If you’re going to go, go all out. The debut release of the Pieces soundtrack not only features all of the music from the film (most of which was pulled from other movies), but two unused Stelvio Cipriani cues and a reproduction of the dirty puzzle Timmy is putting together before he hacks his mother up with an ax and a saw. Is it a score? A compilation? Both? Does it matter?
No, because the Pieces release – in addition to being astoundingly complete – also sounds amazing. It fairly leaps out of the speakers. It’s big, and crisp, and booms where it should. The various pieces of Pieces sound absolutely lush, even a honky-tonk number like Up Country, which leads off the LP. Fabio Frizzi’s Cocktail Molotov, as well as Enrico Pieranunz and Silvano Chimenti’s I Love Blondes, both sound like they’re soaked in honey.
Carlo Maria Cordo’s selections (all originally recorded for the Joe D’Amato flick, Anthropophagus 2) are tense and disconcerting, yet manage to work that funky angle like so many other great ’70s and ’80s exploitation scores. M31 loops a minimalist piano riff with a driving beat underneath before exploding into something like Tchaikovsky. It’s astonishing and vibrant.
Cipriani’s Deathwatch, which closes out the LP in three different forms, is the album’s highlight. The strange phasing and finger piano on the slowed-down first alternate version make an already creepy track highly disconcerting, and leave the listener literally gasping at the end. I wasn’t even aware of it, but the tension it builds had me holding my breath as I waited for it to dissipate.
Bonus points to the label for making the film’s trailer available in audio form as a hidden track after the end of the LP. Lift the needle and hear the short, sweet, and grindhouse-y as all-get-out once the second alternate of Deathwatch ends. Additional points given for the “pressed on affordable 140 gram black vinyl” snark on the cover sticker, as well an etching in the runout groove of the second side that’s so long it needs an extra line.
If there were liner notes to this, it would be the epitome of a perfect release – great sound, fantastic music, wonderful packaging, and clever bonuses. As it is, We Release Whatever the Fuck We Want should continue to go with their instincts, because if they continue to be this solid, we think we might have to start snatching up everything they do.
PIECES (VINYL) / COMPOSER: VARIOUS / LABEL: WE RELEASE WHATEVER THE FUCK WE WANT / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
