The Warriors OST

Not content with being one of the best films of all time, the soundtrack of the late 70s NY gangs epic The Warriors is also one of the best soundtrack albums of all time. A pulsating mix of hot and heady funky pop and rock such as Arnold McCuller's insanely catchy and dancey "Nowhere to run". Energetic and messy (in a good way) it is just one of a number of superb tunes.

Johnny Vastano's "You're moving too slow" is a steamy boogie woogie stomp you could imagine rocking many a honky tonk. Kenny Vance's "In Hanana" is nicely slinky and fun. Joe Walsh's "In the city" which played over the film's closing credits in a wonderful poignant rock track, slabs of blues rock and 70s rock-esque big vocals. Genya Ravan's "Love is a fire" is a sultry funky rock epic that throws the kitchen sink at you, leaving you as breathless as the vocalist at the end. Superb collection of songs, soundtracks can sometimes be throwaway, this one is essential.

Sunday Retro Cover : Il Medico La Studentessa OST

Blimey what could happen next?! I love a medical drama me... Original scan from here.

Bite Hard : The Music De Wolfe Studio Sampler 1972-80

If you love British TV shows from the 1970s like me then you will love this soundtrack CD which collects some funky tunes from the output of the Music De Wolfe studio from that decade. So you'll find tracks on here that sound like they should be in The Sweeney and some that were! Its very easy to bring to mind scenes from shows like The Sweeney, Special Branch, The Professionals et cetera as you listen to this. Such as on the driving melody of "The Hawk" you can imagine a hitman in black leather assembling his sniper rifle before he despatches a cabinet minister...

One i particularly like is "Night moves" which is slinky and sleezy, reflecting the vice of the London streets "Hogan's Thing" is another Sweeney villain theme, a funky bluesy track with plenty of tension. "Condition Red" sounds like the perfect soundtrack to a bank job, all urgent beats and mysterious tones. "Mantaray" ends the compilation and is a beautiful atmospheric track with a slow easy beat and sounds like the end of the world. Or the end of this brilliant journey through the 1970s anyway, as seen via the medium of British TV crime drama i.e. a dark, grimy world of vice, sleeze and ultra violence. It had a down side too apparently.

24 Hour Party People OST

24 Hour Party People was an excellent film from the early 2000s that attempted to chronicle (fairly accurately but not completely) the Manchester music scene from punk to the collapse of Factory Records taking in the stories of Joy Division and the Happy Mondays. So you'd guess that the soundtrack to that film, a compilation of essential Manchester bands from Joy Division to the Happy Mondays would be pretty damn awesome. Well its not but its not bad.

Starting with the Sex Pistols the 18 tracks herein take us from punk, post-punk, 80s electronic, rave and Madchester. There are indeed some great tracks from the obvious like of "Blue Monday" and "Hallelujah" (which need to be included i guess though if you are like me you've heard them so many times you can barely stand them anymore!) so the less obvious and interesting like Moby's cover of "New dawn fades".

There was a "new" New Order song included too and "Here to stay" to be honest is probably worth the price of the album alone, one of their better later songs. There is a bit of dross on here too, or maybe i should say songs which probably don't belong on here and are taking up the space a more deserving song could have but them is the breaks.

This soundtrack is nice enough, great for a car journey or having on in the background, or if you do not have much by the likes of Joy Division and New Order then it is a reasonable introduction. A gateway drug? I like it...