DEATH WISH (OST)

I've said it before and I'll say it again, movie soundtracks and progressive rock have a lot in common. Both genres borrow freely from other genres to create new sounds. I especially enjoy so called crime jazz soundtracks, from the early work of Stan Kenton and Henry Mancini and up to 70s masters like Isaac Hayes, crime jazz has a certain menace and air of mystery that is hard to find elsewhere. I have always thought that Fripp was heavily influenced by crime jazz when he created the first three King Crimson albums.

Having just released his amazing psychedelic fusion work with his Sextant, Herbie Hancock was a natural choice to compose the music for this tense gritty movie. This album mixes modern concert hall music with blaxploitation grooves, electronic experimentation, insane psychedelic jazz blow-outs and beautiful pastoral instrumentals into one big funky intellectual tone poem. All the moments you would expect from a crime movie are here, tense scary music that hangs in the air, quick pulsed chases and sweeping panoramic urban views. In his attempt to paint these aural pictures Herbie uses every sound available at the time including extended techniques for string orchestra, synthesizers, echoplexes, and all manner of percussion and noise makers.

For fans of Herbie's Sextant (possibly the finest fusion group ever) there is one track at the end of the album that features that group doing what it does best, playing super intense solos over an impossible syncopated groove while Hancock adds a smorgasbord of electronic colors.