Goodbye Lenin

Goodbye Lenin is Wolfgang Becker's 2003 charming tragi-comedy set in the former East Germany. It concerns a young man's increasingly ingenious attempts to conceal the renunification of East and West Germany from his ailing mother.

The film begins in East Berlin during the Cold War, where Christine Kerner (Katrin Saß), a mother with two children finds herself alone after her husband defects to the West. As a result she becomes a loyal card carrying member of the socialist party. When she sees her son Alex played by Daniel Brühl in an anti-government protest she suffers a major heart attack which puts her in a coma. By the time she emerges from the coma, unknown to her, East and West Germany have reunited. Alex is warned by Christine's doctor that any shock could kill his mother. So to save his beloved mother Alex is forced to devise schemes to convince her that East Germany is very much alive and well.

There are wonderful scenes where Alex and his friends scour shops looking for food stuffs that were popular in the old days but are now no longer available. He even goes as far as to fake TV broadcasts to maintain the illusion where actual scenes of East Germans flooding in to the West is re-interpreted as West Germans seeking refuge in the East.

Yann Tiersen's charming, minimalist score for Goodbye Lenin is a delight. With a nod towards Michael Nyman, Tiersen beautifully conveys the complex emotions in the film without resorting to crass mickey-mousing of the on screen action. The emotionally charged cues stay with you long after the house lights have gone up. Just try to listen to the Summer 78 cue without a tear forming in your eye.

Blade Runner - Inspiring The Future

During the run up to the release of Blade Runner: The Final Cut, Warner Brothers ran a promotion to encourage fans to submit material under the categories of art, fashion, literature, and music. The winner of the music category was Bentley Ousley with his mesmeric composition "Deckard's World"

Composer, Bentley is well known in Blade Runner fan circles and is widely recognised as one of the foremost experts on Vangelis' renowned music from Ridley Scott's ground-breaking cult classic. Though only three minutes and ten seconds in duration, Deckard's World captures the melancholy vibe of the movie and the lonely, rainswept, congested streets of Los Angeles in 2019 with considerable panache.

The track was born among a number of musical sketches for the soundtrack for the "Blade Runner Chronicles" a film work in progress. Commenting on the construction of the track Bentley Ousley explained,"I used the CS-80v from Arturia for the "Blade Runner Blues"-type synth sound. (Vangelis, of course, used the original Yamaha CS-80 synth for this sound). Vangelis generally used slightly mod-ed presets from this synth. The CS-80v comes with all the original presets from the CS-80. So ... with a little bit of experimentation, you can usually find what Vangelis was using to produce his different textures.

"I used a Yamaha CS2x for the electric piano sound. The patch is a slightly altered version of the preset "Transine". I hardly use this hardware synth anymore, but I thought the lo-fi vibe of this e-piano patch was simular to some of the early Vangelis recordings. The rain and thunder come from the SpaceHawk library. The percussion loop was made with sounds from Stylus RMX. The bass is a real bass guitar. The strings are the String Sustain instrument from Seidlecek's Complete Classical Collection."

You too can enjoy the experience of Deckard's World by downloading the track from Bentley's website HERE

Other examples from Bentley's Blade Runner sketchbook are here:

City Scape

Up All Night

Sector 4

On the strength of these tantalising glimpses into the Future Noir of LA 2019, I for one, hope these recordings received the exposure they deserve.

L.A. Confidential - very hush-hush and on the QT

L.A. Confidential, is Curtis Hanson's slick 1997 movie adaptation of James Elroy's sprawling novel set in corruption-ridden late 1940's Los Angeles. Despite the plethora of period details, Hanson doesn't let that bog the film down and lets his talented cast live and breath their parts imbuing the film with a naturality that other directors can only dream of.

Hanson initially worried his financiers by casting virtual unknowns and non A-list actors. However, this is the very strength of L.A. Confidential, as each actor gives utterly believable performances. In the case of Kim Basinger, as beautiful Veronica Lake look-alike hooker, Lynn Bracken, it is arguably her career best.

What is even more amazing about L.A Confidential is that three of the principal characters are played by Antipodeans. Russell Crowe in his first Hollywood role dominates the screen as thuggish blunt instrument with a heart, Officer Wendell "Bud" White. Former Aussie soap star Guy Pearce plays squeaky clean bespectacled go-getter, Sergeant Edmund Exley; while James Cromwell, (Farmer Hoggett from Babe) exudes corruption as Police Chief Captain Dudley Smith.

Elsewhere Kevin Spacey shines as Sergeant Jack Vincennes, the cool and charismatic Hollywood cop who moonlights as the technical advisor of Badge of Honor - loosely based on the Dragnet TV show. Vincennes also takes a cut of the action from weasly Sid Hudgeons played with sleazy relish by Danny Devito of Hush-Hush magazine - based on the notorious scandal rag Confidential magazine, itself the subject of a fascinating BBC radio documentary.

The eclectic soundtrack for L.A. Confidential mixes Jerry Goldsmith's dark and mysterious film noir score and a selection of popular hits from the era. Many of the songs perfectly ac-cent-tchu-ate the onscreen action. There is a particularly funny sequence with Lana Turner and her psychotic boyfriend, Johnny Stompanato. Whilst Goldsmith's L.A. Confidential score is not perhaps his best, it bridges the gap between his own Chinatown score and John Barry's Playing By Heart. The score for L.A. Confidential was nominated, but lost out to James Horner's Titanic, for the Golden Globes and Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Although other James Elroy novels have been brought to the screen, there are none to date that hold a candle to Curtis Hanson's L.A. Confidential, a fact confirmed by Elroy himself.

Teen Titans - Let's Go!

Premiered in 2003, Warner Brothers' Teen Titans was an animated TV series about a team of young super heroes, Robin, Starfire, Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Raven. Based on DC Comics characters, the stylishly drawn series was created by Sam Register and Glen Murakami.

Whilst Teen Titans is not technically a spinoff of Warners' other super hero series, Batman, Superman and Justice League, it shares good character-based plots and excellent animation albeit in a more stylized manga style and thus light years away from its noble predecessors.

Given that the show is aimed at a younger audience, it has perhaps not received the widespread attention by animation fans, that it warrants. This is partially true, but the episodes I have caught, have tackled adult themes and the animation is a welcome change from the slightly cliched anime style of some much lauded Japanese cartoons.

The delightfully bonkers theme tune for Teen Titans - which I have something of a soft spot for - is enthusiastically performed by J-Pop lovelies Ami Onuki and Yumi Yoshimura better known as Puffy Amiyumi. While Teen Titans is at the kiddie end of their portfololio Puffy Amiyumi's more recent material, which I strongly advise you check out, features some great pop and rock tunes that remind you of L7, Joan Jett, Shampoo, The Beatles, The Who, Abba, Bow Wow Wow, The Ramones, Polysics and Pizzicato Five. Massive in their home country, Ami and Yumi were appointed goodwill ambassadors to the United States to encourage tourism in Japan and looking at them, it's not hard to see why!

Boy On A Dolphin

Directed by Jean Negulesco and released in 1957, Boy on a Dolphin was a lavish romance set in Greece and sumptuously filmed in Technicolor and CinemaScope. Based on the novel by David Divine, the film starred the vertically challenged Alan Ladd and the statuesque Sophia Loren in her American film debut.

Loren plays Phaedra, a Greek sponge diver who discovers an ancient Greek statue of a boy riding a dolphin at the bottom of the Aegean Sea. Alan Ladd plays an archaeologist attempting to recover the statue for the Greek government, while Clifton Webb plays an unscrupulous treasure hunter who only wants it for his own private collection.

The shimmering fantasy soundtrack for Boy on a Dolphin composed by Hugo Friedhofer and conducted by Lionel Newman was nominated for 1957 Academy Award for the Original Best Score. It mixes traditional Greek themes with more western style music. The sultry theme song often attributed to Julie London (though she did record her own version) is actually sung by Mary Kaye in the movie and is performed over the stunning underwater title sequence.

During the scene when Phaedra discovers the statue, disembodied female vocals are used to great effect and recall the underscores to the original Star Trek series, usually when Kirk gets into a clinch with some Alien totty. Elsewhere you can hear where John Williams perhaps sought inspiration from this score for Star Wars: A New Hope.

I first became aware of this soundtrack when I heard Amon Tobin's dance track Sordid which sampled, The Dive. The Tobin track was also used as the musical backdrop for Chris Morris' darkly comedic Suicide Journalist on his Blue Jam album. I was fascinated by the eerie mysterious vibe of the sample and was delighted when I finally tracked it down.

There was a time when Boy on A Dolphin was a popular staple of Saturday afternoon telly, which makes it inexplicable why it's not officially available on DVD. Even though it's not the greatest of adventures and the on-screen chemistry of the principals is somewhat lacking, the film looks great and Loren...well we've all see that photo!

For a more in-depth appraisal of Boy On A Dolphin, there's an excellent article on TCM which you can access by clicking Here

Ready to Groove, Grab Your Gals, it's gonna be A SWINGIN' SUMMER!

Directed by Robert Sparr and released in 1965, A Swingin' Summer was a variation on the typical 60s beach party movie primarily because it took place in a summertime mountain lakeside resort. Apart from that, the film is only really distinguished by its above average soundtrack and the 'acting' debut of a certain twenty five year old Jo Raquel Tejada aka Raquel Welch.

Aping the hugely popular AIP series of Beach B-movies, the rather thin plot of A Swingin' Summer concerns a bunch of squeaky-clean, peachy-keen teens on their summer vacation trying to prevent the closure of the local dance pavilion on Lake Arrowhead in San Bernadino. They enlist the financial assistance of a rich parent to bankroll the venue whilst running it themselves. Despite the dastardly attempts by smoothy local lifeguard Turk to foil their plans, everything turns out fine in the end and everyone has a good old frug to relieve themselves of any unnatural desires to cross-pollinate, pet or partake of the demon reefer.

The soundtrack for A Swingin' Summer, was released on Hanna Barbera Records and features much of the music featured in the film, including The Righteous Brothers' R&B tinged Justine; The Rip Chords' zippy Red Hot Roadster; Carol Connors' cute A Swingin' Summer; Raquel Welch's enthusiastic I'm Ready To Groove; and let us not forget Donny Brooks' spirited rendition of the curiously titled Penny The Poo. Perhaps Penny the Poo was a precient pre-protest paen to Pacific pollution - or poppycock? The remainder of the soundtrack is made up of instrumentals by The Swingers aka Gary Lewis and The Playboys - the best of which is Out To Lunch.

A Swingin' Summer is never going to change your life but while there's still a bit of summer left there's nothing stopping you from indulging in the guilty pleasures of doing the Dog or the Pony in the garden. Those readers familar with Cockney rhyming slang should perhaps ignore the last suggestion!

Teenage Rebellion / Mondo Teeno

Teenage Rebellion, aka Mondo Teeno released in 1967, was a cheapo documentary about the "Now" Generation. Written and directed by Norman T. Herman and using footage from The US, Italy, Sweden, France, Japan and England, this (not in the least bit exploitative) expose of crazy teenage global goings-on, lifted the lid on such heady topics as Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll and of course go-go dancing and surfing.

Film director Burt Topper provided the deadly serious narration including such classic lines as "Across the country, every Friday and Saturday night, they gather in the temples to perform ceremonial dances to a rhythm that seems to reach back in time. It's called the beat."

The soundtrack for the masterpiece that is Teenage Rebellion was composed by California's former lieutenant governor, Mike Curb, the man who not only brought us Burning Bridges from Kelly's Heroes, but also The Osmonds - but let's not dwell on that. Curb was to his credit president of Verve Records where he not only signed Tony Bennett but also worked with such jazz greats as Jimmy Smith, Stan Getz, Chet Baker and Wes Montgomery.

Teenage Rebellion's title track is a great piece of frenetic lightweight psychedelia while the hoedown-style orgy track is bizarrely inappropriate in the extreme. On A Young Girl's Mistake there's some cheesy baroque stone-age synth with a some head-banging pic-tic-a-poc drum machine. But it's the sample friendly extracts featuring Burt Topper's solemly intoned exposes of the world of drugs - (check out the Henry Mancini meets Jean Jacques Perrey cue), prostitution and .....gasp....homosexuality, that are the cream on the cake and an absolute hoot to boot. Remember kids, "Just Say No!"

On the subject of drugs, no responsible household should be without A Child's Garden of Grass. Released in 1971 by Elektra Records, A Child's Garden of Grass parodies those well meaning public information documentaries of yore and informs us with its tongue firmly in its hash brownie stuffed cheek, about the fascinating science, history, and culture of marijuana.

And if that's not enough, there is always King Kandy's delightful Original Notion (sic) Picture soundtrack to Acid Beach Party which combines surfing, psychedelia, garage and beat poetry plus a man called Cleff Brock in one irresistably trippy package. Check out King Kandy's far-out website http://www.kingkandy.co.uk/ where you can find out more about this mind-expanding release and the sound of Chad Valli.