Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Show 4: Musique Noire

An exploration of the musical equivalent of film noir... “musique noire” perhaps? Not necessarily only music from film noir soundtracks but also music that conveys the primary moods of classic film noir. Kind of hard to cover this adequately in 15 minutes... but hey, it’s a start.


Song 1 : : Somewhere in the Dark
Artist : : Drywall
Album : : Barbeque Babylon

For complete info on Stan Ridgway’s Drywall project, please visit Stan’s website. A lot of Ridgway’s music... especially his earlier work... has been described as cinematic, hard-boiled, and film noir-inspired. But Ridgway, one of the most unique and talented popular singer / songwriter / composers of the last quarter century, also releases music in a variety of other styles that I encourage you to seek out and listen to.

* * *

Song 2 : : Prison Break
Artist : : Irving Joseph
Album : : Crime Jazz – Murder in the Second Degree

This track is originally from a record called Murder Inc. A crime jazz cut from a coulda-been soundtrack sound-alike... but it’s not from any film at all. Goes to show you that it doesn’t have to be from film noir to sound like film noir. More on Irving Joseph at spaceagepop.com.

* * *

Song 3 : : Chinatown
Artist : : Skip Heller
Album : : Fakebook

Real film noir music from a neo-film noir classic. Jerry Goldsmith’s theme to Roman Polanski’s Chinatown, as performed by Skip Heller, and featuring Robert Drasnin.

No comments: