I have record called For a Few Guitars More: A Tribute to Morricone’s Spaghetti Western Themes.
Very nice guitar-oriented compilation of modern (mostly) surf bands covering Morricone plus one original tune called “The Loud, the Loose, and the Savage” (that states “composed by Davie Allan, inspired by Ennio Morricone”). On this link you can find extensive info (looks like the writer knows his spaghetti) together with samples of each track:
[url]http://www.pollodelmar.com/mart/morricone/[/url]
As most inspired and fresh sounding I recommend following tracks:
For A Fistful of Dollars performed by Dave Wronksi (beautiful Spanish-tinged acoustic guitar)
Sixty Seconds To What? [aka La Resa dei Conti] performed by Brent J. Cooper (you can dance to this version)
A Gun for Ringo gently performed by Croatia’s finest the Bambi Molesters
Navajo Joe performed by Pollo del Mar (drenched in guitar distortion, with cute little quote of Shadows’ Apache at the end)
The Great Silence performed by Kim Humphreys (scorching guitar solo)
Once Upon a Time in the West very Hendrixesquelly performed by In the West
This is not exactly what you’re asking, but when I record my album where I do spaghetti-western tinged covers of non-spaghetti songs, these will be among them (so dibs):
Danger Mouse (who worked with Gnarls Barkley to create “Crazy” the remix of Gian Piero Reverbi’s “Nel Cimitero Di Tuscon”) partnered up with composer Danielle Luppi to create a heavily influenced Spaghetti Western / Indie-rock album titled “Rome”. The album features instruments made in the 1960’s, as well as being recorded in Forum Studios where a huge number of Spaghetti Western soundtracks were recorded. It also includes a re-uniting of the I Cantori Moderni! Which are featured very prominently in the album (especially Edda, who still sounds amazing). The album is extremely well produced and very reminiscent of the music it is inspired by. There’s a great mixture of instrumentals (like the song below) and vocal tracks. You guy’s should check it out!
Surprised they haven’t been mentioned here yet, but Spindrift is amazing. Psychedelic spaghetti western rock. They do a lot of scores and even made a really cool experimental spaghetti western movie called The Legend of God’s Gun, based on the preceding album of the same name. Fav tracks: Speak to the Wind, The Matador and the Fuzz, Titoli, and The Legend of God’s Gun.
Hi Nicholas! Welcome to the SWDB, amigo! We’ve certainly duscussed Spindrift on the forum before, though clearly not in this thread where, as you say, it’s a surprise that they’re not mentioned yet. Spindrift and I had been following one another on Twitter for some time when one of our other members, the currently missing in action @Reverend_Danite mentioned that he’d picked up this super-bizarre microbudget DVD movie called The Legend of God’s Gun in a charity shop. When I mentioned that I’d heard of them and liked their music he sent me the movie straightaway. I think it’s a cracking picture. I mean it’s awful, but in a good way. A bunch of mates larking about pretending they’re in a spag. And why not? It’s really something we SWDBers should all have done by now.
Thanks! I actually discovered them through the movie. Movie Madness here in Portland has a great spaghetti western section and I rented it there and loved the music as well as the cult vibe of the movie. If I had gotten into SW before I went to film school rather than after I definitely would have made one by now. A real missed opportunity! Maybe in the future! Pretty excited, Spindrift is actually playing this Saturday here in town, so I’ll finally get to see a live show.
Also check out Federale! Totally forgot about them until I just saw they’re opening for Spindrift this weekend, but my friend from film school used to be their drummer. Pretty similar vibe but maybe a bit more true to the original scores.
The Friends of Dean Martinez is a western/surf band with some great releases. One of the members, Woody Jackson, worked on the music for the Red Dead series.
I think it was actually Bill Elm (the other RDR composer) who was in FoDM! I’m a huge fan of their work on this. There’s a great video put out by Rockstar about their approach to voices, timbre, and layers on the soundtrack:
I love this album, and had no idea it was a movie as well! Thank you!
Check out Enya’s Spaghetti Western Theme from the Celts. It is available on her Amarantine EP. I know it seems incongruous, but it is a great song and it effectively evokes Morricone’s use of bells, guitar, and soaring vocals.
Another group that I did not see mentioned is Dead Combo. They are from Lisbon. There are clear influences from Morricone and Spaghetti Western soundtracks.
Check out their songs “Mr. Eastwood” and “Mr. Leone.” Cheers.
