GIMME THE LOOT

Loot OST (CBS 1970)

I was turned onto this album a few years back by Cool Chris at the Groove Merchant. It’s a soundtrack to what I can only assume to be some wacky British heist film (something the English seem to excel at making). What’s noteworthy is who cuts the soundtrack: Keith Mansfield of KPM/Mohawks fame. Not having heard most of the KPM LPs that the Mohawks played on (you got $500 for me to catch up?), I can’t compare this but I can say it’s been one of my favorite LPs that I’ve been listening to lately.

A lot of this soundtrack isn’t very notable – the vocals are particularly bad and most of the songs aren’t ’60s pop riffs. But “Loot’s the Root” is a surprise since it starts off with the aforementioned forgettable vocals and then midway swings into a jamming mod-groover (not unlike the Nilsmen joint I mention elsewhere on this blog) full of darting organs and slammin’ percussion. What’s strange is that, if you look at the LP, where you think the song is about to end just ends up being a transition where the track strips down and brings in a female vocal to close the song out. There’s also some cool clunky jazz bits on the short but sweet “Where It’s At.” The jam is “Stealth in the Night” which is one of those slow builders…the song kicks off with some dialogue from the film and ramps up two times until it really gets going. When it does, Mansfield just laces you with this zinger of a track – mid-tempo and superfly, bringing back his zingy organ and a fantastic rhythm riff.

The last butter track is “The Undertaker Song” (even the song titles are wicked) which is a return to the “Loot’s the Root” motif but this time, he whips it up with a conga break and the track is even fiercer than before as Mansfield goes nuts on the organ. Wild hot.