Audio Watchdog By Douglas E. Winter Morricone in the Mix
t’s impossible to talk about Quentin Tarantino’s KILL BILL VOL. 2 without invoking the music of Ennio Morricone, which is central to its action—and to its insistent elements of hommage. Like the film itself, the soundtrack (A Band Apart/ Maverick/WMG 48676-2, $18.98, 15 tracks, 46m 14s) is more moody and introspective than its pre- decessor; and it’s talky, tracked with nearly 4m of dialogue. The results are best described as a mix tape compiled by an Italian Western fan who couldn’t stop himself from inserting songs he’d heard while on several different drunks. Morricone’s signature spaghetti sound prevails, represented by cues from THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY [Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo], THE MERCENARY [Il mercenario] and the de- lirious “A Silhouette of Doom” from NAVAJO JOE [Un dollara a testa]. The underscore is flavored a deeper rosso by Luis Bacalov’s main title for SUMMERTIME KILLER [Un verano para matár] and spiced with salsa, including Chingon’s stir- ring performance of “Malaguena Salerosa.” The toppings—Q’s quirky song selections— prove heavy on the cheese. Shivaree’s calculated surf-noir “Goodnight Moon,” rockabilly from Charlie Feathers, and the Japanese pop ballad “Urami Bushi” wither into mere amusements when spun up against the two powerhouse song tracks used vividly in the film: one of Johnny Cash’s last recordings, “A Satisfied Mind,” and Malcolm McLaren’s Mobyesque “About Her,” which
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Ennio Morricone
smashes a 1929 Bessie Smith performance of W.C. Handy’s “St. Louis Blues” into The Zom- bies’ Sixties hit “She’s Not There.” Closing things out is a “hidden” but merely adequate “Black Mamba” joint performed by Wu-Tang Clan’s The RZA, with Old Dirty Bastard in da house. KILL BILL VOL. 2, like last year’s entry, is a near-great compilation, hindered slightly by its schizoid song list but more substantially by its failure to include all of Tarantino’s chosen cues. For the official word, dust off your bloody bridal wear and visit
kill-bill.com and
maverick.com. Maestro Morricone’s reign over the musical imagination of this generation is also accented by ENNIO MORRICONE REMIXES, a choice col- lection of his film music “re-rubbed” for the 21st Century by an international cast of DJs and mix- ers working under the rubric “Cinematic for the People.” The project bests MORRICONE RMX, a down-tempo remix CD released by WEA In- ternational in 2001, and should appeal to fans of dance electronica and electronic soundtracks, as well as fans of Morricone. VOLUME 1 (Compost 150-2, Germany, $16.99, 14 tracks, 70m 32s) kicks off with the surreal “We Love Ennio,” a vocoder-vo- cal riff on “La Moda” from La donna invis- ible, before grooving into a tribute that ranges from clubbed-up cues from the likes of Le foto proibite di una signora per bene to a perfectly re-instrumented “Ninna Nanna in Blu” from THE CAT O’NINE TAILS [Il gatto a nove code] before concluding with a pensive take on the main title of DUCK, YOU SUCKER! [Giù la testa].
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