HENRY MANCINI — Experiment In Terror (review)

HENRY MANCINI — Experiment In Terror album cover Album · 1962 · Jazz Related Soundtracks Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
js
Henry Mancini was one of the most talented composers and orchestral arrangers during the 60s, and his soundtrack work often gave him much more of a chance to show off his creativity than his pop and easy listening albums. His soundtrack to “Experiment in Terror” is no exception as it is loaded with little gems that have that “Mancini touch”. The title cut set a standard for spooky theme songs with its lonely slow ride cymbal backed by a muted guitar riff and topped with a noire melody painstakingly plucked by hand on the piano strings. Halfway through the song a mass of dizzyingly high strings swoop in sounding like something from Hitchcock, this cut has been used as the theme for many of those ‘midnight movie’ type shows.

The twist dance craze had swept the world in the early 60s, so elsewhere on “Experiment” you get several swingin twists done up in more of an exotica style than real rock-n-roll, plus swanky lounge tunes, some interesting incidental music and unfortunately, a couple of unbearably corny tracks including one called “Good Old Days”. Of the incidental music, “Nancy” is an excellent track featuring soft atonal piano passages that sound like a lounge version of Boulez’ serial music. All of the twists and other tunes on here are extra groovy and all are special enough to have shown up on various ‘swingin bachelor pad’ type compilations over the years. If you like Mancicni or 60s exotica in general, you will want to get this. The one major drawback to this record is its brevity, the music is high quality, but you don’t get a lot of it.

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