Friday, December 9, 2011

Piero Umiliani - La Ragazza Dalla Pelle Di Luna (1970)


Piero Umiliani's La Ragazza Dalla Pelle Di Luna aka The Woman With the Skin of the Moon is propelled by a wicked title track and its shockingly delightful versions. This piano solo kickstarts the soundtrack nicely...




Umiliani is one of the great masters of the Italian Groove. I've found his later experimental phase a bit hard to penetrate, but his work is never bland or boring. We get a taste of some of his more daring stuff here (Il Santone Del'Isola, Danza Della Luna), but by and large, this is romance music, a score with more meditative little treasures that reveal themselves with every listen.

The music here is so fuggin' good it deserves a second sample, the beautiful "Funerailles d'un Heros".





LA RAGAZZA DALLA PELLE DI LUNA 

















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Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Guido & Maurizio de Angelis - Roma Violenta (1975)


Roma Violenta is one of more than 10 soundtracks scored by the legendarily prolific de Angelis brothers in 1975 alone. To my ear, the brothers de Angelis have one of the most recognizable sounds in all of Italian Cinemusic. 

This soundtrack is complete with the typical variations on the main theme we come to expect with Italian soundtracks: altered tempo, addition and subtraction of instruments from track to track, etc. Roma Violenta in particular forays into bossa nova and blues territory on certain efforts, and the tandem are particularly deadly when they bust out the electric guitars. 

The seven versions of "The Other Face" & "The Punitive Justice" are my particular favorites. Sample one here...





Then get the whole thing:












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