Rob Price
Gutbrain Records
rob + gutbrain.com = email

2011 November 07 • Monday

The 190th Soundtrack of the Week is Kunio Miyauchi's music for the Japanese TV series Ultra Q.

Ultra Q was a great monster show from the 1960s. Every episode would be about a team of scientists dealing with a giant monster that had suddenly appeared. Of course you can see some of it on YouTube.

The music is one of the best things about it. Electric guitar with lots of reverb, spooky percussion, something that sounds like a musical saw, all come together in exciting ways.

The theme music has the guitar starting out with a quasi-surf groove while overblown flute and other weird noises float out of the speakers. Then it goes into a sort of big band swing/exotica section before returning to the opening part.

Jazz moods dominate the 91 tracks presented here, though there are many other musical ideas. There are some marches.

Some of it would fit in with American TV action jazz of the time. Some of it would be at home in a horror movie or a newsreel or educational film. A lot of it is just weird!

The show was popular enough to have a single.

It has the Ultra Q main title music, plus "Giant Monster Song" and "Ultra March".