Duncan Lamont
Bull's Blood
Various – Industry (Volume 2)
Label: KPM Music – KPM 1162
Series: KPM 1000 Series
Format: Vinyl, LP
Country: UK
Released: 1975
Genre: Jazz, Funk / Soul, Pop, Stage & Screen
This piece was written by DJ Edward Bear and originally featured in issue six of DIG – copies of DIG Mag can be purchased here.
Diving into the wide world of Library music can be a bit daunting, hit and miss, with a lot of cultural value being placed on the more rare and expensive an albums which can change daily and doesn’t necessarily mean the record is full of great tunes. This is after all, music composed for commercial use and not specifically to be an artistic statement.
That being said, to paraphrase Cut Chemist, the ambitious ones I feel are really something special.
I found this at the London Record Fair last fall and it caught me completely by surprise. Amidst the thousands of classic rock and beat up 45’s being pushed, I’d nearly given up. Winding my way around, I stopped to chat with a dealer from Toronto who brought a few crates of interesting bits. Looking closer, it was all Pakistani and Indian film soundtracks from the 70’s, early electronic music, post-punk/industrial... and KPM1000’s, MP2000’s, Bruton, Patchwork... you get the idea.
This was the stuff I was after! Records like these are hard to find on a good day around here and having several crates filled with the deep shit right in front of me had my complete attention. By the end of the day I’d taken a punt on several of the more reasonably priced items and had a good chat with the fella who also happened to be the author of a book my missus gave me that I’d recently finished (tinyurl.com/on-vinyl-book) Exciting times!
Out of the lot, this is my favourite score from the day.
One of the more ambitious records, opening with some heavier tunes before changing gears to something more mysterious and delicate. This could really be an entire soundtrack to what I’d imagine being an evening news special documenting the collapse, aftermath and rebirth of a small towns industry.
It’s more ambient and ethereal tracks which make up the bulk of the record run the gamut of tense and moody to feeling as though something magical could rise up from the ruins, something hopeful. Wonderful stuff ! (I’m on my third or fourth listen as I type this).
Nailing down a favourite from this album was difficult but I’d settle for Bull’s Blood by Duncan Lamont, a sax player born in Scotland. The tune is something I imagine introducing a group of would- be gangsters in a caper film – It’s funky, heavy jazz rock with a riff that screams “pay attention and don’t mess with us!”
I love library music, have a few KPM and Bruton Music in my collection