VA - Sound Book: De Wolfe Music Library & Background Sound (1998)

As the successful Sound Gallery compilations helped spark new interest in the library music of the '60s and '70s, enterprising labels began putting out compilations of the music-library sounds from this era to fill the demand. Sound Book covers material from De Wolfe Music Library, a British music company who produced plenty of funky and jazzy background music during their '60s/'70s heyday (their music was also delved into on the British compilation Bite Hard: The Music De Wolfe Studio Sampler 1972-1980). Sound Book offers two disc's worth of these instrumentals, a set of tunes that cover everything from jazz to funk with studio-musician professionalism. Highlights in the funk area include "Funky Spider," a rhythmic groove built on a unique high-pitched guitar sound, and "Gang Process," which layers airy, atmospheric synthesizer lines over a gritty, guitar-fuelled guitar groove. Highlights in the jazz area include "Cool It," which pits an exploratory flute lead against some Latin-styled percussion, and "Smooth and Cool," which layers jazz horns over some meditative electric keyboard work. On the downside, Sound Book lacks focus in its programming: cuts will shift from rock to funky R&B to straight jazz without any sense of flow. Since the compilers had two discs to work with, they should have given a bit more thought to how the tunes could be assembled to work as a musical whole. Another problem is that the music presented here is less melodically inventive (and thus less interesting) than the tunes that made it onto Bite Hard: The Music De Wolfe Studio Sampler 1972-1980. Ultimately, Sound Book offers enough solid instrumentals to satisfy the lounge fanatic, but novices and casual listeners would probably do better to check out Bite Hard: The Music De Wolfe Studio Sampler 1972-1980 for a tighter, more focused sampling of music from the De Wolfe Music Library. -- Donald A. Guarisco