Ennio Morricone — Morricone High – The Trippier Side Of ............
The collection opens with five tracks from the Vittorio Caprioli directed 1969 drama “Scusi, facciamo l'amore?” ( Excuse Me, Letes Make Love?). The films plot followed the story of a young Neapolitan man who travels to Milan to attend his father's funeral. His father was a gigolo, and the young man decides to continue the family profession and begins looking for rich women to prey upon. These first five tracks move from: sensual & cheesy female & male vocalising over laid back easy listening grooves, onto felt & sad harpsichord tinkle & rising string dwells, through to cheesy/bright guitar pop & vocalizing work-outs.
Next we move onto four tracks from the 1970 soundtrack for Luciano Ercoli directed giallo “Le foto proibite di una signora per bene”( Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion). Plot wise the film follows a triangle of friendship, love, sex, dirty pictures and, perhaps, murder. Sound wise these tracks move from up-beat organ & guitar work-outs. Through to mysterious yet heady piano lined, building string & later bass tipped sound-tracking. Onto 70’s darting & jaunting jazz lined pop soundtracking with some soaring yet slightly buried female singing on it
Up next is three tracks from the soundtrack for 1971’s “Veruschka” which was a seemingly a bleak & unsettling drama that followed the story of a troubled Italian female model. The film was directed by Franco Rubartelli, and from the three tracks here it seems one of the more darker & psychedelic movies featured here, and it's a really there isn’t more of it here. The tracks move from: Rosemary Babies like female La’s that drift over tight & dark bass runs, which shimmer with semi discordant reverb piano flourishers. Onto creepy & discordant music box showers that wonder into doomed & unwell mixtures of vibe descends & eerier wind instruments brood. Through brooding & tight bass lined jazz discordant work-outs that would'nt be out of place on a more tripped out Jess Franco soundtrack.
Next are two tracks from 1969 Art house drama La donna invisible(The Invisible Woman), which was directed by Paolo Spinola. The plot tells of a Laura, a woman married to a respected college professor, who feels herself becoming so marginalized in her marriage as to become invisible. Though pleasant enough these two track rather stay a little to close to clichéd, rising & buoyant late 60’s to early 70's easy listening template.
Then to finish off the collection we have a track a piece from two Italian giallo soundtracks. First up there’s a track from 1971 “Short Night of Glass Dolls” soundtrack- the track on offer here is a great tense & sensual mix of female breathing, dark & descending string swoons, and heart beat like percussion. Then finally there’s a track from Dario Argento directed 1971 moive “Cat o' Nine Tails”- this track is again a great creepy & sensual example of giallo soundtracking with it’s step ‘n’ creep bass-line, twinkling ‘n’ stabbing piano, female vocalizing & string instrument neck noises.
So all told this is a rewarding & fairly varied compilation that focus in on the more psychedelic, and at times dark sensual & edgy side of Morricone’s soundtrack work from the late 60’ & early 70’s.And only one or two of the sixteen tracks on offer here are not quite up to scratch.