Search - Alloy Orchestra :: Masters of Slapstick

Masters of Slapstick
Alloy Orchestra
Masters of Slapstick
Genres: Jazz, Pop, Soundtracks
 
  •  Track Listings (37) - Disc #1

The Alloy Orchestra has become something of a staple at cinema festivals worldwide, accompanying silent films with scores performed on synthesizers, accordions, musical saws, and a junk pile of pans and sheet metal. Master...  more »

     
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CD Details

All Artists: Alloy Orchestra
Title: Masters of Slapstick
Members Wishing: 1
Total Copies: 0
Label: Accurate Records
Original Release Date: 11/23/1999
Re-Release Date: 12/21/1999
Genres: Jazz, Pop, Soundtracks
Style:
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 743431503725

Synopsis

Amazon.com
The Alloy Orchestra has become something of a staple at cinema festivals worldwide, accompanying silent films with scores performed on synthesizers, accordions, musical saws, and a junk pile of pans and sheet metal. Masters of Slapstick is the band's first CD foray into old-fashioned comedic violence, scoring the movies One Week by Buster Keaton, Big Business by Laurel and Hardy, and Easy Street by Charlie Chaplin. And like the outlandish visual cues and farcical action of these films, the Alloy's music is all setup and punch line, a ride of Keystone Cops proportion. The pleasant formality of a waltz or a wedding march suddenly careens and ditches into a percussive pileup ("Drive Away") or a vaudeville piano gets a heavy dose of adrenaline and lurches into a stampede of ivory keys and foot stomping ("Zany Dish Pants"). Poignant and direct, drunken and burlesque, the Alloy Orchestra's take on pratfalls and painful stunts is completely loaded with seductive charm. --Michael Woodring
 

CD Reviews

Masters of Slapstick
Arthur Booth | Los Angeles, CA | 10/24/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'm a film collector of silent vintage comedy films. So, when you're looking for music to accompany them, it's nice to find tracks that were specially written for specific films. Alloy Orchestra has an uncanny knack for finding the amusing twists and turns of old comedy films, such as Laurel & Hardy's Big Business. I have found it a perfect match for the action on the screen."