Oddjob - Clint (2010)

When this album first arrived I eyed it suspiciously. An album full of movie themes? No thank you.
But then I looked again, the record is by the eccentric Swedish group Oddjob who made such a good impression with their eclectic ACT début “Sumo” back in 2008. “Hmmm”, I thought, this is an album that may prove to be interesting after all.

Having recorded four albums of original compositions the band were looking to record a themed album and the idea for basing a record around the music associated with the films of Clint Eastwood came from discussions with ACT label owner Siggi Loch. The twelve pieces presented here are by acclaimed film composers such as Ennio Morricone, Lalo Schifrin, Lennie Niehaus and Ron Goodwin and there’s even a number written by Eastwood himself. All are given the unique Oddjob treatment and emerge reinvented, all bearing the unique characteristics of Oddjob’s signature sound. Inspired by 70’s jazz rock, funk and soul the group manage to look backwards and forwards at the same time and despite the retro trappings Oddjob’s music also sounds thoroughly contemporary.

The oddball Swedes also have a warped sense of humour which sometimes exhibits itself here and on their other records. This is not surprising bearing in mind that this is a working band whose personnel has remained stable from the beginning. The quintet comprises of trumpeter Goran Kajfes, saxophonist Per Johansson, keyboard player Daniel Karlsson plus bassist Peter Forss and drummer Janne Robertson. All five double up on other instruments and the arrangements and textures on “Clint” are correspondingly rich and varied. Johan Lindstrom, currently working with Dan Berglund’s Tonbruket, appears as a guest adding his distinctive pedal steel guitar to two of the pieces plus guzen and organ elsewhere.

Oddjob’s Eastwood related selections cover the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s with a bias towards the earlier stuff. “This music sounds the most like Oddjob!” explains Kajfes, a film composer himself. Oddjob’s use of synthesisers and other electronica relocates even the Western themes such as “The Good, The Bad And The Ugly” to the kind of urban locations that inspired Eastwood’s later “Dirty Harry” series.

It’s “The Good, The Bad And The Ugly” that starts the album off with a pulsing synthesiser/drum machine beat. The famous theme is sketched skeletally on keyboards before it is adopted by trumpet and saxophone. It’s remarkable transformation, the empty spaces of the high plains are replaced by the claustrophobic beats of the city with only Morricone’s signature fragment of melody remaining from the original score. Interesting.

Lalo Schifrin’s “Palancio” from the film “Magnum Force” features dense washes of keyboards and Milesian trumpet above Robertson’s skittering drum undertow. There’s also some spooky sounding organ and some baleful sax honking in another inspired and sometimes unsettling arrangement.

Niehaus’ “Pale Rider Theme” is given a more minimalist treatment. Here the band capture the isolation of the title character by making use of the space between the notes particularly on Karlsson’s piano solo. Johannson is particularly impressive and the lonesome keening of guest Lindstrom’s pedal steel guitar adds greatly to the atmosphere.

Schifrin’s main “Magnum Force Theme” begins with the dark, woody sound of Johansson’s bass clarinet, later complemented by Kajfes’ ringing trumpet and the contemporary grooves of Forss and Robertson.

Goodwin’s “Where Eagles Dare” is little more than a brief sketch, albeit a wholly compelling one. Johansson’s staccato baritone sax battles it out with Robertson’s flailing drums and percussion and Karlsson’s sepulchral organ churnings.

Lindstrom’s pedal steel guitar returns to give a sinister edge to Schifrin’s brooding theme from “Hang ‘Em High”. Karlsson is the main soloist, his playing almost conventionally jazzy above Forss’ insistent bass groove and Robertson’s minimalist drumming. Mournful trumpet and pedal steel add colour to yet another imaginative and effective arrangement.

Morricone’s “Musical Pocket Watch” from the film ” A Few Dollars More” is another beguiling miniature centred around Karlsson’s piano and Forss’ acoustic bass. It sounds remarkably light and fragile in comparison to the dense, often brooding arrangements to be heard elsewhere on the album.

A case in point is the following “Robbery Suspect” from Schifrin’s score for the film “sudden Impact”. The hard hitting contemporary arrangement features sinister organ, powerful electric bass grooves and often brutal drumming. Grainy bass clarinet and squalling trumpet add to the threatening atmosphere. It’s edgy, urban and powerful.

Morricone’s piece “The Mayor” from “Dirty Harry” broods and shimmers malevolently, building slowly from funereal organ through layers of trumpet and even violin all underpinned by the martial death rattle of Robertson’s drums. Finally the drums fall away and there is a solemn coda featuring the melancholy sound of Kajfes’ trumpet.

“Ecstasy Of Gold” from the “The Good, The Bad And The Ugly” is less solemn in tone overall despite a spooky middle section featuring Robertson’s percussion and Lindstrom’s mysterious guzen. The main theme is stated by Kajfes’ trumpet above Robertson’s shuffling drum grooves.

Robertson drives Schifrin’s “Scorpio’s Theme” which features malevolent synths, feverish organ and the baritone guitar of Forss plus the signature trumpet sound of Kajfes. It’s relentless and threatening.

Eastwood’‘s own “Let’s Do It” from the 2007 movie “Grace Is Gone” ends the album on a relatively elegiac note.

“Clint” is an intriguing and entertaining album that sees Oddjob customising these scores and putting a thoroughly contemporary stamp on them. The band have developed a highly distinctive group sound that is evident throughout. This is unmistakably an Oddjob record, steeped with the group’s own identity. They have mutated their source material into something very much their own and this album should help to enhance their growing international reputation.