Black (cert. 15) will be released on DVD (£15.99) and Blu-ray (£19.99) by Anchor Bay Entertainment on 14th February 2011.
As well as being a prime slice of high-octane French Crime movie with a streak of eccentricity that stops it being an exercise in generic action cinema, it also features an incredibly well chosen soundtrack that mixes classic Blaxploitation Funk, Afro Beat, Jazz and Hip-Hop. You can listen to selections from the soundtrack on our MYSPACE but first, here’s a little more info on the artists used that I particularly admire…
BRASS CONSTRUCTION
Classic 70s funk band whose best known hit, ‘Movin” features in the movie. Sampled in the 90s by The Bucketheads for their hit “Got Myself Together”. Check out the a clip of the band performing ‘Movin” HERE. Picture quality could be better but this is the best clip for showing the band in their satin-clad seventies pomp.
EUMIR DEODATO
Deodato’s nine minute Jazz-Funk take on Richard Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra opens Black as the camera sweeps over urban Paris and it’s huge housing projects. Listen to the track HERE, which takes the classic piece famously featured in 2001 in a bold, trippy and downright funky new direction. It’s a classic and constantly sampled track that helps set the scene for the rest of the movie.
JACKIE MITTOO
Mittoo is one of the architects of Reggae music. As a founding member of the Skatalites, the keyboard players influence on the sound of early JA pop music can’t be underestimated. Due to the incestous nature of the JA music scene, many ‘rhythms’ that Mittoo recorded became the base for more famous songs, like “Duppy Conqueror” by The Wailers. Listen to ‘Hang ‘Em High’ HERE
MAGMA
The boundless imagination of Magma, the French Prog band whose ‘Theusz Hamtaahk’ features in Black, put many so called experimental 70s bands to shame. Epic multi-album story arcs of Science-Fiction and Ecology mixed with musical influences from around the globe place this band in a different dimension of space and time to regular musicians. Listen to the track on the CULT LABS MYSPACE
FELA KUTI
The “African James Brown” revolutionized music by mixing traditional African Music with Jazz and the hard, rhythmic Funk laid down by the Godfather of Soul to create endless and ever more complex grooves that still astonish today. Fela music continues to influence new artists with Afro rhythms being immediately apparent in the hipster grooves of bands like Vampire Weekend and Yeasayer.
The soundtrack can make or break a film. US teen films of the early to mid 80s are easily spotted not just because of the hairspray andstone washed denim but because nothing says high-school movie movie more than the epic art-pop of Simple Minds, forgotten White-funk and cheap drum machines.