Search - Various Artists :: Lift Off In-flight Tunes

Very Rare Indeed

Robert M | Clawson, Michigan | 02/03/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Collecting Lounge can be a bit like collecting Classical music in the sense that we tend to listen to much of the same music as performed and interpreted by different artists. In Classical, we compare Kleiber's Beethoven with Muti's Beethoven and Bernstein's Beethoven. With Lounge it's possible for a slight sense of "been there, done that" to creep in as we experience and enjoy yet another version of "Caravan", another arrangement of "Begin the Beguine", another rendition of "Quiet Village", etc., etc. After our umpteenth hearing of "Mack The Knife" we begin to look for ways to refresh what we hear in one of two ways: either by searching for ever stranger and stranger versions of the songs we know (hence the always fun sub-genre of "Space Age Pop") or by seeking out genuinely new material which fits the criteria of our Cocktail Nation listening needs. To help us with our second task comes this CD, "Lift-Off with the Apollo Sound, unreleased 70's Lounge Grooves"



To call this material rare is an understatement; some of it is not only unreleased, it's unpublished and all of it is by artists whom I'm not familiar with. And things get off to a rather unpromising start with a track called "Hurry, Hurry" by of all things "The Polish Radio Symphony" (I'm not even sure if this is the real Polish Radio Symphony or the "cute", ironic name of a studio orchestra) which sounds like the accompaniment to a car chase from one of those Seventies B-grade crime dramas, all scurrying notes adding up to nothing. Things improve steadily from there however. The second track, also by the PRS, would be a perfect laid back, laying low entrance theme for Tony Rome as he saunters into some swanky bistro. After that we're taken through tracks, by various groups or combos, redolent of the sounds of Bert Bacharach and Henry Mancini, among others, with several notable and tasty side trips into the world of African influenced Exotica, most of it done by whatever band or combo that happens to be on a particular track, with a sense of big city style and panache that's both intriguing and appealing. Because all of this is completely unfamiliar, it may take several listenings for the value of these tracks to become clear, and not every track on this disc is an undiscovered gem. But many of them are, enough that the CD is well worth the price of admission.



Because this is a compilation involving various groups and locations, the sound varies slightly (very slightly) from one track to the next and two of the tracks are very slightly louder than the others. But mostly the production and sound are quite fine and my only disappointment with the presentation is that absolutely no background or provenance is provided for these rare tracks, simply titles and artists. I guess we take what we've got and be glad to have it.



Ordering this was a complete shot in the dark; I had nothing but the title and the rather odd looking cover to go by. But after repeated listenings, I'm very glad I stumbled across this on Amazon. It will be a worthy addition to your collection too."