Customer Reviews

Vampyros Lesbos (Sexadelic Dance Party)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The music on this awesome soundtrack CD is just as gorgeous as the stunning Soledad Miranda who graces the cover! I personally have all the films this soundtrack represents and love them all, I had no idea until resently that you could buy the soundtrack.

Franco obtained the music for his soundtracks from two obscure albumns by "Vampires Sound" (the two German composers) called "Psychedelic Dance Party" and "Sexadelic", soley because he like the female vampire design on the albumn covers. Both LP's were transfered completly back to back in original running order on a CD called "3 Films by Jess Franco" which was limited to 500 copies. This CD, "Vampyros Lesbos: Sexadelic Dance Party", is actually 20 minutes shorter as many of the more experimental tracks have being omitted, most notably the 'stalking music' from "Vampyros Lesbos" but is still a gorgeous edition and well worth owning.

The sound is like chillout lounge jazz on acid, full of smooth beats, buzzing guitars, horns, funky keyboards and twangy sitar strings. I love every song! It is just so awesome to have them on CD making it a totally must own albumn. The music is just so much fun, you feel like grooving the moment it begins until long after the albumns over. The disc comes with a really cool little booklet thats full of info and has great pics.

Anyone who likes what they hear and what they see in the booklet should probually check out the films. My favourite from the ones represented here is "Vampyros Lesbos", but all Jess Franco's films are cult classics and Soledad Miranda's brathtaking scene prescence made her legendary icon of Euro-cult cinema even though she tragically died so young.

"Vampyros Lesbos: Sexadelic Dance Party" is a total trip. As the CD's liner notes explain, this disc contains music from the soundtracks of three films made by Jess Franco in 1970. The music was conducted and composed by Manfred Hubler and Siegfried Schwab. The 14 tracks have such intriguing titles as "The Lions and the Cucumber," "Necronomania," and "The Six Wisdoms of Aspasia."

The liner notes describes the genre of this music as "acid jazz-pop," which is probably as good a description as any. The music combines ebullient horns, weird vocal effects, exotic Eastern-sounding instrumental effects, and other elements into a truly unique blend. This CD is often sensuous and often playful, and has bewitchingly sinister aspects as well.

But ultimately, the music is a lot of fun. If you're seeking musical accompaniment for an orgy, a Satanic ritual, an avant-garde fashion show, or a late 60's/early 70s theme party, check out "Vampyros Lesbos."

Hipness has come full circle with the rise in popularity of vintage Sixties and Seventies exotica film soundracks. Some of the veteran studio musicians play on these sountracks and do so with abandon and laser-like percision. It's a rare opprotunity to hear usually staid studio hands playing with an over-the-top enthusiasm they seldom have a chance to display. Hired studio guns have a thankless task when they back well known singers. The producer usually orders them to stay in the background and cheeky solos are regarded as taboo, for fear of upstaging the "artiste" who is paying them handsomely for their time.

"The Vampyros Lesbos Sexadelic Dance Party" is an example just how good it can get when these expert musicians are allowed to rip. Beatnick hipster arrangements with plenty of tempo shifts and thematic improvisation. Blaring Stax horn sections, wild psychedelic fuzz box guitar, jazzy organ runs, strutting funkadelic drum and bass, and an occasional glockenspiel or sitar for freakout effect. Composers Manfred Hubler and Siegfred Schwab toss this melange of styles into a Cusinart blender and hit the "puree" botton. The musicans of Vampyros Lesbos play lounge jazz, funk, psychedelica, mambo, samba, europop, ethnic music, rock and roll and just plain old kitsch with equal facility. This isn't schlock however... the music here is straight from cool cat school of pop fusion as practiced by Serge Gainsboro, Lee Hazelwood, Jimmy Webb,Ennio Morricone and the great Fellini sountrack composer, Nino Rota. Granted, Hubler and Schwab's soundtracks freely borrowed from other sources, but the final product was a fascinating pastiche of the great popular music of their era.

Detractors of exotica soundtracks often berate them as background music written for go-go dance parties or sordid sex scenes. Man!...those cats just can't dig it. They should buy a one-way ticket back to Squaresville and do the funky chicken til the cows come home.

How can you go wrong with a soundtrack to a 1971 pyschedelic-freak out movie about lesbian vampires?!! "These horns and jangles, sitar and electric guitar, grunts and gurgles and moans, are the soundtrack for some sleazoid leopardprint party, shag carpets and big lamps, retro girls swooning as they drop acid, become lesbians, suck their partners' blood." BUY IT NOW!!!!!!!!!

After a hard night of busting up Drug Cartels, disco dancing and fast driving, The Inspector heads home with his women for a night of very sexy sexiness. Inspector Gelato slips into his tiger striped bikini briefs and puts on Vampyros Lesbos. No chick can resist.

If you even thought to search for this CD, you should buy it. Funky, sassy, upbeat and menacing -- just turn down the lights, pour yourself a martini and feel comfortable that with this disk, you are now the hippest jack on the block.

Three more tracks, new liner notes, and a nice cardboard box! Double dip if you must...

I only was curious about this album compiling three soundtrack's from Jess Franco's movies that featured the mesmerizing Soledad Miranda. The curiosity came from the second title-'the Lion and the Cucumber' having been featured on the Jackie Brown soundtrack. The song is madness-snarling and growling sufficed for lyrics while bleeping horns and sitar come from out of nowhere. I wanted to see what else these composers concocted. This album is madness from start to finish. It's hard to describe the acid-jazz-pop that this music is but seems perfect accompaniment to those swinging late 60's/70's euro skin films. Those or a haunted carnival.

The music here may be an acquired taste but i recommend giving it a try. Or, if you may be hosting a 60's themed halloween party, this is the background music you want.

I really liked this; it is a collection of songs from a couple of Jesus Franco films, and whereas they don't fit all that well in the movies, by their own they complete a 70's Acid Trip!

Try Schoolgirl Report by Gert Wilden, as well as Shake Sauvage!

This is a soundtrack record, and it works that way. The whole album should be listened to carefully, and in one go. Fantastic arrangements-horns, citar, piano, keyboard with traditional drum/bass rhythm. It's not kitsch, but it is a little kooky, with humour, but has catchy pop tunes with groove as well as moody resonant organ numbers. Amazing production gives it a thick sound, but you can still hear everything individually. Think of the best Ennio Morricone 60s italian soundtracks, and this is up there with them. Unfortunately some will lump this in the 'lounge' category along with Dean Martin or Mel Torme when it is really more similar to psychadelic bands of the sixties, only much, much better.