CD REVIEW - Sesso Matto


Sesso Matto
Music by Armando Trovaioli
Beat Records CDCR 72-DLX SERIE (Italy)
41 Tracks 77:02 mins

This latest deluxe release from Beat Records features Armando Trovaioli's highly melodic score for the 1973 sex comedy Sesso Matto, which starred the luscious Laura Antonelli and Giancarlo Giannini and featured the two playing different roles in a series of episodes illustrating a paticular sexual deviation. I've long been an admirer of Ms Antonelli's charms, ever since I first spied her in a sex comedy broadcast on BBC 2 in the days when the channel regularly showed continental films, and am delighted that the splendidly colourful accompanying booklet accompanying this CD carries so many images of her (it also features informative notes on the music and the film in Italian, English and Japanese). I just wish I could one day see the film.
In the meantime, at least there is the score to listen to, music that was originally released by Beat Records at the time of the film's release, but of course those were the days when LPs only ran around 30 minutes. Due to the tremendous popularity of the music in Japan, the LP was eventually re-released on CD, but now, as part of the label's 40th anniversary celebrations, we have this much expanded CD, which plays for close on 80 minutes, and features not only many more score tracks previously unreleased, but alternate takes as well. And a special mention must go to sound engineer Enrico De Gemini, who had the difficult task of restoring and remixing the music from the original studio multi-channel masters.
The music for Sesso Matto comes from a very different time. Nowadays, most film scores seem to closely follow the action and what melodies are present are seldom allowed to breathe for very long. Often film scores in the 60s and 70s, rather than follow every twist and turn of the plot, strove to create a melodic mood for each scenario. This is such a score, filled to the brim with catchy melodies of all kinds of styles and tempos, some pure dance floor, often with a latin feel, some jazzy or bluesy, and some downright quirky. In addition, there are a number of vocals throughout, the male honours being taken by Sir Albert Douglas (a pseudonym surely?), with the great Edda Dell'Orso here getting a rare chance to actually sing lyrics, instead of using her voice as another instrument of the orchestra. Of course she does do a little of this also, in the infectious main theme, where her vocals are quite erotically charged.
Summing it up, this album makes for a delightful listening experience, suitable for relaxation or for giving one a lift as background to some routine tasking. Melody rules!
Go to the Beat Records website at www.beatrecords.it for details of their future releases, some of which are detailed in this CD's booklet and include works by Trovaioli, Micalizzi and De Masi. Looks like plenty more fine film music of days gone by to look forward to.