Work (Out) Music

Record review roundup, 11/18/98

These go out to all those working at home these days, whether by choice or otherwise. If your home office sometimes gets as nonsensical as Letterman’s, maybe it’s time to get a good set of headphones beside your workstation and heed some of the Muzak company’s old research into music’s role in aiding worker productivity. Herewith, suggested accompaniment for personal deskbound accomplishment.

STAR SYSTEM:

**** = Executive suite

*** = Corner office

** = Cubicle

* = Temp pool

SAM SPENCE/JOHN FACENDA The Power and the Glory: Original Music and Voices of NFL Films (Tommy Boy) ***

There are days when you need this: Monday mornings, deadline days, times when you must do something really scary (say, a job interview) or otherwise head into battle. The glorious symphonic anthems of classic 16mm pro-football documentaries will stir you into action like, well hopefully not like recent Seahawk seasons. Anyhow, these masterpieces of orchestral bombast are alternated with short snippets of gravelly-voiced ex-Philly news anchorman John Facenda’s narrations from the films, hokey (sometimes even rhyming) yet never ever hip or ironic. You don’t have to like (or understand) pro football to like this record.

NINO TEMPO & APRIL STEVENS Sweet and Lovely: The Best of Nino Tempo and April Stevens (Varese Sarabande) ****

The only album on this list to include English-language vocals. Muzak never used vocal cuts on its “Stimulus Progression” channel, believing voices attracted too much listener attention. But at certain points in the workday, a little mental diversion can help. For calm-down moments after the stress moments, nothing could be finer than this brother-sister team from 1962-67 and their friendly, upbeat, jazzy-pop renditions of Broadway and Brill Building song standards. Also included: Stevens’ torch solo, “Teach Me Tiger”–recorded in ’59 and still too steamy for mainstream airplay, due both to the words (wherein Stevens pleads to her boy to initiate her into sexual knowledge, then turns around and offers to initiate him instead) and to the heavy-breathing growls between the lines.

VARIOUS ARTISTS Organs in Orbit (Capitol Ultra-Lounge) ***

WALTER WANDERLAY Rain Forest (Verve) ****

In the long hours before lunch (if you even take a scheduled lunch break at home), you need something light ‘n’ lively that’ll keep you at a steady pace. The friendly tones of the lustrous Hammond fit this task with a smile. Let your worries go, let your work-output flow.

VARIOUS ARTISTS Music for TV Dinners (Scamp/Caroline) ***

VARIOUS ARTISTS Music for TV Dinners,The ’60s (Scamp/Caroline) ***

A quick early-afternoon pick-me-up, these two are as close to Muzak’s old-time “stimulus progression” sound as you can get on commercially-available CDs. Old tracks from a British company that sold (and still sells) royalty-free stock music for use in any and all occasions (commercials, B movies, game shows, cartoons). Hear the full, original versions of songs you’ve heard in cut-up form on Ren & Stimpy, CBS Sports, Russ Meyer movies, Vaseline Intensive Care ads, and more.

VARIOUS ARTISTS Easy Tempo Vol. 6: A Cinematic Jazz Experience (Easy Tempo/Right Tempo import) ****

Back to the light-‘n’-lively, but with a more assertive tone for the afternoon when the outside world’s temptations must be drowned out for just a short while longer. Soundtracks from European commercial-entertainment movies of the ’70s are so darned cool because they had to be. The films they were made for needed such clever touches to keep up, even in their domestic markets, against Hollywood’s big-budget product. Any of Easy Tempo’s releases will envelope you in a dreamscape of fast Euro-cars, hot Euro-sex, and suave Euro-spies. This volume’s a particularly spectacular starting point. Here’s some of what I wrote on my computer’s CD-track database program: “`Gangster Song’ (torch vocal, tap dancing SFX). `Notte in Algeria’ (swingin’ brass). `Tap 5′ (sultry saxes, flute). `Semplicissimo’ (smoky male vocal, in Italian). `Quando La Coppia Scoppia’ (vibes, electric piano). `Sally’s Surf’ (way-far-out Farfisa organ). `Genova, Piazza de Ferrari’ (slinky vibes, guitar).” Purists might call these 18 tracks commercial affectations of ’50s-’60s U.S. jazz greats, but don’t you mind.

VARIOUS ARTISTS Samba Brasil (Verve) ****

“World music” that’s not curated by or for Volvo-drivin’ post-graduates. Easy-going and lively at the same time. Perfect for passing the early-P.M. hours in mindless data entry. Your hands and eyes are at the computer; your mind is in the Rio Sambadrome.

ED KALEHOFF Music from The Price Is Right (Available from The ’80s TV Theme SuperSite) **

You’ve probably heard these music cues several times (America’s last surviving network game show has been on since the Nixon administration), but never in their full-length, announcer-free form. They turn out to be bouncy, breezy, HI-NRG synth-and-horn anthems; perfect for that last-hour push toward completing the day’s tasks.

ROYAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA F.A.B.: Music From the TV Shows by Barry Gray (Silva Screen import) ***

Workday’s done, tasks completed, deadlines met, documents e-mailed or FedExed away. Time to give yourself a thundering brass-band salute, with a blast of re-created themes from the Gerry Anderson “Supermarionation” puppet adventure shows. Thunderbirds Are Go!