when it was first on the cards in the early '80's and John Carpenter had got the directing gig, maybe his score would have sounded something like this. Especially if he had roped in Tangerine Dream and Neu! to flesh out a few cues here and there, once they hit the recording studio. For me this is up there with the recent work of College and the Valerie Collective for perfectly capturing that cool throbbing retro-synth sound without ever falling into cheesy parody. Great stuff:

Various zarjaz hard copy formats are also available from Invada and stores like Norman Records and Boomkat should you desire them. Don't hang around though.

Scrotnig!

Geoff Barrow gives great interview on The Skinny.

From the Invada Records page:

Geoff Barrow is a founding member of Portishead and producer/label owner of Invada Records UK. Ben Salisbury is a soundtrack composer with over 200 film and TV credits to his name, including David Attenborough’s ‘Life of Mammals’, ‘Life in the Undergrowth’ and ‘Life in Cold Blood’. Barrow and Salisbury met over 10 years ago when they both joined a Bristol football team for old men. After many disastrous games they decided they might be more productive working on a music project together. Other work commitments kept them apart until late 2010, when the pair met up with a screenwriter to discuss some possible work on a feature film project. Although their involvement with this particular film did not continue, a collaborative writing relationship had begun…

When Barrow and Salisbury revisited and started expanding upon this early material they decided to continue writing what was essentially soundtrack music. Barrow, along with album designer and long term friend, Marc Bessant, were both avid 2000AD readers from a young age, and the sprawling metropolis and classic stories of Mega-City One seemed the ideal inspiration for this ‘soundtrack’. 

DROKK was written in a 6 month period between Barrow’s Portishead world tour and Salisbury’s composing jobs for the BBC. Although it is a soundtrack of sorts, Barrow and Salisbury instinctively felt that music for MC1 should steer clear of the rich orchestration common to many contemporary film scores. Even for electronica the music is often purposefully stark and spare, with the majority of tracks created exclusively on the Oberhiem 2 Voice Synthesizer (a 1975 classic keyboard), and its onboard sequencer used to create rhythm and drums sounds. The only exceptions are a handful of tracks which combine the synth with digitally manipulated and time - stretched performances of acoustic instruments (such as piano, violin, mandolin, ukulele, voice and hammered dulcimer). There is also a brief cameo from Barrow’s other band BEAK>.

Until next time, Splundig Vur Thrigg Earthlets.

Studio 2 Stereo

Two classic "Sound Gallery" lps by library legends Alan Hawkshaw & Brian Fahey. Not much else to say other than this seems to be quite the rare and sought after double CD set these days.

Best listened to on the hi-fi with friends, Martini and lemonades all round. Ice and a slice? Cheers and good health!

Alan Hawkshaw – 27 Top T.V. Themes & Commercials:

01 The Ironside Theme/Theme From The Persuaders/Main Theme From The Saint

02 The Right One - Martini/Come Into The Warm - Cadbury's Drinking Chocolate/A Matter Of Pride - Blue Band

03 Theme From Cade's County/The Virginian Theme

04 The Night Rider - Cadbury's Milk Tray

05 Theme From The W.Somerset Maugham TV Series/Theme From Upstairs Downstairs (The Edwardians)

06 Bird's Eye Country

07 Yes I Understand - Esso

08 The Odd Couple

09 Theme From The Baron/Man In A Suitcase/Theme From Z Cars

10 Faraway Music - Heinz Spaghetti/The Girl With The Sun In Her Hair - Sunsilk/Crossroads

11 I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing (In Perfect Harmony)/Poppochoc - Milky Way/ It's All At The Co-Op Now

12 Blarney's Stoned From The Dave Allen Show/By George! - It's The David Frost Theme/Braden's Beat

13 Theme From Shaft

Brian Fahey And His Orchestra – Time For TV:

01 Theme From "The Power Game"

02 Main Theme From "The Saint"

03 Batman Theme

04 At The Sign Of The Swingin' Cymbal

05 High Wire (Theme From "Danger Man")

06 The Rat Catchers

07 Thunderbirds

08 The Avengers

09 Seaway

10 Inspector Rose Theme From "Mr. Rose"

11 The Clanger

12 Theme From "The Baron"

13 Theme From "The Man From The U.N.C.L.E."

14 The Troubleshooters

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Denton & Cook - Hong Kong Beat LP

Saving the best for last, here's a fresh rip of Hong Kong Beat & Other BBC TV Themes - Richard Denton & Martin Cook which I found only recently and what's more, for a sensible price after a fair amount of searching. All the 7" singles I've posted here are repeated in the track-listing, plus the one that got away, the theme tune to The Great Egg Race. A fine body of work, a great pity that there was never any more released. 

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Denton & Cook - Jigsaw

Richard Denton & Martin Cook's theme tune for the Children's BBC programme Jigsaw (1979-84) was never released officially, a great pity that as it was always a favourite 'round our house. To be honest Jigsaw was one of those shows I watched because there was nothing else on the telly. The puzzle based content flew right over my tiny brain and that Mr. Noseybonk... well he was a bit disturbing.

In the spirit of make-do-and-mend I've grabbed some audio from the youtubes cleaned it up a bit, edited it looping around the dialogue as best I could and here are the results:

There are also a few Real Media files on some ancient fan sites that date back to the World Wide Web's Triassic era here and here. In addition to those, you can also hear library music featured on Jigsaw on this compilation courtesy of the excellent Retro-Teque blog.

Don't have nightmares!

Denton & Cook - Quiller (Soundhog Extended Edit)

Denton & Cook - Quiller (Soundhog Extended Edit)

Listen to the original 7" here.

Stone Fox Chase

Top BBC TV Themes (1978). The usual mixed bag of tunes. Highlights naturally include Denton & Cook's The Hong Beat, also any beat hunters out there should dig Area Code 615's  The Old Grey Whistle Test (Stone Fox Chase) and Alan Parker's funky theme to Angels, I know I do.

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Stereo Test Record mix

This superb mix comes from 2007 (I assume) but is new to me and comes courtesy of The Horse Drawn Zeppelin. I know nothing of God's Boyfriend and Go Away Records seems to have gone away for good, but they left this sonic gem behind for us all to enjoy. I'm not going to list all the 150 odd tracks included in this mix, instead, please peruse the image below:

"STEREO TEST RECORD provides a means for the demanding listener to check audio reproduction equipment without the need for expensive and complicated instruments. The sounds on this record are the final products of years of research and development of stereophonic recording techniques by 73 artists contributing over 150 compositions. 

# Test your stereo band levels with John Carpenter

# Check the channel orientation with Giorgio Moroder and BBC Radiophonic Workshop alumni

# Perform a phasing test with Eddie Warner, Klaus Schulze and Alan Hawkshaw 

# Envelope yourself in the sound of Raymond Scott's newly designed and manufactured electronic music devices and systems

All of the tests within are inter-dependent, and it is therefore suggested that it be played through once completely before attempting to interpret the results which may be obtained from it. 

This record is sponsored by Dübreq, makers of the Stylophone, a revolution in electronic music performance, introduced here by Rolf Harris.

These DYNAMIC DIRECTIONAL STEREO recordings are capable of bringing to you the most realistic width and depth plus the altogether thrilling addition of the actual movement of musical sounds in space - DIRECTIONAL STEREO EFFECTS.

Please download responsibly.

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Denton & Cook - Theme From The Hong Kong Beat 7"

Richard Denton & Martin Cook - Theme From 'The Hong Kong Beat' b/w Chasing The Dragon (1978). The Denton & Cook single that sold enough copies to grace the UK Top 40, reaching #25 on 6th May, 1978 pop-pickers! Could be because The Hong Kong Beat sounds like nothing if it doesn't sound like a rejected demo from Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here album, in a very, very good way you understand. More Denton and Cook goodness to come soon.

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Denton & Cook - Diamonds In The Sky 7"

Richard Denton & Martin Cook - Diamonds In The Sky b/w Jet Lag (1979). A suitably sophisticated soft rock instrumental incorporating a similar vocoded vocal effect used on Tomorrow's World. The b side Jet Lag sounds like funky disco strings for a cocktail party on Harold Shand's yacht.

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Denton & Cook - Circuit Eleven Miami 7"

Richard Denton & Martin Cook - Circuit Eleven - Miami b/w The Spangler (1979). A jaunty country bar room boogie rock styled theme tune for a  "thirteen-part documentary series on law and order in Florida, including coverage of court-room proceedings". The b-side continues in the same vein.

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