ZABRISKIE POINT - ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK

Fans of post-Barrett/pre-Dark Side Pink Floyd will appreciate the four "new" tracks found on disc two of this expanded version of the Antonioni film soundtrack. Many of those fans already have the original soundtrack, and it's a tough decision whether or not to shell out the bucks for this expensive package. On one hand, the other four tracks on disc two are dreadful guitar improvisations by Jerry Garcia (I like his solo work, as well as his work with the Grateful Dead, but this stuff is drivel). On the other hand, all four Floyd tracks are fairly long, so it's quite a bit of new material. Most of it is pretty good, too. As far as disc one, the Floyd tracks make it worth having. All told, it's about an LP's worth of Pink Floyd, so think of the price as, say, about what you'd pay for an import. I bought mine at a record convention, so I saved a few bucks.

Floyd plays seven songs on this soundtrack. I haven't seen the movie and I will only review the Floyd tracks here.

"Heart Beat, Pig Meat " is remininsent of the Ummagumma" studio album and quite crappy.

"Crumbling Land" is a bit psychedelic and is reminiscent of the Barrett era. It is mostly acoustic. Although it is not a great track, it is not bad at all and could easily be featured on "The Piper...".

With "Come In Number 51, Your Time Is Up" it is a completely different story. It is actually another title for "Careful With That Axe, Eugene" one of my all time fave. This song will never be featured on a classic studio album (only as a single). You can also find a version on the compilation "Relics". It is of course, the Floyd in its pure psychedelic grandeur. The highlight here.

"Country Song" is a mellow ballad with an accousitc and naïve introduction but a quite good chorus with some electric guitar sounds and turns out to be a good track.

"Unknown Song" is an accoustic psychedelic improv which is interesting in the sense that most of their psyche work was quite electric. This gives another dimension. But don't get me wrong : this is not a great track.

"Love Scene-Version 6" is a pure blues track. Quite unexpected for Floyd and also very, very dispensible. "Love Scene-Version 4" is a smooth piano-jazz track. Maybe that those two work better watching the movie, because as such they are really not worth anything.

In total, we get a bit over thirty four minutes of the Floyd's music of which fourteen are acceptable to very good.

We are far from the masterpiece here, believe me. For die-hard fans only. Two stars.

Zabriskie Point stings a special art from top to bottom, from film to soundtrack, from tape-recorded emotions to difficult later interpretations. It is counterculture U.S. movie, mixed with an psych-idyllic love short but powerful sequence between two young souls, impossible to be more different yet more close, mixed with the on-screen loss of identity, fascination of the natural and the hyped, plus the numbness of acid trips taking more gently than imagined. It is a cult and a monster movie picture, especially for the fans of movies that attracted the opposition of the style, the small epicureism of their significant message or, who knows, a kind of tempting/passionate inspiration leading to a mute force and an indescribable art. Being one of Michelangelo Antonioni's best movies (the great director just passed away, a couple of days ago), Zabriskie Point is something that rises to a powerful phenomenon inside a grave sign of artistic performance - and conceptual indiscernible tactility.

The soundtrack of the film, minor under the impression of the score, but impressive as an occasional effect to the psych-paradisaic ambiance within it, is and isn't a good mention, independently and musically. The success of the film spreads out in delicate shapes, by which everything was a represented, gifted and planned before musical arrangement (Antonioni, for example, was eager to try a piece by The Doors, but after all rejected it; the piece being L'America, from L.A. Woman), or spreads out in unusual kinds, since some various tapes or different compilations, naming themselves soundtrack or part of the movie's soundtracks, are something I haven't missed seeing, a bit more often than rationally. The official soundtrack is one without complexity, instead it grows on whether the depicted composition is one integrating a "Zabriskie" art or is something that mellows the rough visual excitement. Folk, psychedelic, rock, pop and soft sound are all qualities lurking inside the balance, and they all fit, however, nothing specifically grand or exhaustive. Which leads to variety or preference.

The soundtrack is a various, by the best means. We have small and smart, enjoyable or coruscating, fleeting or deep-remarkable pieces from artists like lurid rockers Kaleidoscope (with David Lindley's writing touch), country spirit Patti Page on Julius Frank (Pee Wee King)'s song-write, folk panoramic Youngbloods, doing the most radio-happy piece on the album, Sugar Babe, old-time music Roscoe Holcomb and folk-garde John Fahey, with a dry piece. Absent seem to be Rolling Stones, who made something for this, without being included, and, as I've already mentioned, The Doors, the latter being easily desirable when the expense sound is "psych or dark" - but perhaps too tonic, at that time.

But the veritable artists in Zabrieski Point's soundtrack are two: Pink Floyd and Jerry Garcia. Pink Floyd's fame already settled in a mood of transition, but it was clear that, for a psychedelic popular expression (without, regularly, meaning also a popular music and a turnover of style), they were a good choice. How serious is Zabrieski Point for Pink Floyd's work and arrangement, there's a bit of falter to tell. Probably something of the haze dominates in their conclusive style and mood. But other things don't unravel enough to even put the "Zabriskie" contribution ahead of More. Pink Floyd, no doubt, conspired to a lot of soundtrack's mature movements, and they didn't do it wrong; just not ecstatically. In the original soundtrack, Pink Floyd have three pieces. Heart Beat, Pig Meat is the most interesting, with juicy drug beats on clips and sounds. Crumbling Land is a relaxed song. Come in #51, Your Time Is Up is Careful With That Axe, Eugene, in a daunting version. The band recorded, indeed, some extra music during the same session, but I'd say those musical experiments draw the line between art courtesy and arrhythmic malnourished elements.

The better artist is Jerry Garcia, though his psych and folk guitar session here collide into each other. The piece with the entire Graceful Dead ensemble is wrapping and moisturized. The Love Scene, originally-used, expresses one of the most beautiful music for love scenes (as much as the film depicts one fantastic and orgasmic-cult free love scene, out in the dry morning of Zabriskie Point). On the 1997, more cuts and improvisations on the Love Scene, mostly sounding like free time spend on beautiful guitar acoustic arrangements, but also keeping in mind the essence, are made by the artist. Some are good, others purely recreational. The psych-moody-ism from Floyd shares also a last space on the bonus material, through more unclear and sound-formatted music melodies and experiments, the best being Unknown Song and the most interesting being a Richard Wright piano spark on Love Scene" (Version 4).

Zabriskie Point, the Original Soundtrack of the movie, isn't fundamental, but has some good collages and "substances" of music. The expression fulfilling the artist's desire - or quick-imagination.

(R.I.P. Michelangelo Antonioni 1912-2007)