Piero Umiliani
To-Day's Sound

How could one not be fascinated by an album like this?

"To-Day's Sound" is one of the posthumous collections by Maestro Piero Umiliani (who passed away in 2001) containing various tracks from several films. However, beware, the films in question are Italian '70s B-Movies. At the forefront, the Maestro's jazzy vein is evident, mixed with a taste and an entirely Easy Listening style (a style that, three decades later, many bands and DJs would bring back to the spotlight, rebranding it as Chill Out, beginning with the Thievery Corporation).

At the core of all his compositions (which range from jazz to lounge, through bossa, with a nod to beat) emerges the massive use of the Hammond, which gives life to an unlimited (imaginary) psychedelic world in seventies style. The Maestro's music seems to come directly from one of those transistor radios that were so trendy at the time, like those Brionvega cube-shaped ones... Just to give you an idea.
And how can you overlook that Latin-like flavor that dresses one of the tracks on this album, "Caretera Panamericana", returning to the beat rhythms of my favorite; "Pretty". All film music, all films that defined an era, some called them "trash," others "masterpieces," in my opinion, they are simply nostalgic, nostalgia for a period in which all the techniques that others would develop/distort much later were born, in both music and cinema.

And finally, I am pleased to remember/point out another production by the Maestro not included in this album; it's a tune that is very popular today in a commercial, "man-ha man-ha". Just to clarify, it was the background music of Benny Hill's comedies. Speaking of this track, I take this opportunity to transcribe a personal comment of his:
"Mah-na Mah-na is the simplest and most elementary music one could write! And this is my best composition!"

Happy listening to all!