27th February 2010

Audio with 19 plays

Billy Green - Race
Stone Original Soundtrack (Finders Keepers)

Stone, a classic Ozploitation film in the biker genre, paved the way for movies like Mad Max, but the big deal with the movie is definitely the soundtrack.

I was pretty excited to find out “electronic swamp-funk” was a thing, and if the record had been entirely fitting of that description, I would still have been thrilled with it.  But you’ll find so many different styles of sound on this album, from hard psychedelic rock to experimental electronic compositions, and each of them are executed brilliantly.  The extensive liner notes - which I’ve noticed is something of a calling card of Finders Keepers releases - describe the music as “the kind of soundtrack that makes you wish you could see the film but it’ll probably never happen.”  I’d be willing to bet that’s right on, but the amount of information found in the booklet packaged with the CD might be more interesting than what you’d actually find on the film, so I wouldn’t worry too much about it.

The record opens with a dark noise experiment, “Eco Blue / Toadstrip,” an unlikely pairing of the Moog and the didgeridoo.  Following that is “Race,” retaining much of the strange noise of the previous cut, but throwing an acid-funk base underneath it, creating a sweet transitional pathway from the sound effects of the opening piece into the heavy psychedelic rock of the later parts of the record.

It’s not often that I can recommend fans of Raymond Scott and Soft Machine check out the same album, but this is it.  So do it already!

Stone Theatrical Trailer

Tagged: oo-de-lally!better living through chemistry