Compilation producers: Thievery Corporation.
One of the better byproducts of the lounge music revival of the '90s was a worldwide reappraisal of fluffy movie soundtracks, eccentric instrumental records, and all generally lowbrow pop compositions that were written off by critics upon their original release. Early synthesizer recordings, soundtracks to soft-core porn films, theme music to European talk shows, nothing escaped the ears of sonic anthropologists.
An Italian label called Easy Tempo has been releasing volumes of such excavated music since 1995, and Eighteenth Street Lounge has distilled all these sets into an introductory compilation, creating a gateway to the more off-center instrumental pop of the last 30 years. String arrangements, syncopated horns, and Fender Rhodes grooves dominate the soundscapes, most of which is made up of music written by Italian composers to accompany predominantly late-'60s/early-'70s movies only film students have heard of (maybe!). The cheezoid funk grind quotient is through the roof, the vocals are nowhere to be found, and the good mood is about as flowing as on any record released in the last decade of the 20th century. If you have any desire to check out all the musical side streets the lounge revival has taken, EASY TEMPO is a masterful primer.
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