My current obsession is classic and obscure soundtrack music and themes. I'm sharing some of these in my new blog Celluloid Planet. I'm currently featuring an Aaron Copeland collection called Celluloid Copeland and incidentally the inspiration for the name of the blog.If you're at all interested in soundtracks and themes its worth a visit.Celluloid Planet

Well its seems the news of this site's demise was greatly exaggerated. They've moved the domain and presumably redirected to the new site. Cross your fingers everything will be OK now!Planet X has now reopened.

I've been adding some links to movie soundtrack shares I've uploaded to a new site I set up after I thought this site had died. Its stuff I've been posting to a movie soundtrack forum I'm in. So if you want some cool soundtrack music give it a visit.There's only a couple so far but it will increase.Xtabays Planet

A faceless Australian organisation which used to be government run but is now privatised called Telstra is shutting this site down because it runs a telephone service called White Pages. This sucks big time but anyone who has come into contact with Telstra will tell you they are the worst sort of faceless corporation. Their share prices are at an all time low in spite of the fact they virtually run telecommunications in Australia. This decision is a clue as to why that is.I will reopen my blogger web site so go there until I can sort things out further.Planet X has now reopened.

This is a request an album by one of the classier exotica artists. Like Denny he actually lived and performed in Hawaii and his music is similar in style although he was more a classically trained musician whereas Denny was more jazz orientated. Only encoded at 128kps and I thank the original uploader. If you like exotica get it you won't be sorry.This has now been reuploaded as the Rapidshare link was no longer active.Rains

Here's a video I found of Exotica legend Yma Sumac featuring the latinesque Gopher Mambo which has appeared in at least five movies according to IMDB including Dangerous Minds the fantasy memoirs of game show host Chuck Barris as a CIA hitman (I hope it was a fantasy). I've read the book and seen the movie of Barris' supposed memoirs and its a dang good story and there's a tantalising note of 'what if he's not joking'!! I suppose its no more fantastic than Frank Abganale's story of deception in Catch Me if You Can which I've also read and seen in a movie. In both cases the movies while good don't live up to the terrific books.The clip also shows Yma in her later years and includes some historical footage including a shot of her signing a copy of Voice of the Xtabay. Great stuff, enjoy!I posted this before but it came out upside down! This time it seems OK.

Here's a video of that old standard Summer Breeze done with more than a hint of exotica by a couple of Japanese looking ladies. I had to truncate the video slightly as there is a 5 minute limit for uploaded videos. Here's a bit of a bio from Wikipedia:Petty Booka is a music group that consists of two women, Petty and Booka, playing ukulele. Most of the band's early output consisted of cover versions of Hawaiian ukulele classics. The two also do many covers of well-known rock songs. Petty Booka is part of Sister Benten Online, a record company run by Audrey Kimura. The band is based in Japan, and has made tours of Europe and North America. In 1997, Petty left the duo, and a new Petty filled her spot. In November of 2002, Booka left to take care of her baby and was replaced by Candy Eyeslugger's Maiko. The band has found some fame in Austin, Texas, participating in SXSW's (South by Southwest, a music and festivity-oriented organization of Austin) Japan Nite project. The project holds concerts and puts out a new album every year.See if you can catch a glimpse of the guest pianist, hint: he's a giant of exotica and he was in his nineties when he recorded this and sadly he's passed away.

I was having a look around to see if there were any more exotica influenced movies ala the Naked Jungle and I found this beauty made about the same time as Naked Jungle and starring that exotica king himself Chuck Heston. Its in Technicolor and my mouth watered as I looked to see if it was available on DVD but alas no luck its never been released on DVD or video as far as I'm aware.But the big surprise is the co star the Inca Princess herself Yma Sumac. She apparently sings a song or two in the movie and no doubt stands around looking sultry and speaking in a hard to understand Incan dialect.If anyone has any more info on the movie let me know. I know its a long shot to hope for a copy of the movie.Here's the plot summary from IMDB but there's precious little other info on the movie:An Inca legend says the Inca Empire was destroyed by the gods when a gold and jeweled starburst was stolen from the Temple of the Sun centuries ago, and the ancient civilization will spring anew when the treasure is returned. The natives want it but so does Harry Steele (Charlton Heston), an American adventurer of slightly-shady ways who wants it for personal gain, as does his adversary (Thomas Mitchell), a grizzled old man even more into skullduggery than Steele. The latter teams up with Elena Antonescu (Nicole Maurey), an Iron Curtain refugee fleeing from the MKVD. She can help him get a plane and he can help her escape Peru for the relative safety of Mexico.Is there a chance they will end up in a bickering love-hate relationship?...Is there a chance an American archaelogist, Dr. Stanley Moorehead (Robert Young), will come along as one corner of a romantic triangle?...Is there a chance that Yma Sumac (billed third on the posters and ads and special billed in the film), who can't act but can sing, will sing a few songs?...Is there a chance that these trite-sounding questions will develop into a film that is far from trite and vastly entertaining? Dang right, there is. Check it out.

Well here it is the Hollyridge Strings album you've all been waiting for. Oh you haven't been waiting for it? Well its pretty good anyway and I would recommend the download. I think I forgot the cover scans again so just copy the ones above. And no Stu Phillips this time Mort Garson has taken over arranging and conducting duties and he's done a mighty fine job. So what are you waiting for?Mort's cool.

When I checked my Rapidshare account today they had the following message:"Unfortunately all drives of RapidShare.de are full right now."No wonder they're deleting files after 10 days. I presume this means I can't upload any new files at present, well to Rapidshare anyway.

Posting the previous video trailer for Touch of Evil reminded me of George Pal's Naked Jungle which I've also got on DVD. Here's the opening titles which has some very nice proto exotica drums and bird calls. Unfortunately the rest of the movie has mostly standard musical cues which are not up to the standard of the opening. The composer was one Daniele Amfitheatrof which name is so ludicrous I wondered if it was made up. I looked him up and he was a respected Russian composer who did quite a bit of film soundtrack work specialising in B and monster movies and TV shows.I don't seem to be getting many comments for these clips so if you like them let me know. I have fun editing the movies and posting them and I usually try make sure there's a link to the musical theme of the blog.OK Chuck you look hot in your designer jungle gear now go out and shoot something and I don't mean the  hot chick next to you!

No not the soundtrack that's readily available on CD but the trailer to the restored version of the movie on DVD which I purchased and watched today. Its been restored to the original vision of Welles before the studio did its usual hatchet job.Some say this is Welles' best work even better than Citizen Kane. Certainly the best B movie ever made. Mancini's score is one of his best ever with bongos galore, an eerie player piano tune and some groovy rock n roll. Its worth watching for the 3 minute plus opening tracking shot which follows Heston and Leigh through a Mexican border town until a car explodes and spoils their day. Then there's Heston made up as a Mexican lawman in one of his best roles on a par with his crazed rancher battling South American killer ants in the Naked Jungle.And what can you say about Welles, he exudes malevolent evil as he portrays the overweight and psychotic bad detective with gin seeming to exude through his pores and he looks on the verge of collapsing from either too much alcohol or a heart attack.Welles manages to give some of his Hollywood pals some cameos including Marlene Dietrich, Joseph Cotton, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Dennis Weaver as the nerdiest motel manager since Anthony Perkins in Psycho (thanks Phillip!) (but not Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Hannibals). Oh and special mention of Janet Leigh who is sexy and sassy and for some reason reminded me of Sue Lyon in Lolita. Janet seems to photograph extremely well in black and white. One can understand why the local hot rodders and lesbian bikers were giving her lots of attention including funny cigarettes and weird substances usually administered with a  hypodermic needle.If you see a copy of the DVD my advice is to buy it and wallow in the weird and wonderful noir world of Orson Welles.

No not the soundtrack that's readily available on CD but the trailer to the restored version of the movie on DVD which I purchased and watched today. Its been restored to the original vision of Welles before the studio did its usual hatchet job.Some say this is Welles' best work even better than Citizen Kane. Certainly the best B movie ever made. Mancini's score is one of his best ever with bongos galore, an eerie player piano tune and some groovy rock n roll. Its worth watching for the 3 minute plus opening tracking shot which follows Heston and Leigh through a Mexican border town until a car explodes and spoils their day. Then there's Heston made up as a Mexican lawman in one of his best roles on a par with his crazed rancher battling South American killer ants in the Naked Jungle.And what can you say about Welles, he exudes malevolent evil as he portrays the overweight and psychotic bad detective with gin seeming to exude through his pores and he looks on the verge of collapsing from either too much alcohol or a heart attack.Welles manages to give some of his Hollywood pals some cameos including Marlene Dietrich, Joseph Cotton, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Dennis Weaver as the nerdiest motel manager since Anthony Hopkins in Psycho. Oh and special mention of Janet Leigh who is sexy and sassy and for some reason reminded me of Sue Lyon in Lolita. Janet seems to photograph extremely well in black and white. One can understand why the local hot rodders and lesbian bikers were giving her lots of attention including funny cigarettes and weird substances usually administered with a  hypodermic needle.If you see a copy of the DVD my advice is to buy it and wallow in the weird and wonderful noir world of Orson Welles.

Remember all those weird spammers names and messages that were probably randomly generated? Well I found this on Youtube. Its a short but well done cartoon using one of those gibberish messages. Hope you find it amusing.And if you ever feel the need to enter the spamming world here's a spam name generator.  Its also useful if your spam filter has got rid of all those funny spam messages and you're so short of friends that you're actually missing them.

I've posted this before but deleted it when it didn't seem to be too popular. Its a CD rip but the CD is pretty hard to come by and I think only ever released in Australia. The CD was ripped by me from a library copy so the cover scan is something I found on the net and isn't very good.Anyhow the only reason I reupped this was because Penthouse Safari is doing a bit of an Aussie retrospective featuring the excellent Sven Libaek and John Sangster and it doesn't look like he's got this. I've converted the original ogg files to 192kps mp3 for those who like nothing too esoteric.Its a double CD and if you like classy jazz playing by some very good musos then its a good bet. If you're expecting a sort of Celtic influenced score ala the movies this is nothing like that. In fact if the music was just played you'd think it was some urban jazz soundscapes not good old Lord of the Rings. Still its a very creditable effort.Lord 1Lord 2

Ha bet you didn't know there was once a Robert Stigwood Orchestra! I must admit I was rather surprised to see this exploito curiosity obviously meant to capitalise on the adopted Aussie group's success in the mother country. This album is surprisingly good. Old Robert must've spent a bit of moolah on some good session muso's and Bill Shepherd is obviously no dunce. Its a great snapshot of the heady time in the late 60s when the Bee Gee's seemed to almost rival the Fab Four in tunesmanship.OK they never achieved the consistent standard of the pre flab four but gee they wrote some great tunes 10 of which are on here.LinkOh and I forgot to include cover scans in the download so just copy the ones above.

Here's Emmy and Grammy award winner Jimmie Haskell with his rare and collectable album Countdown. It kinda sounds like Link Wray with some Theremin and early synth sounds.An interesting blend with some stereo versions of certain tracks.Jimmie still works as a composer and conductor today and his website is here.Perhaps his main claim to fame is his Grammy award winning work on Simon and Garfunkle's song Bridge Over Troubled Water.Some small minded person with nothing better to do has deleted the link. Well I'm reupping it and I will continue to do so until I hit a foolproof safe method of sharing. File now uploaded to different server. Link

Here's an album by the very talented Mr Libaek. An adopted Aussie, Sven originally called Norway home but he's done nearly all his professional work in Australia.He's a prolific soundtrack composer and conductor. Here he's joined forces with Australian movie critic Bill Collins to give his orchestral versions of popular themes circa 70s.Well when I call Bill a critic I'm using the term very loosely he's really a sort of Liberace like movie gusher waxing honeyied praise on old movies, the more sentimental the better. Having said that anybody who likes Casablanca can't be too off the mark. I think he's still active today gushing treacly praise on his favourite movies usually on Bert Newton's morning show. Bert's quite a character as well, he's stayed around on daytime TV when every other personality has dropped off the perch. He's become number one because he's the only survivor. He's famous as the only TV personality who hasn't got any. His toupee has more charisma. But like moss he kind of grows on you. I'm trying a new Rapidshare link protector so let me know if its OK.Sven_Lib_Orch_FavThemes

They won by the smallest possible margin over a very brave Sydney team. Congratulations West Coast on securing your third premiership in your 20th season in the Australian Football League.

Here's Emmy and Grammy award winner Jimmie Haskell with his rare and collectable album Countdown. It kinda sounds like Link Wray with some Theremin and early synth sounds.An interesting blend with some stereo versions of certain tracks.Jimmie still works as a composer and conductor today and his website is here.Perhaps his main claim to fame is his Grammy award winning work on Simon and Garfunkle's song Bridge Over Troubled Water.Some small minded person with nothing better to do has deleted the link. Well I'm reupping it and I will continue to do so until I hit a foolproof safe method of sharing. File now uploaded to different server.Countdown.