Thursday, July 20, 2006

Underground

Goran Bregovic
Mercury, France




An excellent soundtrack to one of the greatest movies of all time, Emir Kusturica's Underground, aka Once Upon a Time There Was a Country.
If you've ever had the pleasure of seeing this film from the former Yugoslavia, the sound of the Gypsy brass band that is in virtually every other scene will be stuck in your head for months. The raucous sounding Kalasnjikov, which is heard throughout the film, is here, as is the haunting War, complete with a tragic children's choir.
Here, rather than simply lift the songs from the soundtrack, many have been recreated and in some cases rearranged completely by Bregovic and his band.
Some songs are a beautiful fusion of Balkan folk with electronica, such as The Belly Button Of The World with great sounding Middle Eastern percussion as well as a pulsing electronic beat, which sounds oddly appropriate for a film that covers fifty years of the history of Yugoslavia.
Missing in action is the German hit song Lili Marleen that crops up throughout the film. First heard when the protagonist's city falls to the Nazis and later when the Allies defeat them, it's used throughout the movie to underscore the tragi-comic events. I've included it inside as a bonus track.
Lovers of traditional Balkan music, Euro-Folk, Klezmer or any exotic music will find this soundtrack enjoyable whether they've seen this film or not.

"A catastrophe!"

9 Comments:

Blogger nina h.pixie said...

this is on our list of all-time favourite films!! i have never found the soundtrack-- loved the music so much- this is great, thank you-thank-you!!

11:54 PM  
Blogger Chardman said...

Great!
I'm glad you wanted it.
It's one of my favorites too.
Kusturica's 'Time of the Gypsies' is pretty good, too.

9:27 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is great. Gonna have to search for more of his work.
Thanks & Cheers!

9:55 AM  
Blogger Chardman said...

I have another by Bregovic that is really similar, but not a soundtrack.
It's Tales from Weddings and Funerals. It is very much in the same style of Gypsy/Roma music. I will put it up soon. I also have some of his work with Bijelo Dugme, his 70's hard rock band.
Maybe I'll put up all my Balkan rock stuff soon, who know?
I'm gratified to have visitors!

12:02 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks too for stopping by!
I will look in for those 2 you mentioned, as I've not heard him.
Thanks & Cheers!

4:11 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

this blog has some real gems!
thank you!
I came here looking for this soundtrack but unfortunately it has expired. Any chance of re-uploading on rapidshare again please?

Keep up the great work! :)

9:49 AM  
Blogger Grumpus42 said...

yes please can you upload it again??

12:42 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey, Wolfo.
This blog is dead.
GO to the new KUR (link at front page) and I will try to have it up this weekend, time willing.

12:56 PM  
Anonymous Rich said...

Good ppost

3:09 PM  

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