1. Come All Ye Faithfull
2. Hark! The Herald Angels Sings
3. Joy To The World
4. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
5. White Christmas
6. Jingle Bells
7. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
8. Little Drummer Boy
9. Silver Bells
10. Silent Night
11. Sleigh Ride
12. Feliz Navidad
MOLTO GROOVY WEBSITE
PURCHASE CD AT CD BABY
PURCHASE VINYL OR MP3 AT CD BABY
PURCHASE CD AT AMAZON
PURCHASE MP3 AT BANDCAMP
2. Hark! The Herald Angels Sings
3. Joy To The World
4. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
5. White Christmas
6. Jingle Bells
7. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
8. Little Drummer Boy
9. Silver Bells
10. Silent Night
11. Sleigh Ride
12. Feliz Navidad
MOLTO GROOVY WEBSITE
PURCHASE CD AT CD BABY
PURCHASE VINYL OR MP3 AT CD BABY
PURCHASE CD AT AMAZON
PURCHASE MP3 AT BANDCAMP
JUST SOME EYE CANDY
When I first introduced you to “Molto Groovy Christmas”, I spoke about watching late-night Italian movies growing up—badly dubbed, but with soundtracks that were both whimsical and magical. Those soundtracks were the inspiration behind “Molto Groovy Christmas”.
For this project to work, the music needed to be cinematic. Producer Roman Coppala’s background is movies. He also founded and heads The Directors Bureau, known for award-winning commercials and music videos. For this project to work, the music had to be authentic. DJ Alessandro Casella is perhaps the greatest living authority on the music, the movies, the soundtracks and the culture of Italy from the fifties, sixtes and seventies, having founded and published The Jaguar Magazine devoted to these things since 1999. Casella has also collected the sounds of the era and has organized two international festivals of 60s music and Jazz soundtracks. Finally, for this project to work, the music had to be good. Carlo Poddighe is a multi-instrumentalist musician, sound engineer, producer and composer of international renown. Highly in demand as a session musician, Poddighe has toured the United States with various Rock bands and he runs the Poddighe Recording Studio. He has also composed scores for many independent films. One last thing. The music had to be analog--recorded the way music was recorded then, alive and real. With our players in place, we can begin.
And, to begin, I owe the makers of “Molto Groovy Christmas” at least half an apology. I had assumed, based on the premise and thirty-second clips, that the album was largely a novelty. High concept novelty, but novelty nonetheless. Having heard the whole thing, now, I have to say “Molto Groovy Christmas” is much more than novelty. This is an exquisite album, delightful from end to end. “Molto Groovy Christmas” is a complete trip—a good one and one you’ll enjoy taking over and over again. It is whimsical, to be sure. The Italian soundtracks that inspired “Molto Groovy Christmas” are like that. But, like those soundtracks, and, frankly, like a lot of overlooked Christmas records from the 60s and 70s, once you get past the 30 second goofy sounding snippets, there’s some awesome arrangements and musicianship going on. If this album had actually been cut in, say, 1968 or 1971, it would be at or near the top of every Christmas collector’s Wish List. It would be legendary.
What I hope you can understand is that it doesn’t matter when the record was made. It doesn’t matter that this isn’t some long out-of-print piece of vinyl that you can never seem to lay your hands on. It’s about the music, the sound. And “Molto Groovy Christmas” sounds amazing! And you can actually get your hands on it. Easily. Download, CD, even on vinyl if you must have the full throw-back experience. No big used record store search required.
The album opens with “Come All Ye Faithful”, the beginning of which could easily have been lifted from those old Italian soundtracks. But, soon enough, the track kicks into full Psych. Listening to “Come All Ye Faithful”, you’re going to see the multi-colored lights spinning behind your eyeballs, go-go dancers in cages, bellbottoms and miniskirts. It may be fortunate the track isn’t longer than it is; I was beginning to wonder what Mrs. Fields was putting in those cookies.
“Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” is straight up Mod Squad era Funk (complete with what sounds like Now Sound era backing vocals--just like on the old Italian soundtracks). Where does this one take you? Well, let me just say, this is the track that you’d find playing in an Italian Christmas rom-com during a scene of comically unexpected faux, ahem, romance, as the Bass-man makes unintelligible noises while a feminine voice provides sighs of, ahem, delight. All in an Italian Christmas rom-com sort of way, mind you.
On to “Joy To The World”, vaguely Beatle-esque with my favorite Christmas sound—a screeching organ played with as much funky R&B heat and energy as you could ever imagine.
“Santa Claus Is Coming To Town”? You bet he is. And he’s got the Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu. Love the arrangement on this one. And there’s that great organ again.
“White Christmas” is a lovely piece of Exotica, complete with waves, vibes, rhythmic Island percussion, and soothing "doo-doo" vocals.
“Jingle Bells” is a full-on Ventures or Dick Dale styled Munster theme. Almost sounds menacing—but whimsically so.
“Have Yourself A Merry Christmas” returns us to a sweeter sound and features wah-wah guitar and a soaring female vocal (no words, mind you, just a sweetly operatic oooh aah vocal). That soaring female vocal is inspired by Edda Dell'Orso, the voice on many of those vintage Italian soundtracks. "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" also has one of the album’s best endings.
The organ takes the lead again on a pleasantly funky “Little Drummer Boy”. This is the kind of song Christmas collectors spend their lives looking for on old 60s and 70s albums. Who knew all we had to do was wait for 2014?
Poddighe and company go Bossa Nova Lounge for “Silver Bells”. It's old school AND old world and would fit nicely in a mix with those Ultra Lounge albums.
Sitar sounds spice up “Silent Night”, making for a more exotic sound. And, this time, it’s wah wah singers instead of wah wah guitar. And what Italian soundtrack would be complete without a whistling section? Not this one.
We get another splendid arrangement on “Sleigh Ride”, possibly the most overtly Christmasy track on “Molto Groovy”. You get a little bit of everything on this one—kettle drums, an organ bit, moog, fuzz, more whistling, plenty of Psych influence, and bells. (Cause you gotta have bells).
The album closes with “Feliz Navidad” which gets a “Mah Na, Mah Na” makeover without losing the overall funkiness of the record as a whole. For those who didn't know, "Mah Na Mah Na" was written by Piero Umiliani (hope I spelled that right) and originally appeared as part of the soundtrack for the film "Svezia, Inferno e Paradiso". Just in case you thought the Muppets invented it. In it's way, "Feliz Navidad" is the one genuine goofy track on the album. But its nice, at the end, to bring you back around to where you started. Safe, sane, and with none of those mind altering substance hangovers.
I tend to think in analogies. To me, “Molto Groovy Christmas”, is like a Quentin Tarantino film. Hear me out. Tarantino makes many of the movies he does out of love for the B-movie cinema he grew up on. And, because he loves those old movies so much, his tributes to them exceed the originals in every detail. In other words, if an album like this had been recorded in 1968 or 1971, it probably wouldn’t be anywhere near as good as this is. “Molto Groovy Christmas” is a perfect record for the coolest of Yule bashes (and I do mean perfect). But it’s also a great record to listen to anytime and in any setting (if you can’t imagine yourself driving down the highway with this playing, then there’s something seriously wrong with you). And for mixtapes? “Molto Groovy Christmas” is a gift from the heavens. Sign me up for Volume 2.
For this project to work, the music needed to be cinematic. Producer Roman Coppala’s background is movies. He also founded and heads The Directors Bureau, known for award-winning commercials and music videos. For this project to work, the music had to be authentic. DJ Alessandro Casella is perhaps the greatest living authority on the music, the movies, the soundtracks and the culture of Italy from the fifties, sixtes and seventies, having founded and published The Jaguar Magazine devoted to these things since 1999. Casella has also collected the sounds of the era and has organized two international festivals of 60s music and Jazz soundtracks. Finally, for this project to work, the music had to be good. Carlo Poddighe is a multi-instrumentalist musician, sound engineer, producer and composer of international renown. Highly in demand as a session musician, Poddighe has toured the United States with various Rock bands and he runs the Poddighe Recording Studio. He has also composed scores for many independent films. One last thing. The music had to be analog--recorded the way music was recorded then, alive and real. With our players in place, we can begin.
And, to begin, I owe the makers of “Molto Groovy Christmas” at least half an apology. I had assumed, based on the premise and thirty-second clips, that the album was largely a novelty. High concept novelty, but novelty nonetheless. Having heard the whole thing, now, I have to say “Molto Groovy Christmas” is much more than novelty. This is an exquisite album, delightful from end to end. “Molto Groovy Christmas” is a complete trip—a good one and one you’ll enjoy taking over and over again. It is whimsical, to be sure. The Italian soundtracks that inspired “Molto Groovy Christmas” are like that. But, like those soundtracks, and, frankly, like a lot of overlooked Christmas records from the 60s and 70s, once you get past the 30 second goofy sounding snippets, there’s some awesome arrangements and musicianship going on. If this album had actually been cut in, say, 1968 or 1971, it would be at or near the top of every Christmas collector’s Wish List. It would be legendary.
What I hope you can understand is that it doesn’t matter when the record was made. It doesn’t matter that this isn’t some long out-of-print piece of vinyl that you can never seem to lay your hands on. It’s about the music, the sound. And “Molto Groovy Christmas” sounds amazing! And you can actually get your hands on it. Easily. Download, CD, even on vinyl if you must have the full throw-back experience. No big used record store search required.
The album opens with “Come All Ye Faithful”, the beginning of which could easily have been lifted from those old Italian soundtracks. But, soon enough, the track kicks into full Psych. Listening to “Come All Ye Faithful”, you’re going to see the multi-colored lights spinning behind your eyeballs, go-go dancers in cages, bellbottoms and miniskirts. It may be fortunate the track isn’t longer than it is; I was beginning to wonder what Mrs. Fields was putting in those cookies.
“Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” is straight up Mod Squad era Funk (complete with what sounds like Now Sound era backing vocals--just like on the old Italian soundtracks). Where does this one take you? Well, let me just say, this is the track that you’d find playing in an Italian Christmas rom-com during a scene of comically unexpected faux, ahem, romance, as the Bass-man makes unintelligible noises while a feminine voice provides sighs of, ahem, delight. All in an Italian Christmas rom-com sort of way, mind you.
On to “Joy To The World”, vaguely Beatle-esque with my favorite Christmas sound—a screeching organ played with as much funky R&B heat and energy as you could ever imagine.
“Santa Claus Is Coming To Town”? You bet he is. And he’s got the Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu. Love the arrangement on this one. And there’s that great organ again.
“White Christmas” is a lovely piece of Exotica, complete with waves, vibes, rhythmic Island percussion, and soothing "doo-doo" vocals.
“Jingle Bells” is a full-on Ventures or Dick Dale styled Munster theme. Almost sounds menacing—but whimsically so.
“Have Yourself A Merry Christmas” returns us to a sweeter sound and features wah-wah guitar and a soaring female vocal (no words, mind you, just a sweetly operatic oooh aah vocal). That soaring female vocal is inspired by Edda Dell'Orso, the voice on many of those vintage Italian soundtracks. "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" also has one of the album’s best endings.
The organ takes the lead again on a pleasantly funky “Little Drummer Boy”. This is the kind of song Christmas collectors spend their lives looking for on old 60s and 70s albums. Who knew all we had to do was wait for 2014?
Poddighe and company go Bossa Nova Lounge for “Silver Bells”. It's old school AND old world and would fit nicely in a mix with those Ultra Lounge albums.
Sitar sounds spice up “Silent Night”, making for a more exotic sound. And, this time, it’s wah wah singers instead of wah wah guitar. And what Italian soundtrack would be complete without a whistling section? Not this one.
We get another splendid arrangement on “Sleigh Ride”, possibly the most overtly Christmasy track on “Molto Groovy”. You get a little bit of everything on this one—kettle drums, an organ bit, moog, fuzz, more whistling, plenty of Psych influence, and bells. (Cause you gotta have bells).
The album closes with “Feliz Navidad” which gets a “Mah Na, Mah Na” makeover without losing the overall funkiness of the record as a whole. For those who didn't know, "Mah Na Mah Na" was written by Piero Umiliani (hope I spelled that right) and originally appeared as part of the soundtrack for the film "Svezia, Inferno e Paradiso". Just in case you thought the Muppets invented it. In it's way, "Feliz Navidad" is the one genuine goofy track on the album. But its nice, at the end, to bring you back around to where you started. Safe, sane, and with none of those mind altering substance hangovers.
I tend to think in analogies. To me, “Molto Groovy Christmas”, is like a Quentin Tarantino film. Hear me out. Tarantino makes many of the movies he does out of love for the B-movie cinema he grew up on. And, because he loves those old movies so much, his tributes to them exceed the originals in every detail. In other words, if an album like this had been recorded in 1968 or 1971, it probably wouldn’t be anywhere near as good as this is. “Molto Groovy Christmas” is a perfect record for the coolest of Yule bashes (and I do mean perfect). But it’s also a great record to listen to anytime and in any setting (if you can’t imagine yourself driving down the highway with this playing, then there’s something seriously wrong with you). And for mixtapes? “Molto Groovy Christmas” is a gift from the heavens. Sign me up for Volume 2.
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