Finders Keepers Funk | Soul 2 Items

Back in 1968 a pair of Germanic behind-the-scenes sound librarians called Horst Ackermann and Heribert Thusek left a tiny, but indelible, pinprick on the history of German Pop in the misshaped form of a sexy horror cash-in concept album called Dracula’s Music Cabinet. Shelved at a micro-cosmic axis where Krautrock meets lesbian vampire Horrortica and easy listening meets psychedelia the delayed reaction of this mutant concoction eventually exploded in the mid-1990s in the hands of a generation of ‘record diggers’ sending currencycrushing tremors through the wallets of mods, rockers, hip hoppers, psych nuts and kraut kompletists around the plastic-pillaging planet. The vinyl junkies had resurrected a monster, but, like addicts do, they ravenously sucked it dry and moved on looking for the next fix to feed their habit. Luckily for some, Ackermann and Thusek were also creatures of habit. And it wouldn’t take a genius to figure out that they were holding the next dose, but by the turn of the millennium the mad scientists had been given a thirty-five-year head start on the pop archeologists and their mythical sequel was literally light-years ahead of their previous draconian installment... Encouragingly the unclosed cabinet left a shiny white clue in the form of it’s closing track Frankenstein Meets Alpha 7... Perhaps space was the place. Always read the label. The Ackermann and Thusek duo were far from dynamic. They were undercover agents hiding behind user-friendly mock-rock monikers and, like most B-Musicians, the only way to sniff them out would be to read the small print. But when an unidentified record on an unknown label with a title like Science Fiction Dance Partycrops up in the Eins Deutschmark crates it’s not exactly rocket science - although the track titles might suggest otherwise. The End Of A Robot, Monster On Saturn 1, Galactic Adventures Of The Outer Space Fleet , The Whistling Astronauts, Death Rays Out Of The Universe’.. The telltale signs are all there and if that vintage psycoplasmodic Colored Vinyl doesn’t clench the deal then what will. When rumours about a space-age follow-up to Dracula’s Music Cabinet hit the straße Deutsche-o-phile diggers fingers started twitching nervously

As one of the most enigmatic figures of the 1970s Italian soundtrack and library music network Emma De Angelis and her short recording career provides thirsty fans of speedball psychedelic rock and drum heavy instrumental funk with a tight discography rivalling many of the long-standing bastions of the otherwise male-orientated business.
Born in Rocca di Papa, near Rome, into a flourishing musical environment, Emma was the younger sister of future award winning composers Guido and Maurizio De Angelis, a duo who, under names like Oliver Onions and Dream Bags, would write chart-topping lyrical theme tunes for a wide range of Italian crime, Giallo and Spaghetti Western films featured alongside full scores by Ennio Morricone and the Magnetic System composers (Bixio Frizzi Tempera).
With encouragement from her brothers, Emma, who would also write music under the pseudonym of Juniper, would record a tight clutch of solo-penned material and seldom credited studio contributions to Guido And Maurizio’s film commissions, such as the score for Giuliano Carnimeo’s ‘Simone e Matteo: Un gioco da ragazzi’ (aka ‘Convoy Buddies’). While simultaneously pursuing a career as an illustrator and set designer the De Angelis family contacts would lead Emma to the offices of Romano Di Bari, whose up-and-coming Flirt label was finding success providing custom-built mood music for use in TV and film. Alongside important composers like Alessandro Alessandroni, Gerardo Iacoucci and A. R. Luciani, the young Emma Di Angelis would record a small number of tracks for a compilation called ‘Underground Mood’ (credited in the small print to E De Angelis - not to be confused with Italian singer Edoardo De Angelis). It is from this rare LP that the record you are now holding is compiled. Within the Flirt family of labels Emma De Angelis would also share schedules with other important female composers such as Daniela Casa and Giulia ‘Kema’ De Mutiis - both of whom have appeared on dedicated Finders Keepers releases.
The tracks on this record provide us with a rare glimpse into Emma De Angelis’ short musical career before she became a full time visual artist. With an unknown personnel or studio date it is easy to speculate a potential family jam in Piero Umiliani’s Sound Workshop studio in 1972. One only has to take a listen to Guido And Maurizio’s instrumental theme ‘Gangster Story’ from Enzo G. Castellari’s 1973 thriller ‘High Crime’ (which later appeared on Tarantino’s ‘Death Proof’ soundtrack) or the trippy title theme to Paolo Poeti’s kinky 1976 drama Inhibition to spot the family resemblance.