Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof
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Sunday, 22, Apr 2007 10:05
Maverick Records, April 23rd.
In a nutshell.
It makes your ears bleed
What's it all about
In 1970s America, adolescent versions of Hollywood's enfants terrible Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez were among many taking advantage of the 'two movies for the price of one' offer in B movie cinemas.
The budget exploitation films that populated these theatres inspired the directors to make their own double feature this year; named Grindhouse after the genre and cinemas that spawned it.
So in the three-hour plus feature, moviegoers can sample Rodriguez's zombie splatter-fest Planet Terror and Tarantino's killer road flick Death Proof in one mammoth sitting.
The official soundtrack to the latter, starring Kurt Russell and Rosario Dawson, is an eclectic mix of archive R&B, obscure 70s glam rock and audio clips from the film itself.
Who's it by?
Who's in it would be a better question, as excluding the actors themselves, 13 separate acts feature on the 16-track album.
So (deep breath) we have Oscar-nominated, but tortured nonetheless, composer Jack Nitzsche getting the disc into gear with the aptly named instrumental The Last Race, one-hit wonders Smith with their remake of the Shirelles' Baby It's You and Ennio Morricone's Paranoia Prima - which numbers among the legendary composer's more obscure work.
Mark Bolan-fronted T Rex continue proceedings with their 1971 hit Jeepster, with mystery men Pacific Gas and Electric taking the obscurity theme to new heights. The inclusion of tracks from rap pioneer Joe Tex and punk trailblazer Willy DeVille will presumably get some music geeks salivating though.
Eddie Floyd and the Coasters continue the album's second-half R&B theme, while, almost inexplicably, 1960s British pop act Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky Mick & Tich and Ren & Stimpy animator/singer April March round off the record in surreal fashion.
As an example.
"Hang up the chick habit/Hang it up daddy/Or you'll be alone in a quick/Hang up the chick habit/Hang it up daddy/Or you'll never get another fix.
"I'm telling you it's not a trick/Pay attention don't be thick/Or you're liable to get licked," Chick Habit, April March.
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammy
. (intentional blankness).
What the others say
"This eclectic compilation ranks up with some of Q's better soundtracks, perhaps not as memorable as his collector's edition for Pulp Fiction but nonetheless solid and enjoyable cut-to-cut," FilmEdge.
So is it any good?
Whether you will enjoy listening to Death Proof's soundtrack or not ultimately depends on if you find the idea of owning Riot in Thunder Alley by Eddie Beram on CD exciting.
As with his previous films, Tarantino uses the accompanying soundtrack as an excuse to parade his own fetish with unheralded musicians.
But whereas the Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill discs contained genuine gems in Ennio Morricone's Il Tramonto and Ironside by Quincy Jones, there are no such treasures to be found on Death Proof's lonely, dusty highway.
Morricone and Pino Donaggio are rightly feted by Tarantino, but Paranoia Prima is an uneasy choice for the album. Similarly, Down in Mexico by the Coasters and Pacific Gas & Electric's Staggolee may be notoriously rare to track down in record shops, but does that in itself warrant their inclusion?
Incidentally, movie mogul Harvey Weinstein is so concerned at Grindhouse's weaker than expected opening in the US that he is considering releasing Death Proof and Planet Terror as two separate features in Britain, just as cinemagoers in non-English speaking countries will see them later this year.
So in the meantime, vintage music buffs can enjoy the films' respective soundtracks, because an almost admirable attempt at giving the Death Proof disc virtually no mass market appeal has been by and large successfully achieved.
5/10
Matthew Champion