Aural Film Noir Excursions










I apologize for posting so infrequently lately, but I have been in the process of looking for a new job and I am moving in with my girlfriend at the end of January. This will give you a chance to explore the archives of Eclectic Grooves. Please let me know if anything needs reposted, as I will be checking my e-mail every day.



I was inspired to create this mix after viewing many film noir movies such as Touch of Evil, The Maltese Falcon and The Third Man. I loved these films and appreciated that the music was almost another character in the dark and seedy streets of crime, corruption, deception and lust. The music in film noir movies is decidely slow and moody with mostly smoky jazz that complements the cool detachment of the characters portrayed in the films.


My general idea was to create a mix tape of songs that would fit in a 40's/50's film noir crime drama, but one in which none of the songs were actually from a movie soundtrack(Jim Jarmusch featured the Mulatu Estatke song on the Broken Flowers soundtrack, but I had already planned on this song going on here before Broken Flowers was released). This mix was completed after six months of painstakingly piecing together songs evoking the spirit of a modern-day film noir with snippets of audio taken from classics in the genre. This mix is stylistically all over the map with a heady mix of Jazz, Electronic, Rock, Folk, Country and International music.


I have posted the entire mix for you to download along with the CD cover art in a separate file. If you download this mix, please share it freely with your friends. If anyone wants me to take down the artwork for this mix due to copyright restrictions, please let me know. I hope you enjoy the mix as much as I enjoyed compiling it. It was definitely a labor of love, so I would love to hear what you think.

Aural Film Noir Excursions and Cover Art



Film Noir Links


Film Noir Bibliography of Materials in UC Berkeley Library

Filmsite- Film Noir

Images- Ten Shades of Noir

IMDB Top 50 film noir movies

The Shadows of Film Noir

Classic Noir

Martin's Film Noir Page


Soundtrack and Compilation Links


Film Noir

White Heat: Film Noir

Murder Is My Beat: Classic Film Noir Themes and Scenes

Spectrum- Thrilling 60's Film Noir Themes

Ultra Noir

Touch of Evil

The Third Man

Elevator to the Gallows

Comments

Anonymous said…
Liked your noir mix very much, thanks for sharing it.

You probably know them, but a couple of other cd's I liked:
Charlie Haden & Quartet West,'Always Say Goodbye'
Crime Jazz

Best wishes

Dubley
Kevin said…
I'm glad that you enjoyed the mix and I appreciate the comments. I wish I had gotten more feedback on this one, because I am really proud of it. I know that around 80 people have downloaded it, so there are at least 78 people who haven't told me what they think. I think it might have helped if I posted the setlist too. I am grateful that you posted a comment. Thanks a lot and keep checking back for more eclectic mixes in the future.

Later, Kevin
Anonymous said…
Hey, it is a very solid mix. I recently visited Burma and it was one of the CDs I took. The guide was hungry for Western music so I left it with him. So, you rock the politically oppressed!
cool!
some old favorites and some new favorites!
nice & smokey...
the link to the cover art died... is it available anywhere else? thanks...
Kevin said…
Hi Yaniv! Thanks for your comment. I don't know what happened to the link for the artwork, but I would be happy to repost it for you. I'm glad that you are diggin' the mix. I love compiling mix Cd's and this one was a lot of fun. I will re-up the cover art, so hopefully you check back here soon.
Kevin
L said…
Hi Kevin,
I love film noir music, and it would be good if people who DL left comments. I'm leaving one in the hopes that you might consider re-loading this for us latecomers who discovered your intriguing site "after the fact." (Hate to see all of that hard work go unrewarded). I'll check back in a bit just in case...
Thanks. - LD
Kevin said…
LD,

Thanks a lot for commenting on this. I have just re-uploaded the Aural Film Noir Excursions and will post it either later today or tomorrow. I appreciate that you were interested enough in this to inquire about it being reposted. Please feel free to let me know if you have any other requests. This is definitely my greatest achievement in compiling a CD-mix with natural segueways. I hope you enjoy the mix.

Best, Kevin
Anonymous said…
Hi Kevin,

I just found your site some days before and loved it! Great work. And I hope to find your Film Noir-Mix back here again, because the link is dead and I am a big fan or that decade of film and music. Looking forward to that and to other mexes and rare stuff! Thanks from Germany, Marco
ro said…
I just discovered this, but it's dead...any chance of a repost. Thanks for your hard work!
L said…
Hey Kevin

Did I neglect to thank you for this masterpiece of a compilation? Just noticed that you reloaded again. Well, a veeery belated but grateful Thanks! Plus, can't wait to re-explore your site.

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