Fabio Frizzi - City Of The Living Dead/The Beyond Soundtrack mixtape (1980/81)

Everyone knows Goblin. Of course you do. Goblin are awesome. They are generally the first name when you think of 70's/80's Italian cinema's defining composers. Just behind Goblin ( and in no way inferior) though was the one man genius of Fabio Frizzi.

As a frequent collaborator of Lucio Fulci he is responsible, in my opinion, for a lot of the atmosphere Fulci had in his films. The theme from Zombie Flesh Eaters set to the shot of the undead shambling across the bridge into Manhattan was a pretty important image from my youth. From there, I began investigating the world of Italian cinema and horror. The first call, via the patronage of Necrophagia, was The Beyond. Closely followed by The City Of The Dead. I can safely say I have never looked back since. So to celebrate the awesomeness of Frizzi's work here are both these soundtracks zipped up. I would highly recommend the films themselves. Alongside other Fulci gems like Manhattan Baby and the afar mentioned Zombie Flesh Eaters.

Fabio Frizzi - The Beyond/City Of The Living Dead OST Mix

Queen - Flash OST (1980)

I had a nice long post written about how awesome Queen are and how this movie was one of those that I always ended up watching when I was kid after taping it off TV. But I decided against all that because its obvious Queen are awesome isn't it? Its obvious Flash Gordon is a sweet movie? So those two elements combined would be awesome? Case in point below.....

Queen - Flash OST

Busta Rhymes - When Disaster Strikes..... (1997)

So while I was left reeling by the announcement that Busta Rhymes wouldn't be playing Shonuff in the upcoming remake of Berry Gordy's, 1985, cinematic milestone The Last Dragon ( the part is taken by Samuel L Jackson! Why? Of all people?), I got listening to his albums for the first time in years as a way to console myself over this blow. Busta always had a different angle to most of the other turkeys in the mainstream rap game. Up until the early 2000's you could always rely on him for something odd and slightly left of the game. The album below, When Disaster Strikes.... and its follow up Extinction Level Event were the soundtrack to a full year of my misspent college adventures when I was younger. The version below is the repress that removes the slightly lumpen Survival Hungry track and replaces it with the Knightrider sampling, floor filler Fire It Up. In turn, a reworking of the album track Turn It Up.

Busta Rhymes - When Disaster Strikes.....

more RAM - S/T (1996)

A brief but beautiful little burst of noise. Post-Hammerhead, Paul S knocked out this 7" with fellow noise traveller Matt Entsminger. The four tracks contained revel in their stripped down. clanging, noise rock glory. Its basically a given that if you like any of the guys previous bands ( once again I don't trust anyone who doesn't like Hammerhead or Janitor Joe) you will dig this long lost treat.

more RAM - S/T

Power Glove - EP1 (2010)

Perfect for sound tracking a rain swept, smoke filled, neon blasted drive through a future city sometime in the 1980's or fighting vampires/zombies in the club from Terminator while attack helicopters strafe your ass.

The Australian duo responsible for this ( who may or may not be lawyers from the future) have this EP and the second one available for free download online. They also had the track "Hunters" remixed by another electro duo, Lazerhawke, and included in the movie Hobo With A Shotgun. The scene when the Plague rampage through the hospital, that's Power Glove ( not to be confused with 8-bit covering metal band Powerglove).

Power Glove - EP1

Bonus high five for who can recognise which film they sample at the beginning of "Night Force"!

Ron Grainer - The Omega Man OST (1971)

A fine piece of original scoring for you today. The full soundtrack to the second ( and my personal favourite) film version of Richard Matheson's I Am Legend, the Charlton Heston starring The Omega Man.
Grainer worked on a lot of TV and film music, even helping compose the famous theme to Doctor Who, and was very progressive in the use of strange sounds and electronic musical instruments. The Omega Man uses these odd effects but also balances them with uptempo, almost psychedelic rock, glimmers of folk and some very stirring orchestration to soundtrack Chuck Heston's running fight with "The Family". I won't recap the film as its been adapted four times for the big screen, my favourite posted here, the 1964 The Last Man On Earth, 2007's I Am Legend and those cheeky devils at Asylum Films knocked out their own adaptation in the same year, I Am Omega. So here you have it, one of my favourite 70's scores, a very hard to find one at that. It never got a proper release until a 3000 copy pressing in 2002 and then a general release in 2008.

Ron Grainer - The Omega Man OST