Jackie Chan was never the same after he moved to America and only a fool would prefer the Hollywood remake of Internal Affairs. And as every self-respecting martial arts movie fan knows, the soundtracks were almost as important as the action, which makes Kung Fu Super Sounds a very special CD indeed. Put simply, it is 43 unreleased cuts from various Shaw Brothers martial arts films, all from between 1976 and 1984. As a compilation of B-movie soundtracks, this is absolutely indispensable and DJs and samplers will find themselves in heaven with such obscurios as ‘The Mystified Man’, which has been taken from the 1980 flick Flag Or Iron. You mark my words, half of this stuff will turn up in six months time, but with thumping techno-beats or buried beneath the latest Girls Aloud song. It’s sometimes hard to get into movie soundtrack compilations, particularly when some of the music is so short, but any lovers of obscure lounge and exotica will dig Kung Fu Super Sounds and it is also a fitting testament to the backroom musicians, who often came up with some truly fantastic stuff, which was either overlooked at the time by the movie-going public (who, let’s face it, were more into the action anyway) or looked down upon by their music peers, for doing soundtrack work. My personal favourite was ‘Dr Witch Wot’ – a truly unique piece of music, which makes Tom Waits sound like High School Musical. Now, if only they would bring back Hai Karate!
