OST - When The Wind Blows (1986) (@320)

The whole world was holding its breath during the previous weeks; the nuclear threat in Japan was extremely serious. Fortunately, it seems that the worst have passed (?). What remains though, is that even in a totally organised country such as Japan a nuclear disaster can indeed take place. It is evident now that all these voices that and were deliberately downgraded all these years by the mainstream media for being "excessive screams from youngster with dreadlocks" were right, since it is the second time after 1986 that the "youngsters with dreadlocks" prove to be right: Nuclear energy cannot be used without a huge amount of risk. Even the strongest argument of those who insist in nuclear energy (all in all the same neo-liberals who run the markets and for whom "profit" being the one and only buzzword in their minds) is that the produced energy by the nuclear plants is cheap. Probably... in the short term. But if someone calculates in the produced energy's unit production cost (a) the cost of decommissioning of the nuclear power plants, who have a 30-year life, (b) the cost of abnormal situations such as in Chernobyl and Fukushima and (c) the cost for the safe disposal of the nuclear waste, the nuclear energy will become pretty expensive. I do not calculate of course the large number of human lives that each accident costs; the devastating ongoing effects of every nuclear accident on the health of some hundreds of thousands people is only an insignificant "detail" for the neo-liberals.

Today's upload is the soundtrack of When The Wind Blows, a strong animation film that presents the progressive physical effects of a nuclear assault on an old couple. The soundtrack's first side contains tracks from David Bowie, Hugh Cornwell, Genesis, the Squeeze and Paul Hardcastle, while side B contains music composed by Roger Waters.

You can also watch the whole movie here.

info link: here

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Nikos Xidakis & Manolis Rasoulis - I Ekdikisi Tis Gyftias (1978) (@320)

Manolis Rasoulis, a unique Greek lyricist, passed away recently. A deliberate outcast, he always expressed himself in a direct and at the same time poetic (but not in its cheap form) way, he paved a new way for the Greek folk by handling a new ethos and meaning to it.
Today's upload, gives the chance to the 90% of the visitors of this blog (i.e. to the visitors outside Greece) to discover one of the best samples of Greek music, far away from the horrible, cheesy touristic covers of Zorba. As for the remaining 10%, a replay of this album will make us realise that Rasoulis is irreplaceable. Enjoy.

Further reading: Rasoulis official site: here

Further viewing: A documentary for Rasoulis from the Greek TV archives: here

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Various - A Tribute to John Barry (@320)

Although in a totally different genre from Gary Moore, John Barry's death was another great loss for music within just a few days; film music is now extremely poorer without him. It is difficult to think of the classic James Bond films without his music and the same applies to Midnight Cowboy, Dances With Wolves to name just a few of the many films for which his music earned them a higher ranking. The home-made compilation uploaded here offers some of his first hits (from 1960) with which he and his group had success in the UK, some of the most characteristic scores from the body of his work including of course most of the great songs he wrote for the Bond films as well as pieces from the three of the four scores for which he won the Oscar. An interesting trivia is that the famous James Bond Theme, although played by John Barry & his Orchestra, officially, it is not a track that Barry composed since the credited composer is Monty Norman.

Tracklisting:
01-John Barry Seven - Hit And Miss (1960)
02-John Barry Seven - Walk Don't Run (1960)
03-John Barry Orchestra - Beat For Beatniks (1960)
04-John Barry Orchestra - The James Bond Theme (1962)
05-Matt Monro - From Russia With Love (1963)
06-John Barry Orchestra - 007 (1963)
07-Shirley Bassey - Goldfinger (1964)
08-Tom Jones - Thunderball (1965)
09-John Barry - The Ipcress File (1965)
10-John Barry - The Knack (1965)
11-John Barry - Wednesday's Child (1966)
12-Matt Monro - Born Free (1966)
13-John Barry - The Girl With The Sun In Her Hair (1967)
14-Nancy Sinatra - You Only Live Twice (1967)
15-John Barry - Midnight Cowboy (1969)
16-Louis Armstrong - We Have All The Time In The World (1969)
17-John Barry - The Persuaders Theme (1971)
18-Shirley Bassey - Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
19-Lulu - The Man With The Golden Gun (1974)
20-Shirley Bassey - Moonraker (1979)
21-John Barry - Out of Africa (I Had A Farm In Africa) (1985)
22-John Barry - The John Dunbar Theme (1990)

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Gary Moore - Wild Frontier (1987) (@320)

Late as always, this is the post dedicated to Gary Moore, one of the best guitarists of his generation.
I know that some of you will disagree with the selection of Wild Frontier, but as it is one of the first records I bought, I tend to judge it more sentimentally than anything else. Moreover, the beautifully presented Irish-trad influences, apparent throughout the album, make me forgive the other weaknesses. Finally, the dedication "For Philip", seen on the lower right of the rear cover, gives to the album an eerie feeling now that Gary and Phil Lynott jam together.

Real also: Metallica's Kirk Hammett remembers Gary Moore

album info link: here

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