Black Licorice – Promotional Flexi-Disc

I’m always kind of amazed that flexi-discs even exist—and sound as good as they do. This is an attractive red vinyl square 7-inch with three songs at 331/3 RPM—a promo for Frankie Latina’s movie, Black Licorice, which may or may not be the current, future, or past working-title of an epic masterpiece yet to be possibly re-named, and destined to be legendary for its untraceable versions. Both meat and hell for the archivists! Printed song order may be off—but you figure it out. There’s the haunting organ-led instrumental, including ocarina solo and Mormon Tabernacle-like choir, closing credits score, here named “Black Licorice Theme”—by Didier Leplae and Joe Wong, which could be straight out of a 1970s Revisionist-Spaghetti Western. Also, the amazing “Modus Operandi”—from Frankie Latina’s 2009 movie by the same name—this also credited to Leplae and Wong, along with Cookie Johnson, who sings on the track, which is deliciously ironic as it’s the soundtrack for the scene in the movie where Cookie Johnson’s character meets her demise (along with half the characters in the film). It’s such a good upbeat, soul funk number—with a filthy saxophone, groovy flute, and then belted vocal finale—it’s kind of unfortunate that it’s not a proper 45 because it could be a dancefloor staple from now on into eternity (or as long as people are dancing). Finally, here is a real oddity, something called “Pick-Up Truck,” credited to Mark Borchardt and V. Cesaretti—which is a short, spoken-word performance by the unmistakable Mark Borchardt, backed by a sound-collage—about a… pickup truck. These promo discs probably went for free, and you nabbed one if you were lucky—and you might want to hang onto yours—they’ll eventually be bringing flexi-top-dollar—whatever that is, eventually.

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