The Addams Family

Vic Mizzy (January 9, 1916 – October 17, 2009) was an American composer for television and movies whose best-known works are the themes to the 1960s television sitcoms Green Acres and The Addams Family. He also penned top-20 songs from the 1930s to 1940s.

This is an album of incidental music from the original 1960s black and white American sitcom The Addams Family, based on the characters in Charles Addams' New Yorker cartoons. Mizzy did an admirable job on the music; it’s in keeping with the music of American TV shows of the time – think “I Dream of Jeannie” or “Bewitched” - just with added harpsichord. With a mix of blues, jazz, lounge and latin rhythms, it at times verges on Esquivel-levels of bachelor pad atmosphere, which is brilliant. I have happily put this on in the background whilst entertaining, and have drawn compliments and questions on my music choice. If you weren’t to listen to the theme tune, this would stand up on its own as a great lounge album; full of jazz flute, drum set, laid back sax and mixed chorus scatting. “Uncle Fester's Blues” could be the b-side to Quincy Jones’ Soul Bossa Nova; “On Shroud No. 9” sounds like it should have Ann-Margret purring over the top of it; and you get the theme tune twice, with and without vocals!

Download HERE (59mb)

Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?

Here is Alex North’s haunting and dreamlike score from the film Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?, starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, based on the play of the same name by homeboy Edward Albee. Replete with dialogue excerpts! Some of the cues never actually made it to film, such as the beautiful harpsichord entr’acte which was discarded because, well, the film doesn’t have an intermission.

The score swings from ethereal to full on baroque with the centre tracks employing far more dissonance than the start and finish, yet having a timeless quality to it all. As the film is so dialogue-heavy, it is easy to imagine that the score (as an underscore to dialogue) would be sidelined but North has made a highlight of the genre. And it’s backed up by being performed by the National Philharmonic Orchestra.

WARNING: the dialogue excerpts on some tracks inevitably hold MAJOR spoilers, so I’d highly recommend watching the film first. In general, I highly recommend watching the film. An extraordinary example of cinema, Taylor and Burton (married at the time!) give it their all in powerhouse performances; Taylor in particular, who chews the script and scenery up, unleashing all Hell as the venomous Martha. The definitive performance, and a rather faithful (save a trip in the car) adaptation of Albee’s stunning play.

The film was nominated for every eligible category going at the Academy Awards, and was the first film to have its entire cast nominated for awards. Only Taylor and Sandy Dennis (as the mousy Honey) won, for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, respectively. Burton was robbed of Best Actor, thanks to A Man for All Seasons cleaning up that year, winning six awards to Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?'s five.

Download HERE

Django

No, not music from M. Reinhardt, but the soundtrack to one of my favourite spaghetti westerns. This bloody, macabre and surprisingly influential film by Sergio Corbucci (friend and rival to Leone) revolves around the eponymous gun runner and anti-hero, a shell-shocked veteran of the civil war. He has no horse, and drags a coffin through fields of mud. Inside the coffin is a machine gun that he hopes to trade for gold. He fetches up in a ghost town dominated by two rival gangs: Mexican bandidos and southern racists. Hilarity ensues. And by "Hilarity", I mean "A deluge of bloodshed and ear-eating". This is, after all, an Italian film from the 60s.

Over 30 (some say the count is closer to 100) unofficial sequels were filmed in the years following, thanks to Italian copyright laws being fucking absurd. Furthermore, Django has found homages being paid to it from the likes of Danzig, Joe Strummer, Rancid, Takashi Miike (whose recent film Sukiyaki Western Django is a quasi-prequel) and most famously Quentin Tarantino, who apes the controversial ear-cutting scene from Django for his Reservoir Dogs. Django, being a film verging on demented, goes further than Tarantino dared, and had the ear being fed to the victim. Oh, and the victim was a priest. Who then gets shot by his captors. Right. Yes, this got past the censors in 1966. How? After the censors requested its removal, Corbucci decided to "forget" to cut it from the film.

The music is by Luis Bacalov, Academy Award-nominated Argentine composer (you'll have heard some of his stuff if you've watched Kill Bill), and is exactly what you expect (and want) from a Spaghetti Western score, but on top of the general dramatics and atmospherics it also has a kitch and super-catchy melodramatic title track sung by Rocky Roberts (R.I.P.) to boot!

Download HERE

I Left My Heart In Rubacava

Because computer games can have great soundtracks, too.

Selections from Grim Fandango, one of the greatest games of all time. You are Manuel Calavera, skeletal travel agent to the recently deceased. Intrigue awaits you in the Land of the Dead, a world influenced by Art Deco, Mexican folklore and Film Noir.

Casino Calavera
Swanky Maximino
Hi-Tone Fandango
Blue Hector
Gambling Glottis
Companeros
Manny & Meche

If you like what you hear, you can download the full 32-track OST here, as well as (if you really like what you hear...) every single piece of incidental and ambient music from the game.