FORMAT: VINYL / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
Spikerot Records’ vinyl debut of Carlo Rustichelli’s score for the 1964 Mario Bava giallo Sei Donne Per l’Assassino (Blood and Black Lace) is a thing of beauty. Pulled from the CAM archives, the 31 tracks on the LP have been remastered from the original master tapes for vinyl by Carlo Altobelli and comprise the full session recorded for the film.
While originally released as a double compact disc by Digitmovies in 2005, along with the composer’s score for La frusta e il corpo (The Whip and the Body), that edition is long out of print. The vinyl debut sounds astonishingly vibrant, and there are so many brilliant moments, one feels the need to repeatedly flip the record, listening to the various alternate takes included to hear the minor changes. While the main theme, Atelier, is a brilliant piece of exotica, replete with noir-ish brass and snappy bongos, the rest of Rustichelli’s is ever-increasing in its alternating sense of dread and dreaminess. Designed to keep the listener off-kilter and ready for anything, this is, as the liner notes state, ‘MUSIC TO KILL’.
The limited edition black vinyl release was only 100 copies was pressed on ‘Atelier Della Morte’ (yellow with black and red splatter) vinyl, and came with a repress of the original 7-inch single featuring the main theme, Atelier, along with Defilè, but sold out quickly. The less-limited The Masked Killer variant is still only 400 copies on grey 180-gram vinyl, and features the same striking gatefold sleeve with artwork by Eric Adrian Lee (known for his excellent work for Spun Out of Control and others), and includes a brief reflection on the film by the director’s son, Lamberto Bava, also a director of some note himself, along with an excellent overview of the film and Rustichelli’s career by Dannata Balera Radio’s Andrea Fabrizii.
Sei Donne Per l’Assassino is available on vinyl LP from Spikerot Records.
