Rob Price
Gutbrain Records
rob + gutbrain.com = email

2021 September 27 • Monday

The 693rd Soundtrack of the Week is perhaps for completists only. It's a CD of music from Shin Toho's "Line" series of films that were directed by Teruo Ishii. Black Line, Fire Line, Sexy Line, Yellow Line.

These were cutting edge crime films at the time, late 1950s an early 1960s, and are absolutely worth watching.

The music is a big part of it, mostly menacing action jazz, sometimes influenced by Elmer Bernstein. The composers are Chumei Watanabe, Seiji Hiraoka and Riichiro Manabe

The original tapes are long gone so you hear a lot of dialogue and sound effects mixed in with the music. So you might as well watch the movies!

But I'm thrilled that this is available. The willingness to do this kind of thing is typical of Cinema-kan.