Posted on: December 14, 2010 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

From the bouncy opening of The Jam’s “Town Called Malice”, the soundtrack for The Matador holds much to capture listeners. The song, which has more to do with the Blues Brothers than The Clash, fits in nicely with the fusion, eclectic Spanish romp that is Los Fabulosos Cadillacs’ “El Matador”. Everything seems so polished and perfect when it comes to these first few tracks, which seems to be a deliberate move to really ease individuals into the disc. Another thing that seems great about this soundtrack is the mixture of hits and more obscure tracks.

I would probably be right to pose that most individuals have not heard of Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, and be pretty much the same sort of confident that all have heard of Tom Jones. A majority of the tracks here, owing much to the Spanish origins of the phrase “Matador”, are Latin-influenced. The diversity of styles in which the Latin influence finds itself is not limited; there is a very Avalanches meets Kid Koala style electronic track in Titan’s “1-2-3-4”. In what seems to be the largest change from the status quo of the disc, Rolfe Kent’s “Manila Fiasco” keeps with the Spanish theme of the disc but removes anything in the way of vocals from the mix. Throwing The Cramps into the mix, “The Matador” continues to shift its general sound until there is nothing connecting the disc besides the aforementioned Spanish influence. The disc snaps back to popular tracks with Asia’s major track “Heat of the Moment”. The song is as everyone remembers it, from the bombastic synth lines to the soaring vocals. The thread that has found its way through all of the previous tracks breaks for this track, and it is not restarted until the very traditional guitar work of Ramon Stagnaro with eir “Bahia Blanca”.

In fact, it seems as if the Asia track was so far removed from the Spanish theme of this soundtrack that there seems to be a concerted desire to tie more to the archetypal “Spanish” sound. “In The Wee Small Hours of the Morning”, by Dave Van Norden seems to be an outlier in the fact that there is a distinctly older sound to the track that acts as a diametric opposite to Rolfe Kent’s “Matador Theme”. Finishing off the disc with “No Te Rajes”, individuals seem to have closure to a disc that has hit all different styles and sounds through its forty-plus minute runtime.

Top Tracks: Mariachi La Estrella / No Te Rajes and Asia / Heat of the Moment

Rating: 6.0/10

OST: The Matador / 2006 Superb / 13 Tracks / http://www.miramax.com/thematador / http://www.superbrecords.com / Reviewed 26 February 2006

[JMcQ]

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