• Composed by Ennio Morricone
• Screentrax / 2000 / 60:46

A spaghetti western released in 1970, Vamos A Matar, Compañeros takes place during the Mexican revolution and stars Franco Nero, Tomas Milian, Jack Palance and Fernando Rey and was directed by one of the genre’s most famous filmmakers, Sergio Corbucci (most famous for Django).  The fantastic score is by Ennio Morricone, full of energy and flavour.  The first main theme is a song, which is brilliantly absurd (who could fail to love the rhyming of “compañeros” with “sombreros”, or the “neighing horse” woodwind effect?)  It’s the sort of thing he did so very well in these films, so often – displaying creativity, injecting so much colour, and writing such catchy, memorable melodies.  There’s surely no other film composer who has come close to matching Morricone’s ability to write music that can inspire awe at the way it’s put together at the same time as putting a smile on the listener’s face because it’s just so much fun to sit and enjoy.

The second theme, “Il Pinguino”, is a very relaxed one, its first appearance featuring casual whistling from Alessandroni and gentle guitar accompaniment.  “La Messicana” is a lovely, pastoral piece with a nice harmonic solo, evocative of the colourful landscapes.  “La Loro Patria” is the most romantic of the themes, a sweeping piece for strings with all the Morricone hallmarks.  The lengthy “Un Uomo in Agguato” is by contrast a piece of agitated action/suspense, typically effective.  Apart from a great piece of saloon source music, the rest of the album consists of variations on this outstanding core of themes – I could never tire of listening to the song, and “Il Pinguino” in particular appears in numerous very satisfying different forms, in particular one with the main melody gets a strident trumpet performance in place of the whistling.  This is a fantastic album, a Morricone western classic, whose album is sadly pretty hard to find these days (but there’s a download version readily-available).  *****

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