Mostly Italians (and mostly good) this week with one exception - as in, one isn't Italian, and one is really very far from good!
I'll be chatting to @TAG about these on the next Damn Fine Podcast:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/97369522@N07/18899149314
Excellent big bold old-school Spag Western stuff. Not a bit like Hired Hand tho, I must say! (can't remember who said that...heh heh....
https://www.flickr.com/photos/97369522@N07/19495547726
Stunning. Easy, groovy, life-affirming, very Bacharach in parts. Imagining zipping round a narrow mountain road in a white Alpha Romeo convertible, silk scarf twirling in the wind, Monica Vitti laughing next to me....sigh......
https://www.flickr.com/photos/97369522@N07/18900792743
Good score, but shame about the sleeve! Dagored break their tradition of full-image, textless sleeves and it doesn't work nearly as well for me. Especially considering how great the OG LP sleeve art was!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/97369522@N07/19333729000
Dance and Jungle mixes of the main theme. The extended 12" mix is very listenable, in a mid-90s fashion.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/97369522@N07/19521653375
Love it! More on the next DFP!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/97369522@N07/19335170359
But I deliberately avoided discussing this release, as I don't like to be too negative on the DFP and I wanted to double check and make sure before saying anything:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/97369522@N07/18899152524
It is with a heavy heart that I have to tell you - this release is a disaster in my opinion.
Of all the Italo scores coming out, including this inaugural batch by Contempo, this was the one I was most excited about. I adore the movie by Antonioni - brilliant and disturbing and an incredible study of alienation and mental collapse, all framed by a comment on modern industrialisation and it's effect on the individual/human relationships. It's an incredible movie that is still hugely relevant and impactful today. A big part of it's power for me is the truly mesmerising and unique (certainly for 1962) score by Giovanni Fusco, which fuses more traditional pop songs and scoring with a dread-filled electronic soundscape that throbs and humms like a swarm of Insanity- Wasps constantly buzzing in the back of your fevered mind - like a kind of evil Tinitus!
As proclaimed by Contempo, the original EP is impossible to get, and I know there have been various releases of the music on CD, paired with Antonioni scores by Fusco and others. But this re-issue was touted as being an audiophile release, sourced from the "original analog master tapes." My hopes were super high for this important re-issue.
Unfortunately -- something has gone very very wrong here. I don't want to go on at length, dissing this release when there might come to light a geniune reason why this has happened, but right from the start the music on Il Deserto Rosso sounds bad - in fact, to my ears, unlistenable. After the initial swarm of electronics on the opening track "Astrale", the solo voice takes over and it's here that the problem presents itself most clearly. There is a high, artificial, electronic tone to each note which sits above the voice, like a buzzing digital chatter. To me (I'm really no expert though, bear in mind...) it sounds like low-quality mp3 aliasing/artifacts, or perhaps the over application of noise-reduction software etc. I don't want to question Contempo's statement about the source for this, and I do plan to drop them an email about this release.
You can compare this opening track to it's CD counterpart on Youtube, there's a few different uploads. I played them side by side to a friend last night, and he totally agreed with me - whatever has gone wrong with the mastering of this, it has sadly rendered it unlistenable
If anyone else notices the issue, do let me know.
Useless edition? Yeah, but how cool is this?!? 
