Rob Price
Gutbrain Records
rob + gutbrain.com = email

2026 July 13 • Monday

Giorgio Moroder's great synth score for Midnight Express is the 917th Soundtrack of the Week.

Moroder was assisted here by Harold Faltermeyer, who would also find a place in synth score history with his Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack and epic "Axel F" theme.

The Midnight Express soundtrack album starts with a long piece called "Chase", with a relentless disco backbeat, synth textures oozing in and out and an exciting adventure melody that has fanfare qualities.

"Love's Theme" is a sensitive piano-driven number with eletronic keyboard and strings adding lushness. This sounds like something that Angelo Badalamenti might have been inspired by.

This true story takes place in Turkey and with "Theme from Midnight Express (Instrumental)", Moroder flirts with the modality usually associated with that part of the world, but mostly keeps things in a major scale. The weaving synth and string lines and ascending harmonic movement create a sweeping romantic atmosphere.

Bluesy synth guitar kicks off "Istabul Blues", which has a female vocalist, heavy drums and a melody very similar to "Lovesick Blues" and, I guess, a zillion other songs. The lyrics are specific to the story ("They gave me thirty years" etc.).

Billy Hayes spends a lot of his prison time walking in circles around a wheel, usually with other prisoners but sometimes on his own. There isn't much to do. Moroders "The Wheel" is the eeriest and most ominous track, with blaster beam-like stabs, high chittering noises and cloudy synth bursts.

"Istanbul Opening" is a powerful and mysterious track that signals the location by hinting at those Turkish modalities and then going into a serpentine melody played on piano and an ill-sounding keyboard.

The "Cacophony" cue does indeed match its name, being varied noises and sonics thrown together, a mixture of electric and acoustic both, with bubbly synths intersecting what could be cymbalom or just the inside of a piano.

Finally there's the vocal version of "Theme from Midnight Express", which is lovely and moving.