The Players is a collective of Music and Film insiders based between London and Paris who are also vinyl junkies. Matt Robin from the team, who’s also label-managing such labels as Third Man Records and Naim as well as running the new WEWANTSOUNDS imprint, picks up his Top 5 soundtracks from the 1964/75 decade.
Dave Grusin
Whalen Robbery (‘The Friends of Eddie Coyle’)
« Great funky soundtrack by Dave Grusin composed a few years before his more famous score for ‘The Three Days of the Condor’. A little know crime film by British director Peter Yates shot in 1973, five years after his masterpiece ‘Bullitt’ in 1968, the film is a great exponent of new Hollywood early 70s indie cinema. »
Serge Gainsbourg/Michel Colombier
No No Yes Yes (‘Mister Freedom’)
« Serge Gainsbourg did many soundtracks in France all along his career. one of his most famous being ‘Requiem Pour Un Con’ and ‘Sous Le Soleil Exactement’. This Soulful Jerk from 1968 is from a little known film by cult US photographer William Klein done at the height of the late 60’s counter culture frenzy. The track is arranged by Gainsbourg’s regular collaborator, Michel Colombier a year after he arranged Pierre Henry’s famous electronic jerks, Psyche Rock in particular. »
Frog
Witch Hunt (‘Psychomania’)
« John Cameron is behind the soundtrack of this obscure British horror film. An established pianist and producer who arranged ‘Sunshine Superman’ and Hot Chocolate’s ‘You Sexy Thing’ among others. Cameron was a skilled jazz pianist also active in the soundtrack department. He signed the scores for two Ken Loach films, ‘Poor Cow’ and especially ‘Kes’ a beautiful pastoral soundtrack featuring the flute of his regular collaborator Harold McNair. »
Max Roach
Scene B (‘Black Sun’)
« A superb, very little known jazz score by Roach featuring Clifford Jordan and Roach’s wife Abbey Lincoln. It was made for a cult ‘nuberubagu’ (nouvelle vague) Japanese film from 1964 by Kurahara Koreyoshi and shot in Tokyo. Kurahara had previously shot The Warped Ones in 1960 a film often compared to Godard’s Breathless and said to have greatly influenced Kubrick for A Clockwork Orange. »
Manu Dibango
Red Salter (‘Countdown at Kusini’)
« One of the rarest Blaxploitation soundtracks ever produced, ‘Countdown at Kusini’ is THE graal in terms of Blax soundtrack together with Bernard Purdie’s Lialeh OST. the original LP was only produced as a free “souvenir” for the film premiere in Seattle and was never commercially released. A superb blend of fender-Rhodes-drenched instrumentals and a pinch of African rhythms from the soul makossa King, it’s worth checking out, if you can find it that is. »
