Rob Price
Gutbrain Records
rob + gutbrain.com = email


2024 December 09 • Monday

The 834th Soundtrack of the Week, is Death Wish by the great Herbie Hancock.

The main title theme here is a stretched out and laidback groove number with strings, wah-wah guitar and electric piano and synth jamming in a cool and sometimes spacey way.

"Joanna's Theme" is a love theme, like you'd expect, but it's unusually intense, with the twinkling piano operating at a faster tempo and with more energy than you'd expect. The bass line is also similar to that from the main title, perhaps to remind you not to get too comfortable.

The beginning of the assault is accompanied by the tense and often dissonant "Do a Thing", a feature mostly for piano and strings. Then snare and percussion start off the crescendo to violence in "Paint Her Mouth", which has a lot of space and unsettling sonorities from strings and electronics.

The contrast between the wide open spaces of the southwestern US with the stifling and scary concrete jungle of NYC is brought to life by the country-tinged and airy "Rich Country".

Then there's a long suite of "Revenge" music: "Suite Revenge: a) Striking Back, b) Riverside Park, c) The Alley, d) Last Stop, e) 8th Avenue Station". It starts out as modern chamber music, develops into more conventional dramatic underscore for a larger ensemble which is eventually replaced by a percussion-driven groove freak out before concluding with a sort of minimalist not quite funk cue that features bass clarinet.

"Ochoa Kknose" starts with flute and piano, very gently, somewhat reminiscent of Lalo Schifrin before Hancock brings in woodwinds and strings and percussion, directing the listener to the sonic location of the story.

You might expect "Party People" to be some rocking diegetic music for a party scene, and maybe for just a few seconds it is, but mostly it's a thoughtful, melancholy and restrained piece for strings and percussion that has an eerie and ethereal feel to it.

The album wraps up with the most intense and funky piece, the post-jazz, electric Miles-influenced rock-funk-whatever of "Fill Your Hand", an extended feature for electric piano and synth and a superb piece.